Types of aggression in dogs

That's not an easy question to answer.  The most common causes of aggression your dog may show to members of your family are:-

      

     1.   A fear-based response where your dog is suddenly scared by a family member who moves unpredictably near him or her - such as someone disturbing your dog when it is asleep or suddenly waving a stick or raising a hand near your dog - even in jest.

     

     2.  An anxiety disorder created from previous traumatic interactions with people and not necessarily those in your family. The concept of flight/fight response is relevant to this. Anxiety-based aggression often involves growling and barking vocalisations, lunging, your dog's hackles being raised and sometimes the 'showing of teeth'. Anxiety-based aggression often grows from fear-based responses or harmful mistreatment.

     

     3. Predatory aggression particularly if your dog's aggression is directed towards people who move past quickly such as children playing. Rarely, predatory aggression is directed towards crawling toddlers when they are crying. Predatory aggression is quick and often silent so it's very dangerous.

    

     4. Protective aggression where the dog feels the need to protect itself when people approach, especially if they approach in a rapid fear-inducing manner. However, protective aggression is just another form of anxiety.

     

     5. Resource-guarding aggression where a dog will aggressively protect a bone or a rawhide chew. Sometimes resource-guarding aggression occurs when people touch a dog's toy and occasionally dogs can resource-guard their favourite family members from other family members.