[quote PlanDeRaccordement]@vroominary
You are wrong in saying that dogs are not trying to be dominant over people regarding this specific situation. Yes, in general, most dogs will submit to an adult human but many dogs do try and exert dominance over children. This is a well known fact and why children are disporportionately victims of dog attacks.
Dominance aggression in the home progresses in stages because the owner may not have the understanding or the experience to nip it in the bud. Even if the owner is aware that science classifies the dog as a subspecies of wolf, it does no good to know that the alpha wolf controls his underlings with a stare. Dominant puppies and dominant-aggressive dogs seldom respond to these tactics from two-legged family members who are definitely of another species. In fact, a staring child, for example, may trigger an aggressive response from a dog that has been allowed to bully people and can result in a serious bite attack.[/quote]
Thanks for the reply.
I’d be interested to know where you are getting the term ‘dominance aggression’ as it’s not something I have come across in the literature around animal behaviour. Our most useful understanding of aggression comes from Panksepp’s work in neurobiology, who outlines a few broad brush reasons for aggression: fear, frustration, pain, grief/social panic, and care for young.
Clinical animal behaviourists use a process of elimination to understand unwanted behaviour (differential diagnosis) that takes into account genetic predisposition, temperament, the context of the behaviour, and medical influences amongst other things. Having a very specific understanding of the triggers and eliciting contexts allows for more specific (and therefore successful) behaviour modification plans. Back to this case anyway, what we know from what the OP has observed:
Elderly rottweiler (large breed, prone to joint issues in later life such as arthritis. Rottweilers have been involved in serious bite incidents obviously, but also frequently owned by the wrong kind of people.)
Young child (unpredictable, erratic movements, typically still learning social cues from people and struggle to read dog body language- studies show that young kids think a dog showing teeth is actually smiling- yikes)
Adult leaves room and incident occurs. Low level bite,doesn’t break the skin.
We have no evidence that the adult leaving the room caused the bite. In fact, it doesn’t really make sense. Why now? The child is 6, how many times will an adult have left the room before now and the dog has never demonstrated this behaviour? Why, when the dog is fast asleep and chilled out, would he suddenly think that now is the time to assert my ‘dominance’ over this kid? In an assessment I would rule it out immediately. In fact I wouldn’t, it would never have made my list of differentials in the first place.
We don’t know much about the relationship between the child and dog. It could be (although I doubt it based on the OP responses) that the dog has struggled with the child pestering it for a long time and the usual, lower level warnings that others have highlighted in previous posts have gone unnoticed, leaving the dog with no option to get its point across than to give an inhibited bite (this would fall more within the fear/frustration category). It’s a possibility- I would want to observe the interactions between the child and dog and learn more about the history to prevent further escalation of behaviour.
In my opinion, the most likely explanation for a dog who has never shown aggression before is medical. In this context, it makes perfect sense. An older dog who has been fast asleep, possibly startled or hurt by the child playing accidentally. As a result, the dog reacts to the nearest stimulus that could have caused the pain- the child.
It is generally acknowledged by most experts in the field that wolf/domestic dog comparisons are unhelpful as genetically, whilst retaining similarities, the two are different in much the same way as we are descended from Neanderthals (but I don’t think anyone would suggest that modern man is socially/emotionally the same).
There is such thing as dominance in dogs, but I think you are perhaps getting mixed up between the ‘popular culture’ side of dominance and the scientific definition. Contrary to popular belief and the prat that is Caeser Milan, dogs are not trying to be dominant over humans. In layman’s terms, dominance is just valuing resources and wanting to keep them as a consequence. So a dog might really value a toy and growl because an owner is going to take it away, or growl when an owner takes food away (to show who’s boss- ugh) in much the same way as I would be pretty pissed if a waiter removed my meal before I had finished eating. I suspect it wasn’t at play in this context unless the little girl was trying to pull him off the sofa (the valued resource) which I don’t believe she was.
So you’re right in the sense that aggression in the home can escalate because an owner doesn’t recognize the signs because it isn’t handled correctly, but I suspect we would handle this differently. If a dog was being aggressive over resources, I would be asking why the dog feels it needs to protect things, and trying to support the dog to feel more comfortable in the presence of people, and to learn that it’s valued possessions aren’t going to be taken away on a whim. I’d do this by building positive associations between proximity of people to valued resources (usually using food).
You are incorrect that dogs bite kids based on them being an ‘easy target’ in their quest to rule the household. Bites almost always occur because a dog has communicated it is uncomfortable with a situation on multiple occasions (often years) and this hasn’t worked, so the dog starts SHOUTING LOUDER (growls, nips etc) until their point gets across. Honestly, it’s true. One look on social media shows you the ridiculous things that kids do to dogs. It’s sad but its unsurprising that bites occur.
You are right, a staring human can trigger an aggressive response in some dogs but not through dominance. In Panksepp terms this would be the fear system activating- a stare is extremely intimidating and the dog would most likely feel the need to escalate its behaviour to move the scary, staring human further away. Most dogs would lick their lips, yawn and demonstrate low level avoidance behaviours like turning head away or moving away entirely in this context in order to avoid confrontation.
Any thoughts?