Stop Aggressive Dog Behavior and Restore Peace

This is a more common problem as your puppy gets older but can start early in some cases. Aggression is instinctive and normal in dogs. You have to remember that wild dogs were hunters and needed the ability to defend themselves from other animals. Dogs are capable of inflicting serious damage to someone. It's when you forget the instinctive nature of dogs that you run into problems. Selective breeding over the years may have reduced the aggression but it's still there in their instinctive nature. You can use dog training to stop aggressive dog behavior arising as a problem. If aggression has already arisen, there are methods to deal with it. For a comprehensive guide to dealing with aggressive dog behavior, I recommend you check out Secrets To Dog Training by Daniel Stevens. As well as the main training manual, there is a bonus which is a quick guide to dog aggression.

There are several types of dog aggression and you need to recognise which kind we are dealing with:

• aggression to strangers
• aggression to family members.

Aggression to strangers

Aggression to strangers is fear aggression and is caused by being unfamiliar with people. It stems from fear of the unknown and unfamiliar.

The main way of preventing this kind of aggression is to focus on socializing your puppy so that he encounters lots of different environments, different people and different dogs. You want him to meet as many kinds of people and animals as possible.

It's useful to take him to puppy preschool or puppy parties where he can mix and get used to other puppies and to other people.

The socialization period is from about five weeks to twelve weeks. After twelve weeks, the puppy still needs to continue developing his social skills. If this early socialization is missed, the socialization process becomes more time-consuming and difficult.

When beginning socializing, it's important to begin gradually, so that you don't overwhelm your puppy.

Aggression to family members

There are two reasons for this kind of aggression:

• resource guarding
• dislike of being handled.

Resource guarding

This is a dominance behavior. We have to remember that the dog is a pack animal and that dominance plays a vital role in pack behavior.

If you don't take clear leadership and display dominance over your dog, then your dog will very likely take up the dominant role and you will experience the problems that stem from that.

One of these problems is resource guarding where the dog will growl at you if you go near his food or try to get hold of his toy. This kind of behavior would only be displayed by a high-ranking dog to a lower-ranking dog.

The most efficient way to deal with this problem is by frequent obedience work which will emphasise your authority. Two short sessions per day will demonstrate your authority.

As with all training, the main points are to reward correct behavior with treats and praise and to give no attention at all for misbehavior.

Aggression when your dog is handled

This can be caused by lack of proper socialization at an early age. A second possible reason is a bad grooming experience where he was hurt. This can easily happen when cutting nails for example.

The method to deal with this is to start very gradually handling him and immediately giving praise and a treat when he is not aggressive.

If it's having a bath that he dislikes, again introduce him to the water gradually with praise and treats.

If it's clipping nails that is the problem, just start by picking up a paw and touching it with the clippers.

Whatever you are dealing with, as soon as he shows signs of stress, stop immediately and allow him to relax.

Nail clipping can be a major problem with some dogs and you may be better allowing a professional groomer or vet to do it.

Are you having problems with aggressive behavior in your puppy or dog? If your answer to the above question is yes, then I strongly recommend that you check out the Secrets To Dog Training Guide. It's very in depth and great value for money. There's the downloadable manual, and audio version of the same and some great bonuses. The whole package covers everything you need to know about selecting a puppy or dog, caring for your dog, training your dog, dealing with any behavioral problems such as barking and biting and much more. Click here to check out the Secrets To Dog Training website .