Looking into a dog's eyes...

No talk, no touch, no eye contact

Thats what i did when a friend of mine told me that she was having and aggressive dog that bit the last 3 guys he was with. I was so excited to meet this dog, he was a Samoyed.

I came ou to the backyard by myself with a few hot dogs, this dog didnt care if i was coming out with a steak in my hand, he didnt want me there and i knew that i could not offer the food to him anyway.

So i stood there, he was 6 feet away from me barking.

He showed me the teeth and i looked down as a calming sign, right after, i realized that if i did that with a more confident dog then he could take that as a sign of submission and that could trigger an attack.

I started to look away and up but not down anymore or to his eyes, minding my own business, showing that i was not there to do anything, good or bad.

What worked for him in the past and making everybody else back away was not working this time with me. He realized that i was not like everybody else and he started backing away himself, thats when i knew that i could look at him more directly (not really at his eyes), without being worried of looking at his eyes by mistake and him considering that as a challenge. At the end i ended up feeding the hot dogs to him, put the leash on and we went inside the house, he knew that i was not a threat like maybe the other people showed to him by mistake

No talk, no touch, no eye contact works to tell the dog "i'm not here to hurt you, i'm not here to run away from you, i am just here". The dog's curiosity kicks in and comes by himself to smell you, once the dog backs away then i know that i can do more now (petting, offering food or keep ignoring)

I believe that showing a dog that you are there minding your own business (even when he barks and growls at you) that tells him that you are confident and that gives you and advantage. If you look at his eye without him knowing how confident are you or not, he could take that as a challenge and just attack "praying" that you are not that confident, either way you are in disadvantage.

Regardless if you looked into his eyes or not, how did you approach him after he came out of his crate?

I was sitting at the kitchen table and when he came out it was fast and unexpected.  I was there as a guest, not to help out with the dog and I didn't have my guard up in any way. According to the owner, this only happened with one person previous to me. I was thinking that he may have smelled my Pitt but that shouldn't have triggered an aggressive response or could it? And to be honest, I don't think he had time to smell my dog.  He just seemed to come out and go for me which apparently was not his usual response to guests under similar circumstances.  Once we did it over, he was fine, but I did things differently.  I stood and I looked away until it was apparent that it was okay to pet him; then everything was normal.  The other thing is that I had met this dog previously at a dog show with no problems at all.

Willow is fine with eye contact as long as while you are looking right at her you are saying something.  If you are just quiet and staring then she starts growling.  That's with people she doesn't know well. 

Some dogs are fine outside their home, but are convinced that you are an intruder, to be repelled, if they are inside their home.  Other dogs may just think you don't "look right", or they may not have been socialized well to people of your size, color, gender, or (name the characteristic).  Show dogs are notoriously under socialized sometimes, because they have limited experience outside the kennel, home or show venues.  Many things can trigger aggressive responses, scent is just one, but it is possible.  You may have made eye contact even for a fleeting second, and some dogs are triggered by that (a stare is considered threatening or as a challenge, it's just that because most dogs are benign, they don't respond by challenging back - this guy might be enough of a wannabe that he thought he should challenge you based on even a momentary look). 

Yes, thanks...makes sense.  He is a big guy and he is a show dog. He is also one of (at the time), three dogs that didn't get along, so for a couple of years the dogs had to be rotated in the home.

Bruister

Yes, thanks...makes sense.  He is a big guy and he is a show dog. He is also one of (at the time), three dogs that didn't get along, so for a couple of years the dogs had to be rotated in the home.

 

IMO, that's why it's sometimes better to be selfless and re home a dog than to keep a stressful household.   It does take a heavy toll on some dogs to live in an environment like that.

Eye contact can be a very positive thing in the right circumstance but threatening in the wrong situation.

Like others have said there are lots of things that can trigger a dog to aggress. Fixating and staring at an object is a common sign a dog is about to aggress (among other signs too, obviously). Eye balling a dog like this can encourage them to aggress.

On the other hand my dogs focus on me and give me eye contact as a sign of respect; they look to me for permission and guidance; in this instance eye contact is a very positive thing and can demonstrate the strength of your relationship with your dog. For example - when I put my dogs food bowl down they focus entirely on me and not on the bowl. The same when I throw my prey driven dog his ball. 100% eye contact on me, even when I move the ball around. This is positive eye contact that I encourage.

 I think that also if a dog is comfortable looking into your eyes that says a fair bit about how relaxed they are with you. I wouldn't like to have my dog feel that they shouldn't look into my eyes for fear it would be taken as threatening or something. Penny used to look away from me whenever she didn't like what I was doing to her. Sometimes she would grumble as she did. Because she took pains to look away while she grumbled and hid her teeth, I knew she was just trying to say she didn't like it rather than that she would snap at me if I continued.

I've been working on Kivi's focus during training and have got him to the point where he will watch me rather than go looking for the food I just clumsily dropped on the ground. I'm quite pleased with this, but I don't think it has anything to do with eye contact, respect or aggression. It has everything to do with reward history. Watching me is becoming more rewarding than looking for food on the ground, even though looking for food on the ground is pretty irresistable to a dog.

corvus

I've been working on Kivi's focus during training and have got him to the point where he will watch me rather than go looking for the food I just clumsily dropped on the ground. I'm quite pleased with this, but I don't think it has anything to do with eye contact, respect or aggression. It has everything to do with reward history. Watching me is becoming more rewarding than looking for food on the ground, even though looking for food on the ground is pretty irresistable to a dog.

The stronger a relationship I build with my dogs the more I find they look to me for guidance. We were at the vet the other day in the waiting room and an aggro dog was lunging and growling and barking at Micha, who as you know can be fear aggressive. Mish would look at the other dog, and then he'd turn back to me and look to me for guidance. That's not purely about reward history, to me it demonstrates he has learned to look to me for guidance instead of taking it upon himself to 'respond' to the other dog.

Sure when it comes to rewards my dogs have learnt that part of getting the reward is focusing on me, and giving me solid eye contact, but it also demonstrates that they have developed respect for me and the resources that I have (and they want). 

 Yes, I agree, that's not reward history. There's focus and there's "what does mum think?". Penny used to look at me whenever she felt unsure about something. Just checking whether I was worried. It was a great opportunity to tell her how to react to something. She also used to gaze at me when we were out walking to the point where she'd run into things. That wasn't reward history either, or even looking for guidance. She was just a herding breed and so liked to know what I was doing at all times. Erik is like this as well. Kivi is a broken herder. When he wants my guidance he whines at me.

Whether eye contact is threatening or not is all in the accompanying body language for most dogs. Kivi and Erik gaze into each other's eyes all the time, but with very relaxed body language and they are often bonding at the time. Licking each other's faces and nuzzling ears. They do the same to me, except that Kivi likes to rub his head under my chin and he can't really give me eye contact as he's doing that.

My hare is way more sensitive and does not like anyone to stare at him. If I want to watch him I have to really concentrate on relaxing every muscle in my body as much as I can and look away often so I break eye contact. He gets nervous about stares. An animal staring at a hare is probably about to try to eat them.

The only dogs into whose eyes I will really "look" is my own dogs, who I am familiar with and have shaped since pups. Direct eye contact, to dogs, is generally either unacceptable, or discomforting at least. When I meet any new dog - whether wiggly and friendly, or tense and unsure, I never look directly into their eyes. Not until I know a dog for a long time will I actually look into their eyes directly. Even in working with "eye contact" with dogs, often my eyes are averted such so that I am not looking directly, but I know they are looking at me.

Gaci, my oldest girl, is very, very eye-contact sensitive. I have done a lot of work with her on it, and she and I can lock eyes at any given moment. But beyond that, she is highly sensitive. Even if my boyfriend, or my parents, who she has known forever (literally), look at her directly for two long, she will avert her eyes or sometimes leave the situation entirely. Strangers is a whole other ball-game....anybody she meets needs to be told pretty much the old Cesar line "no touch, no eye contact" (talking isn't really the big issue for her!!). Direct stares from strangers may result in outbursts of barking and defensive posturing.

I just figure, knowing what eye contact inherently means to a dog, I err on the side of safety and don't generally look into dogs' eyes much. It just generally makes dogs feel more comfortable about the situation, and relieves some tension off the bat. Some dogs will never have a problem with it, but generally in all accounts for a dog to lock eyes with a person in any positive way, it has to be a very intimate relationship that has been built over time.

huski

...my dogs focus on me and give me eye contact as a sign of respect; they look to me for permission and guidance; in this instance eye contact is a very positive thing and can demonstrate the strength of your relationship with your dog.

I really get that and I think it is amazing.  As per many statements made by various members of this site that add up to.... how amazing it is that we learn to live together.

Fixating and staring at an object is a common sign a dog is about to aggress

Bwahahahaha - this made me spit Vitamin Water all over my keyboard.  All I had was a mental picture of my Sequoyah **STARING** at her f-r-is-b-e-e waiting for me to throw it.  I guess you could consider an Aussie attack on a frisbee as aggression:-)))

spiritdogs

Fixating and staring at an object is a common sign a dog is about to aggress

Bwahahahaha - this made me spit Vitamin Water all over my keyboard.  All I had was a mental picture of my Sequoyah **STARING** at her f-r-is-b-e-e waiting for me to throw it.  I guess you could consider an Aussie attack on a frisbee as aggression:-)))

Ugh...reminds me of when I checked on Bob and thought he was staring at caterpillars. Five minutes later he brought a rabbit into my office and laid it at my feet... his tail and whole butt wagging proudly...  No bites, no bleeding, he just grabbed it and brought it in, but it didn't live.  I am sure it bled internally from the grab ... as did the next two.  

My Husky used to do that when I lived in the bush up north.  We had acres and acres for him (and fosters or others) to run around in .  Every now and again the dogs would bring home a warm soft rabbit and present it like it was gold.  I get the significance, but I have never gotten used to it.  Now that I am back in the city I find it even harder.  There are so many deer, rabbits and others (these days cougars, bears etc) that are  displaced.

Dog people...we all have so many stories.