Differences - Reactivity/Aggression

What is the difference between the two? I know they arn't the same but if someone asked me why not, I couldn't tell them.

I think of reactivity as a dog's tendency to stress actively in response to environmental influences- the dog that barks at (or runs from) noises, jumps away or towards novel items in the environment, and is very aware of human body language and movements. There are many reactive dogs without any aggression. The fearful sheltie mix in recent posts come to mind. I've also seen lots of goldens that I would call reactive but that were not aggressive dogs. Spaniels are famously reactive, but only some of them are aggressive. Most of the herding breeds are fairly reactive, and also usually somewhat aggressive, but not always.

An aggressive dog is one who resolves conflict through posturing and actual biting (or one who hunts and kills to satisfy his "prey drive", although few people call prey-oriented dogs aggressive). Many aggressive dogs are reactive and quick to posture or bite. Others are really thoughtful about their aggression or are primarily passive stressors who occassionally get pushed past the point of avoidance into some kind of aggression.

Breeds that come to mind for these latter two type- I've seen malinois that are very thoughtful and sure about aggression, not at all reactive. I'm sure there are also lots of GSDs like this. They really decide to threaten you or bite you. On the passive side, I see lots of mastiff type dogs that are primarily non-reactive, but find certain triggers that set them off. Danes, Rottweilers, bull breeds, etc.

I had someone tell me that "reactivity is aggression" and I was not sure at the time that I really agreed with her, and I'm still not sure that I do.

Conrad is fairly reactive but the only fights he's ever been in have been with Marlowe--who he lives with and the fights have been resource-guarding problems, and none of them super serious-- and with this obnoxious chocolate lab we used to live next door to who I really can't blame him for wanting to put the smack down on. And again, not serious fights. No major doggie injuries.

But he's still reactive when on leash or behind a barrier, and it's not about wanting to hurt the other dog it's about wanting to scare it off because he's not comfortable with unknown dogs. If the other dog actually ignores his posturing and continues to come right up to him, they greet and there's no growling or fighting. Conrad maintains a stiff posture until he's a bit more sure of the other dog, but it's sniff sniff, sniff sniff and then it's all good. I take Conrad to the dog park, and off leash with plenty of space for him to approach new dogs and get comfortable with them at his pace, and he's actually extremely dog-social.

Reactive dogs can also be aggressive, and aggressive dogs can be non-reactive. But by the same token, reactive dogs can be non-aggressive.

To me, a reactive dog is... just that. One that (over)reacts to certain stimuli, whether that reaction is fear based, excitement based or genuinely aggression based. Some dogs as a breed are more reactive than others, dogs that are highly aware of humans and their environment are going to react a lot more than less interactive, observant dogs.

I consider Zaphod a reactive dog. Most of his reactions are nervous/excitement based, but they get him into trouble nonetheless - particularly with other dogs. He's not a "scream and lunge and snap" kind of reactive dog, but some situations overstimulate him to the point where he loses all self-control.

I agree with Sch3Dana about aggression. Dogs that resolve conflict through violence or threats, IMO, are aggressive (at least in that particular situation). And as houndlove said, reactivity and aggression are not necessarily the same, nor are they mutually exclusive.

Great post, Grace. I agree, and you said it better than I could.

See to me aggression is a dog that seeks out the fight. But really as Ian Dunbar points out aggression is just fear. I call Dekka reactive. If no dog invades her space (a 2 foot bubble) or charges at her etc, she is fine. (ok so we had one bizzare incident where she took off to play with what she thought was a dog she knew..) How ever if a dog that she doesn't know (she is totally fine with dogs she does know) jumps on her or gets in her space, she freaks. She just wants that dog to go away. She is afraid, and will do what she needs to to make that dog back off. Snarling Snapping etc.

To me an 'aggressive' dog is more proactive. They seek out the fight. The are not 'reacting' to the stimulus, they are seeking it out.

Well... I agree with that idea the vast majority of the time. Most of the aggression problems pet owners see started out as a fear problem. But not the dogs that kill cats, rats and livestock.

And how does fear explain the police dogs that will hunt to find someone to bite? And I mean hunt, sometimes for hours. What about the malinois that used to hide in the bushes and wait for someone to come through the gate so he would have his chance to bite them? Or the pit I trained that would stand still and wait for another dog to get close enough to bite? All of her body language screamed prey and nothing that she was doing was typical of "dog aggression". She looked just the same as my husky did when she saw a cat.

If she's causing physical harm to another dog, I'd say that's "dog aggression."

I agree with a lot that has already been said. I do believe that a dog that starts out being reactive and given enough time and situations can also turn into an aggressive dog.
There are just to many variables that can shift and change within each dog to paint them with a broad brush of being reactive and/or aggressive.

Prey drive is not aggression.

And are you talking about trained police dogs, who are TRAINED to hunt down and hold a suspect? That is not aggression.

And fear does not always mean fear of pain. Also we are assuming healthy normal dogs. Just like humans can have chemical imbalances, so can dogs. That makes them sick, not aggressive.

I have to agree with Dekka's last post

Bamm Bamm is reactive so I'm still learning all of this. I really like this thread.

Wouldn't it depend on the prey drive as to whether is has any aggression in it or not? And how that dog was bred and how much aggression was bred into them for the prey drive? In some breeds are the two not directly linked?

A dog with high prey drive might be more prone to aggression. But a dog attacking prey, is by behavioural definitions not being aggressive.

I was thinking about this while making dinner last night. And I came up with (what I think) is a good scenario to illustrate the differences.

Lets say a woman is walking down a street in a not so great neighbourhood at night. A man walks up and says "Hey baby" Now this man might actually be a nice guy with no bad intentions. But she doesn't wait to find out, she pepper sprays him. This is being reactive. Reacting to a perceived threat. It would be strange if she did this walking down a street in daylight, but is still being reactive.

Now lets say this woman has decided all men are potential threats, and starts walking around going up to men, who are minding their own business and starts pepper spraying them. That would be aggressive.

Dekka, great examples. That's how I think of it too.

Eve is reactive to a certain degree. Eve hates being stepped on more than anything in the world. If a big dog is bounding around her, she anticipates being stepped on and will react with "give me my space" body language, snarly faces and snaps. She's not an aggressive dog by any means, but she'll react with "aggressive" seeming behavior in order to protect herself.

Though if I use your examples, reactivity can turn into aggression. Using her as an example, Eve could decide that all big dogs are going to step on her, and try to protect herself even further by attacking all big dogs she sees, before giving them a chance to get near her and therefore step on her. It would be a fear/self-preservation type of aggression, but still aggressive behavior?

Or is it still reactivity? Since she's reacting to the visual stimulus of the large dog, and basing her reaction off her history of +P and -R experiences with the presence of the large dog and the positive results of her defensive response, respectively. (Woot run on sentence)

Dekka, thats a really good example thankyou.

I think there may be a few dogs out there with a screw loose who categorize other dogs as "prey" and may attempt to "hunt" them--you sometimes see drift with sighthounds and small-breed dogs because at a distance they don't look like dogs and don't get categorized as "dog" by the hound and the prey drive is activated and by the time the hound gets close enough to the dog to smell that it's not a rabbit, they may be too high in drive to really think about it. But it is highly unusual for a dog to lump all other dogs in to the same category as "prey" and I really have to think that is not at all a common source of dog-aggression.

For my coonhound, he is highly, highly prey driven but does not have a dog-aggressive bone in his body. He's also fearless and unflappable and if you start a fight with him you'd better be prepared to finish it because he is *not* a pushover. He'll defend himself, but he does not start fights, nor have any desire to. His prey-seeking behaviors look nothing like the dog-aggression I've seen exhibited by other dogs. And I've seen him get in to prey drive around other dogs at the dog park and all the other dogs look at him and they are not thinking "OMG he's aggressive, we are afraid! Run!" they look at him and go "Follow him! He's awesome and found something!" He's often the leader of quite a little raiding party (they never catch anything, the dog park is fenced and while critters may leave their little scent trails through it, they aren't dumb enough to actually hang out in it).

Excellent post! People do not believe that I have a reactive dog because until a strange dog breaches his threshold of a few inches, he appears to be a well-adjusted dog... Of course if you have a keen eye you can see subtle calming/distance increasing signals but unfortunately most other dogs and owners are oblivious to them.

Are you actively working to address Dekka's reactivity to new dogs??
I find this type of reactivity very difficult to rehabilitate because unless you have the support network to constantly work around new and stable dogs, the progress is dismal. Dodger and I have perfected the "art" of avoidance and management when it comes to strange dogs. We have pretty much been stalled at this stage since his reactivity surfaced. It was easy to address the early and distinct reactive behaviours - ie: alerting, staring, tight/tense body, growling etc... But trying to work on direct socialization in enough contexts has been virtually impossible.

I think in some cases aggression and prey drive are linked, but certainly not in all cases.
Everybody complains about those edgy pain in the @ss jrts that have aggression issues. Now here is a dog that had aggression bred into them for them to be BETTER hunting dogs...........now can someone explain how there isn't a link between the two given that example??

Dekka's example of the reactive woman is very good. And for the sake of arguement/debate, lets say that same woman had been attacked or jumped in the past which is why she reacted that way, we could then assume that if she continued to have intermittent attacks that she could then start pepper spraying every male that she encountered, therefore becoming aggressive??

I have a dog that is the same way and in his case it is very situational, all his bad experiences have happened at agility trials. Therefore he is much worse at agility and not as bad with strange dogs away from agility. Give a few minutes and his own comfort zone, he can be off leash with strange dogs.......away from agility lol.
His reactivity has greatly reduced at trials. For years I 'managed him' and his space, then I got proactive and started to train him to deal with his issues. His progress has been awesome, strange dogs can now bush by him with no reaction except to make eye contact with me if he is very worried. We do have regressions but only after another incident. Last year I had two such incidents on the same day within an hour or so, at the Ontario Regionals. Not good.
Luckily he is a small dog and I can carry him if I think I need too lol.
I agree, I don't think it ever goes away, we can get them very good and for a very long time, but all it takes is another bad incident to have them regress again even if that regression only lasts for a while. Start over, keep training until the next one.
I often wonder if my dog thinks I am lying to him.........I train him, tell him it's ok, that he can trust me that nothing will harm or scare him and then BAM somebody's dogs puts a paw on his back, runs up into his face to 'play' because that person has a 'friendly dog' and they are not paying attention to it while they chat with their friend or stand there watching a run.
Then my dog reacts and they jerk their dog away, muttering something to the effect of 'aggressive dog'..................frustrating?? beyond words.........
if other people would pay attention to their dogs and be careful...........my dog would have no reason to react especially after all the training I have done with him

Ok, my rant is done .........for now.