July 31, Interpretation of Louie and The School Bus Video Clips
Photo 1
Photo 2
Photo 3
Photo 1: The bus is coming, both dogs are excited/aroused
Photo 2: The bus is almost their, Louie is almost at the peak of his barrier frustration/aggression
Photo 3: The bus is there! Bianca redirects her aggression to Louie since she can’t bite the bus, Louie, in turn, breaks off his threats toward the bus and threatens Bianca, but only briefly, he is much more intent on the bus.
Background Information:
Louie is a 4 year old Anatolian Shepherd/Great Pyrenees cross, although we think he is mostly, if not all, Anatolian. He was rescued from a farm in Arkansas. In his first rescue placement he got into serious fights with a resident, adult female Mastiff. That family also had a toddler, so having two squabbling giant breed dogs was not a safe option. He traveled north to Vermont, and was adopted by his next foster family when he was 7 months old. He has had lots of socialization exposure to neutral dogs, and now lives peacefully in a home with two Great Pyrenees, and an Aussie/Toller? Female.
Bianca, the butt biting Great Pyrenees, is now approximately 3 years old. She was rescued after being found wandering in the company of two other adult Great Pyrenees, one of whom was an in tact male, presumably the father of the litter she was carrying when she was picked up.
Lear, now 2 years old, is Bianca’s son, from the litter she was carrying when rescued. He and Bianca are presumed to be pure Great Pyrenees.
All three dogs are Live Stock Guardian dogs, historically bred to live among the flocks and protect the stock and the property.
Louie is aroused by all diesel engine vehicles, buses, dump trucks, UPS truck, oil delivery trucks, etc. He does not discriminate, and it has nothing what-so-ever to do with what the bus is carrying, there is no history with positive or negative events occurring relative to the trucks passing. When off his home territory, he alerts to passing trucks and buses, tracks them, and displays signs of stress such as heavy panting and excessive drooling, but does not lunge and bark at them. His home territory includes about a one-mile radius around his actual home property, making walking him in his rural neighborhood a challenge, if diesel vehicles pass.
Bianca is also aroused by the trucks, whether this is learned behavior from watching Louie, arousal contagion, or her own innate reaction to the passing trucks, is hard to discern. If Louie is not present in the pen she will bark when the vehicles pass, but does not try to attack them through the fence as Louie would like to do.
It is interesting to note, that the dogs do not alert to or bark at passing cars, other than to bark in a friendly greeting manner if one turns into their driveway.
Interpretation of the behavior in the video clips:
I loved the comment of the person who wrote about Bianca’s butt biting “if you can’t bite the one you want, bite the one you have”.
Here are the various explanations for the behaviors you can see in the video:
1) Both Louie and Bianca are displaying barrier frustration/aggression
2) They feed of each other’s arousal.
3) Bianca redirects her frustration toward Louie by biting his tail and butt.
4) Louie, annoyed at the interruption of his display at the bus, and frustrated by not being able to get to the bus, very briefly redirects his frustration aggression toward Bianca.
5) The aggressive interactions between the two dogs is accurately called redirected aggression, NOT displacement, as some people have called it.
6) For all his ferocity there are aspects of Louie’s behavior that are playful. Keep in mind, that play is often a rehearsal for real fight or flight situations, so that fact that he appears to be playing (note waving tail, looking over his shoulder toward his person, some curving body lines) does not negate the fact that his behavior toward the buses and trucks is aggressive, and more importantly, problematic for his people, especially if he happens to be on leash at the time one of the vehicles passes.
7) Some one asked if Louie has ever actually attacked a bus or truck: the answer is “yes”.
A tenant, who lived in an apartment on Louie’s home territory drove a diesel engine pick up truck. Louie was in his pen when the man drove up the road and into his driveway. Louie did his usual aggressive display when the truck arrived. A bit later, when Louie was being led out of his pen to the house, he had to pass the truck. He actually bit the truck’s fender! He was not playing.
A Note About Barrier Frustration/Aggression:
While some of Louie’s behavior toward the diesel engine vehicles appears play-based, even ritualized, it needs to be remembered that this is not innocent fun. Barrier frustration/aggression can escalate quickly, as can the tension between multiple dogs who are participating – becoming redirected aggression that could tip over into a real fight, or find a more vulnerable target such as a small dog, or child who happened to be with the dogs when the vehicles passed.
The more the behavior is practiced the more aroused the dogs become, with a cumulative effect over time. They do not get bored of the daily (sometimes multiple daily events) and if on leash, or should the fence break the dogs could be killed by the passing vehicle they are trying to run off their property.
Louie is not aggressive toward people or other dogs. His intense barrier frustration/ aggression appears to be directly connected to the innate FAP (fixed action patterns) of Live Stock Guardian Dogs who have been bred for centuries to protect flocks on their own territory. The fact that he has focused all that energy on the appearing and disappearing diesel engine vehicles is somewhat aberrant but understandable. They make big noise, smell different from other vehicles, probably set off a different sort of vibration patterns, etc.
The fact that Louie can be seen offering appeasement and stress signals (lip smacking, lip licking, shake offs, etc) after the buses pass – suggests that he is still experiencing stress after the bus passes, and that it takes time for him to come down from his state of arousal.
