My partner’s Golden Retriever behaves strangely when we’re all in the car. If she spots another dog by the side of the road, she’ll start barking aggressively, but she never acts this way when meeting dogs on walks. On walks, she’s usually submissive around other dogs.
This reminds me of my parakeet, who passed away two years ago. We used to set up his cage by a sliding window where ravens and buzzards would sometimes appear. These birds would look at him, possibly hoping to get in and attack.
My parakeet would stay quiet until a human came to chase the predators away. Once the predator was gone, he would scream loudly, almost as if trying to act tough or mock the predator.
My partner and I find this behavior puzzling. Could it be the animal equivalent of talking trash?
Flynt said:
I’ve seen this before. It even happens with rats!
Interesting, but what’s causing it? It’s just so odd.
It might be barrier aggression. That’s what I think is happening with the dog in the car. It’s common for dogs on either side of a fence to bark at each other, but once they meet without a barrier, they often ignore each other or become friendly.
As for the parakeet, it’s a different situation. Parakeets are prey animals, and when a predator shows up, they freeze and stay quiet to avoid drawing attention. When a human comes and scares the predator away, the parakeet feels safe and might express the fear it was holding in.
@Misha
Thanks for the explanation. I didn’t know about ‘barrier aggression.’ That’s definitely something I can look into. As for the parakeet, I understand the initial freeze response, but what confused me was the sudden display of assertiveness once the predator was gone. Why act tough when the threat is already gone?
@Kim
It’s not about being tough. It’s delayed fear. When the parakeet is stuck in a cage, it can’t flee, and it knows fighting a predator is pointless, so it freezes. Once the predator leaves, the freeze response wears off, but the instinct to escape is still there. The bird might start screeching because it’s still trapped and can’t fly away. That fight or flight instinct takes over, even though the danger has passed.
Flynt said:
I’ve seen this before. It even happens with rats!
Interesting, but what’s causing it? It’s just so odd.
With rats, this kind of thing can cause a lot of stress. If they can see each other but can’t reach each other, they just get more anxious and often end up fighting.