Even if you are not experiencing an issue with your dog due to aggressive behavior, it is still important for your knowledge as a dog owner to know the different types of drives that are asociated with aggression, and how they relate to eachother. Most people will witness all of these behaviors in their dogs at some point.
The drives I like to focus on when explaining aggression is: Prey drive, fight drive, defense drive, and flight drive. I make a chart that looks like this:
I make a chart like that because i think it best explains how these behaviors are related. For instance, prey drive and flight drive are on opposite sides of the spectrum. They are polar opposites of eachother and it is rare that a dog would go from one of these drives to the other without first displaying the actions asociated with the other drives on the path there. Also, I overlap the drives to show that sometimes a dog may clearly be in one drive, but sometimes will show a bit of both at the same time. You will not see a dog normally showing signs of two drives that are seperated by a full drive. For instance will not see a dog that is backed into a corner in flight and say it then bit in prey drive when it couldnt escape or even say it bit in fight drive - which would both indicate that the dog would have gone out of his way to bite if not cornered. To understand my explainations for each drive please read the descriptions below:
Prey drive – Prey drive encompasses all the behaviors which originate from the original instinct of wolves to hunt, kill, and dissect prey. More specifically this includes tracking, stalking, chasing, biting, holding, shaking, and dissecting (tearing apart). Different breeds were selectively bred to have stronger and weaker instincts within this spectrum in different combinations to best suit their task.
For instance, border collies were bred to have a strong stalk and chase instinct within this spectrum, but were selectively bred to exhibit less of the holding after a bite, shaking, etc. This was necessary to produce a dog well suited to controlling sheep without injuring them An important distinction of this drive is that there is no fear asociated with prey drive. In pure prey drive a dog will not show signs of insecurity or signs of feeling threatened. Raised hair, growling, and deep sounding vocalizations/barks are never seen when a dog is in pure prey drive.
Flight Drive – Not technically aggressive behavior, this is the instinct to remove self from a threatening situation. This is the most insecure drive and is the opposite of prey drive. Flight drive is the drive a dog will be in if the dog feels HE is the prey.
Defense Drive – In its pure form it is the instinct to intimidate and use the least contact necessary to drive away a threat to a dog’s self, social status, pups, or what he feels he needs for survival. When a dog bites in defense it is generally with the front of the mouth only and fast with intentions of hopefully driving away the threat while avoiding full contact from that threat. This sums up as, “I’m going to threaten or hurt you, only while you are threatening me or what is very important to me.”
Dogs that show "food aggression" or other resource guarding behaviors are usually in this pure drive. Many dogs will also display this kind of aggression when flight isn't available - like when restrained at the veternarians office, toe nails clipped, etc.
Fight Drive – combines the characteristics of both prey and defense – reserved mostly toward competitors. A dog in fight drive will perceive its target as a threat, but will also go out of his way to inflict the same type of injuries he would to a prey animal and possibly switch to pure prey drive with intentions to kill and eliminate the threat if dominating that fight. This dog can also toggle back to pure defense drive or flight if losing the fight.
In the wild, wolves generally will show this drive mostly with competing wolf packs, but can also switch into this state while in a dominance related conflict. This occurs when there is refusal of one wolf to submit to another through normal non-aggressive and minimally aggressive dominance rituals.
We see this drive in our domestic dogs as “territorial aggression” when they feel their territory is threatened by a competitor, during “fear aggression” when encountering anything anywhere that they feel is a threat and deal with by the “I am going to get you, before you get me” philosophy. Also, just like wolves, we’ll see it in dominance disputes between dogs that live together.
At this time you have read what I what consider some of the base information that most people should know before moving along further to understand and troubleshoot their dogs' behavior problems.
| 
SelfHelpDogTraining.com 
.jpg)
