Doggy Body Language - Can You Read It?

[MrJalesi]

On another forum I'm on, someone mentioned how their dog just 'all of a sudden' started acting aggressively towards kids. Barking, hackles up, etc. I firmly believe that dogs rarely actually 'snap' and that almost always the dog is attempting to communicate with their human that they are uncomfortable. The human simply doesn't listen so they have to take it a step farther. I actually used to think that my dog 'just snapped' when she was reactive and I've had other people comment that they 'didn't see it coming' even though, now, I think she communicates extremely well.

So, I'm going to post these three videos of my dog and ask some questions. I know exactly what my dog's 'problem' is and I know her well enough to know exactly what she's trying to communicate to me. The three reactions all happened on the same walk with in minutes of each other.

Video 1
Video 2
Video 3

And, please, don't cheat.

Questions:
1. In which video does the dog seem the calmest?
2. In which video does she seem the least calm?
3. Does the dog appear completely okay and unbothered in any of the videos?
4. If you were the one walking her, how would you respond? Would you allow people to come up to her?
5. If you were passing us, would you approach or stay away?
6. If you feel comfortable passing judgement on what her problem may be, do you believe this is aggression or fear aggression?

Other people may feel free to post videos of their dogs and they don't necessarily have to be of a reactive dog.

[is taylor really swift]

She looks really distracted and nervous in all of the videos. She seems really bothered in all of them in my opinion.
In general I don't go up to strangers dogs unless they look really obviously happy to see me and the owner permits it. I probably wouldn't let her go near people since she looks uncomfortable.
Looks like fear aggression to me, it feels like there's some sort of stimulus outside of what we can see that she's afraid of and would react negatively to, maybe something that she's had a bad experience with in the past?

[q2k]

I agree with super-sluts.
It's hard to judge by videos but she doesn't seem like an aggressive dog. just a bit of a nervous one. Whatever's ahead of her in all those videos, she doesn't seem terribly confident about it. She's doing a whole lot of stopping and pressing her ears back.

I don't really go approaching dogs unless they're the ones trying to come say hi to me. If they're disinterested in me I'm not gonna bother them, and if they are interested I'll only do it if the owner's okay with it. So I'd probably leave her be.

[RCJ remixed]

I see a lot of the times where people say a dog just suddenly snapped. There are always warning signs, just not always obvious such as baring teeth, growling, ect. A wagging tail doesn't always mean a happy dog, the rest of the body needs to be taken into consideration.

Another thing is I have seen a lot of people punish a dog for giving a warning that they are uncomfortable (like when a dog growls at a kid that's being too rough and then gets punished for simply warning). Each time the dog sends a warning ,the dog gets in trouble. Eventually the dog stops and everyone assumes things are fine, until the dog can't take it anymore and someone is bitten.

[Euphonious Cantabile]

1. I would say 2
2. Video 3. Her tail went taut at 0:10 and her ears looked like they were perked forward.
3. No, she looks like she's nervous.
4. If I were walking her and someone approached and asked to pet her, I would let them know that she's nervous and not up to be petted at the moment.
5. I would stay away, because the dog doesn't look like she wants to be around random strangers.
6. She looks more nervous than aggressive.