I’ve had a lot of interesting conversations on book tour for The Education of Will, and one of the topics that comes up relates to dogs and anger. I’ve heard: “Are you really saying that dogs can experience anger? Isn’t that being anthropomorphic; surely anger is a human construct?” And from a few concerned people: “Aren’t you afraid that attributing anger to dogs just gives people an excuse to punish them?”
Good questions, and an understandable controversy. I’ve learned that even putting the words “anger” and “dogs” into one sentence can be distressing to some people. So much so that I’ve written about it twice in the past, once in 2008 (Can Dogs Get Angry?) and again in 2011 (Anger & Anger Management). To summarize those posts, in spite of our vision of dogs as having “all the virtues of men without his vices,” the neurobiology of mammals makes it clear that yes, all mammals are capable of experiencing some form of anger. It’s a primitive response to an environmental threat that energizes the brain and body to move from defense to offense.
However, there is no question that people often make mis-attributions about anger in animals. Just check out the endless number of “angry ram videos,” which illustrate how we confound an emotion (fear, anger) with an action (cowering, whimpering, growling or biting). These rams are behaving territorially. For all we know they are having a good time and are happy as clams. (Clams? Why are they the paragon of happiness?). Attributing any action to an emotion is problematic. That’s also true of dogs, and whenever I talk about anger in dogs (also see For the Love of a Dog: Understanding Emotion in You and Your Best Friend) I am quick to emphasize that most “aggressive” actions of dogs are motivated by fear, not anger. In my opinion–just speculating of course–dogs get angry far, far less than people do.
That leads to the question of today’s post. Karen B. London and I were talking about this issue a few days ago, and she asked what I think is a fascinating question. It’s a great one and it’s rarely asked. Not “can dogs get angry?,” or “why are we resistant to the idea that it’s possible?”, but why in heaven’s name don’t dogs get angry more often? Or do they, and we just can’t hear them swear?
I don’t think so. I think intense anger in dogs is rare. It’s there, but it’s rare. Why? I’m honestly not sure of the answer. Yes, we know that dogs are “neotonized,” in that they have been selectively bred to behave like juveniles in the adult, reproductive form. But that doesn’t explain it, because even very young humans are capable of going into full blown rages. Just ask any parent. And ask any primate researcher about anger in chimpanzees of any age, and they’ll argue that chimps wrote the book on letting the world know how pissed off they are. But not dogs. Yes, if you work long enough with dogs you’ll see a look of pure, unmitigated rage on some dogs face, but you can go years before you see it.
Keep in mind though, that like all emotions, anger comes in a variety of intensities. In our own species we call a mild form of it irritation, while the other extreme we call rage. I’ve seen very few dogs go into a rage, but then, it’s not the version of anger that most of us are familiar with in our own emotional palette either. And there are cultural norms that color what emotion we are experiencing–women are discouraged from admitting anger, while men are often shamed for feeling sad or afraid. It seems the cultural norm is for dogs to be happy almost all the time, although sad is “okay” if they are missing us.
So I put this question to you: Why do dogs get angry so rarely? How would we know when they are angry if it’s not an extreme version of it? Of course, if you don’t agree that dogs can get angry, let us know. I suspect we’ll all have a good conversation about it, and no one will get angry at any one else’s comments. Just like dogs.
MEANWHILE, back on the farm: Lambs! And goat babies! Not ours actually; we had to forgo lambing because our flock was infected with a nasty bacterial disease. (Caseous lympadenitis if you are curious, but I’d argue that ignorance is bliss here.) That meant last fall we couldn’t bring over the ram we shared with our friend, Donna H. However, she kindly agreed to breed some ewes for us who we’ll buy and bring over once they’ve had their lambs. So we’ll have some lambs soon at the farm. Still, I got to go into baby rapture Sunday morning and enjoy Donna’s lambs and goat kids.
Here’s a collage of spring wonderfulness: Baby goat nose (goat kids basically look like small adult goats, except for size it’s hard to tell the difference), my cherry pie getting ready for its top crust, a day-old lamb, young male turkey displaying on our front lawn, and an adult goat. (Goats are so friendly and curious that photos of them all look like goat selfies.)
Maggie and I spend lots of time each day doing physical therapy exercises. Me for my tendonitis, Maggie for her bad knee. When you add in a 30-45 minute leash walk for Maggie, it adds up to about two hours a day. The good news is that we are both doing better. Here are some photos of Maggie’s exercises. I’ll spare you photos of me doing my own. You’re welcome.
The first photo is Maggie on the balance board. (Handily stored in the attic since Willie’s rehab from surgery.) I use my legs to move it left to right, and she has to engage lots of muscles to stay balanced. Note her tail–it’s hard work. We started at slow and predictable movements for 30 seconds, now she’s up to two sets of 75 seconds with the board moving more erratically. The other photos show her “step over” exercise. I lure her over with a treat; moving her forward ever so slowly. You can see her lifting her right hind, the leg we are working to strengthen. We also do “creep under” to poles at neck height, and take 30 to 45 minute leash walks. Seven more days until she gets to begin to move more freely–we even begin to work sheep a tiny bit again. Be still my heart, but I wish I could tell her!
Frances says
What a fascinating question! My dogs get irritated occasionally, they certainly get frustrated, they have infrequent scuffles over a dropped treat, but I don’t think I have ever seen outright anger (I don’t think stink eye when the vet uses a rectal thermometer really counts!). But then I am very, very rarely angry myself – mildly pissed off, perhaps, a bit ratty when stressed, but not stomach churning, raised blood pressure, wanting to bite someone anger. Perhaps the stomach churning indicates why – if I get angry I am then upset for days. It was never rewarded when I was a child, when tantrums led to being ignored rather than indulged while polite requests were usually granted, and these days it takes a great deal to make me really, truly angry. I have not known many humans with anger issues, thank heavens, but those I have known either had chaotic childhoods, or grew up with parents who considered throwing a washing up bowl full of dishes across the floor an acceptable form of self expression.
Does canine etiquette reinforce politeness, rather than anger? Do dogs avoid other dogs if they get angry too often, and is social exclusion unpleasant for the angry one? Do they find the emotion of anger so upsetting and disruptive that they learn how to manage and release the tension before it builds to an explosion – shaking it off, sniffing, looking away, grabbing a toy? So many hypotheses, so little evidence!
Jan says
Fascinating topic! I would think to become angry, it might be in a dog that is very self confident and does not tend to a fear based response? I’m trying to think of a scenario that would elicit anger and not any of the other emotions we readily associate with our dogs.
One does come to mind, but I’m not sure it qualifies. I had a dog that was a true alpha personality. He was confident, assertive, and pretty much ruled with a quiet look and body posture. He was quick to growl in irritation but submitted to anything I asked but had instant deference from my other dogs.
I was dog sitting 2 other dogs who got into a fight, biting me in the process. He stood watching them and barked once, with stiff erect posture. Once it was over and I was tending to my bleeding hand, which he thoroughly sniffed and licked, he quietly stalked over to one of the dogs with a tight eye and lip and almost soundlessly thrashed him to the ground until he yielded. No blood, no injury. He then turned and did the same to the other dog, cowering in another corner. I never had another issue with those dogs at my house.
Was that anger? There was a bit of territorial display in reestablishing his rule and proper behavior involved. I’m sure a bit of protecting me. But I always thought a touch of anger at their behavior was also present.
Jan says
I think canines’ slowness to anger is an evolutionary result…and related to teeth. Pack animals who have such lethal weapons inside their mouths would not survive long if their fuses were short. I also think deadly teeth are the reason canines have such a repertoire of calming signals.
Amy F. says
The best description I have ever heard for anger is: an emotional response to a blocked goal. When you think about it with humans, the definition fits every time (be it road rage, a child’s tantrum, not being able to control a situation as desired), so I see no reason to believe that the definition wouldn’t apply to all mammals. The question then becomes: What is it about dogs and their goals and their response to not getting what they want?
Do dogs have less connection to their goals (I wanted this, but I got that, and this new thing is fine, too!)? Or, do dogs have a higher threshold for kicking-in the emotional response when a goal is blocked by something out of their control (I want that, but something has stopped me from getting it. Unless I reeeeeally want it, I can be chill about not getting it.)?
Opal says
I think we don’t see anger as often in dogs because they have a better self- regulatory system than humans. Dogs will get up and move away if they are irritated, or engage in showing calming signals if that doesn’t work. Humans tend to try to push past or ignore irritation, which isn’t always successful. In other words, dogs pay attention to how they are feeling and humans try to bypass our body’s signals.
AnneMarie says
I like Jan’s comment very much, and agree with it wholeheartedly. One of our dogs, a shih tzu, never seems angry– my thought is that when you have that small a brain in your head, you occupy yourself with happy things. He is the sweetest dog alive, I swear, but not bright. Our bichon mix, that’s a different story. He’s very smart, and very much shares his varying levels of irritation with us when we don’t do his bidding, or when the shih tzu tries to get a bit too cuddly with him. I think I have only seen him outright angry once, and it was fleeting indeed.
Maenad Widdershins says
What purpose does anger serve. In humans it is sometimes righteous, but more often not. Dogs are social animals, and just like we tend to avoid “angry” people, I would think that evolution would not select many angry dogs, and certainly breeders would avoid them.
Annamarie says
I’m generally a strong advocate for careful scientific evaluation of canine body language, but I do not need any studies to tell me my beagle is outraged when his nightly dental treat is very late! I don’t have a photo of “the glare” for you right now but there is no mistaking that look! 🙂
Barb Byer says
(Love the pictures.) This is a very interesting topic. One of my neighbors had a cocker spaniel with rage syndrome. In this particular dog, I am convinced it was some type of seizure. That’s not anger. They were able to carefully manage the dog, but we were all a bit relieved when it passed from old age.
One of the things I look for when I take in a new puppy or dog is the ability to “roll with it”. I like Suzanne Clothier’s CARAT test. If the puppy’s attitude is “Hmmm. This is new. I’ll just watch it, and listen and smell and see what I can learn first”, I know this is a dog I will be comfortable with. If the dog instantly goes into fear mode, I know introductions to new things are going to take careful management. Overwhelming him or pushing him is going to cause problems for both of us.
The majority of good breeders consider resilience vs. fearfulness in their breeding programs. Most of their dogs will go to pet homes and a new puppy is going to have to adapt to all kinds of new situations.
Most well-balanced dogs deal with irritations (other than health problems) rather quickly and decisively. A lip curl, a low growl, a body freeze will say “Stop. I don’t like this.” Other animals usually read this quickly and respond appropriately. Responsible people pay attention and either get the dog out of the situation or help him work through it.
I think anger arises when we force a dog into a frustrating situation over and over. The dog says “Enough is enough.” and lashes out. He would rather flee, but feels he is backed into a corner.
I received your new book but haven’t had a chance to read it yet. I’m looking forward to it.
Bruce says
I tend to agree with Jan, that teeth are key. I have seen dogs who certainly looked angry, often at a perceived injustice – “Hey, you can’t steal my ball!” or “No, that is MY food!” Dogs have presumably evolved to respond in ways that do not trigger the risks associated with full-on battle. A predator that gets injured and cannot hunt will soon leave the gene pool.
Besides the calming signals, typical “dog fights” that I have seen are mostly bluster with little or no damage. Clearly the dogs were restraining themselves from causing injury. My guess is that ritualized outlets for anger (calming signals, restrained threat displays, and ritualized combat) have been beneficial and thereby become prevalent in the gene pool. Probably these beneficial behaviors were passed down from wolf ancestors, and amplified (purposefully or by happenstance) when dogs became domesticated.
Or I could be wildly off base. Quick, someone ask your dog!
Andy says
I don’t have any easy answers, just want to say that I’m starting to suspect that expressions of anger in dogs (especially my own) are an oxytocin source for me, provided the situation isn’t truly dangerous. Seeing that free expression of emotion makes me want to nurture them. I got to know an elderly jindo at the shelter recently and when she flashed her upper incisors at me my heart melted.
Not sure if this is a good thing or not…
Megan O'Connor says
I tend to see my dog as having bouts of irritability, annoyance, and frustration; they are quickly defused, and seem in my mind to be almost involuntary reactions. I feel the same when over-tired, anxious, or hungry. It’s like brushing away a fly: the “get off” response. I seldom get very angry — and when I do, it’s usually around issues of justice. Something feels wrong, or unfair, or beyond the pale of the kind of society I want to live in. So it seems odd to me (on first glance) to think of a dog as getting angry — because I don’t have any grasp on their sense of the right order of things — but perhaps they do! I wonder if memory comes into play. My dog will remember a perceived threat (forever, it seems!) but can she sustain anger? I think of anger as something that lasts much longer than irritation, and that involves more than simply fear.
Nannette Morgan says
Great post! Now I’ll be watching for this while working with clients just as another potential behavior.
What happened to Maggie? I don’t remember seeing the reason mentioned. Best of recoveries to you both
I’m loving your memoir. Thanks!
kezia mason says
my oldest dog gets angry, but when he is, he takes himself away for quiet time. if another dog comes into his space he will curl a lip and hard eye until they leave… he will not lash out. but very clearly states “leave me the f**k alone” it often ends when play outside between the other two gets hectic and I tell them to settle. he will come running out flagging with hackles raised, roll my youngest with a snarl that very clearly says “listen! you were told!” will stand over him for a second until youngest softens and “yields”, oldest will then shake it off and come lean on me for a pat…. after that he is back to his usual happy go lucky self.
if they can be happy and sad, relaxed and stressed… why not feel anger?
I think think that as mentioned above, dogs have inherantly long wicks and diffuse with play… in my boy, anger does not present in aggression… but “tight” body language, distance and a direct eye denote anger to me…. it also only comes from my ‘enforcer’ (oldest in the group) youngest knows his place but is very much “in training” under oldests guidence.
oldest has a strong pack concience and has allowed my pup to grow up sweet and innocent, but if youngest forgets his manners… older boy makes his displeasure known… “there is never cause to be rude”
side note: the boys get along perfectly, there are never any fights and are currently yin/yang using each other as pillows at the end of my bed. they are both 35kg+ dogs, neither will get thier teeth out unless absolutely necessary (in defense or to nip if the other gets too rough… usually followed by a good sulk)
I always love reading your blogs and what is going on on farm, I wish to have something similar one day 🙂
Saralyn Sharp says
I have a terrier. He definitely gets angry. Mostly as noted above, when his goals are thwarted or the other dogs play too rough with him. He is not the dominant dog in the household, except for two brief glorious years (for him) when the Corso was growing up. He was raised with a mastiff, who would occasionally discipline him (persistence thy name is terrier), after which he would be appropriately submissive – Waggy tail, curvy body, but now that the mastiff is gone (osteosarcoma), and he lives with a younger, but now socially mature cane corso, when she disciplines him, he walks away, but straight bodied and grumbling as he goes. He accepts her leadership very grudgingly.
Melissa says
I think we should differentiate between “anger” and “aggression”. Doing another physical harm is not the only way to express anger, and we can observe that every day as a social species. Generally, we humans have a lot of ways to express our anger before it comes to physical blows. One of my dogs I think is more liable to get angry about something, and he’s also more liable to behave aggressively, but the one does not inevitably lead to the other. Sometimes he grumbles to himself and paces around in circles rather than striking out. One of my other dogs is a very tolerant and easy going dog by nature, but he had to live with the puppy version of the volatile dog. One time after the puppy had been pestering him badly, I could see that he was starting to get fed up. He was vocalising more, and turning aside, making snappy mouth movements like dogs do in play to tell the other dog “Oi. Back off.” and the quality of his barking sounded like frustration. In the end, he kicked off a very boisterous game of chase and wrestle and it was the perfect way for him to release his frustration or anger without resorting to aggression. The puppy got kicked around a bit, barely noticed, and later learned to be a less annoying housemate as he grew up. That is how that dog solves many of his social problems. On the other hand, one time Erik, the volatile dog, was with me and the older dog when I was interacting with a dog he didn’t know. Erik was under a year old. The strange dog tried to block Erik from approaching his big bro, and made a pretty clear attempt to repel him. Erik’s response was what I would call rage. He instantly flew at the other dog. I was in between them, so was able to catch him as he sailed over the top of me, and turn him aside. He took some talking down, but eventually let it go. To me at the time, everything about his body language said “How DARE you tell me I can’t talk to my brother!” He was bristling, up on his toes, forehead wrinkled, and obviously quite agitated. He has done similar things from time to time over the years, and I have come to believe this is related to his keen sense of what is polite behaviour and what is rude behaviour. The absolute height of rudeness to him is a stranger trying to control his access to his family members. The next level down is a stranger running into him. One time he ran into a stranger, and he yelped and cowered. I could swear he realised he had just behaved terribly, because if another dog had done it to him, he would have smartly disciplined them. He seemed to expect the same treatment. It makes me wonder how much of anger is related to violated expectations. And whether dogs perceive the behaviour of others through a filter of what they like and dislike others doing to them. Sometimes Erik starts something with one of the other dogs in the household, and it’s fascinating to watch how he behaves afterwards. He is quite likely to come over to them and kind of sniff or nudge at their face like he’s saying “Hey. You’re still part of my social group. I still like you.” I’m not sure if he ever regrets his outbursts, but I wonder. He’s a complicated creature. Sometimes he does get short-tempered, and once he’s snapped, he seems to calm down quickly, and efforts are made to reconnect with the dog he snapped at.
Barbara says
I’m not sure if this is anger but I’ve seen plenty of puppy ‘temper tantrums’. One who had them was a standard poodle who, as a puppy, had a meltdown every night because I aked her to lay down while we ate dinner. She eventually grew out of the tantrums and learned to do mostly what I asked, but she always felt entitled to voice any concerns she had.
Crystal says
Our oldest dog, Zuzu- an English Mastiff, would spit her favorite treats at you if given as a bribe for something like trimming her nails, bath time, etc.
I’m not sure if it so much anger as disdain or discernment. As she grew she decided to take the food and just give you this wickedly swearing look as punishment.
There are not words to describe how wonderfully smart and perceptive she is. She has been called called a one in ten thousand kind of dog by dog obediance people.
Alexis says
I have a three year old Border Collie, Tasha, and she has come up with a bad habit that I have been working on. Her bad habit is to stare at a reactive dog in our agility class. Tasha learned that if she stares at this dog she can set him off growling, lunging and Tasha returns the favor. The thing is that this is a game for her (and I am working on stopping this “game”). Once she is done, even if I correct her, she is happy and content like she is saying, “WOW, that was fun”. On the other hand there have been a couple of time when she has been playing fetch with other dogs and a dog gets pushy with her, body slams, and she acts very aggressive, “Don’t you mess with me” and the way she acts seems angry (by the way, this never happens with other Border Collies). So even when she does her snarling, lunging act, I can see that sometimes it is all in fun and sometimes she is angry.
Glen Hatchell says
I often talk about frustration in dogs. I see it when one dog watches another dog, a cat, or a squirrel for too long. Patricia, you say to avoid extended greetings. and partly because frustration will start to build.
Is that anger or frustration? Or, are they the same and is one just more intense than the other?
I have seen what could be described as anger when resource guarding over a toy starts to escalate, and when one dog wants to engage with another but the feeling isn’t mutual.
Anger or frustration?
Jennifer says
Dogs are slow to anger (and I believe they do get angry) because of several things. One, they have been taught not to act out with their anger (i.e. get punished-which is totally horrible). Two, they have an intelligent owner who knows their body language and they prevent situations by redirecting their dog to something more pleasant (or remove them from the irritant). And three; remember the old adage, you can kick a dog over and over and they will still come back to you without reacting in anger. I am not saying that a dog isn’t capable of reacting in anger, but most dogs a very slow to anger.
LisaW says
I’ve seen my dog get angry but not at me or another dog but her unfortunate time spent in the “cone-of-shame.” Grace, RIP, was a dog that relied on all her senses to make sure the world was in order. She was alert even as she slept. She had a botched hematoma surgery on her ear and had to spend a month with the plastic cone around her head. She refused to accommodate the cone and would bang into walls or doorways and then she’d whip her head around and snarl at the cone. You could hear her banging the cone on the ground as we walked in the woods or clunking it around her food dish. She spent a month angry at the world as seen through plastic.
I think most dogs are more snarky than angry. Quick to flash and then it’s gone.
Anger as an emotional response is insidious and hard to exorcise. My parents were angry people sometimes and it’s taken me years to recognize and then try to adjust my emotional and behavioral responses. It’s real work.
Trisha, I know you have an amazing professional team working with Maggie’s knee, and I also wanted to chime in that I found with Olive’s CCL rehab it takes twice as long as you think. We started easing restrictions too soon (5 weeks initially) based on recommendations, and we were not only back to square one, we were back farther than where we started. Double the time on any of the benchmarks, IMHO. We had a routine of PT that we’d do each day depending on how she seemed to be doing physically and mentally, and it was a good, solid year of rehab. We also found that swimming was the best rehabber, it kept her muscles strong and is a low-impact exercise of her whole body, and in Olive’s case, mind, too. Just my two cents.
Vicki in Michigan says
Heavy armament is not the reason dogs don’t get angry — chimps are heavily armed, and they get angry……..
I wonder what it is about (at least some) primates that we get angry so often…. Is it a greater ability to live in the past and future? I don’t remember hearing about any studies of anger across different species. Is it the case that primates tend to be angry more than other animals?
I am interested by the comment about the one not-so-bright dog who never gets angry, and the smarter dog who does…..
If anger is about dashed expectations, then it would make sense that a creature with more expectations might well be angry more often.
It makes sense to me that rudeness and anger are linked. I pick up trash when I walk, and all that trash all over the place does *not* increase my love for mankind……….. (Again, the expectations — is it too much to ask that people use trash cans?????)
Anne says
I’m interested in the anger vs. frustration question. Yesterday my 12 year old son took one of the dogs (Tessa) out to play frisbee in the yard, leaving Pepper in the house (because Pepper won’t share- and usually Pepper gets all the turns at frisbee by herself). It looked to me like Pepper was angry, racing from window to window, seeing someone else playing HER game. She wasn’t being aggressive, but it looked like anger to me. She grabbed a different frisbee that was in the house and raced around with it growl/barking. It may have been frustration. Or frustration/anger. I don’t know how to tell.
Anne says
And yup, Pepper is a dog of many talents who can growl, bark and carry a frisbee at top speed all at the same time! I do worry about her joints, but really, if she isn’t playing frisbee she’s leaping over the couch and coffee table, so we take our risks!
Trisha says
Jan, amazing story about your dog who appeared to discipline two other dogs after fighting (and one biting you in the process). The description of your dog fits my experience with high status dogs who seem quick to get “hard eyes.” I’m reminded of the wolf hybrid who bit my hand while staring directly into my eyes. His own yellowish ones were so cold and hard they could have frozen the tropics. I do think that look correlates with anger (as well as your dog’s behavior); in part I say that because I’ve seen the same look on the faces of people who I knew were extremely angry, although they were not yelling or acting out. They just stood still with eyes burning with rage. I don’t think anyone’s limbic system could have missed it. Does that mean that dogs experience exactly the same emotion as us when their eyes look like ours? Not necessarily, but it is most parsimonious to speculate that there is more the same than there is different.
Trisha says
To LisaW: First, about Grace and “angry at the world as seen through plastic.” Thanks for that story, I’ll be smiling about it all day long. And thanks too for the comment about going slowly with rehab with Maggie’s knee. Much appreciated! Luckily her physical therapist is super conservative, always stresses you can’t cause harm by going slowly. Maggie’s case is a bit complicated by the fact that tests for a torn cruciate weren’t definitive, so weren’t not actually sure what part of her knee was injured. Sunday is the first day that Maggie can begin to have a bit of freedom outside, and it’s going to be ridiculously hard to find a way to do that “slowly.” Last night she began running around the bedroom like a puppy with an attack of the “frenzies.” It took me what felt like forever to get to her and calm her down. (Thank god for chew sticks! That kept her quiet for the next hour.) I’ll keep you posted. Basically our best option is to gradually work her back up to working, and if her knee goes bad again she’ll probably have to have surgery.
Trisha says
Lots of good comment here about what anger actually is–I think that must be part of the issue; defining what we mean by anger. I personally think frustration is a mild form of anger. Anyone else?
Trisha says
Melissa: I couldn’t agree more about discriminating between anger and aggression. That’s why I explicitly state in the blog that anger is an emotion, and aggression is an action. Confusing the two no doubt has led to endless troubles I think.
Christy Paxton says
So interesting! My two cents: The average, practical dog usually does only what’s needed to get what she wants. Goals generally are achieved through social means. Extreme reactions are rarely needed, so aren’t regularly used.
Things can go haywire through the usual suspects: lack of socialization, bad interactions, genetics, medical issues, etc. These can cause dogs to go from social to hair-trigger.
Gayla says
Fascinating subject. Most would allow that dogs sometimes get frustrated. ‘Barrier frustration’ etc. So maybe its the same emotion, but we label it differently depending on the degree of frustration?
Eckhart Tolle writes that most of our own angst comes from not “accepting what IS.” So maybe we see less (examples of what we would label) anger in our dogs, simply because they are better at that than we are…
Martie Crone says
As far as clams go…..the entire phrase is “happy as a clam at high tide”. That is to say, when a clammer can’t reach it.
Can you tell me anything about rage syndrome? My local shelter has a dog who was hit by a car and had to have both front legs amputated. After much time, energy and money had been put into her, she went off to an adopter with her new cart. I don’t have all the details, but she bit the adopter in the face, at least once, with no apparent provocation. She came back to the shelter, and has also been difficult with the staff. The vet they consulted with suggested rage syndrome. The shelter staff are heartbroken and struggling with the best course of action.
WooDja says
Some years ago I watched a young girl with her Bernese Mountain Dog – a gorgeous male, weighing about 90 pounds – practicing heelwork. The dog seemed to be a bit bored and wasn’t too enthusiastic about the whole thing, so the trainer took the leash from the girl to show her “how to do things properly” and how to “make him respect you”.
The trainer then walked the dog round and round the training area, jerking at the collar whenever the big boy tried to sniff the ground or pulled away.
With every jerk you could see the dog becoming more and more stiff in his movements, and what was coming next was no surprise: growling deeply, the dog went at the man, grabbed his arm with just enough pressure to make him let go of the leash and -free again- trotted back to his owner. There he sat quietly beside her, clearly communicating to the trainer that if he tried taking the leash again, there would be consequences.
This dog became “angry” because he clearly would have preferred another activity, was forced to do something he wasn’t fond of and then was mistreated in the process.
He just had enough. And this fascinating big boy had a lot of control over his anger…
Jean says
Do wolves have the same pattern of anger suppression as dogs?
Knotty Toys For Good Dogs says
Anger, what a wooftastic subject!
One that without doubt, could lead to long discussions.
I can tell you this, when I see that SQUirreL in my yard, that makes me angry.
Thank you for another pawsome thought provoking post.
Nose nudges,
CEO Olivia
Alex Johnson says
I think I have seen anger once. I brought a friendly new male dog home. I already had a super confident, very bossy bitch. Two weeks or so in he sashayed up and mounted her when they were just mooching about. She just froze and turned her head to look at him. He immediately ran away and hid behind the armchair while she just stood there for a few seconds. She then shot over to him, bit him on the bum then stalked off. I think she wasn’t just angry, she was furious.
Christine says
What an interesting post, although I must say my favourite part was your mention of goat selfies and the pictures themselves!!! Made me laugh out loud to myself!
Jenny H says
Before we can decide whether or not dogs get angry, or why don’t dogs get angry more often, we must consider how we decide whether we are angry, and how we decide whether other people are angry.
I know that I am often angry, but most people do not know, because don’t tell them. But I do get stressed and exhausted. There are many good articles re ‘what is anger’ on the Internet. Here is an excerpt o=from the Wikipedia article
“William DeFoore, an anger-management writer, described anger as a pressure cooker: we can only apply pressure against our anger for a certain amount of time until it explodes. . . Anger is an emotional reaction that impacts the body. A person experiencing anger will also experience physical conditions, such as increased heart rate, elevated blood pressure, and increased levels of adrenaline and noradrenaline.”[
Anger is not rage or throwing a tantrum nor indeed is it attack. Anger is more often a feeling of intense frustration. Only when too many triggers have ben endures does rage or tantrums of attack occur. For instance a man can appear calm when things make him angry at work. But coming home and finding that the children are being noisy, or his wife is complaining about something he did or didn’t do at home, the man will then lash out at his children or wife. The old ‘beware the wrath of a patient man’ syndrome.
You could say that dogs have a rage, tantrum or act aggressively when they have used up all their “spoons”. The dog that sits there and just takes it, is using up its spoons – when they’ve all been used up, the dog will react. Barrier frustration is another sure sign of anger.
Rebecca Rice says
Talking about emotions in people is difficult enough, much less dogs. What is “anger”? If I can’t define it in humans, or even myself, how can I identify it in a dog? Conversely, if you can define it in humans, then you can try and determine what is different between humans and dogs and use that to explain why dogs don’t seem to get angry as often.
Given that, I am going to draw on my own personal experience. I had a rough childhood, often bullied, often shunned. My social skills were not the best due to my family situation (pretty sure that my dad was somewhere on the autism spectrum, and there seems to be a bit of face blindness in the family, including myself, which makes reading social cues difficult), and the lack of practice from being shunned during elementary school. While I was often frustrated and confused, I don’t recall being “angry”. However, there are two definite times when I might have been considered “angry”.
The first was in high school, where the boy sitting behind me in one of my classes (I forget which one, now) decided to spend class making very explicit sexual comments about me and what he wanted to do to me under his breath during class. This was a boy who had also bullied and teased me a lot during my school life, and who I often sat close to in class due to where our names were in the alphabet, so we had history. I walked to the front of the class “to sharpen my pencil” (ostensibly), but really so that the teacher could ask me what was going on, but he didn’t ask me anything. So, I walked back to my desk, picked up the text book, and smacked the boy across his face with it, hard enough to knock him out of his chair. AFTER that, the boy was sent to the principal’s office, and I think that he was removed from the class as well. Was I aggressive? Yes. But I don’t recall feeling “angry”. I just wanted him to stop and leave me alone, and it was like something in me snapped and I just reacted. Didn’t even think about what I was doing… the book was just there, and I grabbed it and did it. So, was that anger, or just fight-or-flight pushed to high on the fight side?
The other time I can remember was in college, when I was at a party. I was in the back room playing spades with some other people, while most of the rest of the party-goers were busy drinking and doing normal college-party type things. One of the guys who had been drinking came back into the card room, and was being annoying. He was trying to get me to go with him to pick up some more beer (looking back, he may have been trying to hit on me), and I had had enough. And I turned around and “looked” at him. Don’t ask me exactly what I did, but one of the other people said it looked like my eyes turned to ice, and that it was scary. Didn’t say anything, just looked at him, and he shut up and left in a hurry. Once again, I don’t recall feeling “angry”, just really annoyed and wanted him to go away. So,that was a non-aggressive response, but same basic situation where my fight-or-flight response was triggered. But is that anger? Or something else? It was, having learned about dogs, probably the human equivalent of a “hard eye”, that threat of violence if pushed further.
To be honest, when I think about the times that I have felt what might be described as “angry”, it’s generally a result of extreme frustration. Being asked to do a job in 6 hours when I know it is going to take a lot longer than that, and the person I need to get something from is blowing me off… then I will feel angry. But that’s basically because I know already that I am probably not going to be able to make the deadline, and then the remote chance is slipping further and further away because the person who has the document I need is on the phone and ignoring me… then I feel what I think is “angry”. But if I were going to analyze it, it is really extreme frustration.
So, based on that, I am still not sure how to define angry. But,if we divorce flight-or-fight reactivity from the emotion of anger (or, in other words, separating aggressive actions from the emotional response) and doing the ever-dangerous anthropomorphizing, if I were to go out on a limb and talk about why dogs don’t seem to get angry as much, I’d say it’s because they have a much simpler life. If your goals in life are “find enough food, reproduce, and avoid things that can hurt me”, there is a lot less to be frustrated about. Yes, that rabbit may have gotten to a safe spot before you could catch it, but your best response is to eventually go find something else to eat rather than get frustrated and, by extension, angry. The times I can see dogs getting angry is if the rabbit got away because of something another dog did… got in the way of where the first dog was running, for example. But even that would be very short-lived, I think, since you still need to go find dinner, and staying angry just uses up energy that can be better spent doing something like hunting.
So, there you go. My thoughts on anger, in general, and why dogs don’t get angry as much as humans do.
Rebecca Rice says
PS. I have gotten a lot calmer (since I’m not sure I would have described myself as angry when I was younger) as I grew up. Which I think is because I feel more in control of my life, and thus have less to feel frustrated about.
mhll53 says
Fascinating question and conversation for sure.
I’m not sure why, but the word “anger” never seems like the right word to me for dogs. I’m not sure why. Rage? Not sure. When I think about the “aggressive dogs” I’ve seen and worked with, I’m not sure I’d call them “angry.” Frustrated, assertive, protective, jealous, defensive, aggressive (as action), correcting, aroused, impatient, wild-eyed, out of control . . .
Maybe words like these include more nuance or imply motive? Is growling a warning? An expression of anger? Both? Did the dog in the muzzle who was ignoring me approach and try to bite me because she was angry? It didn’t look that way.
We learn that dogs are congruent. We look at dogs and sometimes think we can see them “thinking” even though they can’t talk. Focused eyes, cocked head, trying different behaviors . . . Can a dog demonstrate an emotion to us without an action or an action without an emotion?
I have no doubt that dogs feel emotions, but for whatever reason, for me “anger” never seems to be the right word for the emotion(s) being labeled, especially for dogs. It seems as though there should be a better word(s), a different word(s). Maybe dogs don’t get angry, the way we get angry.
Ashley says
To the point of why dogs don’t get angry more often I would say it’s because they’re better communicators than we are ! Often I feel that anger in humans typically stems from other emotions .. irritation, frustration, emotional hurt etc. If we were able to better communicate those feelings before they turned into anger it might “never” happen.
Maria says
fascinating discussion!
Adding to the anecdote pile:
My elderly Papillon very clearly demonstrated anger one time. He was in his teens when we got a new Cavalier puppy. He was Not Thrilled.
We brought the new puppy home and I held it so that he could sniff it. Instead of sniffing the puppy, he glared at it, glared at me, then turned behind himself and glared very forcefully at my husband, who had been urging him to “go see the puppy!” in a happy voice. He stomped over to my husband, firmly and briskly bit him *hard* on the hand (hard enough to hurt like heck, not hard enough to break skin–a very calculatedly precise bite), then stomped off to his bed and turned his back to all of us. Our Pap was *pissed*.
Some time later that day, the puppy dared to come up to the Pap, wagging, and play bowed. He glared again, and showed the puppy ALL of his teeth–no growling or any noise, and he never hurt or even touched the puppy–just displayed all of his sharp chompers in evident threat. The puppy shrank away and went belly up instantly. The Pap once again stomped off to his bed and turned his back on everyone–still upset.
The Pap eventually reconciled himself to the puppy. It helped that the puppy had excellent dog manners and never bothered the older dog after he was warned away the once.
However, I don’t know how to describe the expressions on our Pap’s face when we introduced that puppy as anything other than disgust and anger. It was very clear that he was angry that we had introduced an Interloper into the household.
On the theme of smarter dogs being more prone to anger than less intelligent animals–this Pap was the smartest dog that I have every seen. If I was training another dog that wasn’t as clever to learn something new, sometimes he’d get impatient and push the other dog out of the way and do whatever it was that I was trying to train (even if it was a new behavior to *him* as well–he’d watch me try to train the other dog and divined what the end behavior was supposed to be) and then he’d glare at the other dog as if to say, “see, Stupid? THAT was what she wanted!”
Mary Nielsen says
I don’t think that the dogs are capable of hate so they can not be associated with anger. People are often suppressing their emotions and then they snap and you see them angry more often.
Dogs as other animals don’t do that and they will be in their rage mode if their life is endangered but that is not anger that is simple life and death situation which requires rage.
Dogs don’t hold grudges so how can they get angry? If you hurt them they will bark at you, growl maybe and try to get away but this is not anger it is a way of survival.
And especially in modern day society where dogs are enjoying life as humans, they are loved and their life is safe. Most dogs never had a life threatening situation as they would in nature and this did not make them be more suitable to anger like it did with humans. If the dog lives a good life he/she will never feel anger or hatred towards anyone which is not something a human can brag with. We as humans live in a society where we don’t really have reasons to argue, hate and etc but people still do these things and the Anger is ever present.
This is not the way it works with dogs and that is why we don’t associate them with words like “Anger”
Rebecca says
I love dogs! I have 2 cat and an Alsation, my cats always get mardy and try to claw me when they are hungry. Whereas my clumsy Alsation simply flows me and licks me! Even if I stand on his paws on accident! My baby
Rachel says
My dog is a Boxer Mix from the Humane Society got him at 3 months old. Pretty big too for a puppy. He chews absolutely everything, to shoes, clothes and really expensive jackets. I don’t get what his deal is I buy him plenty on dog toys; which never last a day or two.
Sara @ BestPetReviews says
Hmm interesting thoughts! I don’t think I’ve ever seen dogs angry. I think I have seen them territorial, but not angry. That is interesting though because I think there are other animals that do get angry.