I found this article when cleaning up my Google folders, and was once again struck by how insightful this categorisation is for thinking about dogs, I decided to reproduce it here. This is written by Martha Hoffman, author of Lend Me An Ear: Temperament, Selection and Training Of The Hearing Ear Dog and there is also much more in her book – even if you’re not interested in training a hearing ear dog, three long chapters of the book go into more details on the topic of this article. Although the original is still accessible here, it may one day disappear which would be a shame as it might help a lot of people think about their dogs’ traits more constructively.
For now, please accept these two definitions, even though they are not perfect:
Reactive: A nervous system that reacts intensely to stimuli.
That’s the scientific definition. It is neither a negative or positive trait. Think of it as a neutral trait. Unfortunately, many people use the label “reactive” to describe a dog with aggression or fearfulness issues. So, please consider the original definition. Think of reactivity as a factor that can intensify any trait the dog also has in its temperament.
Example: a dog that seems to notice everything going on in its environment, although it might not jump up or chase. It might seem to have antennae that detect everything happening. A dog also might be emotionally reactive, and sense its persons feelings and behavior easily.
Active: the dog has an internal need to be active whether aroused or not. It is on the move most of the time, whether playing or exploring.
Example: Hunting dogs like pointers and Brittany Spaniels, and Alaskan Huskies. Susan Butcher wrote that she selected her best sled dogs from the puppies who always were desperate to find out what lay beyond every corner on free walks in the forest.
Now imagine the possible results from breeding two dogs together, or simply imagine a dog with these combinations of traits. You will see how “Breeding The Best to the Best” can backfire by doubling up traits that can be problematic when intensified!
Reactive x Reactive = REALLY REACTIVE!
- This can be dangerous or harmless, depending on other temperament traits.
- If the dog also possesses any type of aggression, this combination can be potentially dangerous. If the dog has no aggression, then we might see a dog that is harmlessly excitable and annoying.
- Imagine a really social dog that goes wildly friendly at the slightest glimpse of a dog or person. No aggression, just exuberance.
- Examples: A harmlessly but overwhelmingly annoying Retriever or Doodle, or a dangerously aggressive protection breed individual. Both are highly reactive, but it shows in different ways.
Active x Active
- Possible restlessness, pacing or very strongly active or compulsive behavior.
- Examples: a frustrated Border Collie or other working breed kept in a small yard. A dog with obsessive behaviors.
Reactive x Active
- More potential for reactive physical behavior of any type to be triggered, whether positive or negative.
- The key here is that the threshold is very low for triggering ANY behavior.
- Examples: many Herding Breeds, Terriers.
OK. Now let’s look at two more aspects.
Low Reactivity: it takes a lot of stimuli to trigger this dog into reacting. Also called “high threshold”.
Examples: a dog that never shows aggression until the day it or its owner is attacked. We then see that the dog had innate potential for aggression, but it had never been triggered. Or, a dog that never showed any special superpowers, but wakes up the family and rescues them when a fire starts in the home. A dog might also just rarely get excited about any event.
Low activity: the dog becomes active ONLY when the environment stimulates it. Its baseline level is to be non-active. It takes a lot to trigger activity in this dog. Example: A sighthound that is calm and lazy with a cat when in the house, but goes into full speed hunting mode when outside and a cat or animal runs away from it. Or, a dog like this might never really do anything at fast speed.
Now let’s look at combinations of these, to see how they might affect temperament:
Low Reactivity plus Low Activity
- Calm dog - good pet potential. If very stressed, it will do inwardly focused behavior like withdrawing or self-mutilation. It will not show a lot of outward-directed behavior.
- For an Emotional Support Dog for a child, this temperament might be ideal. For other Service Dog functions, it might be too difficult to motivate.
- Example: Basset hounds, conformation show-line Labradors, Pugs.
Low Reactivity plus High Activity
- A bouncy dog that is not easily startled or redirected from its activity preferences. Not easily affected by negative experiences.
- Examples: a dog that loves to play fetch, and doesn’t stop if it hurts itself or gets frightened by some event. A bird dog relentlessly quarters a field for an hour until it scents a bird.
- Many sporting/retriever type dogs show this combination.
High Reactivity plus Low Activity
- The dog will show strong reactions to stimuli, but expressed in emotional ways instead of running around in excitement.
- Examples: a calm dog that shows no excitability, but will suddenly scream and escape if startled when sleeping, or suddenly bite a child that approaches its bone or disturbs it. A dog might also scream or freeze up instead of running, when frightened.
Here is the worst combination for pet function lifestyle:
High Reactivity x High Activity
- VERY difficult to live with. If it’s a tiny toy breed, it can be very annoying with frantic barking, but still be a safe pet since it can’t trample people, and can get some exercise in a house.
- Might be a fabulous active-sports dog if channeled in the right direction by an expert trainer.
- Examples: Border Collies, many Toy breeds.
BUT this combination can have much worse potential if we add fearfuness or aggression of any kind. If this High-Reactive, High-Activity dog ALSO has a lot of fear and/or aggression: watch out!
Here are three possible combinations:
- High-Reactive, High-Activity plus fearfulness (but has low aggression):
- It will be a disastrous pet with many insoluble problems, since it reacts instantly and with intense speed and escalating phobias to anything that frightens it, usually to escape.
- Training is not going to have much effect to help this dog. It won’t show aggression, but it will have a very stressful sad life.
- Example: you might have met a very fearfully shy and “hyper” individual of any herding breed.
2. High-Reactive, High-Activity plus any type of aggression (but has low fearfulness)
- This dog is not suitable as a family pet. It doesn’t have any component of fearfulness to help it avoid or escape if it is stressed. It will go forward in action to deal with a trigger. It will react instantly to any trigger, with both speed and aggression.
- Only top trainers with experience with dogs like this can manage this combination. Potential to kill dogs or humans if not tightly controlled and directed. These dogs do have GREAT potential for military and police work, and protection sports, with expert trainers. They are completely sane, but predictably and dependably aggressive.
- Examples: You might have met a Jack Russell or Malinois that fits this profile.
3. High-Reactive, High-Activity PLUS aggression PLUS fearfulness: Danger Zone!
- Now we get into the really dangerous dogs. If a dog has BOTH fearfulness and aggression added to this already difficult temperament, it can be very dangerous and almost impossible to train for any function. Its fearfulness makes it unpredictable. Blind panic can easily be triggered, and the dog might run to escape, or it might attack forwards.
- No owner or shelter or rescue or trainer should be in such denial as to let themselves think they can make a dog like this into a safe pet or working dog. You could not design a more lethal combination of four traits together in one dog.
- This type has the potential to kill humans and dogs, but is not controllable and not sane. It is unpredictable because fear and aggression will work together with stress to overcome training.
Here’s are some questions to ponder:
If a dog with very high aggression also has very low activity and very low reactivity, will you ever know it had the potential for extreme aggression? Suppose no situation ever is intense enough to trigger the aggression? Therefore, all dogs need to be trained to be controlled in case a remotely possible situation arises. The average owner only trains for what they can see, and do not want to put in extra effort for what they cannot foresee or do not want to foresee.
Think about the lazy passive dog that suddenly defends the owner with its life against an attack. What about the dog that “was always the sweetest pet” but suddenly kills a child? What about a dog from fighting breed heritage, that was always good with other dogs, but suddenly kills another dog? Were they actually aggressive dogs whose aggression was previously masked by very low reactivity levels? Did sudden stress or excitement cause the aggression to “unmask” itself?
Low Reactivity is also a safety catch that keeps problematic traits below threshold. The Livestock Guardian Breeds ideally possess some of the least reactive temperaments around. That is combined with the extreme aggression they need to deal with huge predators and dangerous situations when their instincts are triggered. These “Sleeping Giants” that have saved many lives under their care.
It’s hard to imagine a LGD with the activity level and fearfulness of a typical Herding Breed dog. LGD breeders are universal in warning against the terrible results of letting LGDs and Herding breed dogs produce puppies together. Why? They have seen that some percentage of the resulting pups will show high reactivity, high activity, moderate fearfulness, from the Herding breed parent, combined with intense aggression from the LGD parent.
Using these four traits, analyze your own dogs temperament.
Using these four traits, analyze YOUR OWN temperament.
@Copyright 2019, Martha Hoffman, All Rights Reserved
Original: https://docs.google.com/document/d/12w_VSgOSPBnu6d3lAEQgQhLvXCVgC6QqRy7NgFgyfuw/edit?usp=sharing
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