Working with aggressive dogs.

I have worked with many aggressive dogs over the years, many were trained that way & many weren't. The first consideration a trainer must make before doing anything with such a dog is that of his own safety & the safety of the handler. You don't start with questions, an evaluation or anything else. You start by making sure the dog is well restrained on a quality leash & collar. Then where possible fit a muzzle so that you can work with & assess the dog with out concern for safety. Once satisfied that all concerned are out of harms way, I like to have a good chat with the owner & try & establish the trigger that most commonly sets off the dog's aggression. Now most people wont know what that is but with questioning I can usually figure it out. Once the trigger is established I like to ask for a description of the dogs body language, the position of the tail, ears etc, the tone of it's bark. At this point I'm trying to establish the drive of the aggression, fear, dominance etc. I like to do all this before beginning work with the dog so as I can decide how I can approach the dog & stay within the good side of it's nerves at this point. Now I would like to give you a step by step procedure to working with an aggressive dog, but it's far from that simple. This type of work requires split second decisions & an experts touch. Some key points to remember though. Whenever a dog shows aggression, medical reasons aside, it's an action to get a re action. For example, if your dog fears strangers, & a stranger walks up to him, he might show many signs of fear that the novice wont see, until the point comes when he shows teeth or barks. The reaction by the stranger is to back off. Hence the dog got the reaction it was looking for. The dog quickly works out that all those early signs were useless in driving off the feared stranger, may decide to bypass them & go straight to aggression next time. Now you have a dog that is aggressive with almost no pre warning. Something that commonly happens after that is that someone known to the family, that is a self proclaimed dog expert ignores the dog's attempts to drive him off & the dog elevates to a bite. Most people will guess the next step, the dog will bite more easily the next time. This is just one reason that an expert will be necessary in diagnosing & treating aggression. I have always found that there is one common denominator when treating aggression. That is obedience training. Good obedience training gives dogs' confidence & leader ship, leadership will help to correct dominant dogs & confidence helps those with fear based aggression. Although the methods used may be different for each type of aggression, the basis of most programs would be obedience training. Many people feel there are all sorts of categories in which aggression should be put into. I like to use four categories in total. Fear based aggression, dominance based aggression, health problems, and trained aggression. Fear Based aggression. This is the most common type of aggression that most dogs suffer from. It is contributed to by lack of socialization, poor training, poor communication to the dog, weak nerves & many other reasons. The aggression is a tool the dog uses to drive away fear. Dogs learn through experimentation how much aggression is required to keep them safe. Some succeed in avoiding fear with as little as their hackles up, others have needed to resort to biting to drive off the fear. No matter which level of fear aggression a dog has, it must be corrected for the dog to live in peace & others to live in safety. Dominance. Dominance is a very misunderstood topic, some have very unusual ideas about what dominance is. Simply put, dominance in a dog is a dog that places itself too high in the pack. Above a human member. Why this turns into aggression is that the human being dominated is often unaware of the fact & does something that has the dog believing that the human was making a challenge for leadership. The dog through aggression attempts to fight off this attempt & you have a dominant dog battle. Dominance is a part of every dogs temperament, whether you will have a problem with it will largely depend on how you perceive & raise your dog. I often find people who treat their dog like the human child they don't have or as a baby, end up with dominance problems in their dog. They are way too soft on an animal & the animal takes advantage of that softness. Like fear aggression, it's very important to get a handle on this aggression. Health problems. Often dogs can display aggression due to health problems. Dogs in pain can strike out in an attempt stop you from adding any more pain. More in depth health problems such as thyroid problems can have a dramatic effect on a dogs temperament. When working with aggression, I never rule out health problems. Trained aggression. Training aggression into a dog should be the work of a professional only. Whilst you can teach a human how to spar in various fighting techniques, many times when dogs are being put through protection training, they feel they are in a real life battle. Its essential that a strong foundation in prey drive is built before attempting any defense training, otherwise your building a fear aggressive dog. General information. If you have a problem with aggression in your dog, contact us for advice on treating it. Many trainers are capable of training some obedience into your dog, but few are capable of understanding aggression, & treating it without fearing your dog.