Understanding aggression - Page 1

I keep reading about aggression and the different types there are and I wonder, where is aggression useful, when is it not?

Under what conditions would you allow aggression in your dog, when would you repress it?

What type of aggression do sport people look for VS those who work dogs instead of competing?

Is it genetic or something you train in a dog?

How is or can aggression be useful in training for things that may not appear overtly aggressive?

Hi Clee27,
                      Wow!!...... I think your thread has about 10 threads in One...Lol!!   all jokes aside very good questions that
will get varying answers depending on whom you ask.  I will try to attempt to answer a few on what I believe you are asking
but please know what your asking is not like adding 10 +10 and getting 20.
                                                                                                                           You will get many that agree and many that have
varying feeling about what your thread is asking. I hoping Paul G will also ring in as I think you will get a very good and in depth
answer that can be backed up with 35+ Years of Experience on this part of understanding aggression.

1st of all I feel Agression is Both genetic and learned/Conditioned  behavior brought on by Different stimuli and how a dog is wired so
to speak. Along with Environment and How a Dog was or wasn't socialized and interaction early on w/ human and animals, plus training.

I Believe aggression is useful when you are looking to use a dog in Protection, Security and Guarding one assets and persons.
For example stranger comes to Front door or fence dog runs to fence and barks with strong agression and every intention to cause
harm where any animal or Human would be dettered to enter further and would not but that place on a place one could rob or enter
into easily. Therefore aggression their is useful. Again, walking down the street and unknown person approaches quickly and recklessly
the dog alerts you and uses control aggression brought on by command & instinct to let person or animal this not the person to mess with.
90% of the time this works great ,and once again useful.

                                                                     Natural aggression we will say is Genetic and usually something that is looked for in parents that will
usually translate to pup. Example at 6 month old Male GSD barking and very bold towards strangers and stands his ground with the will to bite
and shows NO Fear and will actually bite without any training we will say this pup has good natural aggression. Great if you want a protection
dog a great guard dog or a Police dog that will not back down in tough situations.  Though Controlled aggression Is learned& brought on by command which
allows ones dog to  use his aggression only when its called for. I like to called this controlled aggression and to me this seperates the Good
from the Problems that can be created by Natural aggression in the hands of an inexperienced handler.

                                     Now when it comes to Sport wow! thats when this thread will have allot of variables as many in sport don't want any
natural aggression, some want just a little bit only , and yet the next guy wants a dog almost with none,Then their the group that believe that
the dog must have great natural and real aggression and cross train in sport and be able to turn it off and on for real if need be. Unfortunatley,
dogs are usually geared towards the far end of each and some in the middle as most breeders and Handlers don't agree on how much aggression
their dogs should have and hence the need to Breed dogs that are never "nasty" or sport Dogs only ......the Judges vary on this also. A dog with
Too much aggression will not permit a judge to handle him all the time and usually will have a bit more trouble once he's engaged. Their are so many
variables here its a book in itself. I believe that every GSD must have enough aggression to protect his handler for real & off the field, but many good sport
dogs are never trained in Civil or the type of aggression that we teach in Personal protection.  When its all said and done , I guess to each is own, but
I'm a true believer that the GSD should always be a Working Dog as Their Founder Capt. Max Stephanitz intended so many years ago, when I think
about the perfect GSD and what it should be I try to go back to what it was originally bred to be and keep it as close to that as Possible.

Once again Good question
that will recieve answers that
truly will be opinions of each
handler , trainer & owner

Be well
Border11

where is aggression useful, when is it not?

useful when you require it not useful when you don't

Under what conditions would you allow aggression in your dog, when would you repress it?

i would allow it when it is required and repress it when it is not

What type of aggression do sport people look for VS those who work dogs instead of competing?

can't speak for sport cos i never done it, i look for high prey aggresion cos it is versatile and a dog can be trained in high prey to work thru a lot of pressure that other forms of aggresion would result in a dog bailing, generally speaking.


Is it genetic or something you train in a dog?

both

How is or can aggression be useful in training for things that may not appear overtly aggressive?

in obedience training when you want a picture of a dog working in drive they can be motivated by a reward fighting the tug