Aggressive Miniature Australian Shepherd

“Scott, I don’t know what’s wrong with my dog. She’s always nipping and growling at me. She keeps me from getting on my bed, won’t let me get near her when she’s eating, and hates it when I try to pet her. But, for whatever reason, she loves my wife.”

This was what I heard when first talking to Mark (not his real name) on the phone. He sounded very desperate, and I thought I had a good idea of what was going on with his dog, but my premature diagnosis turned out to be very wrong.

I made an appointment with Mark and his wife for me to see their dog at their home. When I drove up, I noticed that Mark and his wife, Beth (not her real name), had a modest but well-kept home. They greeted me very warmly at the door and let me in. Their dog, Mini, a miniature Australian Shepherd, was quite friendly and showed little to no problem with having a stranger in her home. We were off to a great start.

As I always do, I spent the first few minutes getting to know Mini’s owners. Mark was about 60 years old and a CPA with a business that worked with small startup companies. Beth, who also appeared around 60, worked at a non-profit organization that helped the homeless.

Questioning revealed that Mini got along well with everyone in their family and everyone outside of their family. In fact, he hardly even barked when Amazon and UPS drivers dropped off packages at their front door. The only person he showed aggression toward was Mark.

I asked him if he could show me a typical situation in his home where Mini might growl and nip at him. Mark quickly replied, “No problem.” He thought about it for a second and decided he would use the bed in the main bedroom to demonstrate. He asked his wife, Beth, to put the dog on their bed and leave the room. It was now just the three of us - Mark, Mini, and me. At this point, I was really wondering where this was going.

I cautioned Mark that I didn’t want him to push the dog to the point of aggression. I asked him to stop things as soon as Mini started to become stressed. Mark agreed and then asked me to stand back while he approached the bed with Mini on it. And then it started to happen. As soon as Mark turned toward the bed, Mini stiffened up and had a laser focus on Mark.

As Mark got closer, Mini’s upper lip started to lift, revealing her teeth. Her eyes, by now, were as big as saucepans. While I was carefully watching Mini, I also noticed that Mark was completely relaxed about all of this.

And Mark continued closer. At this point, Mark was about 12 inches away from Mini. The hair on her back stood up (called “hackles”) and she began to growl. I was astonished that Mark’s demeanor could not have been more indifferent to the impending peril.

And yet, he continued even closer. His face and hands were now only a few inches from Mini, who had escalated to vicious barking. I felt like I was seeing things in slow motion, but all of this had only taken seconds. I instinctively pushed Mark out of the way right before Mini was able to connect with a bite to his face or hand. Things had gone too far. Had he not heard me ask him to stop the exercise at the first signs of stress from Mini?

I stood in disbelief. Why had Mark continued to move forward when his dog was clearly telling him to stay away? Anyone could see she was on the verge of biting him. What was going on?

I took a deep breath and asked Mark if we could go back to his kitchen table to debrief with his wife. Sitting at the kitchen table with Mark and Beth, I detailed what I had just witnessed in the bedroom. As I was talking, Beth interrupted and asked me, “You do know that Mark has a significant level of Asperger’s, right?” There was a moment of deafening silence around that table as I processed what she had just said. At that moment, everything became clear to me.

Asperger's syndrome is part of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and is a neurodevelopmental condition characterized by challenges in social interaction, nonverbal communication and understanding social cues. Because of his Asperger’s, Mark had difficulty reading human nonverbal communication and social cues, and he also wasn’t able to effectively read the same with his dog Mini. As a result, he was scaring the heck out of Mini and she was using aggression in an attempt to keep him away in order to feel safe.

Before we judge either Mark or Mini, consider the following:

Asperger’s is difficult to live with and must be continually and consciously managed. Those diagnosed have a functional deficit in interacting with the world, including social animals like dogs.
Dogs don’t have the knowledge, context, or cognitive ability to understand Asperger’s in humans. All they see is a human who they don’t understand and is therefore scary to them. When dogs are scared of someone, they frequently use aggression as a way to simply keep them at a distance.

Whether we’re aware of it or not, we are constantly communicating with our dogs. They are reading our body language and we are reading theirs. Both humans and dogs modify their interactions to one another as a response to this language. Much of how both species modify their behavior in response to each other is unconscious. Think about it: we love dogs precisely because of the relatively high level and ease of their social interactions with us.

This was a very interesting case for me. First, it helped me learn more about autism and Asperger’s. Secondly, it showed me how consequential social interactions between dogs and their owners are.

If you’d like to learn more, I’ve provided a link below to a free video on dog body language.

For more information:
Understanding Dog Body Language