Authors : Joaquin Perez-Guisado and Andres Munoz-Serrano
Abstract: For many people a good guard dog is a dog that defends aggressively the property that is to say a dog with high levels of territorial aggression. Nevertheless, this advantage can turn into a problem when the dog attacks friends and family, or when the dog disturbs our neighbours with excessive barking at strangers. The study involved carrying out 711 surveys on dog owners. The survey analyses many factors that might be linked to territorial aggression. The results show that there are many factors that are connected to higher levels of territorial aggression and which depend on the owner: not punishing the dog when it does something bad; a high level of education (university studies) and if the animal is acquired as a guard dog. It also found dog-dependent factors associated with territorial aggression: sex (male); certain breeds; FCI groups 5 and 7 and aged between 3 and 7 years. Furthermore, we discovered certain dog behavioural factors that are associated with a higher level of territorial aggression, such as: having as favourite games tug-of-war or bring things, a long time spent eating; if the dog barks a lot; if it attacks strangers randomly; if it tends to bite upper limbs and how nervous the dog is.
Joaquin Perez-Guisado and Andres Munoz-Serrano , 2009. Factors Linked to Territorial Aggression in Dogs. Journal of Animal and Veterinary Advances, 8: 1412-1418.