So I don’t bury the lead, here’s where I’m going today: Why does the concept that dogs can get angry make some people angry? I was reminded of that when I was looking something up in For the Love of a Dog (I often forget where I wrote what . . .) and ran into the introduction to the chapter on anger. That brought me back to an incident years ago, in which someone became enraged at my suggestion that dogs could get angry.
I wrote about this briefly in a November 2008 post, relating my experience at a day-long meeting at the National Institute of Health on the human animal bond. I was one of several speakers, in the company of zoo-anthropologist Dr. James Serpell, Dr. Sandra Barker and Dr. Joan Esnayra. Here’s what I wrote in November 2008:
I spoke second, after Serpell, arguing that the profound love that many of us have for our dogs is a biological phenomenon that deserves more scientific attention. In my talk I speculated, as I did in the book For the Love of a Dog, that one of the reasons we become so intensely attached to dogs is that dogs have such expressive faces, and as Darwin argued over a century ago, their expressions of fear, anger and happiness are very much like our own.
Those comments were soundly criticized by a veterinary behaviorist in the audience who argued that I was being problematically anthropomorphic to 1) make any association between the expressions of people and the expressions of dogs and, 2) use the word ‘anger’ in association with dogs. I can’t quote the person exactly, but the point was that anger is a human construct, and it is wrong to attribute it to dogs.
What I didn’t say then, and will say now, is that this person was not just in disagreement with I said. She was furious about it. She was actually shaking with emotion as she criticized me. When I sat down, practically shaking myself after being so publicly castigated, James Serpell said something like “What the hell did you do to her?” But I’d never met her before in my life. Continuing with my comments in 2008:
I was (and am) fascinated by her criticisms. First off, the evidence continues to grow about the continuum of the biology of emotion in mammals.. we share the same basic neuro-anatomy related to emotions, the same neuro-physiology related to emotions (serotonin, dopamine, oxytocin to name a few) and many of the same behavioral reactions. Emotions are such primitive things, it always interests me that ascribing them to non-human animals makes people uncomfortable. Of course, there’s a huge difference between how an emotion is processed in the brain of a human and that of a dog, but the glass is half full as well as half empty, and the biology of emotions is far more similar in dogs and people than it is different. In addition, I’d love to claim credit for the notion that the expressions of emotion on the faces of dogs and people are related, but since Darwin wrote about it over a hundred years ago I don’t think I’d better. Unless you believe that people and other animals have virtually no biological connection of any kind, it is sound science to compare the expressions of two highly social mammals who use subtle visual signals to maintain social harmony.
I am especially interested in the expressed concern that anger is “human construct.” I’ve heard that before from several different fields, and yet, anger, or ‘rage’ as it is often called in the literature, is considered one of the most basic and primal of emotions. Jaak Panskeep, the author of Affective Neuroscience: The Foundations of Human and Animal Emotions, calls rage one of the “core” emotions of all mammals. Truly, you can’t attribute fear to a dog and deny then that a dog could get angry… those two emotions are too closely tied together in so many, many ways. [For example, the amygdala is critically involved in the emotions of both fear and anger.]
I believe completely and without question that dogs can experience anger, the biology to support that is overwhelming. However.. and this is a big HOWEVER… I also think that anger is one of the emotions that people most misunderstand in dogs. Owners often tell trainers or behaviorists that their dog defecated on the carpet because he was “angry” that he’d been left, when the motivating emotions was either fear of being left alone, or none in particular, because the dog simply wasn’t house trained. I would argue that although dogs can get angry, (for example when frustrated by being pulled away from the window while barking at a passer by), dogs actually experience anger very very little compared to humans.
Let me add something to that last line, that dogs “experience anger very very little compared to humans.” It’s frankly a miracle to me that dogs aren’t more angry than they are. Get a bunch of trainers, vets and behaviorists together with some bottles of wine, and you’ll hear expressions of shock that our dogs haven’t killed and eaten us yet. It’s hard to believe what they put up with from us. Their benevolence may, in part, relate to the discovery that dogs have genetic mutations similar to humans with Williams-Beuren Syndrome, resulting in “hyper-sociability” and exceedingly high levels of trust. This in contrast to the look of pure rage in the eyes of a wolf hybrid right before he sunk his teeth into my hand. I’ve seen plenty of dogs go “hard-eyed,” but I’ve never seen that level of fury in the eyes of a dog. But that doesn’t mean that all dogs are hyper-social, or that dogs can’t experience anger.
It seems like a good time to bring this conversation back, especially given how anger seems to be one of the prominent emotions in our own species right now. My questions to you are: What do you think about anger in dogs? Possible? Agree or not that it’s possible in dogs but less likely (waaaay less likely) than in humans? If you think you’ve seen anger in dogs, tell us what happened, and what makes you think so. If you think dogs can’t get angry, tell us why. I’m all ears, and I promise not to get angry at any responses, no matter what they are.
MEANWHILE, back on the farm: I’m way way waaaaay behind in gardening because 1) I’ve created a set of gardens designed for a staff of five, and 2) I spent two and a half days at a sheepdog clinic with Scott Glen at Big Yellow Boots farm, and my mind is still buzzing. To say that I’m a tad obsessed with training my dogs and working in the garden would be an understatement, perhaps illustrated by last night’s uber simple dinner–grilled cheese and tomato soup. (Although I should add that a good grilled cheese sandwich and bowl of tomato soup is a damn good dinner.)
Here’s my favorite photo from the clinic: This is me doing a total celebrity fan geek out because I got my photo taken with the most skilled and accomplished dog of the decade, Scott and Jen Glen’s Alice. Alice has won just about everything in the sheepdog world, including both The Nationals and The Bluegrass twice. (The Bluegrass is a bit like the Masters, if you’re into golf.) Her brilliance on impossible sheep never fails to astound me, and so it made my day to get a chance to meet her. Thanks Jenny!
Skip got to meet her too, after emerging from the cooling tank after his lesson. Skip was more impressed than Alice, but neither was as ridiculously thrilled as I was.
Ah life. So complicated sometimes. See that beautiful field of purple flowers? Gorgeous, right? But/And, it’s Dame’s Rocket, an invasive species that takes over and dominates everything. We had a bit of it before, but after having the wild area behind the house cleared of other invasives, (mostly Honeysuckle and Garlic mustard), the Dame Rocket said “Thank You” and came up like an invading army of fairy warriors. Beautiful, but will literally take over all of my perennial gardens if I don’t work hard to contain it. I can’t bring myself to spray it with herbicide (you’d practically have to hire a helicopter), so I’m pulling it up close to the garden, and chopping off as much as I can before it seeds to discourage it. There will be many, many hours of Trisha bending over chopping off the tops of these hundreds and hundreds of plants before they go to seed. Please send a massage therapist. (What you’re seeing is just the small section. Most is on the left. Sigh.)
It got crazy hot for May (was 24 F just what, two weeks ago?), and the kitties went back to their favorite napping bed, the Katris Nest, from last summer. I think the way it’s constructed makes it extra cool and comfy when it’s hot. Maybe they should make one for people?
Margaret says
If I’d answered this question ten minutes ago I would have said, “Of course dogs can experience anger; all species experience the same core emotions.”
Now I’m not so sure. I have never identified anger in a dog. Fear, yes. Fear driving aggressive behaviors, you betcha. But anger?
I’ve been thinking a lot in the last few years about how most human angers are based in fear. Those trying to use human anger for their own ends always try to stir up and foment fear.
So perhaps fear is the primary emotion and anger is the sophisticated human form of that emotion?
No answers here, just more questions.
Alice R. says
I do believe dogs can get angry, and for the same reasons you do. I think it’s ridiculous to say that if we think they have anything in common with us that we are anthropomorphizing, and it’s invalid.
The Dames Rockets are lovely, but if you need to cut the tops off without killing yourself, it might be time for a weed whacker as distasteful as that might be.
LisaW says
OMG, that is the best picture of you (not that I’ve seen that many, but wowzah)! It made me smile and move in toward the screen to see every detail. This is what joy looks like in great farm boots. Love it.
I have seen anger in dogs — when Grace, who did not suffer anyone who was not us — was getting examined by our vet during a housecall. Our vet was going slow, and she needed to draw a little more blood, and I had turned away for a second. The vet said, “Ahem, if I continue, I’m going to get bitten.” I turned back, and yes, in fact, she was correct. Grace had gone still and she had that look on that said if this isn’t over soon, I’m going to make it over. I went and caught her attention (I can’t remember what I did exactly) and it was okay. But, she had had enough.
And Ester, our 90-pound-golden used to sneak into the garden and eat the tomatoes. (She loved fruit — she’d go eat blackberries off the bushes, dropped pears, etc.) Well, she stole one of the last big ripe tomatoes. I went over to her and told her to drop it, which she did, good girl, but then I took her chin and sternly (and probably a bit loudly) told her to stop eating the tomatoes! She caught my hand in her mouth and didn’t bite but made her point. I think she was madder at my reaction than not getting the tomato.
Olive’s definitely been angry; mostly around nail clipping (a snip and a snap) and when she is being asked to move off something or give up something and she does not want to. is not happy with it. She will give you that look and walk out of the room (if she were a kid, you’d hear stomping). Although, when she was younger, this could really present a problem if my timing was off. I had to catch her at a moment when I thought she could do what I asked until she eventually learned it was safe to comply, she wasn’t going to lose anything permanently.
To your point about dogs actually experiencing anger very little compared to humans. I’m in awemazement that Olive is able to have fun on occasion, she loves us, and she does her best around so many things. Her puppy life sucked. I think it went beyond cruel, and yet, here she is imperfect but trusting and loving. I’m not sure I know many people that could do that as well as she.
It feels too early for Dame’s Rocket, no?
Tammy says
350 years after his death, Descartes continues to influence the way so many humans view animals — beings that can’t feel pain, think, or emote. I just finished a National Geographic articles about pods of whales that seem to have distinct group cultures from each other, something the article suggested was a daring claim to make. A few weeks ago I saw a research article that concluded that fish feel pain after all. Shocking (sarcastic tone needed there).
It’s always seemed to me that it’s a much bigger leap to say that animals and marine life **don’t** feel pain or think or feel than it is to assume that they do. I suppose that once we’re on the slippery slope, it’s harder to justify eating them, allowing puppy mills, conducting medical research on them, and so on.
All this is to say that I agree with your judgment, Trisha, that dogs can feel anger.
Thanks for the laugh about creating gardens that need a staff of five. I look out my back door and think something similar some days. My husband does too, I imagine, though it is only I who should be blamed.
Elisa says
I have no doubt at all that my dogs sometimes get angry at each other. We got a puppy recently, and they absolutely seem to get angry at the puppy when he’s being obnoxious–and they communicate this to him very clearly. If it’s not anger, I don’t know what it is. They don’t stay angry, though. Maybe I’m kidding myself, but I don’t think they get angry at me. Frustrated, maybe, sometimes, but not angry.
Diane says
Try combing my dog’s tail and you’ll see anger. At first, it’s just irritation…but as the combing continues, it is anger. Signs are there and best look for a “I’m the boss” out before you get in trouble (few more strokes and an “okay we’re done”. (Cheetos are a sufficient distraction to keep the emotion at bay…feed while combing. But I don’t want an unhealthy Cheeto dog and I don’t want to mix up rewarding a possible irritation/anger emotion).
Mary says
I am going to have to agree with Margaret. I really feel that it is all based on fear and frustration even in us humans. As a veterinarian, I can not think of a single anger based reaction in a dog that wasn’t fear based. And at home with my own pets, I would have to say that any reaction close to anger was more frustration and jealousy than true anger. But I believe that in humans also. Every time my husband gets angry, I like to point out the root of his fear or frustration. It drives him crazy but it helps to diffuse the situation. On a side note, I was chastised constantly in veterinary school for anthropomorphizing animals. And I would argue and continue to prove my point of emotions all four years. And it even continues today with clients. Shockingly, it is usually with the most educated clients that argue that dogs have no emotions.
Robin says
I think we tend to forget how closely tied fear and anger are in humans. Anyone who has nearly been in a car accident because of a foolish driver has experienced this, for sure. So who are we to say that dogs can’t experience anger on the tail end of fear – why is it always “aggression”?
And what about anger and jealousy? There is fear-based resource-guarding for certain, but what about the dog that has no interest in that toy until another dog he doesn’t like is playing with it?
We humans love to label nuanced emotions, but there isn’t even agreement of what those are between cultures and languages. And any dog observer knows the overlap between excitement and aggression, so why can’t that overlap exist elsewhere?
Allison says
I have 2 dobermans. They are both females. The oldest is 2 1/2 and the youngest is 10 months. Ginny (the oldest) is very patient with Bellatrix. I watch them all the time. Most of the time, Ginny will ignore her if she’s bothering her. Bellatrix is a very I do what I want kind of dog. I have seen her push Ginny to the point of anger. Not very often, but I have seen it and if I don’t step in I seriously believe that Ginny would hurt her…AT THAT MOMENT. Of course Bellatrix can push anyone to that point at times, lol. Another example is when Bellatrix is doing something that I don’t want her to do and I tell her no. She will absolutely argue verbally. I don’t think that’s anger, more like disbelief that I said no. She hops around and barks and the more you say no, the more she argues. Dogs, I believe have all ranges of emotions. No they aren’t people, they communicate in an entirely different way. However, if they can be happy, jealous, content, or sad, then why can’t they get angry as well? Just my thoughts on the matter.
Rachel Lachow says
I’m also pulling out the invasives and letting the buried natives thrive but am confounded by the glorious dame’s rocket which I can’t help but love. I’m putting in zizia and packera that I hope will outcompete it some day. I have no problem pulling out the garlic mustard, the multiflora, and the acres of vinca and pachysandra the former owners left behind. Sometimes I find black- eyed Susan’s or sensitive ferns underneath. It’s an endless job.
Do dogs get angry? I know my 9yo Pharaoh gets pissed at the 2yo Pharaoh for biting her butt when she’s running to come inside. She’ll occasionally lash out but not hard enough to permanently fix the problem. I’d had a few client dogs tell me not to dare touch them and it looked more like anger than fear. I listen to dogs and don’t proceed without permission.
Lede, not lead, just so you know.
Love your writing!
Margarita Palacio says
You want to see anger in a dog. Watch a dog ignore the calming cues from another dog during play. I’ve seen it and earlier in my dog language reading skills mistook it for aggression. I have come to realize that it’s anger that I see because there is no blood spilled. So, yes I truly believe animals have many if not all of the same emotions we humans have and it’s sad that so many people will never accept or come to that realization.
Heidrun says
Imho dogs surely can feel anger/get angry.
My example here: Red Dog wants to play with Fluffy Dog but Fluffy Dog is not interested.
Red approaches Fluffy, F. growls (knowing what will come), R. taps her back lightly with his paw. F.’s growling gets louder because R.’s paw is still touching her back. R. then pulls his paw away but keeps standing very close to F., not abandoning his intentions to coax her into playing with him. F. lets out a loud bark, snaps in the air and then turns around to face R. who backs out slightly, turns and walks away.
If Fluffy Dog wasn’t angry after not being heard for the first and second time she warned Red Dog not to pester her, I’m at a loss.
Perhaps time has come to find a new balance in this whole “anthropomorphizing thing”?
Not being a behaviourist I cannot see the problem in talking about anger in dogs (lucky me).
Is it because we got used to being cautious about terms? Because we don’t want to be accused of anthropomorphizing? But then again: I wouldn’t know what else to call it, if not anger.
Marijane Moss says
Of course they get angry. Toozh( my brill Afghan Hound) and I often both had our hands on hips. She knew what I wanted and said ” hell, no”. Best dog I ever had. Smart enough to know when I was wrong. And when the Westie , Morna, repeatedly sat with her back turned on my Dad, she was angry because he scolded her and put her in kennel for digging in the roses.
She would look over her shoulder and if he was looking at her would snap her head away.
I have a question asked of me by a prospective puppy owner. Says she heard intact males disliked neuters. I have in 60+ yrs of dogs and eventing, never heard this nor experienced it.
Louise Toole says
I think dogs learn to trust you based on your actions and temperament. we earn their trust. and if you are consistent with them, then anger does not come up. they can get stubborn of course and stand their ground. one of my rescue boarder collies got out of a hoarder situation at 1 1/2. As freaked out and fearful as she was, she always came up and laid down to have her head stroked even though she was still scared to death. Men were very hard for her. I kennel at my vet and they worried about her biting but quickly learned that she wouldn’t. My male rescue BC that came to me at 9 years old had 2 previous owners. The last had alcohol and health issues and would throw things at him because his allergies made his skin itch and he would chew his legs. I saw more fear. Not anger. Especially when touching the neck or pulling something out of the hair. But now i can trim toe hairs in his paws while he lays on the ground. It helped to see my female get trimmed first. He has learned to trust me. My dogs know they don’t have to fear me or get angry. The neighbor with dementia can provoke them. His moves are aggressive and he often carries a stick and shakes it. He thinks if a dog’s tail wags it will not bite. I think that is erroneous. I wonder if it could escalate to anger. But i quickly get him away from the neighbor. Although my female took over 5 years to truly loose the fear and become bossy and sassy and confident. The fear is clearly in the past and she is now 12. The male took a year to calm down from his past and totally trust us. And along the way his health issues are being addressed for a lot of $$$$. He is now going on 11. I think that is so amazing. The German Shepherd down the street worries me. His eyes look like he could demonstrate anger. He did try to kill the chow he lives with and had to be put down. The vet told the owner that once they taste blood, they will not lose the instinct to kill. True? A pit bull rescued in my neighborhood was with us for 2 days. The dog must have lived in hell. I was afraid of that dog and did not want my dogs and cats around her. The eyes were hard. She still growls at people. Is she just not socialized or not trusting? I never want a dog like that. I think certain situations can lead to a dog to having true anger. And once they have it, it can come out. If the dog truly experienced hell can it ever fully loose anger? How did the German Shepherd get to that point? There is also another German Shepherd in the house. I always hope it is never running loose as I am concerned. Can dogs get angry out of jealousy? I don’t see that the owner socializes it around other dogs. I don’t think it gets adequate exercise. Is it obedience trained? It must have trusted her family and those that enter the home. Can a dog just be angry and have the instinct to want to kill? Or is it learned based on what they experience? Probably the first is rare. The second I think can happen.
Charlotte Kasner says
Just watched clients’ dogs where I am very tempted to attribute anger. The eighteen month old Irish Wheaten was roughhousing with the 7 year old pug. He tolerated it up to a point and then the vocalisation changed tone and was then matched by the Irish terrier. That was the point at which I distracted them and broke it up.
How about the rôle of frustration – does that not tip easily into anger if given long enough? Interested in everyones’ thoughts.
LisaW says
So if it’s anger based from fear, is it not still anger? Not seeing why we can acknowledge the source but not the emotion. (I don’t agree it’s all fear-based, but I’m curious why they can’t be linked.)
Wendy S. Katz says
Garden staff! You’ve identified the lack that prevents my garden matching the one of my dreams.
Many years ago I had a pair of retrievers who were best friends. Twice in their relationship I saw one get (very briefly) angry when the other accidentally got too rough while playing. After a roar and a few seconds of snapping by the victim, the perpetrator made what I construed to be an apology (intense face licking with lowered posture) and then all was well again. If only our own interactions were so transparent and free of lingering baggage.
Carole says
One of my ‘foster failures’, Dusty, is an extremely dominant bitch. (Her DNA profile shows her to be Rottweiler/Chow/AmStaff/GSD,) She pushes my two male dogs around…and they don’t seem to mind, but… My son adopted Axl, a rescue pup (AmStaff/Australian Cattle Dog/and ???) who I puppy sat most days. At 9 weeks old, Axl was determined to make friends with Dusty despite the fact that she growled, snapped, and pinned him constantly. He just didn’t get it and I can only describe Dusty’s demeanor as truly angry. At the risk of attributing human emotions to a dog, it seemed clear to me that Dusty was furious and frustrated that this extremely annoying pup didn’t know the rules! I have raised a lot of puppies over the years and never encountered one who was quite this pushy and determined to ignore all the clear canine ‘leave me alone!’ communications. I had to constantly interfere to make sure no blood was shed but it took months before I was pretty sure she wouldn’t kill him. Axl is a year old now and stays with us every weekend. He leaves Dusty alone now, and is content to play with Jax. Another son adopted Finn (Australian Cattle Dog/Basset Hound/and ???) who understood immediately that Dusty was the one to whom he should give a wide berth. The first time he approached her, she growled, he fell onto his back, and took care never to invade her personal space again. Had she been capable of those human expressions, I think she would have said, “THAT’S how you approach the queen!”
MinnesotaMary says
Really interesting post today! I have actually thought about this before. In my experience, humans from different areas of the world express anger differently. Some, like myself, can express very little of what I’m feeling, but hold on to that anger and bear a grudge for years. Others, who might “blow up” and almost violently express their anger, will almost immediately get over it and move on. Dogs, who live in the moment, actually are probably more like the second group in that they express their anger, and then move on. They don’t forget, but they move on. Like the first group though, they probably hold back and don’t jump to anger or express their full rage. So in a way, they are a combination of the best of both extremes in the human world.
Barbara Martin says
I started teaching Miley about nail trimming when I brought her home at eight weeks. She is now ten and still hates it no matter how many cookies she gets (several for each nail). I wish I were a totally positive force-free trainer, but when that dremel hits my hand because she jerks, I can lose it – just a bit. Yes, I have yelled at her, pushed her head back down on the sofa, and held that foreleg still in any way I can. And, oh, how we trade glares! For a few seconds. Then I pet and rub her and sweet talk before trying again. I guess I’m a bad mama but we do get the job done, she gets even more cookies and is happily kissing me when we are finished. We go through this every other week. So, is she angry? Am I? I’d guess yes. Fortunately, we kiss and make up quickly. I have been on the receiving end of those glares only at toenail time.
FYI, I have tried guillotine clippers rather than the dremel in case it is the noise she doesn’t like. Nope. The clippers were worse. And even worse when she jerked her foot forward and I cut off so much she had to be bandaged and wear a boot for several hours. She behaved as if she hardly noticed any pain, which doesn’t seem possible. But she didn’t glare at me.
And BTW, she comes and gets up on the sofa on her own even though the dremel is in plain sight.
Martin says
I wonder if some humans get furious at the idea of a dog being angry because anger is seen as a bad emotion – something only “bad people” feel. Saying dogs feel such a base/vilified emotion could then be interpreted as insulting them. Some people want dogs to be on a pedestal of pure love, and feeling anger would go against this notion.
Also, a dog’s capabilities for emotions has ethical implications for our own behavior. If they get angry when we do something (that isn’t necessary), maybe we shouldn’t be doing it. But if we want to do it, then we either have to accept that we ourselves are “bad people” or make a sacrifice. And if we did it anyway in the past, we have to accept that we hurt our beloved dog. Or, you know, just say they can’t feel anger and avoid the nasty cognitive dissonance…
My present dog gets very frustrated when a leash prevents him from greeting/playing with another dog or chasing wildlife. He barks up a storm and lunges against the leash. When I got him in January, he seemed like he had no control over himself in these situations, but now he still seems capable of thinking. If a human (say, a small child…) acted similarly, we’d say they were having a temper tantrum, which definitely falls on the spectrum of anger. It’s not rage, wraith, fury, or anything like that. But anger? Probably.
Heather says
On guessing what the dog is thinking- the tail and ears suggest fear or dislike, but the upright stance, closed mouth and general rigidity are a ‘stop it or something will happen’.
As for anger in dogs, I have a cat that sometimes likes to ambush my oldest dog. She has made credible attempts to kill him on a few occasions from being angered by a sudden stabbing of claws. (Nobody was injured and the cat is growing up and getting more sense.)
Chris Wells says
I believe all animals experience anger. The difference is that they don’t hang on to it the way humans do. I always enjoyed the example Eckhart Tolle told about the two ducks. You can google it and read it. But humans hang on to their anger and create a story that they live again and again.
Mary says
OH, I’ve experienced rage in a dog! And it had to do with resource-guarding. I was 4 years old, and our GSD, “Charmer” was sleeping on the floor next to my mom and dad’s bed. (Charmer was a great-great granddaughter of Rin Tin Tin!) She was obsessed with my mom and guarded her wherever she was. After a bad dream in the middle of the night, I went to my parents’ room. As I walked through the door, Charmer attacked. She was in a rage, and I was knocked down to the floor. My dad jumped up and grabbed her collar. I was very lucky that he got there so fast. The next day, she was taken back to the breeder.
Katy says
After her BFF died, we went to visit my friend and Claire-dog was clearly upset over the lack of her friend. She pointedly turned her back on the adults when in the same room with us, but interacted as normal with the children and other animals. If one of the kids approached her, she was her usual wonderful self but if one of the adults approached her, she left the room. I know she was grieving but it was also clear she was angry with us.
My cattle dog’s behavior often reminds me of the research on inequity aversion. She’s figured out how to open the lazy Susan and will make a mess of the flour and other things in there (I don’t think she is actually eating any of it), but this only happens if her brother has had more special activities than she has. As long as they have had roughly equal opportunities for fun, she doesn’t get into it. And I can’t put it down to just boredom because if I have a busy week at work and no one has any fun, she doesn’t do it.
Louise Wholey says
My beloved dog just died. He looked very much like the black dog with brown markings in your photo, but I never saw a posture like that. That dog looks terribly frightened and the forward neck probably implies anger. My dog was just so happy almost all the time. The exception was that he did not like riding in the airplane. He was unhappy and somewhat fearful like the black dog in the back seat in your photo.
j says
Anger-“Done with you!” said the older dog to the obnoxious young male who body slammed her, before turning him over and pinning him into a ditch, barking LOUDLY at him.”Don’t-you-ever…” (and he didn’t). The blind border collie- disgust, maybe? when forced to surrender a chicken wing swiftly snatched from the bushes in front of the frat house. Seething, sulking, “it was MINE, I found it…” until offered a handful of cheese in compensation. Well, ok, then… Yes, what they put up with from us, so often, without complaint or grudge. Invasive weeds- what about stomping them down, putting big sheets of cardboard over them for a few months, then re-seeding with a grass?
rita penner says
Cats get angry. Why not dogs?
Trisha says
Martin, I think you’ve nailed it! We are so often uncomfortable with anger, even though it’s such a common, and often, useful emotion. And you bring up an interesting issue… when does frustration lead to anger, or is frustration just a low key version of anger? Hmmmm.
Shivani says
I, too, am a big fan off grilled cheese and tomato soup for dinner! You can’t knock a good grilled cheese.
I’ve never understood the discomfort with ascribing emotions to animals. We humans (animals) created the distinctions and definitions of other animals. Then we seem to feel threatened when study of other animals reveals tremendous similarities to ourselves. To me, the desire to lessen the emotional lives of other animals is hubris on our part, and it keeps us separate.
The dogs and cats I’ve known have demonstrated such a variety of personalities. One cat was simply crabby — she angered easily. A friend’s cat attacked people regularly, seemingly for sport. It took planning and execution to pull off some of her attacks!
My dog gets angry when thwarted and vocalizes to express it, although he seems to recover quickly. He’s very sensitive to hands moving around him, and I make sure he sees my hands and avoid surprising him. If he’s had enough of something, he will sometimes take hold of my hand, but not bite. I’m trying to learn his triggers and what he finds irritating. I know that if someone other than me controlled every aspect of my life, I would not be anywhere near as gracious as he is.
LindaB says
Cats can certainly feel anger, at least extreme annoyance. I have one that loves to be in my lap but does not want to be picked up. I did that the other night to get her to move along to bed and she was most decidedly angry at me.
One note of hope for the Dame’s Rocket: my whole neighborhood was infested many years ago but slowly, everyone got rid of it. Everyone except the couple on the local garden tour who featured it as “Tall Phlox.” Nowadays, I see very little. Our newest invasive weed is bittersweet nightshade along with the perennial favorite, bindweed.
Laura Anne says
If dogs can have happiness, and I think that they do, why not anger? We brought in a young Aussie to our house to join our middle aged dog. After a couple of days of adjustment, they got along very, very well, played a lot, slept near each other, etc. One day I slept late and my husband told me that he didn’t know what happened outside, but the older dog showed up at the door doing one, short, sharp bark. Greg let him in, and the dog stomped into the house and went to lie down. No sign of the other dog (we have a lot a shrubs in the back yard that block the view. 10 or 15 minutes later, the young dog came to the door, looking “chastened” and ,when Greg let her in, she quietly came in and went way away from the older dog. Anger on the part of the older dog? Seems like it could have truly been that emotion.
Kat says
There are so many gradations of anger from slightly annoyed/irritated to absolutely furious that I think it’s hard for some people to understand that just as humans can be a little bit angry so can animals. Humans more often reach the absolutely furious end of the anger continuum than dogs in my experience. I’ve seen my human family members furious many more times than I’ve seen my dogs furious. In fact Ranger is the only dog I’ve seen truly furious. We were at an off leash park and a young Great Dane kept trying to pin Ranger against the fence and mount him. After repeatedly shaking the Dane off and moving away and generally trying to politely say No Ranger had enough. All hackles up, all teeth barred, Ranger explained in no uncertain terms just what he was going to do the the Dane and how many bloody pieces would be left when he was done. Ranger was unmistakably angry, furious in fact.
And then there’s this photo https://www.flickr.com/photos/33350160@N02/4630446703/in/photolist-84bftZ it’s hard not to see anger there. Ranger had gotten into something with lots of burrs and I was trying to get them out. We were nearly done but his patience was at an end. He’d told me he was done and I’d ignored him. He’d actually told me a few times but I kept saying there are just a few more and kept at it. After this we took a short break while I apologized for ignoring his requests then we worked out the last three or four burrs.
Erica Clemente says
I have a 12 year old maltipoo who is very patient with my 2 year old Pomeranian. She pesters him in only the way a little sister can. She frequently attempts to get this old man of a dog to play (she ignores the other dog entirely, so it’s not she doesn’t respect body language). She nudges him. He picks which of the dogs he wants to sleep with, he takes toys she loves while she stands by and barks in complaint. This morning she poked him too many times and he suddenly jumped on her, and did a posturing (not even wet fur) hold her down and yell in her face stop bothering me! To my best guess she pissed him off!
Bill Weiler says
Is anger a behavior? Or is it semantically a chemical response to a negative stimulus resulting in agonistic or aggressive behaviors, like rage, biting, lunging……..Seems to me that a dog who shows agressive behaviors is stimulated by anger. Behavior is measurable and observable, but how do you measure anger? But you can measure bites, snarls, etc. I have an adopted dog who bared his teeth when I approached him in a particular area. I could observe and “measure” the intensity of his response. Was he angry? Yup, but that resulted in the above behavior, IMHO
Lane says
Dogs feel anger and, agreed, they go there so much less often than do human beings.
What have I seen? It hurts to tell this story.
Background: Merlin, a cattle-dog mix and my work partner when I was still training, read me like a book. Was it by smell that he could sense my emotional shift as I read an e-mail that angered me? He was hardly out of adolescence when he began waking up at my feet in such moments, looking over his shoulder at me, and getting up to leave the room. He loved being the demo dog in group classes, flopping himself down in the middle of the floor and falling asleep–as though to say, “What are all you rubes so stressed out about?”–and then awakening and moving toward me to demonstrate before I’d even finished the second syllable of his name. He played beautifully with puppies and set firm boundaries with adolescents before he finally told them, “OK, you can jump on me now. Let’s play!”
Until he didn’t. He simply said, “I’m done with puppies,” and he meant it. From then on, he played with certain dogs who were established friends, but ignored pups.
I had picked out my next breed and found someone who was doing exceptional breeding and fabulous in-litter socialization. I was on her list, intending to wait until Merlin was gone, but I got nervous when it became clear that she had personal reasons to stop breeding. Then she e-mailed so say she was breeding her female to a particular, outstanding stud dog, and did I want a pup from the litter? I couldn’t make myself say no.
(In my defense, I’ll say that my husband, Michael, had a blood cancer that was expected to kill him just about the time I expected Merlin and Emma would fail. It did not feel like good self-care to wait until all of them were dead before getting a pup.)
So I rationalized it: Merlin had always lived with multiple dogs. It would be good for the pup to have Merlin to set boundaries. Et cetera. You see my delusion already.
What happened: We took a cross-country trip to pick up puppy Razzle, leaving Merlin and Emma with their respective “aunties,” with whom they’d each stayed many times. When we returned, Merlin’s “auntie” brought him home. He had the situation sized up before they came in the door. I had Razzle on leash, so that she wouldn’t leap on him in the doorway, and was standing about ten feet back. Merlin walked into the house, shot me a look of pure fury, pointedly gave Michael a warm, waggy greeting, and refused to look at me again, even when I passed the pup off to Michael and got down on the floor next to Merlin. “It was a horrible look he gave you,” my husband said then and says now.
After a half hour, Merlin relented and said he was glad to see me, but he never set down the resentment. He accepted love, massages, and treats, and he loved our just-the-two-of-us walks. But if Razzle was being rowdy, Merlin would shoot me a dirty look and leave the room. When Razzle settled down on my lap, he’d give me the same look and leave the room.
Merlin and Emma are gone now. Michael responded magically well to a hot-out-of-drug-trial treatment and is solidly among the living. We’re both deeply grateful to have Razzle, but that doesn’t erase my regret that I asked my aging Merlin to give more than he could give.
Michelle says
I have no doubt that dogs experience annoyance and anger. My boy Ben is the most easy going dog ever. Not much phases him. I’ve never seen him so much as give a warning to another dog…until a recent hike with a friend and her dog. Her dog decided that Ben was going to be the humpee of the day. And kept trying to hump him. At first Ben just ran off.
And then he finally had enough and came after him with the bigger roar and show of teeth I’d seen from him ever. I have no doubt that he was really pissed off at the other dog.
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51084206056_ccea71f980_c.jpg
Sheila says
I’ve seen resource guarding, I’ve seen fear, I’ve seen territoriality – we have a livestock guardian breed. But I haven’t seen anger in a dog – even the dogs that bark and growl at ours as we walk past their houses (I believe they’re just guarding their territory). But the closest thing I’ve seen to anger was related to resource guarding – I was playing some training games with my Pyrenees and my uncle’s older pug – the pug was a resource guarder. I was alternating treats between the two of them, but after a few minutes, the pug attacked the Pyr after I gave her her reward for responding to the cue. I immediately separated them (my Pyr was too surprised to respond immediately to the attack, so I had time to tell her to Leave It and pick up the pug to carry him out to the car and bring him home). But I don’t believe that dogs have the mental capacity to plan ahead to exact “revenge” such as peeing on the carpet when the owner leaves. I can’t say dogs won’t hold grudges, because they certainly remember negative incidents, and will be distrustful for a long time afterward, say after a vet visit, or quicking a nail.
Laura says
Martin, yup, I think you got it. I’ve seen dogs get angry, for the same reason any human would get angry. It was about 9 in the evening at a convention, and most of the guide dogs had been going all day. I didn’t see what happened, but all of a sudden, I heard all of this barking between two dogs. I think both dogs were tired, and when we’re tired, we tend to get angry or sad much more easily. It’s why you should never have an argument with someone if both of you are tired. I think the dogs may have collided, and that was the last straw? Something like, “hey A**hole! You cut me off!” It didn’t surprise me, and it’s why I always am aware of how long my dog has been working. I like to give them breaks. They’re not machines, and I’ve felt pissy after a non-stop 8 hour work day too, so, I get it. Finally, Tricia, I don’t understand the level of anger directed your way when you were speaking at that conference. I don’t understand that thought process, that if your opinion is different from someone else, you’re not just wrong, but evil?
Cristina says
I think there’s a very big difference between being angry and holding a grudge. I’ve seen dogs (not mine) react angrily, especially when faced with obnoxious behaviour. Our Luci is the sweetest dog I’ve ever seen, incredibly patient and always likely to move away rather than confront a source of annoyance, so that’s maybe an example of fear that is not coupled with anger. But I’ve seen dogs that lash out when frustrated, and I think that’s a clear show of anger.
But that’s different than holding grudges. I’ve seen dogs be scared or wary of some particular set of circumstances which led to a bad experience — but that feeling seems to originate in fear or anxiety, rather than anger. I think that a real grudge is actually more likely to be based on remembering anger (and its causes, maybe), and I don’t think dogs do that.
Rachel Leather says
I’ve had to do a lot of self-reflection over the last 6 months because I’ve always been of the school of thought that dogs don’t get angry. But I also write a lot about emotions and a little about neuroscience and I’ve had to come to the same conclusion you have! It’s always hard changing your own beliefs, but now I wonder why I ever thought they wouldn’t.
Marga says
According to Oxford dictionary anger is “a strong feeling of annoyance, displeasure, or hostility.” I would say that describes my dog’s behaviour 50% of the time.
Aside from being irritated by seeing anyone “break the rules”, he also holds grudges towards other dogs and people that last for YEARS.
What about dogs that overreact resource guarding? Sometimes the target becomes hurting the other dog/person, and the resource that was being guarded is forgotten.
If none of those are considered anger, I would like to know what that woman’s definition of anger is?
BARB STANEK says
First, that cat picture is one of my favorite of all time. Thank you for sharing it. Please share it often.
Second, the darn Dame’s Rocket. I’m not sure that I wouldn’t use an herbicide on this one. I finally had one Dame’s Rocket show up at my place in the country this week. There were three stalks. I pulled two which broke off at the soil line, leaving roots to regenerate. I’m going to use a chemical on the remaining one. I battle buckthorn on a on-going and losing basis here, and I have no interest in adding Dame’s Rocket. I’m going after it in capital letters.
Yes, dogs can be angry. Although why they aren’t angry more often with us humans is, as you point out, a puzzle. My 2 year old Portuguese Water Dog is perhaps the most “intelligent” dog I’ve had. She not only has a clear idea of what’s going on and how things work, she also has an equally clear idea of what she wants to go on and how she wants things to work.
She has come the closest of my dogs to being angry with me. She certainly has been annoyed. Not only is she smart, she is vocal. So she expresses her feelings and her opinions loudly and freely. There are times that she is indeed, shouting at me for thwarting her very good plan — like going outside to chase a wandering raccoon at dusk.
My two cents about we humans reading the emotion on a dog’s face. I suspect that we’re as good at doing that as we are in reading emotion on a person’s face. I would argue that unless we know the dog or person very, very well, reading emotion on the face alone is difficult and often done incorrectly. I suspect, however, we as humans will continue to try. “Did you see how he/she looked at me? He/she must be (fill in the blank).” That’s not to discount using facial characteristics plus a whole lot of other info to guess at an animal’s emothional state — be it human or canine. But just using the face? I’m not sure that our reading is accurate.
Eve Marschark says
I agree that dogs have many emotions; anger may be one, depending on how we define it. I forget who said it other than my professor, Phil Hineline, PhD at Temple University but “arguments are won or lost on the agreement of assumptions.” The display of “anger-like” behaviors is one way of defining the emotion. The neurological manifestations are another.
The intention of the displayer on the recipient is another. One point that occurred to me is that we have to remember that a dog’s way of communicating may seem to us as aggressive or threatening, whereas to the dog he is just making a statement.
An example of a human not understanding this difference happened during a sheep-herding lesson I gave decades ago. A promising young dog that I bred and took in for two months of training was working for his owner during a lesson. In one particular direction, the youngster kept wanting to cut in toward the sheep at the top of his outrun instead of covering them completely. One method of correcting this in a young dog is to lie him down and then tell him to “get back” or “get-out-of-that”. Now, the words are meaningless to a dog unless they are expressed with a growling or “angry” voice and by physically running toward the dog to effect a retreat-response from him. As I explained to the owner, we are play-acting that we are angry. As soon as the dog moves away from the sheep, we use a nice voice and give the sheep back to him and let him advance on them as a reinforcer (instead of treats).
The owner said he understood and so we repeated the outrun exercise, ready to give the correction. When the pup came in too soon (as we expected that he would) the owner ran toward the pup and yelled, “get-out-of-that”! The dog backed off right away but instead of letting the dog have the sheep, his owner continued his tirade and kept chasing the dog! I called to the owner to stop. Dad was very angry and you could see it in his face and body posture.
We talked about what he was experiencing and why. When we humans yell, or chase off an individual it can be easy for us to slip into an angry attitude – especially if we’ve been primed by a bad marriage situation at home. (Which I found out after the fact.) “We’re just acting like we’re mad but we’re really not,” I repeated. This is how dogs communicate but it’s not how we are used to interacting.
I’m curious how this interpretation of human-animal interaction fits in with a discussion of anger in dogs.
Eve Marschark, PhD Comparative Psychology, Human-Animal Interaction
AnneMarie says
I have seen both of our dogs, at different times, get angry with my husband when he overstays his welcome while “playing” with the boys. He can actually be pretty obnoxious, not in a hurtful way, but as the boys get older, they can only take so much poking at. Wally, our shih tzu, makes very fierce sounding growls, but his body language is a mix of fear and anger. When really pressed, he bites, but with amazing bite inhibition. he never breaks skin or hurts you, but you know he’s absolutely done. But he’s a very fearful dog overall. Booger, our Shih-Bichon mix, puts up with more, but is also less equivocal– he give a huge grump, and jumps away, no matter how awkward the move may be. His expression is more overall annoyance, not anger, but it’s mostly about his actions.
Michelle H says
Funny you should bring this topic up. I just dealt with this in my own dogs and was wondering if some subsequent events happened due to “being angry” or just having high cortisol levels in their system due to a scary event? Not sure I can answer for sure, but I basically for the next 3 days after the scary event had a “crabby trigger happy” dog that was very easy to anger and would over react to minor irritation. I am curious to read what everyone says about this topic.
Eve Marschark says
I had another situation that is a great example of a dog getting mad! Ha!
I was giving a sheep-herding lesson to a sheltie and we were in a round pen as she was just starting out. It was maybe her second or third time in with the sheep and she had a rather quiet apartment-life other than coming to our farm. As do most youngsters, she repeatedly cut in on a direct line to split up the small group of sheep and would not stay off of them to approach them nicely. Each time she did this, I blocked her to stop her. I didn’t even have to use any words or vocalize. When I stepped on that center line between her and the sheep she had no way to get to them and this was NOT to her liking! Over and over we did this dance but she wasn’t getting the lesson that if she just stayed off of them, I let her have them. This is how we start all the young dogs.
Finally, about 8 minutes into her lesson I again had to step onto that invisible center line and again she stopped, but this time she (figuratively) put her hands on her hips and yelled right at me! She looked me directly in my eyes. Barked directly at me. And said, “I’ll really mad at you, Lady! Now get out of my way!” Ha! What a fun dog she was!
How’s that for a good example? Makes me laugh to recall that memory!
Ann says
My dog is a rescue Patterdale terrier of unknown origins, probably between 7 and 9 years old. I bought him a light-up harness for our walks after dark and tried it on him. He wasn’t loving me putting it on him for some reason, but even more annoyed with me when I took it off him. Within seconds, he stiffened and bit my arm, and walked away from me with the angriest look I’d ever seen on a dog. You can bet I never put that harness on him again, and to this day, I still don’t know what it was about it that bothered him so much. Did I pinch his belly when I took it off? Did the thing emit a vibration from the battery? I guess I’ll never know, since I gave it away. If we are to completely embrace the idea that all vertebrate life has common ancestors, then we have to acknowledge that our human emotions — the good and the bad — have counterparts in other species. They didn’t arise in us organically, you only have to watch chimpanzees for a while to see the correlation.
Sue says
Yes, I absolutely believe that dogs experience anger and I think one of the things that makes it difficult for humans to see it is because humans are taught from birth that anger is a “negative” emotion, so it has all sorts of debris attached to the idea of it in our own lives. I don’t think dogs attach moral values to their emotions, though, they just have their emotions and that’s all their is to it. So if we take ourselves out of the picture, it’s much easier to see anger in a dog. I have two shelties and do sheep and poultry herding with them, and I’ve had the pleasure of watching a lot of different breeds working at herding trials. Sometimes there will be a belligerent ewe or more often, a ram, that decides to challenge the dog and you can watch the dog’s anger rise toward the stock in real time. The dog isn’t angry because she got her feelings hurt, she’s angry because she told the sheep to do a thing and the sheep said no. So the anger is proportionate to the offense, and it’s employed to get the result the dog wants. If a dog is charged by the stock, he will charge back and grip or do whatever is needed to correct the attitude. Yes, it’s anger, and it rises quickly, and then when the situation is resolved, it’s over. Very efficient and unlike human anger to be sure.
Trisha says
Eve: I’m laughing out loud! Totally can see the image and the GET OUT OF MY WAY! face. Thx for sharing this.
Trisha says
Michelle H: No question, the research is clear, that high levels of cortisol can change physiology for quite a while, easily for 3 days.
Trisha says
Interesting Eve! One important difference I see between the good professionals/experienced hobbyists versus newbies, is that they pro’s know exactly how much pressure to put on a dog (LIMA, in other words) without being angry in any way. I’d argue to never sound angry, just low-voiced and forceful.
Trisha says
Barb, good point that many a human expression has been misinterpreted! And 3 Dame’s Rockets? Argh, the envy! I have hundreds, if not thousands. Literally.
Trisha says
Rachel, such a common occurrence if one is a thoughtful human–ie, “wondering why I ever thought X!”
Trisha says
Cristina, I agree grudges are rare in dogs, but . . . see the other comments!
Trisha says
Lane, what a story! Thanks for sharing it. And what a relief that Michael is still with you. I’ve known some Razzles, although one was actually a cat. Chat, a black 1/2 Persian, wasn’t fond of me dating after I left my first husband. When I brought home a guy–who I thought was pretty cool–Chat walked up to me, lying on the couch, looked directly into my eyes and peed on my stomach. When I yelled, he ran out of the room and peed on the guy’s leather jacket. Yeah, didn’t see him again.
Trisha says
Bill W–well, I’d say anger is an emotion, like fear and joy. What an animal does about it is the behavior. And yes, you’re right, harder to quantify an emotion, but the ‘black blox’ isn’t so dark anymore, right?
Trisha says
Erica: I love that we are now talking about dogs barking, in some situations, as yelling. Because I think that’s exactly what they are doing.
Trisha says
LindaB: Thanks for the encouragement. I have to stop answering comments and get outside to try to control what feels like an advancing, threatening army of pretty little flowers who are actually full of weapons.
Trisha says
Kat: Great photo of Ranger’s outburst. ENOUGH! I SAID ENOUGH! Good for you for taking a break… but I so know the seductive pull of “just a few more..”.
Trisha says
Well, I loved reading the comments, answered a bunch of them for about 45 minutes, and now they are all gone. I’m laughing, because while writing about anger I ended up being well ticked off when all my work went away. Apologies to all of you who didn’t get an answer. (Although it’s somewhere in cyberspace. Does that count?) Now I have to go pull Dame’s Rocket. Not real happy about that. Ah, the irony.
Carol says
My dog Huey (2 years and 2 months old), a neutered pit bull mix definitely gets angry. Usually when I’m asking him to stop doing something naughty. The other day, I caught him munching on our hostas and I approached briskly with an “eh eh” and then a “leave it” cue. He began hard barking, wrinkled muzzle and wouldn’t stop while I stood about 3 feet from him looking away and feigning a couple of yawns. He stopped when I took a couple of steps back. I believe he was angry that I interrupted his hosta fiesta.
Stacie Shirko says
Yes, dogs absolutely get angry. My first Border Collie got angry at an Aussie who ran out onto the course while we were running. He loved her and she deigned to accept his devotion most of the time but this was HER course! She ran him off and came back to me to finish. Fortunately it was at a demo, not a trial.
ccrow says
Of course dogs can be angry! They are living, thinking, feeling beings. I love that picture of Sam- I don’t know that I would say he’s angry, but certainly very displeased!! 🙂 I had a girl who would hold a grudge- I had a Caucasian female, Sofiya, who normally got along with the other dogs but every so often would go after Poppy, a mini Aussie. Obviously if she had been really serious, Poppy wouldn’t have lived to tell the tale… Eventually I realized this happened after I would take Poppy for a ride in the car. Every time, if I took Poppy for a ride, at some point that day Sofiya would find a reason to go after Poppy. Mind you, Sofiya did not want to go in the car, she just didn’t want me to take Poppy. When I stopped taking Poppy in the car, Sofiya stopped being nasty.
Pat says
Another fascinating conversation followed by beautiful flowers (even if they are invasive weeds), coming into winter here so lovey to see the garden colour.
I think I am coming down on the side of fear leading to, or appearing as, anger as per some of the other comments. I am thinking here of a human parent whose child does something silly/dangerous and how quickly a parent’s fear turns to anger at the child for stepping onto the road. Why wouldn’t I believe that sometimes Kona’s fear manifests sometimes into aggression and sometimes into rage (hot air balloons I am looking at you here).
That said, there are occasions where I think he is just plain cross (no fear). We recently had friends over with their 8-month-old pup, everything was going swimmingly the dogs were able to share treats and Kona had made clear which toys were OK to play with and which were off limits. Then the pup had the audacity to pick up one of my shoes – Kona got angry, body tense, eyes hard and lip curled. The message was clear “how dare you? You are a guest in my home and you may NOT touch my person’s possessions”. We quickly diffused the situation and it was all good but I feel that Kona’s reaction was anger not fear or frustration.
Lawrence (Larry) Myers says
Hi, Patricia… Long time.
I have seen anger in dogs not related to fear. I recall one case where I was working with a Pomeranian that would not walk on lead. With some insistence, she walked on lead. Afterwards she would not look at me. When I insisted on eye contact she turned away pointedly. Then growled at me.
Sandy Peace says
My corgi absolutely gets angry, especially if she gets slightly hurt, and then she gives me a ‘look’ and won’t come near me for a while. For example, I unlocked the gate for her, she pushed it with her nose and the wind blew it back on her. The look she gave me was priceless! She stalked away and that was it for a while. Coaxed her to come with a treat and pretty soon all was good. But this is not a single instance…. and we all get a good chuckle out of it now. Angry offended corgi moments, ah!
Julie Wassell says
Hell Yeah. Dogs get angry. I had a dog named Wiley who I rescued from the no kill shelter I was training at. We were his third family at the grand old age of 3. Red Flag. With rose collared glasses I saw the flag as Pink. The first year we had him he bit me once a week. Grrrr (that was my anger). One day I decided to shape him touching his nose to the post it I placed on the lower part of the refrigerator door. In retrospect it was a yellow post it on a white door. Stupid me. After a few successful head turns towards the post it. He turned back and bit me. He was pissed. I believe he was pissed because he probably could not see the post it and wondered why we were wasting time looking at a closed refrigerator door. He would bite if the crate door wasn’t opened quickly enough, he would bite if you had a bull stick in one hand and tried to unleash with the other. He bit a lot . I would call it frustrated ////anger.
Shade says
I’ve been involved in teaching protection work (sports, Schutzhund and French Ring) and yes, I see dogs get angry all the time.
Not fear based, often frustration based, but I’d say it’s fair to define it as Angry.
Eve Marschark says
Right Trish. Thanks for pointing that out. I should have worded it differently. I agree that the voice should be forceful, not angry.
Jenny Haskins says
Good article 🙂
The real trouble with humans is that WE anthropomorphise ourselves.
Perish the thought that we may be simply another species of Mammal.
Beth says
I find it fascinating that so many scientists, who understand evolutionary principles, somehow doubt the existence of all the basic emotions in other mammals. We realize that many of our physical and mental processes (sensory processing, learning, basic communication) evolved ages ago in a common ancestor, or evolved multiple times across species. But somehow educated people believe complex emotions evolved in a vacuum, exclusively in humans? How does that even make sense?
Anger is easier perhaps to see in horses. There is a certain ear pin and a certain squeal that clearly indicate anger, usually at violating hierarchy.
I have seen it in dogs. I think it’s more often expressed in socially confident dogs. Shy, retiring dogs, like their human counterparts, may not feel they have any right to express anger. But we should not assume they DON’T feel it. But I have seen higher status dogs express it pretty plainly.
Jack the Corgi hated having his belly toweled. He would grumble and complain (and once even curled a lip) at the audacity and indignity of it. He WAS ticklish but the way he reacted to nail grinding (it physically bothered him but he thought my request reasonable) and the way he reacted to a toweling of his belly (I was being RIDICULOUS and he hated he for it) were entirely different.
Interestingly I finally figured out that if I held both ends of a beach towel and ran it under his stomach he tolerated it fine. So it was something about my hand under his belly, and not the towel, that ticked him off.
He was also a high status dog who was exceptional dog tolerant. Other dogs loved him, he was never a bully but he got access to other dogs toys and humans if he wanted it. But once in agility class, another dog snarked at him for no good reason while treats were being handed out. He responded in a way I would best describe as losing his temper. He made no physical contact (and she was bigger than him) but he corrected her in a tone of voice I’ve never heard. It sounded much like the horse squeals I described above. He was a deep-chested dog with a deep bark but he basically squeal-snarked back at her.
I’d seen him correct rude puppies for running over the top of dogs before and that was noisy but measured. But this? If they were people I’d say he gave her a good dressing down.
Kellie says
I can’t post a photo of our 14 year old Milo, but he is a very emotive dog. And if I could post the picture you would understand why people tell me that I should sleep with one eye open. Perpetual state of peeved off.
Beth says
Someone mentioned anger in cats. My current cat is mostly sweet but has an anger management problem. She has very low frustration tolerance. Sometimes something is not quite right (she might want a lap or a blanket that isn’t available, but sometimes I have no idea what is wrong). You can see her eyes get hard and her ears get tense and her tail start to lash. If I miss the escalation (and it only takes seconds) she will jump up an bite me.
She was about 5 months old when we got her and she’s always been this way. Most of the time she is outgoing, confident, and sweet. But she does not like when everything is not completely how she wants it to be.
Beth says
I’m a long time volunteer at a local animal shelter and have seen and felt anger in dogs , and cats. Thank you for your blog post!
Dames Rocket- set up temporary fencing and put goats in to munch!
Tim says
Perhaps if you had used air quotes during the seminar, you could have avoided the fury of the behaviorist critic. I seem to see a lot of quoted words in the writings of behaviorists so they can reference that which shall not be named (ie mental and emotional states) to fill in the gap between a constellation of behavioral cues and their root cause.
My recently passed beloved Dobe Mac, though of amazingly sweet disposition, as an adolescent once got furious at me for being away from home too long (about 4 hours). I opened the door to discover he had torn a foot square hunk of fabric off the sofa and pulled wads of stuffing out (fortunately, it was an aging sofa). I basically caught him in the act, for he still had some in his mouth and spit it out onto the pile strewn around his feet. He flashed me a look of pure fury. Shocked as I was at the sight, I was actually amused, since I had never seen him like this before. I gave him a dressing down just so he knew I was not happy, and held up the torn fabric (“Look what you’ve done!”). It took the edge off his anger but he remained pretty sullen for a bit.
The thing is, I came to discover in short order that he was experiencing some separation anxiety when I was gone. Regarding prior comments, though it is common for people to mistake fear-based aggression for rage, I do not believe that his anger was fear. However, there seems little question that his growing anxiety led to his outburst of anger. It happened a couple more times when I was out after my “curfew”. I didn’t like the idea he was anxious while I was gone, so I started a new departure ritual of leading him to his favorite spot on the sofa and giving him a “rest cookie” (he knew both words) to associate calmness and relaxation with my period of absence. This did wonders and I never had any more anxiety issues with him.
I honestly think that the resistance to recognizing the ever so apparent emotions of dogs, though it does go back to Descartes as previously mentioned, is primarily due to behaviorist theory and its philosophical underpinnings. Admittedly, much good work has been done by behaviorists, but it is done within the constraints of an inadequate theoretical construct. People will always anthropomorphize their pets, but ignoring the reality of animal minds and emotions is foolishness. Operant conditioning strikes me as either vacuous or tautological, and though it has helped people to think more analytically about training methods, it has outlived its usefulness, as far as I’m concerned. A more comprehensive theory of learning is needed that recognizes the cognitive, emotional, and relational natures of higher animals. I was just reading a book by a behaviorist (JD) who says dogs have no insight! I taught Mac to pick up and bring me my shoes in about two minutes, with hardly any prior training. No insight? Admittedly, I didn’t teach him how to bring me my shoes quickly! He tended to walk around the house for a minute before depositing a shoe beside me.
My comments are not intended to rub any academicians the wrong way, but you at least did promise not to be mad, Patricia. I have no academic degrees to back up my comments, just my two cents.
Steve White says
In roughly half a century of working with dogs I’ve seen plenty get angry. I also agree with those who observe that dogs seem to get angry less often than humans do. Why would that be?
* * * UNORTHODOX SPECULATION ALERT * * *
Because dogs seem to be creatures of moment they have fewer past wounds and futurizing worries to stockpile as rage fuel to subconsciously percolate until it boils over onto somebody or something other than the source of the angst.
I know that’s a story, not data.
Still, it works for me.
Liz says
I have seen what I interpret as anger in my older Northern Inuit, and in other dogs. She is a laid back tolerant dog, but if pushed too far by the other dogs ( mostly the collie trying to nip herd her) she will explode and give him a good “telling off”. I get the same if I insist on trying to groom her butt – she never hurts me, but sure gives me a warning!. Most adult dogs seem to get angry at puppies eventually ( for God’s sake, just leave me alone!)
I think the only way anger would be proven in dogs would be brain function tests, where the same parts of the brain are shown to be active in humans and dogs when they show “anger”.
Anne says
One of the other comments got me thinking that some don’t like to recognize anger in dogs because traditionally we have thought of human fear and anger as almost two opposites, rather than very close to each other in the emotion spectrum. Anger was what the brave warrior felt toward the enemy while fear was what the coward felt. Which is just general/war leader propaganda to try to convince soldiers not to flee for their lives if things look rough. Most anger is caused by fear with humans, which is something modern psychologists have been saying. Fear of being hurt or seeing loved ones hurt, fear of losing something of value, fear of being disrespected, all these can cause anger in humans. It seems about the same for dogs- fear of strangers or strange dogs causing ferocious barking, fear of losing a prime bone causing growling or snapping, fear of a mother dog for her puppies causing her to bite other dogs who come near them, and so on.
Denise says
I have to agree dogs experience anger. I may never have thought so before a particular incident where we witnessed our perfectly happy, calm and content Boston flip after we interrupted her sun tanning session by putting sun lotion on her little thinly furred areas in front of her ears one day in Florida while on vacation.
She hates anything with a scent (cream, lotion, medicines etc.) being put on her. So the sun tan lotion was offensive and she was not happy that we had held her down and made her stink like coconut or whatever it was. Our other dog who never had an angry day in his life was sitting content, panting with a giant shit eating grin on his face like he usually had, loving the sun and our little girl, turned her head, saw how over joyed he looked at being out in the sun, baking but NOT stinking like coconut and she just launched herself at him and tried to eat him. We could see it was because she was angry and he was happy and she just had to take it out on him. There was no other explanation for it that we could see. She had never reacted that way about a cream or lotion any other time we had had to put anything on her, and never has since.
Ruth Hansen says
Our Rottweiler got bossier and bossier…. as his strength grew he unfortunately learned that he could get his way in most things. Obedience training was super fun for both of us, but if he wanted something, he just went and got it.
Eventually he decided that the other dogs needed to stay outside, and my bed was his bed. If I ordered him off, he got angrier and angrier. His authority was being challenged. His world view was being contradicted. This doesn’t seem fear based (directly, at least) to me.
I look forward to the Aggression in Dogs clinic up-coming.
Cassie Epstein says
If anger is a social behavior do we see less of it in dogs because our early interactions and our breeding choices for genetics (in most breeds) encourage fawning as a response to stress over fighting?
Do we see more “anger” in dogs bred to retain a bit of hardness and their own decision making or for whom we’ve bred out a lot of submissive gestures? I’m thinking toy breeds and herding breeds.
I’m a veterinarian, and when I think of which breeds i associate with possible anger or irritation vs just gear- those breeds above are who i immediately consider. Where as my pit bull or lab mix or patients of breeds i consider similarly “soft” just fall into a puddle of obnoxious fawning should anyone do anything they find distasteful.
Ann Waterbury says
So very interesting. I personally am thrilled when I hear Alexander Horowitz talk about anthropomorphizing being a great thing and that it does give us a vocabulary to discuss dogs. I certainly feel that dogs can get angry, anger seems like an evolutionarily successful emotion with behaviors attached to it. To get angry to defend yourself and to move forward and survive another day.
As you state, I don’t think anger looks like a dog that got a shorter walk in the morning and then you left for work and they got into the trash.
I am super interested in emotions and just did a webinar an emotions namely fear in dogs. For this presentation I read and reread Lisa Feldman Barrett’s book on how emotions are made. I learned of the constructed approach and was reminded of the classical approach to emotion. If I’m understanding her work correctly anger wouldn’t be a certain area in the brain that’s triggered and we respond but based on past contingencies then react in an aggressive manner that we may label anger.
Susan says
Such a thought-provoking post! In a lifetime of dogs, I can count on one hand the incidents of anger I’ve seen in dogs. One was at the barn and it was puzzling. The barn dog, our dog, a neighbour’s dog and any random visiting dog used to play and roughhouse together. All different sizes, a St Bernard, lab and Jack Russell. But the dog of another neighbour, a boxer, wanted desperately to be part of the gang but he was rebuffed. If he persisted, you could see the anger in the other dogs and they would be quite serious about putting the run to him. I’ve only ever seen one other dog that dogs didn’t like, my big goofy poodle who would play with any dog, hated her with a passion, and the other dogs in the class felt the same way. Perhaps this is another topic, why some dogs are disliked by their peers.
One other example of anger sticks in my mind from when I was young, but my mother thought it was vindictiveness, even more unlikely in a dog lol. Our dog was left alone, a rare occurrence, and he went upstairs and he got on my bed, bit one finger off my doll and tore exactly one page out of my book. No other damage to anything, just those two surgical acts.
Trisha says
Ann W: Thanks for the note about Lisa Feldman’s book, looks like something I would love to read!
Lynda Folwick says
Of course they feel anger, and each dog expresses it in different ways according to her character. My Cocoa was an emotional, open-hearted dog with a quick temper. It was exacerbated by having been bullied by her littermates when she was tiny. She barely survived a serious illness in her first weeks and returned to her littermates half their size. She couldn’t keep up with their play and they tormented her. Later in life, although she loved to play with other dogs, even normal rough play often sparked her anger. Our bond was incredibly strong and she trusted me completely, but she wouldn’t hesitate to growl or snap at me in anger if she ever felt I was forcing her to do something without asking first. That wasn’t fear, not between us – it was anger. Her less-volatile littermate gets angry, too, but her strongest expression will be to turn her back on us and give us a baleful glare.
Cathy says
I have 4 Rhodesian Ridgebacks and 2 Border Terriers. Everyone gets along fine. I know their personalities well and manage situations so that there are no issues. A couple weeks ago, my sensitive 4 year old grandson came for a visit so that we could plant our bean seeds for this summer’s crop – an easy task for a 4 year old. My 9 year old BT, Ivy, has a very weird obsession with young children. I can’t determine if she loves, fears, or dislikes them, but her behavior scares them and I don’t trust her, so I don’t let her interact with the 2 grandsons. On this occasion, my husband decided to walk the BTs to the large fenced dog field adjacent to our raised beds so that they could run. As I’m paying attention to the young child who is remaining calm in spite of the canine frenzy from Ivy on the other side of the fence, my husband then brings all 4 RRs to the field. I had a feeling of dread, but couldn’t leave the child to stop my husband. A few minutes later chaos ensued as one of the RRs (7.5 yo spayed girl) had Ivy by the shoulders and was shaking her. Fearing the worst, I HAD to abandon my grandson (now I’m screaming) to stop it before I had a dead dog. Ivy’s inappropriate behavior had been stopped. She had 2 punctures, but no other issues. This particular RR is the LEAST pushy, gets along well with all dogs, and tends towards just hanging out or sunning herself. She has never disciplined anyone including her own puppies several years ago. I would be inclined to say she was angry and she was definitely not fearful.
Tima Priess says
Well I certainly agree. We have 3 dogs, one looks like a pocket Lab but is Cocker/Lab/Beagle/husky/Aussie/Pit. Smartest dog I’ve ever met. During the day, she is alert to everything and would prefer not to be cuddled a whole lot because there’s too much to watch. At night, she melts, can’t cuddle close enough and totally zonks out. We can even tickle her feet without an eye opening. BUT..if we can’t contain ourselves and grab a hug during her office hours, there is the lowest little growl/grunt and a distinct side eye.. unless, of course, it’s on her terms.
Karen says
Sheila wrote, “But I don’t believe that dogs have the mental capacity to plan ahead to exact “revenge” such as peeing on the carpet when the owner leaves.”
Oh, I believe some do. One of my first dogs was adopted from the “pound”. She absolutely planned revenge. One of her favorite things was shredding kleenex. I have a ton of allergies, so I have kleenex boxes everywhere. When I anger— no that’s too strong a word, let’s go with offended. When I offended her, she would wait until I was settled in my chair then would go get a kleenex, make eye contact, and shred it right in front of me (10+ feet away, of course). She also decided that I was allowed leave and come back, but I was not allowed to do it twice. If I had to come back home to pick something up and leave again, an entire box of kleenex would be spread all over the family room when I got home. That’s the only time she did it.
The dog I got when that one died held a lifelong grudge against my brother. When she was a very young puppy, maybe 3 or 4 months old, my brother came to my house, and she was barking at the intruder. He looked right at her and barked back – just one loud bark. She never ever forgave him.
Chris P says
for the dame’s rocket, where things don’t need to be so tidy, you can also step on the plant right at ground level to break the stem (folding it down 90 degrees) at any point during the growing season. it will either kill or slow down the plant long enough for the other plants to grow through. I just leave the stems on the ground (I do this with fennel and cow parsley) in our wilder areas–much faster than pulling out the plant and better for my back 😉
thank you for another great article–of course dogs get angry! and like humans, it’s all about how we thoughtfully respond (vs. thoughtlessly react)
Jann Becker says
Well, from the sheer number of comments here it sounds like a lot of canines express something like anger! I know our older dog, almost 12, sometimes just loses patience with her 4-year-old brother. Usually it’s when he’s been trying to start something, she’s not into it, and she’s just HAD IT with him. A human would say the edge of her mouth looked like so-and-so, her eyes like such-and-such, but to the other dog it’s just “Enough! Stop!”
GS says
I had a Rottweiler named Pauley. One of the best behaved & well socialized dogs. He was a food monger & would take food from anyone at any time. He loved going to the vet’s office. He would get examined & get shots & poked & prodded without any fuss on his part. When the exam was done, the vet would give him a treat to positively reinforce the experience. One time, the vet was cutting his nails & hurt him. Pauley outright refused to take the treat. Pauley was not in any visible pain after the nail incident and was doing his normal pace around the exam room after so refusing the treat couldn’t be attributed to pain. He wasn’t stressed because his body language said otherwise. Believing dogs don’t exhibit emotions is an antiquated theory & animal behaviorists need to get with it already. I have owned many dogs & been around thousands of dogs over the course of my 50+ years & have seen dogs exhibit emotions commonly only attributed to humans.
Krasny says
My Heeler definitely looked angry when he bit me. Frustrated at least, but if you’re so frustrated that you choose aggression wouldn’t that be anger?
I was preventing him from running around the neighborhood by holding his collar, after he jumped a fence to go see a neighbor dog in their yard. It was honestly kind of scary that this dog I’d had for a year and have been building a carefully positive and gentle relationship with turned on me like that, when I would never hurt him. I know he was beaten in his previous home so even though I’ve never treated him roughly he has aggression in his toolbox. I know people unfortunately “scruff” their dogs by grabbing their neck or collar as punishment, so that’s likely a trigger for him even though I thought I was holding his collar carefully. The reason why I have him is because his previous owner was going to shoot him for biting the child in the home.
I hired a behaviorist after because I’ve worked with lots of fearful dogs, but frustrated dogs are a little different. He didn’t seem afraid of me, I really saw anger in his face, I swear. He’s generally pretty confident.
He seemed to be upset that I violated his boundary and frustrated by the restraint. He bit me several times, since I was wearing gardening gloves and a flannel, he stood up on his hind legs, and bit all the way up my arm, trying to find a hole in my shirt to get to skin. He did break skin on a couple bites.
I didn’t let go out of stubbornness I guess, and in my mind, his aggression was even more reason not to let go because if he bites me that’s one thing but if he bites a neighbor child, that’s the end for him and didn’t want biting me to result in him getting what he wanted. Luckily he stopped biting, and let me leash him when my husband brought the leash.
He has a lot of handling sensitivities and when you don’t heed his clear boundaries (I almost always do but that case was an emergency where I didn’t have treats and he was too aroused to hear my cues), what else would that be but anger? If someone grabbed me and wouldn’t let go when I was trying to do something I found important, and I didn’t understand why, I would get angry too. If you tell someone to stop doing something to you very strongly, and they don’t, anger would be an appropriate response, wouldn’t it? Not just frustration.
He hasn’t bitten since, and I do feel safe with him. But he’s definitely muzzle-trained, d/cc’d to collar grabs, and even more carefully managed and I don’t ever want to see that hard look in his eyes again.
De Frost says
Oh my. If you ever saw the glare my very nose-driven standard Dachshund gives me when I have to forcibly drag her, yowling and barking in protest, off a fresh rabbit track (hey, when camping in a State or National park, they frown on dispatching the native wildlife), you would not doubt “anger” in a dog.
Sure, in Rhonda, it often arises from frustration and thwarted desire, but the almost spitting anger, affront (that I would dare!) and even disgust on her face would be almost comical if it wasn’t so obviously sincere.
Can dogs get angry? For sure! Thankfully, they tend to forgive just as quickly.
Lissa says
I agree with Lisa W that fear and anger can be very much related. Humans often respond with anger when afraid, so why not a dog? I’ve thought a lot about this. My dog growls a lot at other dogs (and other animals) when they are in his space. Is it purely out of mistrust and fear? No. Case in point (and one of many), he growled a lot at the cat when I first brought him into my home. He wasn’t afraid of her. He got very annoyed when she sniffed his toys. He was protecting his stuff, but protectiveness isn’t really an emotion. It’s a motivation. Eventually he realized that she wasn’t going to take his toys or his food. He also learned I wouldn’t tolerate a nasty snarl that chased away the cat. He learned to tolerate her, but she still sometimes got too close and she’d occasionally be on the receiving end of a gentler growl. (A discussion for another time might be about cats and indignation!) The dog was irritated. He definitely shows irritation, and what is irritation other than lower grade anger. I agree that dogs seem to get less angry than humans. We have massive egos compared to dogs and insults to our egos produce intense anger. I just think maybe dogs experience it differently and for different reasons. Which brings me to the enraged vet… what’s up with that!!? Not very professional. If the scientific proof just isn’t there, say so. But why get angry? Silly human!
Paula says
I have seen anger in my dog (Cattle Dog X) especially when he was younger. One day I was working in my raised garden bed. My puppy, Sooner, would climb up over the boards and get in the nice, soft garden soil and get filthy. I would pick him up and set him back on the ground. He would get back in the garden, repeat, repeat. The last time I pulled him out of the garden and put him back on the ground he exploded. Growling, snarling, snapping. I could just hear him saying, “I am so angry and I should bite you a whole bunch of times!” He never made contact and after a short time he calmed down and we went and did something fun together.
Stephenie Domenico says
I’ve seen dogs get angry plenty of times most often with other dogs. Just tonight, when my 70 lb dog kept bopping my mom’s yorkie with her nose you better believe that yorkie got angry and told her to get out of his face!
I get that a lot of scientists are I comfortable using the same language to describe emotions in animals that we use to describe emotions in humans, but frankly, language is a bit limited so we’re kind of stuck with words like “angry” to describe a dogs adverse reaction to something they don’t like.
Helen Parker says
Late to comment, we’ve been moving so stress levels all round are high. I agree with Steve White…
I had no idea that anger in dogs was questioned.
Because I’m a bit silly, I own 3 poodles (& miss the quiet life.)
I couldn’t decide which size I wanted so have got:
6kg, 11kg, and 33kg in bichpoo, mini and standard. The latter is really good at breaking stuff, including my hand, and on occasion stepping on one of the other dogs, or other clumsy transgressions.
As far as I can tell, when he does this the other two respond in anger. (Or maybe irritation…is it a continuum?)
And chase him off with sharp barks.
He doesn’t have an angry bone in his body but the other two certainly tell him off when they need too.
Linda Woodard says
I adopted a dog that was 6 years old. She loved her people but they had to give her up. She looked at me for weeks with the “hardest” eyes I have ever seen. She was mad, who are you and where are my people. It was not sadness, loss or depression but such hardness and coldness I have never seen before or since. I remember at one point thinking is she going to bite me. Luckily she did come around and we are close, I have never seen that “hardness” again, but it took time.
purpleslog says
Here is a video clip of one golden retriever getting angry at another.
https://youtu.be/eAPmdN5-fSc
Deborah White says
I think we have to first look at what we call anger in humans. When I think about people being angry, it’s for a sustained period of time. Do people get angry and then get over it in a flash (like dogs do)? Rarely. There’s usually a simmering after an explosion of anger in people that can last hours, days — a lifetime. Sometimes even without any continuing triggers.
So while humans may be classifieds as angry people, I don’t think the same can be said about dogs. Fearful, certainly. But is “angry” a character trait for a dog? I don’t think so.
That doesn’t mean that I don’t think dogs can get angry, but I think it’s a tipping point in frustration (and/or possibly fear). We use language like, “She lashed out in anger.” I think that applies to people as well as dogs (and possibly other animals, too). But “She was really angry. She wouldn’t be in the same room with me for days.” I think humans may be unique in transforming, what should be something momentary, into something that defines who they are for a period of time, which often lasts longer than the triggering event.
I think the hackles that get raised in people who think dogs are being anthropomorphized when attributing “human” emotions like anger to them, are borne by instances like, “My dog was really angry at me for boarding him for a week when I was on vacation.” Those “lovely” emotions I think belong only to our own species. Perhaps it’s one of the many reasons why we love and treasure our dogs so much.
muttzrule says
This is a fascinating topic for discussion. Our dogs express other emotions that we do such as happiness or fear, so it stands to reason they can feel anger as well if provoked. Anthropomorphizing may not be all bad if it helps us understand and relate to what they experience but can’t put into words.
I have seen rare but clear expressions of anger in my own dogs. First was Scout the lab who counted Zen Puppy as one of his many nicknames. He was the mellowest, most quietly confident dog I’ve ever known. He stoically allowed himself to be dressed in a Boy Scout or soccer uniform, and let his adopted sister Meg the whippet stretch out on top of him as a dog bed without complaint. However, on one occasion he told off an 8 month old puppy who had been with us for nearly a week and was constantly pouncing on him and Meg. He had been patient, giving her stern looks and walking away the other zillion times she did this, until he finally had enough. She pounced, and with one short, sharp sound that was halfway between a bark and a roar he put an end to it. He never used that voice in any other situation before or after. I wish I spoke fluent Dog, but my guess at a rough translation was “do that one more time little sister, and I promise you won’t like the outcome.”
The other one was a few months after I adopted Duncan. He was two years old but had many untrained puppyish behaviors plus thunder phobia and separation anxiety, neither of which I’d ever had to face before with a dog. He was very smart and sweet, but as neurotic as Scout had been chill. Steep learning curve for us both. Many days I came home from work to wreckage from his pee, poop and chewzapaloozas, even when he was gated in the kitchen and tiled hallway for safety. One day there was so much mess that I lost my patience and yelled at him. Bad human. I bloviated at him too long and he barked back at me to let me know. Not aggressive, more like a frustrated teenager might snark “enough already, I heard you the first ten times.” And so it went during those early difficult days, each of us learning from the other how to self-regulate better.
As for garden staff, if Missy feels that her staff (me) has been slacking lately and letting her yard get a bit weedy and overgrown from all the rain we’ve had, she’s been too much of a lady to get angry and tell me so.
Lynnette Lorch says
My year and a half old Aussie, Apollo, will growl when I attempt to clean or remove fox tails from his feet. I interpret this as anger. He’s recently suffered from allergies which are resolving but early on in his course, his feet hurt. I think cleaning them (painful) and removing fox tails (painful) upset him, causing the growl. He’s gone on to bite as well but am working through preventing both the growling and the biting by my approach.
Good for you for not spraying. Out here in California, it’s the thing to do yet people and dogs are getting sick. I also refrain, hence my fox tail issue.
Trish says
I just got a new border collie puppy and in my first meeting with the local trainer, she remarked that he was “pissed of” at her when she would not let him do as he pleased. This surprised me, as I do not quite have the ability to read those signals (yet). But I don’t disbelieve it. It seems quite useful to have this as a descriptor for certain situations where the dog is frustrated.
Kelly Schlesinger says
If you believe in reinforcement based training, you must accept that dogs prefer some things over others. And if we are to accept their joyful expressions (like when they’re happy to see us), why can we not accept that being deprived of something they love might make them angry?
My 7-year-old BC is a bad vet patient. Once he was being examined for a possible muscle or joint injury and the vet was pushing and prodding his legs and joints. It got pretty ugly. I can only think that he was as angry then as I was when a lab tech couldn’t find my vein and didn’t want to call someone else over to try. Luckily for me I could complain and tell her that she had had her last attempt. My dog wasn’t so fortunate and couldn’t stop the exam. Luckily he wore a muzzle, no blood was shed and he eventually recovered uneventfully. When he is not at the vet he is a very sweet guy.
Juliet Whitfield says
We’ve all seen a dog go after another dog and not hurt them at all. Of course this could come from fear, maybe most of the time it does, but I know for sure that sometimes it’s just anger, like a big shouting match, yelling at the other dog.
I do believe dogs get angry. Some more than others. Loved the article, always nice to read what you are thinking about.
Jenny Haskins says
Coming in very late 🙁 (Just tidying up my e-mail box)
I strongly suspect that the reason that people tend to deny human emotions in non-human animals, is because the thought of being an ‘animal’ themselves it too challenging for them.
Lisa says
I just adopted a chihuahua mix and this little girl let’s me know when she’s angry with me. She was chewing a tag off one of her toys, so I took it from her and cut off the tag so she wouldn’t eat it. She snarled at me twice, for good measure, when I gave it back to her and she noticed there was no more label to chew on. Just now I held her in may lap and she wanted off. I tried to gently put her on the floor, but she wanted down faster and once on the floor, looked back at me and hissed! We have a lot to learn about each other.
But that doesn’t surprise me. We humans evolved from the animals – we inherited their ability to feel emotions. Not the other way around….