Hackles - Page 3

If he stands his ground I don't mind if his back is up.   Still more body language to look at.   Is he standing his ground looking for a way out, or his he intently keeping his eye on the threat and deciding when to make his move.
And should raised hackles be a disqualification?   Without any other action to go on?

IMO, a dog that hackles during a schutzhund trial, not good. The dog should have training that has prepared him for the trial, so nothing should be a "surprise" to the dog. Although I do not believe a dog that hackles should be immediately disqualified...I would like to see the dog overcome his insecurity and base the judgement on that.

Real life situations are a different story, as the dog has not been put through the same scenario over and over again like in dog sport.

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What do you mean by precursor, Abhay? I'm confused. Do you mean shouldn't a Ring dog not hackle in a real situation? I don't know; I'd say not necessarily. That would be like you promising that due to training, you will never be startled again.

Just as we as humans pump ourselves up when in a physical confrontation, Many animals, particularly dogs and wolves, instinctively raise their hackles when annoyed, threatened or scared. It's presumably primarily done to make the animal look larger and more menacing itself

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Well....it wouldn't, necessarily, provided the dog had that much experience. How many dogs "spar" for years and years to get to that point?  This may hold true to an old PPD dog with many real/live bites, but I don't think there are that many dogs in that position out there. PLUS...humans have the advantage of knowing it's a match...probably not life or death (though possible). A dog is always in a serious mindframe in a new situation requiring a fight (unless he has a screw loose, IMO).

Interesting topic!

My GSD bitch hackles when she's frightened. She did it recently when she was in heat, and didn't want my neutered male bugging her. She also sometimes does it if I'm bawling her out for sneaking a nap on the sofa. It is just the hackles over her rear end, though.

OTOH, my previous bitch once went after a male dog that was threatening my husband. The owner had left him unleashed to guard a house he was building. When my husband came by on his bike, he came rushing out, and my husband had to jump off the bike, and use it as a barrier between himself and the dog to keep from being bitten. Tasha was walking with me, in an off-leash heel, about 100 ft. down the street. When Roger shouted her name, she came racing back to help him. With every hair on end, and her teeth bared, she backed the male, who was quite a bit larger than her, right up into the garage of the vacant house.

She got a steak dinner that night...she'd earned it! 

So, the hackles can mean different things.

Somewhere I recall seeing illustrations of a dog's body language, with all the different shades/mixes of fear, submission and aggression. Anyone know where to find that?

Going to go google. I think the degree of hackle-rasing is significant, as well as whether teeth are bared, ears erect or back, etc. You have to look at the whole picture, NOT just the hackles!

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If this was about the judges then they should stick to written standards and leave opinion out of it.
If your talking hackles and responces then first off dogs are different from humans and I can't compare the two.
Have you ever had the hair stand up on the back of your neck ?  Not a lot of control over this responce and even less understanding as to why it happens. 
I can see that somethings going on but you'd need more than a quick glance to figure out what.