Aggressive Dog Training Part 1

Recognizing, preventing, and dealing with dog aggression

Dogs are naturally aggressive creatures. In the wild, aggression comes in very handy: dogs need aggression to hunt, to defend themselves from other animals, and to defend resources such as food, territory and mates. Selective breeding over many centuries has reduced this instinct significantly, but still dogs are physically capable of inflicting serious harm and that's how they've survived and evolved.

But dog lovers and owners aren't entirely helpless when it comes to handling our dogs. There is a lot that we can do to prevent dog aggression from occurring. And if prevention hasn't been possible (whatever the reason), there are still steps that we can take to recognize and handle it effectively.

Types of Aggression

The two most common types are stranger aggression and aggression towards family members:

- Stranger Aggression

It's easy to know when a dog is nervous around strange people. He is jumpy, alert and fidgety or he's VERY still and tense, staring at the object of his suspicions.

Why does this happen?

The major reason why a dog is suspicious of strange people is that he's never had the chance to get accustomed to them. Your dog relies on you to introduce him to the world. He needs to be taken on many outings to experience the world and realize for himself, through consistent and positive experiences, that the unknown isn't necessarily a bad thing.

What can be done about it?

This process of familiarizing your dog with the world and all it's people and animals is called socialization. This is an essential aspect of your dog's upbringing. It can't be overemphasized. Socializing means exposing your dog from an early age (as soon as he's been vaccinated) to a wide range of new experiences, people and animals.

How will socialization prevent stranger aggression?

When your dog is socialized, you get him to realize through experience that new sights and sounds are fun and not frightening. It isn't enough to expose an adult dog to a noisy crowd of unfamiliar people and tell him to "Settle down" or "it's OK", he needs to learn for himself that it's OK. And it is always better if he can do it from puppyhood.

The more types of people and creatures he meets (babies, toddlers, teenagers, women, older people, men, people in uniforms, people carrying umbrellas, people wearing motorcycle helmets, etc) in fun and relaxed circumstances, the more at ease, happy and safe he will be around strangers.

How to socialize your dog so that he doesn't develop a fear of strangers? Socializing your dog is pretty simple to do as it's more of a general effort than a specific training regimen.

Free Six Day Dog Training Mini Course

First, you should take him to a puppy preschool. This is a series of easy group-training classes for puppies. About ten or so puppy owners get together with a qualified trainer and begin teaching their puppies the basic obedience commands of "sit", "stay", and so on.

Even though obedience work is very helpful and a great way to start your puppy on the way to being a trustworthy adult dog, the best part of puppy preschool is the play sessions. Several times throughout the class, the puppies are encouraged to run around off-leash and play with each other.

This is a perfect environment for them to learn good social skills. There are a lot of unfamiliar dogs and people present and the environment is safe and controlled (with at least one certified trainer present to make certain that things don't get out of hand).

But socialization doesn't end with puppy preschool - It's an ongoing effort throughout your dog's life. He needs to be shown many new places and environments.

Remember not to overwhelm him, though. Start slowly, and gradually build up his tolerance.

For more information on dealing with aggressive and dominant behaviors, as well as a great deal of detailed information on a wide range of other common dog behavior problems, check out SitStayFetch.

Part 2 of Aggressive Dog Training will cover aggression towards family members.