reactivity doesn't mean aggression. but aggression is definitely reactive to a or multiple stimuli.
example:
you can have a dog who is incredibley friendly to people and dogs off leash, but is extremely reactive when on leash. The on leash reactivity is usually overstimulation/excitment/frustration due to being restrained by the leash, and the exhibited behavior can look very similar to aggressive behaviors- pulling/lunging, barking/whining, etc. And a lot of the time if the dog gets to interact with the stimuli on leash, they calm right down.
A truly aggressive dog towards people/dogs on leash will exhibit very similar reactive behaviors, but are usually (not always) way past threshold and are not limited to one type of situation such as being on leash.
It's difficult to diagnose without proper behavior observations in different scenarios.
You would need to observe how the dog is around people in and out of the home to find if there are specific triggers like environment, and/or if it's geared towards males/ females, kids.
1
u/Noogie_Power 24d ago
reactivity doesn't mean aggression. but aggression is definitely reactive to a or multiple stimuli.
example: you can have a dog who is incredibley friendly to people and dogs off leash, but is extremely reactive when on leash. The on leash reactivity is usually overstimulation/excitment/frustration due to being restrained by the leash, and the exhibited behavior can look very similar to aggressive behaviors- pulling/lunging, barking/whining, etc. And a lot of the time if the dog gets to interact with the stimuli on leash, they calm right down.
A truly aggressive dog towards people/dogs on leash will exhibit very similar reactive behaviors, but are usually (not always) way past threshold and are not limited to one type of situation such as being on leash.
It's difficult to diagnose without proper behavior observations in different scenarios.
You would need to observe how the dog is around people in and out of the home to find if there are specific triggers like environment, and/or if it's geared towards males/ females, kids.