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tripod · #8 (**permalink**) 06-04-2010, 01:44 PM

Quote:

I have had numerous talks, and apparently she has Inhereted fear, and not learned behaviour, and from what i can gather, is that because i socialised her lots, took her all manner of places etc, I may have actually made a boo boo, because this can cause the pup to become fear aggressive and not just fearful...whoops. But hey its my mistake, and i will put thiings right cross me fingers.

I don't know who told you this but its not really very accurate at all. ALL and I do mean ALL behaviour is a mix of genetics and environment - you can't separate that out.

What your dog is showing in leash reactivity is not actually aggression at all - aggression is correctly defined as behaviour used to cause harm. What your dog shows is ritualised aggression which is an important communication tool. Its about distance increasing signalling.

The responses you are seeing in your dog are escalated anxiety signals. These are shown when more subtle (to us) distance increasing signalling is missed, misinterpretted and ignored so the subtle stuff no longer works and the signalling has become escalated to more obvious signalling.

Your dog may have a genetic predisposition to reactivity, shyness, arousal but that means that MORE socialisation is required, not less. Socialisation is not just about exposing the puppy to lots of happenings its about making sure that the dog develops a positive attitude to goings on and this must be done carefully.

Your examples illustrate a dog with lots of generalised fears and reactivity - you really need help on this one. How old is she and what sort of dog?

Check out fearfuldogs.com too as this is an excellent resource for dogs like this. Your description of this also reminds me of lots of stuff written by Deborah Flick and her fearful poodle Sadie too.