She finds that these dogs are often more reactive and more unpredictable. London speculates, might correlate with dogs who are ambivalent. ![]() Raised patches over the shoulders and hips (but not connected), Dr. Note it’s hackles are raised only over the upper shoulder area. This terrified-looking dog was labeled as “angry” by the photographer or the photo site. Here’s an example of piloerection in just one area: Often, she’s observed, a thin line of erected hair from shoulders to tail correlates with more confident dogs, while a broad patch over the neck and/or shoulders (but no further down) correlates with low confidence. London, PhD, CAAB, and the author of one of my favorite books, Treat Everyone Like a Dog, wonders if the pattern of piloerection correlates with different emotional states and/or future behavior. In dogs, it can act as a kind of “ super normal sign stimulus,” (ie, size matters), that can intimidate other dogs by making the one with raised hair look larger.ĭr. It’s an involuntary response of the sympathetic nervous system (which excites, while parasympathetic calms), and a good indicator that an animal is on alert and aroused. Raised hackles, or piloerection (goose bumps in people!), are common in mammals, and are caused by a contraction of the muscles that sit at the base of each strand of hair. There are a lot of emotional states that can correlate with arousal, including fear, excitement and surprise, and some of those might lead to aggression, but not necessarily. First off, note that many people associate piloerection with aggression, well illustrated in my search for photos of dogs with raised hackles in a commercial photo site: All 3 illustrations I have in this post were labeled as “angry dogs.” However, piloerection is an indicator of arousal, not potential aggression. ![]() Karen London, in a reprinted article in Bark Magazine, raised some interesting questions about the meaning of different patterns of raised hackles, or piloerection, in dogs.
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