Dogs primarily communicate using their body language, while the sounds they make are important but not as equally as body, ears, or tail positions. For our dogs and our own safety, it is important to know what fear aggression looks like in dogs. It is important to know what to do or how to behave if you encounter a dog that is afraid but does not run away. It is also useful if our dog is the one showing signs that something is not right when he sees another dog or a person. We need to learn to recognize the signs our dogs show us and act accordingly.

What Is Fear Aggression?

According to the Cambridge Dictionary, aggression is “spoken or physical behavior that is threatening or involves harm to someone or something”. When talking about dogs, aggression is more physical behavior than spoken (sounds) and it differs between fear and dominance.

Fear is defined as “an unpleasant emotion or thought that you have when you are frightened or worried by something dangerous, painful, or bad that is happening or might happen”. This definition is made to apply to people, but it can be used for dogs too.

Aggression signs in dogs are more physical than spoken (sounds), and there is a difference between fear-based and dominance-based aggression

Fear aggression is all about defensive behavior, where a dog would rather not fight. In most cases, it ends up in resolving an issue without an attack, IF we don’t cause any further threat to a dog. Dog aggression caused by fear can still result in a bite, but it is less likely than dominance-based aggression.

A fearful dog can still bite, but it is not common; such a dog has one goal in mind – to move away from the threat as soon as possible and avoid confrontation

The Signs

Generally speaking, fear aggression causes a dog to “shrink” or look less like someone who provokes it. It’s all about lowering the body, but getting ready to attack if needed. The signs are:

• Head down
• Ears back
• Body down
• Growling
• Snaring

Lowering of the head and body are signs of a dog that does not consider itself dominant. This does not mean they won’t bite, like said, it depends on whether a situation escalates or deescalates (in a dog’s mind). Ears back indicate discomfort, nervousness, and/or fear. How a dog’s body looks as a whole, has a lot of influence on our decision to deem a dog submissive, aggressive, fearful, and so on. 

For example, when a dog has ears back flat on the skull combined with growling and snaring, it is a sign that a dog does not want to be approached. They will bite if further threatened. 

The “threat” is whatever a dog considers a threat to be. It could be:

• direct eye contact 
• looming over a dog, 
• raising hands, 
• moving quickly, etc.

Once again, we have to look at the dog as a whole, and not just one part of the dog. We have to observe the whole body movement. A dog backing away, with body lower to the ground, ears back, growling, and not maintaining eye contact is a dog that would rather you (as a threat) go away and let him be. 

What To Do?

A dog showing his teeth, ears pricked, stiff legs slightly leaned forward with a wrinkled nose, growling or barking in midrange or lower pitch is a dog that shows aggression and confidence. 

Depending on the dog’s confidence and breed, they might not always show obvious signs. Some dogs were trained to act quickly, such as protection dogs. 

Some breeds or specially trained dogs don’t show all the obvious signs before an attack

But, most dogs show the mentioned signs before an attack. Generally speaking, if we see a dog with bared teeth, growling, or with raised hairs on its back, the dog is not friendly and needs space. We should back away slowly or not threaten the dog any further.

Bared teeth, growling, and raised hairs on the back mean a dog is not friendly and needs space

No matter if we encounter a neighbor’s dog off-leash or a stray dog, and no matter if it’s a confident or a fearful dog, we shouldn’t run. Running can trigger their prey instinct which can cause them to chase us even if they don’t intend on biting us.

So, don’t run. Secondly, show yourself as someone who is not a threat. Own your space but don’t invade a dog’s. We shouldn’t look a dog directly in the eyes because this too can be perceived as confrontational. We should look slightly away with a slow blink or two to further show we mean no harm.

Yawning is also a good way to show we are not a threat. We can yawn and slowly start walking away. First, turning the head away from the dog and then the whole body. If a dog comes closer, we should stop and turn to face the dog again – slowly, yawning, and avoiding direct eye contact. Being relaxed is important, or in other words, “nonchalance is the key”.

I will admit that it is easy to speak of it from behind a screen, but a child or a person with no previous experience with a dog will have trouble staying calm. This article is here to, hopefully, teach them to stay calm and NOT run away, because there is a high chance a dog will understand the body language and will not attack.

1. Don’t run
2. Don’t invade dog’s space, but hold your ground
3. Don’t make direct eye contact with the dog
4. Yawning is a sign we are not a threat
5. Slowly start walking away
6. If a dog makes a move towards you, stop and repeat all
7. Try to stay calm as much as possible
8. If nothing helps, make a loud noise, but don’t run!

Final Thoughts

Fear aggression is different from a dog who feels confident and dominant. Dogs who are afraid would rather go away and avoid any confrontation. However, if you don’t read the signs and approach a dog in a threatening way, they will defend themselves. One of the most important things to do is the hardest when you find yourself in a situation where a dog is growling and showing aggression signs. The most important thing is – to stay calm. We talked about fear aggression signs and dogs that would rather run away, but a whole different story is an aggressive dog that is full of confidence. In either case, the best is not to run.

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Cover Photo by Isabel Vittrup-Pallier