From its earliest stages, a relationship between a dog owner and their canine companion produces a very loyal bond. For the owner, there are feelings of fondness and friendship mixed with the pleasure derived from nurturing and caring for their little soul mate; from the dog’s perspective, there is a sense of belonging, along with a contentment resulting from the care, affection, and protection afforded them by their adoptive family.
Yet despite such warmth and kind-hearted feelings, there can be situations when a dog’s behaviour is unexpectedly out-of-character, especially when it is manifested through acts of aggression by the dog toward family members, strangers, or other dogs. Under these circumstances, the dog owner might often be heard to remark that such outbursts are very surprising and highly unusual for their pet.
However, just like people, even those who are routinely mild-mannered, dogs can exhibit aggressive behaviour. The fact that it may be highly uncharacteristic should not make it any less worrisome nor should it be taken too lightly and merely cast aside as a one-off; aggressive dog behaviour can and should be dealt with irrespective of frequency or level of severity.
Prior to discussing how to minimize or overcome aggressive dog behaviour, it could be of benefit to understand the factors that may provoke a dog to display signs of aggression. There are in fact many different stimuli that can incite such behaviour, including but not limited to the following:
Additionally, it is important to clarify that dog aggression is not necessarily synonymous with direct attacks on people or animals. Aggressive dog behaviour can be manifested in several different ways, such as:
In order to curtail such types of unwanted behaviours, dog owners can take a number of pre-emptive steps; these include implementing the following actions with or for the dog:
Investing time and effort to incorporate the above can prove to be extremely beneficial in further reinforcing the dog-owner bond and strengthening the mutual rewards derived from that relationship.
As seen above, there can be a number of stimuli that provoke aggressive dog behaviour, and a wide range of responses from/by the dog to those forces. In some circumstances, and despite the best of intentions, dog owners may not be able to satisfactorily minimize or overcome the explicit types of responses by their dog; consequently, they may want to call upon the professional dog trainers from Alpha Paws to assess the root cause(s) of the dog’s aggression and implement a specific training program to remedy the situation.
Through an in-home or on-site assessment, an Alpha Paws trainer can diagnose the type of aggression exhibited by the dog in order to propose/develop the best course of action; some of the more common types or classifications of aggressive dog behaviour include:
Once the essence or foundation of the aggressive dog behaviour has been identified, the Alpha Paws trainer can design a training program to help the owner and the dog address and resolve the particular situation. In turn, these programs can be delivered in one of two ways:
For more information on the Alpha Paws training sessions for aggressive dog behaviour, please go to Aggressive Dog Training and Behavioural Adjustments page.
To understand why your dog might be displaying aggression and to investigate various ways to minimize or overcome such unwanted behaviour, call the dog training experts from Alpha Paws at 1-647-694-4584 today to discuss our training classes and arrange an in-home or onsite assessment for your dog.
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