There are a lot of misconceptions tied up with dog aggression. Even the image of an aggressive dog in our minds could be slightly similar because of the society’s influence. In the same way, we may have caught up on some methods people use that they claim to “fix” aggressive behavior in dogs.
But in reality, some of these methods just worsen your dog’s aggressive tendencies. It does not cure or fix aggression in any way, but instead add to the fear and anxiety that your dog is feeling every time it exhibits aggression.
Understanding aggressive behavior first is a way to diminish your dog’s aggressive instincts. Remember these top 10 things that make your dog’s aggression worse.
1. Spanking
Hitting your dog in any way just hurts your dog, but not fix it. If you have realized that aggressive behaviors are just instinctual behaviors done by dogs in order to avoid or fight a threat, then you would not hit your dog.
Hitting your dog will just make you a threat to him, so you are just planting a seed of fear into his mind that you, his owner, is a threat. So do not hit your dog.
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2. Yelling
This may work on humans, but it won’t work on dogs. If he displays an aggressive behavior like loud barking, and you started to yell to your dog, then he won’t understand why you are yelling.
Most of the time, it will just result to your dog thinking that you’re yelling with him or her. This will just escalate your dog’s aggression. In your dog’s mind, you are supporting him. Dogs have very sensitive hearing senses. There is actually no reason at all to yell at your dog in any way.
3. Leash correction
Leash correction is usually done in old school training methods. But nowadays, leash correction is frowned upon. Why? It just destroys the bond between you and your dog. If you just try and try to correct your dog’s behavior but does not teach him what to do, then you are only worsening the situation.
So every time he starts to show aggressive tendencies but you do the leash correction on him, he wouldn’t understand what to do to remove his fears. Instead, it would only aggravate your dog’s behavior every time he encounters a potential threat or every time he becomes scared.
4. Electric shock collar
This is just reinforcing a bad deed using another bad deed. When you are training a dog with proper training methods, you wouldn’t need a shock collar. It has the same effect with leash correction method, but in another way.
So imagine your dog encountering another dog, and he perceived it as a threat. He started growling, barking, and shows other aggressive signs. Then, the pain from the electric collar comes in.
Thinking about the situation, you will do realize that your dog would think that the pain is caused by the presence of the threat, not coming from you, right? So yes, shock collars would just intensify the aggressive behaviors of a dog.
5. Getting nervous
Dogs are smart animals. Even without the super complex and advanced thinking of humans, dog’s instincts make them feel and realize things.
If you get nervous while your dog senses or approaches a threat, you are just teaching him that it is just proper to feel nervous and anxious to the threat. Your dog will just mirror your behavior and instead exhibit more aggression rather than be calm.
6. No Leash Manners
Good leash manners and skills should be taught to both the owner and the dog. Usually, the owner would just pop on the leash and go around walking their dog. The underlying problem is, this routine could possible reinforce the aggressive tendencies of your dog especially when he’s out exploring without rules.
If he encounters threat while walking, he will most likely tug the leash with a lot of force rather than stay and behave calmly by your side.
7. Improper Socialization
We may have misconceptions about how socialization for dogs involve off leash release and let them play and run around with the other dogs. This is ideally correct, but the reality is, it is wrong.
You are letting him experience various traumas and experiences that may get your dog real anxious and not trusting to others. Instead of letting him experience all those bad happenings, try to guide him through it.
Train your dog even with all those things in the background, train him that those potential traumas are worth nothing, train him to socialize properly and slowly with other dogs and humans.
8. No Stimulating Experience
Dogs want to experience a lot of things. Most owners who don’t care enough about their dog would sometimes let their dog experience them all, or not at all. Letting your dog outside that fence by himself will just make him be aggressive by learning the hard way about traumatic experiences.
However, if you let your dog stay inside all day, the frustration of not being able to play around could eventually turn into aggression. The key is, you have to let your dog experience things while guiding him through it. Do not let your dog handle their own ways especially if they are on a younger and more sensitive age.
9. Encouraging aggression
Of course, this will just worsen the aggressive behavior. If you do not show remorse and somehow condone your dog’s aggression, then he will do it every time.
If your dog barks at the pizza delivery guy and you just laugh it off, you would not do the same if your dog barks at your family member, right? Therefore, do not condone and encourage any aggressive behavior in any way.
10. Ignoring aggression
Ignoring your dog’s aggressive behavior is as worse as encouraging it. Just ignoring the problem does not add to the solution no matter how you think about it. If your dog has aggressive tendencies, try your best to observe and understand instead of ignoring everything that happens in your dog.
This is a big no-no and if you really love your dog, then you have to give time and take notice of what’s happening with him. Do not make excuses but accept the fact that your dog has aggression that needs to be noticed.
Is your dog’s aggressive behavior frustrating you to no end? CLICK HERE to watch this FREE Step-by-Step Video from Doggy Dan!
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