Training Aggressive Dogs

Aggression is natural for dogs and everyone is aware that dogs can badly hurt people and other animals. This does not mean that dog owners are completely helpless in their ability to stop aggressive dog behavior. An aggressive dog must be given obedience training immediately, before he hurts you or someone else.

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An aggressive dog will most often be aggressive towards strangers or family members. These two types of dog aggression happen for a variety of reasons so must be treated differently.

Aggression Towards Strangers

The most common reason for a dog taking a dislike to a person or another animal is that he hasn't been given a chance to get used to them. Getting dogs accustomed to being with people and animals they don't know is called socialization. It's impossible to overemphasize the importance of socialization in your dog's training. You may be wondering how socialization can prevent an aggressive dog from attacking the mailman or pizza delivery boy. A dog that is socialized starts to understand that new experiences can be enjoyable instead of frightening.

He needs to learn this lesson as a young dog. The more your dog is introduced to different kinds of people (for example, men in uniform, elderly people, young children, teens, people with umbrellas or wearing helmets in peaceful and enjoyable surroundings, the chances of your dog being being aggressive towards strangers are much less.

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Puppy group training courses (often held at pet stores or at a vet office) are a good place to socialize your dog in a controlled environment. Your dog will learn how to behave with dogs he doesn't know. He will also realize that there is no reason for him to be afraid of the unfamiliar people at these sessions. Make sure you don't overwhelm him - let your dog's comfort level increase gradually.

Aggression Towards Family Members

The most common reasons why dogs show aggression to their human family are:

• Your pooch is guarding his belongings from a perceived danger (to him, that's you!). This highly possessive behavior (called resource guarding) is quite normal in dogs.

• As dogs are pack animals, it boils down to dominance and your dog's perception of his ranking in the pecking order of the household. To your dog, your family structure is no different from that of a dog pack. Dogs that perceive their ranking in the pecking order to be higher than their owner or family members are likely to show aggressive behavior.

Such resource guarding is typical of dominant behavior, as an underdog would never be aggressive to a more highly ranked member of the pack.

The best way to stop aggression in dogs is to give your dog consistent dog obedience training, which will make your dog understand that you are the boss or "alpha dog". This fact may be emphasized with rewards such as praise and treats when he complies with a command, and by enforcing "time out" when he misbehaves.

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