She doesn't look that scary, does she?
Madge usually growls at unfamiliar people who come to our front door, whether they are UPS carriers, guys distributing pizza coupons, or Mormon missionaries. I can imagine that when they look through the screen door and all they can see is a big old pit bull head and a set of prominent white teeth, it must be a bit frightening. But the truth is that Madge probably is more frightened of them than they are of her.
I'm perusing an excellent science-based book on dog behavior, Steven R. Lindsay's Handbook of Applied Dog Behavior and Training: Etiology and assessment of behavior problems. Lindsay explains the difference between dominance-based aggression and fear-based aggression, the goal of which is to escape or control stimuli that dogs perceive as threatening. A fear-aggressor has different body language than a dominance aggressor. The dog's ears will be back, the tail will be tucked under the body, and it will snarl and bark repetitively (pretty much the way that Madge behaves when she hears a noise on the porch.) The fear-aggressor doesn't want to bite, and most likely will do so only as a last resort, if the seemingly threatening person approaches quickly or if the dog's escape route is blocked.
More on this later...I've got to take her and the boys for a walk.
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