Dealing with dog aggression sucks. It’s not something you want, and it’s not something you asked for. But, sometimes, you find yourself –or your soon-to-be best friend– in a situation where you need to learn how to deal with dog aggression. Canines are born with their natural aggressive tendencies, but you should guide and control them as a responsible dog owner. Through research and experience, we’ve come up with a few ways you can deal with dog aggression. Hopefully, it’s enough to prevent bringing home an unwanted bite from your fur baby.
The first thing you need to do is ask yourself: why? Why is my dog aggressive? If you know why your dog is acting the way it does, it’ll be much easier to find a solution.
Different kinds of dogs exhibit different aggressive behaviours. For example, some dogs show general aggression against other animals and humans. In contrast, others offer more specific types of charge, such as dominance, food or toy possession aggression, or territorial aggression. In fact, certain breeds are more prone to attack than others. Behavioural trainers specialising in canine aggression can help you determine what kind of behaviour your dog is exhibiting and work with you to change their behaviour.
In addition, part of dealing with dog aggression is understanding how dogs communicate. Dog growls tend to mean one of three things: “I’m scared,” “I want something,” or “I’m angry.” Whichever one is the case, it’s most likely that your dog doesn’t know how to express itself in the way you’d prefer. Therefore, filter out their aggressive tendencies from their natural reaction. Doing so will make it easier for you to help your dog learn how to express itself in ways that don’t involve growling/biting.
Lastly, start building trust. Build up small activities and moments of trust between you and your dog—pet them, play with them, give them treats. They’ll learn that they can depend on you for comfort and safety. Most importantly, providing shelter, food, water, and security is enough to convince them that you are not a threat. Sooner or later, they’ll learn to trust you. You might just be surprised at how fast they can transition out of their aggressive phase.
Training them to trust you or any other person, place, or animal takes so much effort and learning on their part. Be patient and gentle yet firm when dealing with your dog. Punishing them for not getting the result you want will only agitate them and make them more aggressive.
Dealing with dog aggression is laborious. It feels like a constant struggle, and it’s frustrating to know that your dog is constantly dealing with negative feelings that won’t quickly go away. But the MOST IMPORTANT thing you need to know is that dog aggression can be dealt with. Most of the time, dog aggression can be resolved with time, training and/or behavioural modification. However, it WILL get better if you work through it calmly and consistently.
