Stopping Aggressive Dog Behaviour
Dogs are instinctively aggressive animals simply because, when hunting in packs they need to be.
A certain amount of aggressive dog behaviour is seen in the wild in order to secure adequate food and a mate and also to defend territory.
Modern dogs are much less aggressive than their older counterparts simply because a lot of the aggression has been bred out by selective breeding over the years.
However, the fact still remains that dogs do have the ability to maim and even kill when their minds choose to.
Therefore, it is essential that you take action to stop aggressive dog behavior by giving your dog at least the rudiments of training so that you can exercise proper control at all times.
Although there can be several different types of aggressive dog behaviour exhibited the two most common ones are:
- Aggression directed at strangers and
- Aggression against your family members
These 2 types of aggression come about from very different causes and this needs to be kept in mind when correcting bad dog behavior.
Aggressive Dog Behaviour Directed At Strangers
It’s pretty easy to tell when a dog’s nervy around strange people and likely to exhibit aggressive dog behaviour.
He will be jumpy and on the alert, he will either be constantly fidgeting, leaping at the smallest sound, and pacing around barking and whining; or he’s veerrrry still indeed. Perhaps staring hard at the object of his suspicions, maybe a visitor or somebody approaching him on the street.
The major reason why a dog doesn’t like strange people is that he has usually never had the chance to get used to them.
Be aware that your dog relies 100% on you to broaden his horizons for him. He needs to be exposed to a wide variety of experiences to see the world and realize for himself, that the unknown doesn’t necessarily equal bad news for him.
Socializing Your Dog
To get your dog used to its surroundings and so to tackle aggressive dog behaviour.you need to go through a process known as socialization.
Socialization is a very important aspect of your dog’s training in fact, it is hard to overemphasize just how important it is.
The greater the variety of people and animals he meets including, babies, toddlers, teenagers, old people, men, women, people wearing uniforms, people wearing motorcycle helmets, people carrying umbrellas etc. etc. in a happy and relaxed context, the better will be his comfort at being around strangers in the future.
Socializing your dog means exposing him from a young age, usually as soon as he’s had his vaccinations to a wide variety of new experiences.
In this way we aim to stop aggressive dog behavior before it becomes a problem.
For more information on handling aggressive dog behaviour, as well as a great deal of detailed information on a host of other common dog behavior problems, check out SitStayFetch.
It’s a complete owner’s guide to owning, rearing, and training your dog, and it deals with all aspects of dog ownership both in written form and with video illustrations of trainers at work.
