Instinctively, a dog is an aggressive creature. This is the most needed instinct to survive in the wild. Dogs used aggression to hunt, to defend themselves from other creatures, and to defend food, shelter, and a mate.

Over the centuries, selective breeding has minimized and refined this trait significantly. Dogs are physically capable of inflicting serious harm (their teeth tells it all!) because that’s how they’ve survived and evolved. And Mother Nature is pretty crafty – it’s hard to counteract the power of instinct! But that doesn’t mean that we, as dog lovers and owners, are entirely helpless when it comes to handling our dogs.

We can do a lot to prevent aggression in the first place and even if prevention hasn’t been possible for whatever reason, there are still steps that we can take to recognize and deal with it efficiently. Learn how to do that here:

www.dogcenteronline.com/Smart-Dog-Training-Techniques

There are several different types of canine aggression. The two most common ones are:

1. Aggression towards strangers
2. Aggression towards family members

These two types of aggression stem from very different causes, and require different types of treatment.

Aggression towards strangers - It’s pretty easy to tell when a dog is anxious around strange people. He’s jumpy and on the alert: either he can’t sit still and is constantly fidgeting, leaping at the smallest sound, and pacing around barking and whining; or he’s still, sitting rock-steady in one place, staring hard at the object of his suspicions. The one major reason why a dog doesn’t like strange people is that he’s never had the chance to get
used to them. Remember, your dog relies fully on you to broaden his horizons for him. Without being taken on lots of outings to see the world and realize for himself, that the unknown doesn’t necessarily equal bad news for him, he can’t realistically be relax in an unfamiliar situation.

Socialization is extremely important aspect of your dog’s upbringing. Socializing your dog means exposing him from a young age to a wide variety of new experiences, new people, and new animals. This gets him to learn through experience that new sights and sounds are fun, not scary. The more categories of people and animals he meets in a fun and relaxed context, the more at ease, happy and safe he’ll be around.

He needs to be taken to a whole bunch of new places and environments. Remember not to overwhelm him, start off slow, and build up his tolerance gradually.

Aggression towards family members - There are two common reasons why a dog is aggressive towards members of his own human family:

1. He’s trying to defend something he perceived as a threat (you). This is known as resource guarding.

2. He’s not comfortable with the treatment, handling he’s getting from you or other members of the family.

Resource guarding is pretty common among dogs. The term refers to overly-possessive behavior on behalf of your dog, for instance, snarling at you if you approach him when he’s eating, or giving you “the eye” (a flinty-eyed, direct stare) if you reach your hand out to take a toy away
from him. All dogs can be possessive from time to time – it’s in their natures. Even sometimes over things with no conceivable value.

It all boils down to the issue of dominance. Let me take a moment to explain this concept: dogs are pack animals. This means that they’re used to a very structured environment in a dog-pack, each individual animal is ranked in a
hierarchy of position and power, and dominance and aggression are the exclusive rights of a superior-ranked animal. No underdog would ever show aggression or act dominantly to a higher-ranked animal. To put it plainly: if
it was clear to your dog that he is not, in fact, the leader of the family, he’d never even dream of trying to prevent you from taking his food or toys. So what can I do about it? The best treatment for dominant, aggressive behavior is consistent, frequent obedience work, which will underline
your authority over your dog. Just two fifteen-minute sessions a day will make it perfectly clear to your dog that you’re the boss, and that it pays to do what you say.

You can make this fact clear to him by rewarding him with treats and lavish praise for obeying a command, and isolating him , putting him in “time-out”, either outside the house or in a room by himself for misbehavior. Brush up on your understanding of canine psychology and communication, so that you understand what he’s trying to say – this will help you to nip any
dominant behaviors in the bud, and to communicate your own authority more effectively. Train regularly, keep obedience sessions short and productive no more than fifteen minutes, maybe two or three of these per day.

Now to the issue of handling-induced aggression: All dogs have different handling thresholds. Some dogs like lots of cuddles, and are perfectly content to be hugged, kissed, and have arms slung over their shoulders, others usually the ones not accustomed to a great deal of physical contact from a very young age aren’t comfortable with too much full-body contact and will get nervy and agitated if someone persists in trying to hug them.

Another common cause of handling-induced aggression is a bad grooming experience: nail-clipping and bathing are the two common culprits. When you clip a dog’s nails, it’s very easy to cut the blood vessel that runs inside the nail. This is extremely painful to a dog, and is a sure-fire way to cause a long-lasting dislike to those clippers. Being washed is something that many dogs have difficulty dealing with. If you feel that in order to complete the wash you have to forcibly restrain him, it adds to the dog’s sense of panic, and reinforces his impression of a wash as something to be avoided at all
costs – if necessary, to defend himself from it with a display of teeth and hackles.

You can retrain him to enjoy being handled and groomed It’s a lot easier if you start from a young age. For an older dog that may already have had several unpleasant handling/grooming experiences, things are a little more
difficult. You need to undo the damage already caused by those bad experiences, which you can do by taking things very slowly – with an emphasis on keeping your dog calm. The instant he starts to show signs of stress, stop immediately and let him relax. Try to make the whole thing
into a game: give him lots of praise, pats, and treats. Take things slowly.

Dogs show aggression for a reason: they’re warning you to back off, or else! If your dog just can’t seem to accept being groomed, no matter how much practice you put in, it’s best to hand the job over to the professionals. Your
vet will clip his nails for you make sure you tell him first that he gets aggressive when the clippers come out, so your vet can take the necessary precautions!.

As far as washing and brushing goes, the dog-grooming business is a flourishing industry: for a small fee, you can get your dog washed, clipped, brushed, and whatever else you require by experienced professionals again, make sure you tell them about your dog’s reaction to the experience first!

For more information on handling aggressive and dominant behaviors, as well as a great deal of detailed information on a host of other common dog behavior problems, check out the No. 1 dog training and behavior website for over 4 years. It’s a complete owner’s guide to owning, rearing, and training your dog, and it deals with all aspects of dog ownership.

To get the inside word on preventing and dealing with problem behaviors like aggression and dominance in your dog, you can visit the kingdomofpets site by clicking on the link below:

www.dogcenteronline.com/Smart-Dog-Training-Technique

All the best to you and your dog,
Mark Handison