How to Train an Aggressive Dog
Having an aggressive dog is a complicated, frustrating, and even an embarrassing situation.
You brought this dog into your life for unconditional love, to bring him on vacation, take her to ball games, your kid’s activities or even so your kids could grow up with a dog.
But then sometimes, not always the dog barks, or growls, or lunges, or snarls or even bites and you are left feeling worried and blaming yourself because you are sure you did something wrong.
More and more dogs are displaying signs of aggression. Aggression towards other dogs, aggression towards their owners and aggression towards people they don’t know.
Most of you have been told that you didn’t:
- Socialize your dog enough
- You didn't train your dog enough
- You weren't alpha enough
Some of you have enrolled your dog into Doggie Daycare to get more socialization or to “help” your dog like other dogs. Or you visit dog parks hoping that more “socialization” will help him to get over it.
Yet, you are still left wondering how to train an aggressive dog?
Our approach to dog training and behavior is to look at the WHOLE DOG!
If we only focus on stopping the embarrassing, frustrating behavior, we miss addressing the underlying issue.
Behavior is a symptom of an underlying issue.
It’s just the tip of the iceberg.
We must try to answer the question of Why is your dog behaving this way?
- Why is your dog lunging at other dogs?
- Why is your dog barking at dogs during your walks?
- Why is your dog growling at guests?
We need to ask WHY is your dog afraid, nervous, anxious, obnoxious etc?
Let me ask you:
If your young child didn’t want to get on the school bus to go to school, would you only focus on the bus? Of course not, you’d dig deeper. Is the child car sick? Is the child being bullied on the bus? Is the child afraid of going to school? There are SO MANY reasons WHY the child doesn’t want to get on the bus.
If we forced her to get on the bus, or punished her for not getting on the bus, or even threatened her we would never address the REAL issue. AND we risk causing MORE trauma to the child.
We do the same with your dog.
Once we have identified the root cause of your dog’s embarrassing and worrisome behavior, then we can start to discuss how to train an aggressive dog, your dog. And let’s be honest, your dog isn’t aggressive ALL THE TIME!
If you would like to discuss how to train an aggressive dog select the option from below that best meets your needs.
Aggression
Reactivity
Living with a reactive dog is embarrassing, frustrating and can be scary when your dog’s behavior feels out of out of control and unpredictable. Some dogs can just struggle so much with reactive behavior towards other dogs, people, bikes and more. It’s stressful on you and your family and it’s stressful for your dog too.
Puppy
Almost everyone who buys or adopts a puppy has a similar experience. Your cute, snuggly, little bundle of love turns into a T-Rex with sharp teeth and seemingly snapping jaws at everything, including you, your arms, hands, legs and feet are fair game to your T-Rex puppy.
Leash
We know how stressful leash aggression can be and we want to help both you and your dog feel more confident, calm and in control. You can get started with a virtual or in-person Initial Consult. We look forward to meeting you!
Fear
Fear aggression in dogs is fairly common and often misunderstood. Fear aggression is directed towards a person or another animal and the motivation is to display aggressive signals (showing teeth, growling, lunging or even making contact and biting) in an attempt to move that dog or person AWAY.
Food
Food aggression is when a dog “guards” a food item like a food bowl, bone, bully stick, pig’s ear or other edible item from a person or another animal by growling, showing teeth, becoming very stiff, giving hard eye contact, snapping, or biting. This may occur when the dog is in direct possession of the item or when the dog is in the vicinity of the item.