Canine aggression causes welfare harm to both dogs and the humans and animals they injure. Understanding the causes of dog aggression and evidence-based prevention reveals welfare-positive approaches to this complex problem.
Canine aggression welfare involves the dog experiencing fear or pain that motivates defensive behaviour as much as the safety of bite victims. Dogs labelled aggressive are typically acting from fear, pain, or learned defensiveness from previous punishment-based training. Punitive responses to fear-based aggression increase aggression risk by confirming that threatening situations are dangerous. Breed-specific legislation removes animals on the basis of appearance rather than behaviour assessment, causing welfare harm through unnecessary euthanasia of non-aggressive dogs and removing effective bite prevention through owner education. Evidence-based aggression management through counter-conditioning, desensitisation, and pain assessment represents the welfare-positive approach that simultaneously protects public safety and dog wellbeing.