understanding aggression

thought this might be useful for the forum...

http://4pawsu.com/understandingaggression.html

Very good! thanks for the link. There's lots of other good info on that site too.

The only thing I'd add is on triggers. A dog can sometimes appear to react to something sometimes but not at others. He might, for example, normally be fine with other dogs most of the time, but one day he snaps when a little dog barges up to him. That might be because the little dog has overstepped the mark but it might also be due to trigger stacking. He's just seen a lorry that scared him, then there was child jumped out from behind the bush unexpectedly, and that little dog is just the final straw. Managing anxiety also means being aware - not on edge, just aware - of all the things that are happening around you, not just the final trigger incident.