Unlocking Pandora's Box: A Practioner's View of Gender Effects in Canine Aggression

The aim of this presentation is to familiarize participants with the types of gender issues those who deal with aggressive dogs routinely confront in clinical practice, specifically as these relate to the dog, the client, and the clinician. Participants may then use this information to augment studies and treatments that do not take gender influences into account, thereby enhancing their ability to work with problem animals and/or to select stable therapy animals. Gender and the dog: When considering the effects of gender, it's wise to keep in mind that the goal of life is successful reproduction, and that evolution rewards those individuals and species whose behavioral and physical traits allow them to accomplish this with the least expenditure of energy. In keeping with this basic premise, much of social behavior between members of the same and different species arises from the differences between males and females. Like females of many species, female dogs are born with a finite number of very energy-expensive eggs, compared to males who generate a renewable supply of energy-cheap sperm. This makes the females a valuable, nonrenewable resource for which the males, most of whom won't mate in the wild, compete. Dogs use a basic repertoire of bite behaviors to signal their authority, with the most gentle being the hold of a bitch moving her pups and the most energetic being that reserved for prey. Successful members of both sexes develop what some ethologists refer to as the "tender-macho" balance. Males whose genes wind up in the gene pool tend to be those macho/aggressive enough to drive off competitors, impress females, and kill enough prey to survive and feed any young without getting maimed or killed themselves, but tender enough not to frighten or harm the female with which they hope to mate or the young which carries their genes. Evolution favors discriminating females tender enough not to attack their mates or young, but macho enough to repulse threats to their young and to kill enough prey to support themselves and their offspring. Evolution also favors those who can communicate their sex, reproductive, and social status with the most subtle, energy-conserving behavioral and biochemical cues. Also bear in mind that establishing and protecting the territory is the strongest animal drive and that a stable pack structure represents the mental territory. Not only that, from day one dogs are part of a pack structure that begins with teat selection and becomes more dynamic and complex as they mature. Domestic dogs automatically incorporate us into their pack structures according to their species rules which deem that every pack must have a leader. Thus, if the owners don't accept this responsibility, even the wimpiest dog will feel forced to assume it. Aggressive dogs commonly respond in a manner that supports one of two basic human-canine pack structures, depending on the animal's personality, past experience, and any physiological and behavioral cues it receives from the owner(s). The first human-canine pack arrangement consists of reproductively capable boys and men at the top, the dog in the second position, any reproductively capable girls and women in third place, and children at the bottom, with boys moving up in position as they become sexually mature. In such situations, biting dogs of both sexes more readily obey their male than female owners, react more aggressively toward strange men than women, and more negatively toward adolescent boys than girls. Moreover, these animals may show minimal or no signs of aggression when the adult man is present, but they'll respond very aggressively to perceived threats toward other family/pack members in his absence. In the second pack structure, the dog also views any adult males in the household as its subordinates/territory. In this situation, the dog will insinuate itself between embracing couples, try to sit in the man's lap or constantly badger him for attention while more or less ignoring any women or young children in the household. Because these animals take a proprietary view of all members of the family, they will respond aggressively to anyone they consider a threat to its territory/owners. Who a dog bites when is a function of the dog's level of confidence and any environmental cues. In general, though, we can say that any time a dog holds a position above the owner, that person is as apt to get bitten as any stranger, albeit for far different reasons. The stranger will be bitten because that person represents a threat to the dog's territory/owner. The owner will be bitten for interfering with the dog's attempts to fulfill its leadership functions. Finally, we must always bear in mind that behavior drives physiology as much as physiology drives behavior. Thus, because the majority of cases of canine aggression occur when the owner knowingly or inadvertently cedes leadership of the human-canine pack to the dog, even the wimpiest spayed female may display characteristics, such as leg-lifting, more commonly associated with intact males. Moreover, dogs lacking the physical and behavioral traits to confidently lead may skip the preliminary ritualistic displays designed to head off aggression and immediately go into the attack mode. Consequently, a wimpy, aged, neutered, female Pomeranian in a dog-centered pack will attack more quickly and viciously than a young, confident, sexually intact male pit bull in a human-centered pack. Page Two