Introduction
Australia is one of the countries have the highest rates of pet ownership in the world (Animal Health Alliance, 2013), and there are sixty-three percent of Australian households own at least one pet (Animal Health Alliance, 2013). Dogs are the most common household pets in Australia, which has approximately 4.2 million pet dogs (Animal Health Alliance, 2013). However, dog aggression is the most common pet dogs’ behavior problem and it causes a major public health problem in Australia (Voelker, 1997; Schalamon, 2006). According to the Annual Urban Animal Management Conference (2013), average 14,000 Australians are injured due to dog attack each year and about 1,400 of those injuries required medical treatment or hospitalization. Over sixty percent of dog attacks occurred at home, which means an owner or household-members have a higher possibility to be victimized in a dog attack.
Over the last three decades, numerous of researches have been indicated that owner attachment levels and dog characteristics are the major factors leading to aggressive responses in pet dogs (Borchelt, 1983; Landsberg, 1991; Hunthausen, 1997; Hsu and Sun, 2010). Although these findings provide evidence for the link between owner-dog interaction and the aggressive behavior problem in pet dogs, surprisingly little research has examined the link between pet dogs-directed aggression in human and the controlling behavior in a relationship. To redress this imbalance, it is important to explore the connection between pet dogs aggressive behavior and domestic violence.
Aims and Objectives
The aims of this present study are to explore the connection between human directed aggression by pet dogs and controlling behavior in a relationship, to critically examine the circumstances and effects on the victims, and to analyze the comparison between abuse towards human by pet dogs and domestic violence. This study refers to all aggressive and abusive behavior towards human by pet dogs, in particular, biting, barking aggressively and attacking.
Research Questions
The research questions for this study are: What familial circumstances impact pet dogs aggressive behavior? Can pet dogs aggressive behavior reflects owner psychological characteristics and deviant behavior? What are the impacts of dog aggression on the victims? How dog aggression related to domestic violence? What are the similarities and differences between abuse by pets towards human and other types of domestic violence?
Methodology
This is a quality research, so that the examination concentrated on the accumulation of optional information that related to one specific social phenomenon––‘human-directed aggression in pet dogs’ (Marshall, 1996). The extraction of information has been carried out from various sources like academic articles, web distributions and books. In this research, the primary data are collected with semi-structured interviews, only targeted group that has been victimized in pet dogs aggression will be invited for interview, and auxiliary examination points at social event data through diverse mediums, like researches, online materials, national and council annual reports, and media press that are classified as domestic dogs attack incident, will be used for reference. Also, this specific kind of exploration would include any sort of domestic violence linked to pet dogs aggression. Discipline has the reason to appreciate and, even restrictively, to explain this anti-social and deviance characteristic phenomena, underlining on demanding issues and endeavoring to stand up to tried and true values. Analysis will also use semi-qualitative methods to focus and identify with these phenomena, in order to ensure the evaluation of the research is done on the basis of validity, reliability and credibility of the data primarily (Barnes et.al, 2006 pp. 1616).
Therefore, there are restrictions on sample and research design, and methods on data collection and analysis to ensure the sources that ustilized in this research are authentic and carries relevance towards the study, and the details are show as below:
Sample
A non-probability-purposive sampling was used in this study in order to infer from the representation of the population (Small, 2009). To develop an in-depth qualitative study, only individuals who fit the criteria will be considered for this participation. Samples of adults, who are based in Sydney and Central Coast, have been attacked or experiencing in any other human-directed aggressive behaviours by pet dogs. In addition to these eligibility criteria, adults who had been in a violent relationship or witness a human-directed aggression towards family will also be invited to interview.
Moreover, a convenience sampling was employed in this research. During the workshop session, my classmates and I will base on the purpose of the study to invite eligible family members, friends, or collegues to participate an interview about a human-directed aggression by their pet dogs (Wiederman, 1999; Lucas, 2014). A further snowball sampling is welcome in order to increase the ease of access finding eligible participants (Berg, 2006). By increasing the amount of interviewee can enrich the data and enhance the accuracy and reliability.
Research Design
This qualitative study aims in exploring the link between pet dogs aggression and domestic violence through examining the causes of pet dogs’ aggression, and the effects of pet dogs’ aggression towards victims. Therefore, the design of this research is based on two factors that have significant impacts on dogs aggression, they are the biological factor (signalment of aggressive dogs) and the circumstantial factor (familial circumstances and owners’ characteristics and attitude towards their pet dogs).
Data collection
This research is using the methodology based on Grounded Theory, which is a complex methodology and it is opposed to purely quantitative approaches. It requires flexible design, allowing greater depth and detail of the data, as well as the possibility of adaptation to the object of study (Glaser, 1964; 2008). In this approach, there are no fixed and fully defined methodological rules, but guidelines, strategies and approaches for the various stages of the process, which is very suitable for this research with the mixture of quantitative and qualitative method for data collection.
Primary data¬
This study is using qualitative interview methods for primary data collection. A semi-structured interview will be conducted with eligible participants in order to explore the effects of human-directed aggression by pet dogs on victims. Due the fact that the examination of personal data is often perceived as problematic, weighty, so that interviewer must be very much experienced and qualified to the point of being able to criticize the possibility of his or her own observation bias. Moreover, before starting the interview, potential respondents will be informed about this study, and then, a consent form with further participation information details will be given to those who showed interest. All interviews were scheduled at week-8’s workshop session and were conducted at the University New South Wales Kensington Campus. Due to the fact that this interview is a semi structured, participants were allowed to bring up new ideas related to the topic anytime during the interview (Barriball and While, 1994). In addition, a general interview guide will be used during the interview to obtain socio-demographic information. For the purpose of qualitative research, an audio recording device was utilized for documentation in each interview. All recordings will be transcribed for data entry and further analysis use.
Secondary data
Besides, collecting data from interviewing, this study will employ data from public resources, like case study, local government or international report, related journal, press release and newspaper.
The examination of auxiliary information is assumed as an indispensable part in social sciences. The meaning of optional versus essential information is not focused around particular characteristics of the information itself, but on its history and relationship to a particular investigation. Therefore, the examination of secondary data, like information from New South Wales (NSW) council report, Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA)’s report, Australian Bureau of Statistics, and other mediai press, is very useful in helping to understand the history and the link between domestic violence and pet dogs’ aggression towards human.
Data Analysis
A qualitative data analysis software, NVivo version 10, will be used for organizing and analyzing qualitative research interviews. By using the NVivo’s feature coding to summarize both transcribed data and public available data in order to identify and categorize key concepts from all data. Besides using the analysis software, interviewer will make note of the observation during the interview, in order to record the change of the interviewee’s emotion while mentioning the process of the dog attack that experienced.

Limitations of Methodology
There are several concerns on the methods that adopted in this study, as qualitative research is descriptive, which might lead an ambiguity in the accuracy of the result. Also, there are no strict criteria for saturation, with a decision of the researcher as to the selection of the data and materials that were adopted in this research. In a fact that may result in a subjective and bias conclusion, which will not be able to generalize this study, even though the outcome does highlight the trends (Barriball et.al, 1994).
A further critcisim, due to the fact that there are not many scholars has examined the link between pet dogs-directed aggression in human and the controlling behavior in a relationship, the auxiliary information would be outdated, as most the reference studies have been at least two decades old. Additionally, victims from a minor dogs attack might not report to council or police, which lead a dark data in the dog attack incident in Australia. In a result, the data cannot truly represent the population.
To address these problems, a semi-structured interview method is utilized in this study, in order to get the first-hand data and the insight of victims’ perspectives to the human-directed pet dogs’ aggression. However, for the interview data using in this study were collected by non-probability sampling methods, which means the findings maybe biased for generalizing this case study (Lucas, 2013). Moreover, The participants in this research were based on the criteria to choose rather than random (Lucas, 2013), which may lead the data only favour in the result we want to see. Also, limiting samples to a specific area and only using a small size of sample is not objective enough to generalize the whole population.
Ethical Considerations
With respect to the participants’ privacy and human rights, ethical issue is always a concern when conduction an interview (Bryman and Bell, 2007). In the case of this study, all personal information about the interviewees are confidential and therefore any information that associated with interviewee’s identity will not mention in this paper (Robson et al., 2000).
Moreover, this research was conducted under the ethical guidelines in University of New South Wales (UNSW), and supervised by Ms Peta Kennedy and Dr. Philip Birch of the School of Social Sciencs at UNSW, in order to ensure this study and interview are conducted in an ethical manner. Also, the interviewee will receive a consent form and be acknowledge about the study before starting the interview. Due to the topic might trigger participants’ traumatic experiences, as participants will be asked to provide past experiences of being a victim in a dog aggression incident (Smith, 1999), it is suggested to stop the interview promptly if those unpleasant memories are distressing the participant (Orb, Eisenhauer and Wynaden, 2001). In additional, the interviewee can have the right to withdraw the study, and the interview will only be conducted with interviewee’s consent and persmission.
Literature Review in this section, it will be devided into three parts. The first two parts are about the innate and learned factors that have significant impacts on dogs’ aggression, which means biological and environmental factors. The last part is about how dogs aggression link to domestic violence.
Signalment of aggressive dog
Much research has been indicated that the breed and gender dog have an association with dog aggressive. Duffy et al (2008) tell us that breed is an important factor in dog aggression, as certain breeds are genetically more aggressive than others. In particular, purebred and male dogs have a higher potential to attribute a dominance aggression than mixed and female dogs. To be more scientific, there are some figures provided by Guy et al (2001):
By studying 277 dogs, it has found out that there are more than seventy percent of dogs have been demonstrated aggressive behaviour. In addition, it is estimated that aggressive behaviour occurs in fifty to sixty percent of purebred dogs, in particular, Labrador Retriever.
However, there is a similar study, which is conducted by Borchelt (1983), has a different conclusion from Guy’s study. In Borchelt’s study, it states a similar theory as Guy that purebred and gender are the factors that associated with dog aggressive behavior, so that purebred male dogs would have a higher risk on being aggressive towards their owners or other individuals. Nevertheless, Borchelt’s study does not show that Labrador Retriever would have a higher potential to demonstrate aggressive behavior towards human. Instead, English Springer Spaniels and Doberman Pinscher such vicious dogs would have a significant potential on harming human.
The differences that occurred in both studies are probably because of their research design. In Guy’s research, he only focuses on a small range of breeds, in particularly exploring the aggressiveness of purebred and mixed-bred. In Borchelt’s research, he tends to find out which bred of dogs would be competitively more aggressive. Due to the differences in both research design and their restriction on the size and variety of sample, the result will tend to be closer to their expectation instead of a result that can generalize to all types of dog breeds. Thus, a similar research will have different conclusion.
Definition of pet dogs aggressive behavior
By understanding the dog aggression can help in finding the motivation of human-directed aggression. Guy et al (2001) states that dog aggression is mainly divided into four types of aggression, and they are dominance aggression, which will occur when a dog believes there is a threat to its social status; fear-motivated aggression, which is referring to the dogs reactions and feelings towards being in dangerous; redirected aggression, which is a dog redirected its aggression onto other individuals or animals after he was stopped by its owner on attacking; protective, territorial and possessive aggression, which is usually associated with defending itself, its family, or property. Under different situations, dogs will reflect different reactions based on their negative feelings. In these four types of aggression, it is indicated that the most common aggressive behavior that showed on pet dogs is dominance aggression (Guy, 2001).
A further exploration is done by Reisner et al (1994), and he has found that a demonstration of dominance aggression mainly is stimulated by the challenge of the pet dogs’ social status in the household. The challenge to the dogs’ social status in the household would generate a range of negative feelings to the dogs (Reisner, 1994). These negative feelings, like insecure being challenged, threaten, and fear, can directly impact dog’s judgment on who is the enemy or threat to its (Reisner, 1994). Thus, it is common that most of the dogs attacking incidents were taking place at home and most of the victims were household members, in particular, children and its owner.
The link between aggressive dogs and domestic violence
There are many scholars recognize that human using the bond with their pet dogs to manipulate their aggression to attack or abuse other individuals or their household members or partners (Barnes et al., 2006). In particular, the individual who own a high risk dogs (Vicious) is tend to be more likely abusing their partner or household members (Jagoe and Serpell, 1996). Ragatz (2009) indicated that the type of dogs that the owner chose could reflect their characteristics. There is a significant data has point out that individuals who own a vicious dog have a higher possibility to be a criminal, and they will be easier to engage in criminal behavior, especially the crimes that related to the violence (Ragatz, 2009). However, this thesis still cannot be generalized the whole population, as there are individuals, who own a vicious dog, have never engage in any deviant behavior.

Findings
The data that utilized in this study is mainly devided into two different types of data, and they are the primary data, which is collected from a semi-structure interview, and secondary data, which .The findings are
Commonality

The differences that occurred in both studies are probably because of their research design. In Guy’s research, he only focuses on a small range of breeds, in particularly exploring the aggressiveness of purebred and mixed-bred. In Borchelt’s research, he tends to find out which bred of dogs would be competitively more aggressive. Due to the differences in both research design and their restriction on the size and variety of sample, the result will tend to be closer to their expectation instead of a result that can generalize to all types of dog breeds.
Thus, a similar research will have different conclusion. The behaviour modification is that theoretical orientation and methodology, led to the intervention, based on the knowledge of experimental psychology, believes that a factor important in the development of behaviour, both normal and abnormal, is a result of experience (Ragatz et.al, 2009 pp. 699).
Accordingly, in this approach the maladjusted behaviours are analyzed in terms of the basic principles learning and applied to explain and predict specific behaviours. Also, procedures and techniques used under evaluation objective, empirical verification to reduce or eliminate behaviours and establish or increase maladaptive behaviours adapted. The authors postulate that ten days of rehabilitation were not enough to prevent future increases in aggressive behaviour after completion of treatment. Intervention understood successive approximations (desensitization) to another dog (Depending on the degree of threat) and counter conditioning.
In counter conditioning seeks to associate the object causing the response to be removed with a positive unconditioned stimulus valence for the subject. It is not necessary that the dog reacts aggressively in all situations previously shown to have a diagnosis of dominance aggression (Reisner et.al, 1994 pp. 855). It is important to differentiate aggression resource protection, which can be related to dominance aggression, but it can also be a category independent and aggressive pain in case of physical manipulation. Under different situations, dogs will reflect different reactions based on their negative feelings. In these four types of aggression, it is indicated that the most common aggressive behaviour that showed on pet dogs is dominance aggression.
Behaviour problems in dogs influence directly in their welfare and in the people with who coexist. Regarding behavioural disturbances checked, there are a greater number of studies on problems related aggression, especially directed towards people. Interest in this type of problem is its implication in the area of public health, as well as the quality of life and welfare of animal’s snapper, which are often neglected or even killed (Schalamon et.al, 2006 pp. 374). The latter often are the most reported in the clinic. Psychology becomes significantly relevant when to contribute to progress in the area as significant as the problems behaviour in dogs. There is a growing demand for owners seeking help and cater to professionals in the field of health Animal and amateurs working in training.
Unfortunately not exist until a formal education to transmit using effective techniques of behaviour modification. There are several actions that can lead to achieving better interventions (Serpell et.al, 1996 pp. 49). The first is that psychologists, particularly specialists in the study of the basic principles of behaviour, conduct basic and applied research in conjunction with professional’s animal health. This would enable a more reliable classification and valid behavioural disorders and clinical research more stringent (Wiederman, 1999 pp. 59). Moreover, the basic studies in other areas, such as inter-specific communication or the study of differences in race would provide greater knowledge that will translate into a benefit for the areas applied. A second proposal is that in the curricula of animal health professionals incorporating materials or specializations include studies on comparative psychology, processes and basic behavioural analysis and behaviour modification, so having the bases as to make more efficient practices. One third possibility is that psychologists incorporate such studies within their curricula and specialization in animal behaviour. These actions are not exclusive and certainly contribute to achieving better coexistence between humans and dogs (Small et.al, 2009 pp. 5).

Discussion

Signalment of aggressive dog:
According to Duffy, there is significant evidence showing that the biological factors, like breed and gender of dogs, have an association with their aggressive behaviours. He also suggests that certain breeds are genetically more aggressive than the others. In particular, purebred and male dogs would have a higher potential to engage a dominance aggression towards human than the mixed and female dogs.
This theory is generally recognized by most scholars, like Guy and Borchelt, their researches were based on this theory as well. However, they got different results. Guy suggested that Labrador Retriever is competitively aggressive, but in Borchelt’s study did not show that Labrador Retriever would demonstrate aggressive behavior towards human. Instead, English Springer Spaniels and Doberman would have a significant potential on harming human. They got different results would probably because of the restriction on their research designs, like the sample size they used.

Motivation of pet dogs aggressive behaviour:
By understanding the dog aggression can help in finding the motivation of human-directed aggression, so that Guy catalogued different forms of aggressive behaviour in dogs into 4 common types of aggression…and the dominance aggression is the most common one.
Reisner does a further exploration of the motivation of human-directed aggression, and he suggested that negative feeling is a commonality of engaging dogs’ aggression. For example, the challenge to the dogs’ social status in the household would generate a range of negative feelings to the dogs, and these negative feelings, like insecure being challenged, threaten, and fear, can directly impact dog’s judgment on who is the enemy or threat to themselves. And this could explain that most of the dogs attacking were taking place at home and most of the victims were household members, in particular, children and their owners.

The link between aggressive dogs and domestic violence:
There are many scholars recognize that owners’ characteristics have interactions with the prevalence of dogs behavior problems. In Barnes’ findings, evidence show that the owners of a vicious dog are more likely to engage criminal behaviour and controlling behavior in a relationship. They would tend to manipulate the bond with their pet dogs to abuse their household members or other individuals. Also, a research from Jagoe and Serpell find that a family with vicious dogs would have a higher possibility to experience domestic violence. Based on these researches, Ragatz concluded that dogs could reflect the characteristic of their owners, and suggested that owners who tend to adopt vicious dogs should get a background check first.

Conclusions/Recommendations
Aggressive behaviour is the most common behavioural disorders in domestic dogs. In fact, aggressive behaviour has a self-protection function which is closely linked to their survival instincts if the dog living in a wild environment. Also males compete for mating and for this they should discourage competitors, defeating them. We should note that most aggressive behaviour are for the canine species, normal patterns of behaviour, which makes it difficult to solve such problems. However, since the dog shares his food niche with the human species, and becomes a member of the family that welcomes all forms of aggressive behaviour are unacceptable and must be corrected root (Smith et.al, 1999 pp. 395).
Keep in mind that most cases of aggression toward people are misdiagnosed and that today, more animals than they actually would take sacrifice. Therefore, it is essential to perform a thorough history with as much data as possible. We will analyze the situations of family and environmental risk and take out the prognosis and appropriate treatment for each individual case, based on the parameters obtained by physical, neurological, and complete laboratory test. It is important to reach an accurate diagnosis of the type of aggression that are trying, as there are several types of aggressive behaviour and therefore different treatments for each (Voelker, 1997 pp. 278). It is therefore very important to the history in the address, because we will have the opportunity to observe the dog's behaviour, their body language, how to react agonistic signals, etc.
Obviously there are different forecasts, ultimately, is one of the things that worries the owners of a dog like this. For instance, maternal aggression has a high rate of successful resolution, while dominance aggression has a guarded prognosis. Aggressive dogs act is a behaviour that has evolved within a complex framework and concrete and that natural selection has been awarded. Survive or die are the two issues that come before an aggressive act, when it occurs, or when defending of course there are many other alternatives and depend on both the individual who presents it, and the cost-benefit balance, serve as such "bourgeois behaviour"
To focus a little more and not stray too far from the topic at hand, which is the domestic species, aggressive behaviour is inhibited, redirects, and controlled. That mother will take care of the puppies during the sensitive period. The mother, try to set patterns of behaviour in puppies like yours. It will teach you to inhibit the bite, to take the position of submission, not to go and teach in the best way he knows. When an animal is attacking, is that it has a good reason to. Obviously from the human point of view this is unacceptable, but it is important that this be taken into account by the owner so negative towards the animal, which accentuate the already deteriorating link between the owner and his dog is not generated (Wiederman, 1999 pp. 59). A classification of aggressive behaviours presented canids and is based on the stimulus that triggers aggressive behaviour. It is interesting to know, because it allows us to understand a little better the animal that has this problem.
This type of aggression is the most common of all the aggressive behaviour in dogs. It is generally observed in entire males, aged one year and a half old. There is a higher incidence in the pure-bred animals, which mestizos. This is because the aesthetic qualities that are rewarded in dog such exhibitions tail erect, tall size, very head up, are very similar to the attitudes and gestures of dominant animals themselves (Wiederman, 1999 pp. 59). The fact that because we are the ones who decide who is most likely to reproduce, leading to fixation genes with these potentially dominant characters.
The dog that is aggressive dominance can be with all or any of the inhabitants of the house. Usually, animals are very friendly with strangers. Because the world of canines is handled with gestures, postures and heavy body contact and as the dog is a social and gregarious animal, specific stimuli that trigger aggression are the personal contacts that their owners have for them, such as, petting, brushing, attempts to affix the retaining collar or attempts. For the owner, the dog attack was unprovoked just because he was stroking, but the dog had very good reasons for aggression. This is a critical point because the abused person has a hard time to understand it. Almost always the dominant animals warned before reaching direct aggression.