When dealing with an aggressive dog, you must understand what makes a dog become aggressive. Your dog may become aggressive out of fear, as a way of asserting dominance, or through instincts to protect their territory or from other dogs in the group. Sometimes they can become aggressive as a result of abuse from uninformed, or misinformed, owners.
Dogs are aggressive by nature, it is how they find their place in the pack.
They assert their dominance through aggression, but not violence. If your dog has not been clearly shown that you are the Alpha, he may challenge your rank, by not getting off the couch when you say, or maybe not giving you a toy when you say drop it. He might snap at you, or even bite.
When challenged, a dominant dog may become aggressive, it is the nature of dogs to have a leader, and he will defend his right to lead through dominant aggression, but the conflicts with other dog’s seldom results in blood shed. Dogs are social animals, and much like humans they see their pack as their family, they run the pack through a ranking system, each dog has a job, and if they are not fulfilling the needs of the pack, they will be corrected by the Alpha dog, sometimes through aggression.
If you have a dominant dog who is always challenging you, maybe he is ignoring your commands, or being out right defiant, do not try to physically make your dog do anything, if you try to let’s say, make him lay down physically, he may become aggressive and bite you.
It would be better for you to learn how to be the Alpha of your “pack” family. When you couple this approach with learning to read your dog’’s body language so you know what they are saying to you, you can begin to help your dog realize that you are in charge and he does not have to be the leader.
When a dog gets frightened or startled he may become aggressive.
differently. This aggression can be directed toward humans and other dogs. Spend some time observing your dog and find out what makes him afraid. Then work on your leadership skills and help your dog overcome these fears, and return to a natural balanced state of being.
The best thing you can do is to become educated about how to communicate with your dog on his level. When you begin to understand the reasons why your dog is aggressive, you can make better decisions about how to help them.
Please do not attempt to fix the problem by doing what you see on some of the popular television shows, there is a lot of T.V. magic (behind the scenes) that you don’t see, and these people are professional dog handlers with years of experience dealing with aggression in dogs.
Instead, find help in your local area. Make sure you check to ensure the person you go to really knows about dogs, and has had experience in dealing with this particular behavioral issue.
