Aggression "Out of Nowhere"
A very common concern within animal caretakers is animal aggression that appears to be “out of nowhere.” We have all been in the situation when our animal suddenly becomes reactive in situations they never once were. It can catch us off-guard. Some caretakers will start to anthropomorphize and think their animal hates them, their animal is out to get them, or generally take it personal. It can be difficult when our beloved companions hurt us when we have done nothing but show them love, but it is important to not take these things personally. Aggressive behaviors and reactiveness are a form of communication. The reason for the aggression is based on the situation and context. An overview of reasons to aggression can be described below.
To start, when an animal starts to have aggressive behaviors, it is first recommended to take them to your trusted vet to get them looked at thoroughly for any underlying medical conditions that may have yet to be diagnosed. Pain, organ abnormalities and failure, blindness and deafness are the most common medical concerns that can start aggressive behaviors, but not limited to. It is recommended before you start any training for aggressive behaviors that the animal should have a full medical work-up done beforehand to ensure that the reason for aggression is behaviorally or environmental and not internally and medically.
Animals can react aggressively out of fear, which personally is the most common reason I find in captive animals. Most of the time, we do not do the best job at desensitizing our animals to new experiences, building confidence, and understanding subtle body language and becoming an advocate for our animal and reacting effectively. This is because we see the world very differently than our animals. We understand situations, as well as being able to determine objects and situations that are safe and not safe, so we sometimes fail to realize that something seemingly silly to be afraid of is very stressful for our animal. This can often get us frustrated or start using force or avoidance to get over the behavioral concerns because we fail to understand the situation from their perspective. Furthermore, there is the flight or fight format where the animal will feel the need to fight or flight. Generally, prey animals would flight, like parrots and horses, as that is naturally what they would do, as predators will fight, like canines and felines. Just because they are naturally a predator or prey species does not mean that that is how they will always react. Fear-based aggression follows the thought of the best defense is a good offense. What can be further reinforcing to this concept is when the animal aggresses and we back off, a desirable consequence, then they learn that if they just aggress, the fear will be removed, and it becomes an effective tool for communication.
Our outlook towards out animal and our interactions could produce aggressive responses. A lot of companion animal caretakers will follow the scientifically proven false ideology that we need to “dominate” our animals, be the boss, take control. This has been disproven in companion species, most commonly seen used for parrots and canines, since the 1960’s and as later redacted by the scientist that proposed this form of thinking. This form of thinking serves no positive purpose. It is often associated with using force within handling our animals indirectly or purposefully. It can cause behaviors concerns to arise like escape/avoidance behaviors and learned helplessness. Prolonged use of force and coercion can create aggressive tendencies and increase anxieties and fear. It can create aggressive behaviors following the fight or flight method above where the animal now has more fear interacting with a single human, all humans, other animals, in certain environments, etc. and if they learn they cannot flee from used of force, then they feel the need to aggress.
Following with how our interactions can affect aggressive tendencies with our animals includes not giving enough choice to our animals. Our animals and their environment are controlled by us in almost every way. We choose when they eat, how much, and what, we choose how big their house is, how it looks, how it is set up. we even control how much attention and exercise they get. It ahs been shown scientifically that giving animals choice is incredibly important to decreasing behavioral concerns and increasing captive welfare. Aggression can stem from our interactions and not giving the animal choice, most typically seen within domestic species or smaller animals. For example: we see our dog is sleeping, but we want to pet them, or give them a kiss. So, we just go ahead and do that and it could lead to a snap because the animal was sleeping and doesn’t want to be bothered, but we chose to bother them because of our own selfish desires. Giving an animal choice doesn’t mean you let your animal run wild through the house because they want to. It is about reading body language, assessing the environment, and making informed decisions and choices based out oncomes and factors. Instead of choosing the walking rout for your dog, let them choose to go let or right. If you go to pick up your parrot and you try to pet them and they lean away or dodge your hand, just don’t pet them.
Overstimulation is another common reason for aggression. When an animal is at a heightened state of emotion, they have less control over their behaviors. The overstimulation can be positive, like the animal having a lot of fun and doing things they enjoy, or overstimulation from a negative perspective, like traveling to go to the vet or other individualized factors. What happens in these situations is generally redirected or misplaced aggression, where they may not have meant to bite or aggress towards a caretaker, but they needed that release of tension. For example, with parrots, it is not uncommon in the wild for an overstimulated parrot to preform misplaced aggression on the wood branch they are on. If our arm becomes the branch, then we get the force of the bite. They may not have meant to bite us, they just needed to bite and we were their perch and closest thing to them.
Frustration-elicited aggression is a big umbrella idea that can be divided into a lot of different categories based on the reason of why they are frustrated. Your animal could be frustrated by not being able to rehearse species-specific behaviors. They could be frustrated by our interactions being unclear. It could be from improper training, which is why it is always recommended if you need behavioral and training advise to contact a certified and educated animal behavioralist and trainer. Fluff and Feathers can offer behavioral and training advise for all species. Frustration can be from environmental factors as well to name a few examples.
The last one to discuss would be resource guarding behaviors. This is an increase in aggression to protect resources, most commonly territory, like a cage or bed, companions, other animals or humans, food, water, etc. Even animals who have never been deprived of resources or have never had negative associations to resources may have resource guarding behaviors. Within species or breeds, it may be a genetic trait to the animal to be more defensive and resourceful. But that does not mean that the behaviors should be left not worked on.
It would be impossible to list all of the factors and reasons that lead to aggression “out of nowhere.” Each situation and animal are highly individualized. It would also be impossible to give behavioral advice on how to solve these aggressive concerns universally. To have the most success, it is recommended for caretakers to contact a trainer as to how to solve these concerns within a behavioral modification plan. Fluff and Feathers can help you transform your animal to become safer through aggressive inducing situations, so feel free to contact us here to learn more about out consultations!