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I see a lot of ethology in their actions and play. Mine stopping when they “win” I have wondered if is the win, the fact that pack leader quit, or as wanting to interact with the pack leader, because they are ready to go again as soon as I pick it up. Much like humans dogs build bonds and sense of belonging from interaction/doing things together.
With territorial aggression most dogs will stop at their boundary which is set by scat. (Most will urinate within their territory but will go to the extremes of the property to defecate if left to their own choice) Although urine marking is territorial, some studies on scat marking, and personal observance have noted dogs tend to be more aggressive when others enter their scat territory. Almost as though urine marking is saying I’m here but scat marking is the “No Trespassing” sign.
Take my neighbors dogs. They come onto the south side of my property to defecate. When me or my dogs get in that range those dogs will cross my fence but usually come no further than their scat piles (They did it yesterday). There is another more in-depth study I read, but I guess I didn’t bookmark it https://www.publish.csiro.au/wr/wr12176
Based on ethology most dogs protecting its territory, with self-preservation instinct intact isn’t going to run far outside that circle alone. and maul another to death unless they had some trauma during the formative stages. I emphasize “alone.” We’ve had a couple people killed here, others hurt, past few years by dog packs that got in a frenzy; however those dogs were allowed to run loose, had marked those territories where attacks took place, and in at least one case the man was trying to protect his dog. For myself Crowd psychology is relatable to dog pack mentality.
Regarding protection training and commands. as always it is what works for the each dog and person. I realize I have a small sample size.
My free command means we are done training, and they can go do what they want, sniff, explore etc.
My version of passoff means they can engage prey, threat etc. For instance with the hogs I could put Lexi in with them and she would work or bay, but if she got the passoff command she would look for an opening to grab.
Mine aren’t aggressive because they were trained to be. Their natural aggression is in check because of their training. (I was very careful with Ace not to instill more aggression. He almost bit someone at 4 months for getting too close to the truck, almost got my wife when he was 6 months the first time she got in my service truck. His conditioned punisher is all that stopped him.)
Based on assumption puppy play is preparation for adult life I incorporated what I would want later: Tug flitting around on the ground kicks in prey drive, Pup learns through obedience if it wants to play/get prey it has to wait for the passoff type command to come up from the sit, down, etc before it can engage (can be seen in the video with Luke when he broke a sit, I said “no,” he sat back down and waited.)
The first time I dropped a varmint in front of them they didn’t fully let loose until they got the command. Now any type of projectile slinger comes out they don’t have to be told.
With the cows, they now know they belong, but Chet still doesn’t like them getting to close to me.
4 of mine I have now were trained in such a way. So far no confusion regarding play and aggression, which is possibly due to training the command as more a release, or free than anything else.
From Lexi’s vid where I was pretending to hurt my wife it can be seen she isn’t overly aggressive even though she was trained as the others were.
Ace: As Mike said once, “Ace is going to be Ace.” He would be way more aggressive without obedience training.
