Taking the time to understand why dog aggression occurs will help you stop the problem. Dogs are naturally aggressive. In the wild aggressive behavior was essential to a dog’s survival. Through domestication and selective breeding this trait has been minimized but the instinct is still there.

As social animals undomesticated dogs lived together in packs with a distinct hierarchy. As dogs came of age they would assert themselves, within their pack, in order to determine their social ranking. Domesticated dogs still have this instinct. A puppy wants to know his ranking within his family as well as within the neighborhood.

Dogs naturally want to be protective of their territory and their pack, which is their human family. Neighborhood dogs pose a threat to your dog’s social standing and his home territory.  This threat can cause aggressive behavior in your dog. Aggressive behavior will also happen when your dog feels he must protect your family. By introducing your puppy to different situations you can help him understand when aggressive behavior is not appropriate.

Helping Your Puppy with Socialization

Socialization is an important part of a puppy’s upbringing because it teaches him to cope with a variety of experiences, including getting along with other dogs. Socialization and proper dog behavior is best taught by a puppy’s mother.  When a puppy is taken away from his mother at an early age he may not have been taught to socially interact with other dogs. When a puppy becomes part of your household it becomes your responsibility to give him supervised experiences that will continue the socialization process and help avoid dog aggression.

There are two areas of socialization to consider with your dog. Your dog must learn to get along with other animals and people and he must understand what is expected within your family.  It is essential that your dog have opportunities to interact in all these areas. Your dog wants to be a vital part of your family. Your dog can learn to be a responsible member of your family if he is trained properly. 

A great resource to help you in training your dog can be found at: Training Your Dog in Any Situation

Tension Within the Family

Your dog is impacted by the way you and your family handles tension. Tension within your home will cause your dog to be tense. Your family must learn to handle tension in an appropriate manner or your dog may show aggressive behavior in trying to deal with the tension around him. Your example has a profound effect on your dog. It is important that you work at being calm with your dog as well as with each other.

Your Puppy’s Needs and Wants

Your new puppy has certain needs and wants within your family. He must receive plenty of attention and he must feel love and security. Your puppy must receive enough attention or he will become bored and boredom leads to aggressive behavior. If your dog only receives attention when he exhibits aggressive behavior then the aggressive behavior is being rewarded. When your dog is bored negative attention is as much of a reward as positive attention.  No attention is worse than negative attention. You can help stop dog aggression by giving your dog adequate attention and by training him in a positive way.

Dogs should be exercised regularly. Space and opportunities to run and play are important to a puppy who is full of youthful energy. Even a small apartment size dog and older dogs should have opportunities for adequate exercise.

Neighborhood walks are a good way to provide socialization experiences as well as providing opportunities for exercise and interaction with you. Your puppy requires well regulated examples to emulate. The wrong type of behavior will be reinforced if your puppy is allowed to run around with neighborhood dogs. You should choose mature, well-behaved dogs as playmates for your puppy.

Bad habits are the result of leaving a dog on his own without proper guidance. With positive training your dog’s aggressive nature can be controlled. By taking the time to train your dog you keep his attention focused on you instead of on other dogs and people. Positive, consistent training will ensure that your dog will follow your commands in any situation.

Teaching your dog tricks will provide social interaction and will also help prevent boredom.

A fantastic guide for teaching your dogs tricks can be found at: Training Your Dog

Can You Teach an Old Dog New Tricks?

These ideas work well with a puppy because they are a clean slate and open to learning but what if your furry friend is an older dog? Constant, consistent effort is needed to correct an older dog’s bad habits. Aggressive behavior in a mature dog must be addressed immediately. If you wait to reprimand your dog he will know he feels bad but he will not understand why. Repeatedly correct your dogs negative actions until he understands the correct response in a particular situation.

Dog Aggression is Serious

Dog aggression should be taken seriously. Far too many dogs have been taken to the pound because they had a difficult time living peacefully in our society. Don’t let aggression become a problem. Take the time to train your puppy or dog.

I highly recommend this great course to help you successfully train your dog, whatever his age: Dog Obedience Training

Have a look at this article on Dog Training Boston .

Understanding The Causes Of Dog Aggression.

Even the most calm and gentle dog can turn aggressive under specific situations.Knowing what triggers dog aggression helps you deal with it effectively. Below are common causes:

1. Pain. This is quite obvious.Someone in pain would normally lash out. In the case of dogs, even the mildest pain can make them aggressive. It’s an instinctive reaction to want to take yourself away from what makes the pain intense. In case your dog meets a car accident and you’re groping him for fractures, he’ll be inclined to bite aggressviely if your fingers touch a sore spot.

2. Fear. Anything strange – people, places or things – triggers fear-induced aggression in dogs. Afraid, a dog’s instinct for self-preservation shows itself through aggression. The most likely cause of uncalled for aggression displayed by some dogs toward other animals is lack of social skills.They regard new things or animals as threats to themselves.

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3. Territorial Instinct. It is in a dog’s instinctive makeup to be protective of themselves – their home, their pack and their offspring from outsiders. Dogs will fight with aggressive force for anything they consider their own. This isn’t the problematic kind of aggression as most owners want their dogs to protect them and their property.

4. Dominance. This is the type of aggression seen when dogs want to prove themselves better than the rest of the pack to establish themselves in the hierarchy.This is a natural type of aggression in the dog hierarchy. Whenever they sense a vaccum in their pack’s leadership, they fight for the top spot. Fights normally turn bloody for a leadership post.This is necessary to keep the pack cohesive and the species survival. Left to their own defenses, dominance is how dogs establish social order in the pack.

Strategies To Control.

By Understanding these triggers, are you not in a better position to deal with dog aggression?

Don’t make his pain worse if he is obviously suffering; your dog won’t bite if you don’t worsen his pain.Assume the leadership role. Make sure your dog knows that and sees everyone in the family as being above him. Obedience and respect – two things you ensure your dog understands when you establish yourself explicitly as the authority over him.If irrational fear is causing your dog to behave aggressively, tackle the fear.

Pain may be the easiest of the aggression triggers to deal with. Aggression induced by fear and dominant inclinations need patient training and social exposure. The best step is to commence as soon as you bring your new pet home. When dealing with aggression in adult dogs, don’t be unwilling to consult professionals.

For more information on dog aggression, check this page on Stop Dog Aggression Tips.

What is the cause of dog aggression?

The most common causes are a lack of socialisation and experience with other people and the issue of dominance.

Stranger aggression:

Caution and suspicion are natural behaviours for dogs. If your dog isn’t used to being in unfamiliar situations it may become quite on edge around strangers and new environments. If you widen your dogs knowledge and consistently build on positive experiences your dog will feel at ease when confronting a new situation. Check out our Review of Dog Training Zone for inspiration to stop dog aggression.

What can I do about dog aggression?

Start with your dog when it’s young and expose it to a wide range of experiences. Make sure you include other people and animals in your choice of experiences. Experience will teach your dog how much fun other places, people and animals can be. Socialising your dog doesn’t need to be worrying. At puppy pre school your dog will be exposed to new people and new dogs. Once your puppy is comfortable with new people and dogs, you’ll be able to broaden this experience. You will continue to need to socialise your dog.

Aggression with family members:

When dogs feel they need to protect something that is theirs, they can react aggressively towards their family members. Resource guarding is the term used for this behavior. If your dog gets snarly or growls at you when you are near where it is eating or playing with a toy, then you know you have a resource guarding problem. This sort of aggression is a result of a dominance problem. Remember, dogs are pack animals. Packs are structured according to power and position in relation to everyone else in the pack. If there is no dog pack to be ranked against, your dog will rank itself against its human pack and this will determine how to behave in any situation. If your dog perceives himself to be at the top, it is his job to behave aggressively. If on the other hand, your dog percieved itself to be a lower ranking member of the family, it wouldn’t dream of growling at you when you are near its food or toys. The message to your dog must be clear, that you are the boss and your dog is a lower ranking member of the pack.

What can I do to change this?

Regular and consistent obedience training work will renew your authority over your dog. Regular behavior modification sessions are key to positive and effective progress. The more enjoyable you make these sessions, the more your dog will want to please you and remember to use lots of praise and treats.

For more detailed information about dog training and other behavioral problems, check out Secrets to Dog Training. Check out a full look at Daniels Stevens Secrets to Dog Training at DogHelpdesk.com

There are many reasons that a dog might become aggressive toward other dogs.Some dogs might be fearful around other dogs.In other cases the dog may strive to be the dominant dog.In other situations, the dog may become aggressive since he is defending its territory.  The dog can also be taught to be aggressive by the owner rather than being socialized to the other dogs.Some dogs may also be protective of their owners and thus become aggressive and sometimes become sexually aggressive also.

Tips

One major way to stop dog aggression is to ensure that a dog gets to socialize while it is a puppy to other animals.Puppies should be given the opportunity to play with other dogs that are mature and well behaved.In this way, they learn the right and proper dog behavior from the older animals.  The puppy earns that other dogs are okay and that he does not have to fight to defend the territory or protect the owner from the other animals.

Another way to stop dog aggression when a dog starts to become aggressive is to address the issue immediately each time it happens.  The dog should never be allowed to get away from this type of dangerous behavior.A head collar or muzzle can be very effective while the dog is still in training to stop dog aggression, but its not texactly the solution to the problem.

A way to stop dog aggression is through strict training so that the dog is tuned into the instructions of the owner rather than focusing on the other animal.  The dog should be trained to focus on the owner so that his attention is there and the owner can give another command to the dog, such as ‘down’ or ’sit’ while there is another dog around.  The owner should also teach himself to control his anxious feelings and behavior, as small as it might be, so that the dog does not take a nervous cue from the owner.This can also help to stop dog aggression since the dog always learns from the owner.  Once the dog has been trained to focus, the dog can also be distracted by being trained to look for a treat when there is another dog around.The treat can be thrown to the ground and the dog can be told to find it, thus distracting the dog from other dogs and stop the dog aggression before it starts.