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Fear is the underlying emotion associated with aggression in physically and mentally healthy dogs. Three factors usually influence aggression in otherwise healthy dogs: genetics, learning experiences and training, and environment. Additionally, it’s important to monitor a dog’s behaviour and to know its threshold and the impact it can have if it becomes aggressive. Some aggression is due to pathological changes in the dog’s brain, or can be related to pain or illness.

A healthy dog may show signs of fear or anxiety before aggression. When fearful or scared a healthy dog will try to move away from whatever is causing the fear response, may exhibit signs of stress including yawning, high tail or tail tucked under body, stiff body, ears back, closed mouth or visible whites of the eyes. They may lunge, bark or growl signalling to a human or other animal that it’s feeling threatened and to move away.

Dogs sometimes freeze and stare, a sign that the animal is now highly uncomfortable, and may shift into aggression quickly if the threat persists. It’s important to note that aggression in a dog that is in pain or is very unwell may happen suddenly and with no warning.

Children need to be taught how to approach an animal, how to understand the animal’s needs, and be supervised to avoid problems. It’s important that children understand how to interact with dogs. Toddlers make up by far the largest number of dog bite victims and when you see their automatic reaction to a dog, you can understand why this can be interpreted by the dog as a threat. No dog should be left unsupervised with a toddler. It is important to teach children not to approach strange dogs or pat them without permission, but at the same time, encourage them to care for animals and not fear them.