---start---- behavior 11/16 dr overall cat social systems - Q: if you have some cats, and some are high ranking, and they fight...fine. but what if they don't care? do you have to have a cat who is in charge? the answer is - cats like high perches - not all of it is about status or control. cats can be co-equal who time and space share and do not care about status. most people can't rank cats/dogs in household. the overt, rigid rankings probably are more pathological, or bully type situations. if a cat always wants to be in charge, that's probably not so normal. Aggression: the single biggest group of problems in pet canids involves aggression. these are the reasons dogs are killed at shelters. dogs with any history of aggression, regardless of reason, are generally euthanized - even fearful dogs that aren't that aggressive. they end up dead b/c people think they are too risky. but consider aggression as a way of telling us about the dog's environment. a lot of us would be scared and aggressive in these situations too. we need better ideas about humane restraint and handling. definition of aggression (broad sense): an appropriate or inappropriate, inter-or intra - specific challenge, threat, or contest resulting in deference or in combat and resolution. remember the importance of *context*. many people including some judges believe dogs should never be aggressive for any reason no matter what. but really - sometimes dogs have inappropriate aggression, and sometimes they have appropriate aggression. if Dr Overall was leaving here late at night and some guy grabbed her in the parking lot, it would be appropriate for her dog to attack him. but if you came up to her in class and ther dog attacked you, it would be inappropriate. challenge or threat sometimes but not always comes before actual physical combat. sometimes people do not notice it when dogs begin to challenge, or do not understand what the dog percieves as a threat. early intervention is important, but people do not notice the early signs or if they do, they wait until the dog goes so far as to bite someone which is later in the process. if biting is the first sign of aggression, that's a very pathological situation because normally there are many other things that come first. look at middle east crisis - there are redundant signalling processes going on, because the cost of making a mistake is very high. death is not a good genetic investment. dogs wouldn't normally immediately attepmt to kill something. usually one backs off first. in wolves, fighting to the death is a rare exception. in domestic dogs, we've changed signalling, asked dogs to do MORE warning stuff, not less. so really, don't apply all the wolf stuff to dogs. classification of canine aggression - is in notes. some of the main ones: Pain Aggression - this is what you cause. some main pathways for this to develop: 1. veterinarians - hurt animals while trying to make them better - hopefully as a last resort but sometimes we really are too abrupt and hurt the animal when maybe we really shouldn't. painful things like broken bones, broken teeth, clipping claw too short - just handle these animals very carefully!!! use pain medications judiciously. castration and spays do cause pain. animals can develop behavioral changes post OHE and it may be pain related. 2. abuse from owners 3. inadvertant or deliberate rough handling by children - there are no excuses. if a kid is routinely pulling ears or tail and getting away with it and increasing abuse skills to that dog, either kid has no supervision, kid is abused and mimicking the abuse of himself, or kid is pathological. fact is, some kids do need psychiatric help at 18 mos of age to prevent the kid from becoming a mass murderer. Dr O saw a kid in clinic and had to tell mom "this is how jeffrey dahmer got his start." whoah. um. ok. there is a big link b/w dog abuse and child abuse. many people are now starting to realize this truth. the way kids who are abused act out their frustrations is to abuse their pets, then later to abuse their own kids. the single biggest way to get a kid to comply with sexual abuse is to threaten to kill the pet. women will not go to battered women shelters, because they can't bring their pets and do not want to leave pets with abusive guy. you can't diagnose a person but you can refer them to a social worker if you believe the dog is responding appropriately and the child is not. sometimes you have to be blunt. one situation last year - students noticed that choke chain was embedded in dog's neck. had to cut it off, scrub and shave the dog's neck. then they brought dog back down and showed it to owner. this was more neglect than overt abuse. these people didn't know much about dogs and didn't realize this would happen. Dr O said "look, this is what happened. here try this other type of collar. also you should know if an animal control officer saw this, you could get in trouble for neglect. you probably didn't even know but you would still get in trouble. you need to try to make sure there isn't even a question about it." realize that now, the onus is on the "accuser" not the accused, to prove abuse. but you still can't let things slip through the cracks. one piece of advice - do what is right. if you do what is right, you can sleep at night. it isn't always smooth but it is ethical. the payoff is intrinsic, and important. watch out for these abuse situations, though. Play aggression: as seen in that bernese puppy -usually associated with or a form of attention seeking behavior associated with positive reinforcement -seen in puppies/kittens orphaned young b/c they don't get maternal corrections and people are careful not to hurt them so tolerate more stuff -pups spending extended periods in shelters or cages -pups whose people play roughly using their hands - especially common in young males playing roughly with big dogs - seems like men play with puppies more roughly with their hands. there is just something about some guy wanting to play forcefully with the puppy. -pushy puppies who are very mouthy, stubborn - later association with dominance aggression? a hypothesis exists but there is no data, this isn't proven, we don't really know. Dr O isn't sure about this. slide: Far Side - kids chewing dog's tail, pulling his ears. dog is thinking of killing the kids and burying them. if this dog turned around and bit the kids, the dog would die, not the kids. so you need to do a lot of client advising about this. Food related aggression: you'll see this too, not uncommon. not sure how common, b/c we see it as secondary dx. -protects food dish by growling and snarling often while eating (can drop food, choke, swallow air) -long approach distance (1-2 m) - will react when they see you -may be dog food related or only elicited by rawhide, bones, pig ears, stolen or proferred human food, cow hooves, whatever it is. these things are not toys, they are food. -will always relinquish possessions such as squeaky toys b/c this is about food. realize some animals protect objects to protect possessions, others do it to set you up (dominance aggression) -may be associated with dominance aggression and be early prognosticator, esp if appears