We all love our dogs. They are part of our family and we want them to be safe and happy. But, if you have an aggressive dog than you know that things are not well with your four legged family member. An aggressive dog is dangerous to you, other dogs, and other people and this can be very scary. You may have tried different methods to curb this aggression only to find yourself keeping your dog away from other people, other dogs, and situations where he may be aggressive. While this may prevent an attack, it does make for an unhappy dog and an unhappy dog owner. To fix this problem, it takes a real comprehensive approach to cure your dog of aggression.
Some dogs are aggressive against people; some are aggressive against other dogs. If your dog is aggressive by barking, snapping, and behaving in a menacing manner to friends, people walking by the house or that you pass by on a walk than you know that something has to change.
Your dog's health is the first thing to look into when exhibiting signs of aggression. A trip to the vet will rule out a possible health problem. A sick dog or a dog that is in pain is more likely to show signs of aggression to protect it from harm.
After ruling out potential health problems, it is time to start to train your dog. It is important that you are the dominant one in your relationship with the dog and that your dog looks to you for decisions. This takes much practice. Many use treats or some kind of other reward to teach the dog to focus on you and that behaving in a manner that you expect is what brings positive reinforcement.
A dog exhibiting dominance is a common source of aggression towards other dogs. Again, a good way to correct this problem is to train your dog to focus on you for direction. This should be done in a safe environment for the dog where he or she will feel comfortable. In this training, you focus your dog to focus on you. The dog follows your direction and is rewarded when your dog behaves properly. When your dog focuses on you, give it a reward. Soon, you can try walking past another dog and use this method. If your dog begins to show aggression, use your focus command and with enough training, your dog will focus on you, and not the other dog.
There is a public outcry against vicious and aggressive dogs. In some countries, and in some states, the Pit Bull, Rottweiler, Argentine Dogo, American Staffordshire Terrier and others have been banned or have been required to wear muzzles whenever they are in public.
Why? Do you mean all these dogs are bad dogs. Where in actually reality there are no such things as bad dogs, what we have are bad owners and bad breeders which causes the public to go against these dogs.
If you just open up your eyes to observe, you will start seeing American Pit Bull Terrier and other so called "Viscious Dogs" that has gone through dog training in search and rescue resulted in this pit bull working very hard at its job, and is very successful even around children.
But because of their reputation, people tend not to see their gentle side traits.
One of the common misunderstanding of dog aggression is when you as the owner is not able to establish the dog position in the family. As dog is pack animal, it will try to find its standing in the hierachy.
Since children are at eye level with the dog, it makes perfect sense the dog will first challenge them on its first level and proceed up until it find its standing.
It is the responsibility of you the owner and as the leader to establish and make your dog understand that their position is at the lower end of this pecking order. Family first, dog last.
Establishing this fact that is clearly understood by your dog will definitely solve a lot of your dog's aggression issues.
Another common mistakes that many owners make, that actually train their dog to have the aggression behavior problem is when they encourage aggressive behavior.
Playing tug-of-war or wrestling games encourages the dog to attempt to "best", or "win out" over the owner, which can result in the beginning of a dominance aggression problem.
This again goes back to being establishing the position of the dog in the family, by encouraging such activity, you would destroy the establishment of his rank in the family.
When dogs are encouraged to "go get 'em" or to bark and dash about in response to outside noises or the approach of a person, territorial and protective aggressive behavior may be the result.
So aggression behavior can be changed with proper dog training and right establishment of the dog's ranking in the pack.
So it is my encouragment for all of us to start seeing things from the other side of the coin, some of these called "Viscious Breed" are really not and they are some of the most wonderous companion to be around with.
Even, if you get them with aggression problem, you can still re-train them and they can be transform to obedience and most wonderful dogs you can ever have.
Both Mike Fletcher & Leo Enoch are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
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