Aggression is communication

The growl is a gift

Most dog-to-human bites are avoidable if we listen to what the dog is telling us. We tend to punish dogs for warning cues like growls and snarls, but that removes the warning without changing the fear underneath. A dog who growls has made a decision: to warn you it needs space rather than bite.

"My dog is just being dominant" explains nothing. Dominance isn't a character trait a dog has. It's a situational relationship between individuals, and it shifts with the context. The same goes for "submissive." Look for the fear, frustration or guarding underneath instead.

Punishing warnings makes dogs more dangerous

Failing to read a dog, or punishing its early signals, forces it to go bigger: bigger lunges, growls, snaps, bites. A trainer reduces the fear with counterconditioning and desensitization and teaches an alternative behavior when scared. On the walk your job is distance, management and never punishing the warning.

Take away a dog's warnings and you don't get a safer dog. You get a dog that bites without warning.

Ritualization in dog fights

Even most dog fights are ritualized: a display, a lot of noise, rearing up and other inefficient movement, biting with non-maiming force, bites aimed at the scruff, neck, shoulders and face. It is an expulsion of energy meant to deter a real fight, because a real fight is exhausting and expensive and dogs would rather not have one. Ears, eyes and mouths bleed dramatically, but they are not where a dog goes to do serious harm. It looks like the dogs want to kill each other, and there is no intention to kill.

Scary-looking and dangerous are not the same thing. Learn to tell ritual from intent.

• Intent looks different, and quieter. A dog acting on intent is silent and efficient, does not pause, aims for the throat, and does not stop.
• Watch for the dog who keeps going back: repeatedly returning to the trigger to go at it again is intent, whatever the noise level.

When you see a ritualized display in your group

A ritualized display is one dog warning another that it needs space, and it is working: nobody is hurt. That does not mean you stand and watch. Don't yell at it and never punish it, or you teach the dog to skip the warning next time. Calmly create distance and redirect both dogs, so the warning does not have to be repeated and nothing escalates while the whole group is watching.