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Have you been through the aggression course or the link that I posted? It does not imply that aggression itself is a drive but that there are different drives and aggression is the physical manifestation of those drives or emotions. It also includes reference materials. This is why understanding canine behavior, culture, husbandry etc, is so important; like you said, so that we may understand the emotion (or drive) behind the behavior. I just re read it last night with a client and I didn’t see anything that reflected aggression as a drive in itself.
Social drive is an ambiguous term, which is why I was looking for a definition. There are many emotions (drives) that are related to social interactions, being in various environments, and interacting with family vs. strangers. There are also developmental considerations. 💜🐾
I agree (and I believe Mike would also) that there are multiple facets (causal) to behavior. Certainly the dog’s experiences while it was maturing could have implications on its responses to stimuli and training. There may also be multiple diagnoses at once. There usually are. For me when there is aggression that is based on social interactions it would be related to social conflict. That would be different than fear related to the environment. The conflict that Ben and Dave are having seems to be related to aversives and competing motivators and or healthy outlets. Surely the dogs over all experiences growing up would have an impact, but what steps do we take to to modify the behavior? I like to use triage. I can’t go back in time and redo the puppies developmental phases but I can remove the acute cause of conflict to go back and fill any gaps in the handling, while working out a counter conditioning plan for the animals perception of the environment. I didn’t think we necessarily having a disagreement, I think these discussions are great to keep us sharp and challenge our understanding.
