Sometimes, when we are not able to take care of our dogs well, we get them to a shelter or a veterinarian. One of the reasons is dog aggression. You are scared on how the dogs may be able to bite you or cause damage to other dogs if they are getting aggressive.
Canine aggression could be an asset in some other aspects, but the instinctual canine aggression that stems from fear and trauma is not. Let us discover the science behind aggression, focus on its causes and some of the possible outcomes when having an aggressive dog.
Dog Training is Lacking in most Dogs
There are a lot of people getting bitten by dogs annually, which numbers to an approximate of 4.3 million. Almost 2 million of our pet dogs are being euthanized annually in animal shelters. One of the main reasons that dog owners give up with their pets and bring them to shelter is aggression.
And most of these “aggressive dogs” are being euthanized. To avoid these, studies have suggested that pet owners should be encouraged to train their dog. If not by themselves, they could bring them to an expert dog trainer to take up obedience training classes. Also, regular visit to their veterinarians will help them by learning updates on their health.
Experts say that dog aggression is one of the most urgent and most common behavioral issue that dog owners and veterinarians encounter. Understanding aggression in dogs, its potential causes, avoiding and modifying this behavior will help minimize the risks that are commonly linked with an aggressive dog.
If you are not able to do this alone, you might as well seek professional help since mishandling this behavior may lead to the severity of this problem. Our goal is to solve the problem, not make it worse.
This common behavioral problem will be dissected and discussed in this article. This in-depth article will start by discussing the four primary types of aggression in dogs and their potential triggers. This information will help you avoid them and come up with plans on dealing with them. Getting to the root of the problem is often a good way to solve this dog aggression issue.
4 types of dog aggression
These four main types of dog aggression are considered by scientists as the most common behaviors exhibited by dogs.
- Aggression towards the owner
- Aggression towards kids and other children
- Aggression towards people, especially strangers
- Aggression towards other dogs
Usually, the owners should most be aware of aggression towards them and be concerned about it. However, aggression towards children and strangers are dangerous in their own ways. Children are most likely to be injured once a dog has gone aggressive on them because of their small stature.
As for strangers, you never know what a stranger would do once he has been directed with a dog’s aggression. The stranger may hurt your dog or even sue you as an owner of the said dog.
Aggressive dog breeds?
Although aggression is common to all dogs up to an extent, science have said that there are dog breeds more likely to show aggression than others. Examples would be the Jindo dog breed and Shiba Inu. These dog breeds were discovered to have genes closer to the wolves. Also, these breeds were found to be difficult to train than the majority of dog breeds.
This means that you have to know your dog very well especially its genetic ancestry in order to come up with proper dog training regimen. Implementing a good obedience course for your dog that is suitable for him may reduce the release of aggression.
Reactive dogs are aggressive dogs?
Sudden movements and sounds may cause your dog to react physically. This reactivity is positively correlated with all of the common dog aggression types mentioned before. This means that if a dog has a strong reaction to sudden stimulus, it is more likely that he would exhibit dog aggression towards people, other dogs, and even strangers as observed in most cases.
You have to be observant with your dog to see if he has high sensitivity and therefore you can manage how he would behave aggressively. If your dog seems jumpy at the slightest sound, you might want to reduce the stimuli by making your walks avoid noisy and busy areas or even children.
You might want to consult a professional dog trainer for this. This is important as the dogs could be unpredictable and may attack children. In order to be safe, dog owners and their highly reactive dogs should try to keep their dogs on a safe distance from kids and strangers, since they could be a real threat to children.
Train them to slowly acclimate to stimuli and it may reduce the jumpiness of your dog. Just make sure to do this training in a safe environment and manage a slow method of introducing these stimuli.
Science has discovered that unsocial dogs are correlated with dog aggression. This means that the more comfortable a dog is when interacting with humans, then the less they are aggressive towards children and strangers.
This is a good discovery since you will be able to observe and predict your dog’s aggressive behavior towards other people. Once you see that your dog is very uncomfortable with playing or interacting with humans, then you might as well secure your dog and try to avoid approaching strangers.
Safe environment should reduce the contact of your dog to strangers and it may help your dog be more sociable to other people by introducing him little by little
How to deal with dog aggression?
With the discussion above, we may conclude ways on how to deal with aggression in dogs. First is by having ample knowledge towards aggressive behaviors. This would allow you to be keener and observant towards signs about your dog’s aggression. Knowing your dog and his behavior would help in making up plans on how to keep his aggression at bay.
Next is by neutering or spaying them. Although this could apply mostly in male dogs, there are some studies that mentioned that this procedure has reduced aggression in dogs, but not all 4 types were diminished.
Lastly, proper socialization. Proper socialization with your dog even in the younger years would allow him to understand and discover that there are less threats in the environment, reducing the stimuli for aggression and eventually diminishing their aggressive behavior. These should be effective in dealing with dog aggression.
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