If you are the owner of an aggressive Dog or have been the unfortunate victim of one you will be all to aware of the serious danger posed by aggressive Dog behavior.
The Varying Forms Of Dog Aggression
Its important to differentiate between Dog on Dog aggression a and specific aggression towards people. Both are triggered for different reasons and with varying underlying rationale.
*Fear Based Aggression: If a Dog suffers a traumatic experience of some kind, such as suffering an aggressive attack from another Dog. This may in turn lead to your own Dog displaying aggressive behavior. Dog aggression may be the result of one, or both of the following factors.
*Dominance Based Aggression: This form of Dog aggression is centered on both people and other Dogs. It comes about when your Dog is attempting to be considered as the alpha leader. If your Dog is displaying aggressive behavior towards the owner when given instruction this is a sign that Dog Training is needed in order to re-establish yourself as the 'alpha pack leader.'
What To Do If Your Dog Has Recently Become Aggressive
If your Dog has a history of friendliness towards strangers and family and has only recently begun to change its behavior. Efforts must be made to examine recent circumstances leading up to this change of attitude. Sometimes bad behavior can be a physical symptom of an emotional problem. Other times the reasons are medical based.
Emotional Aggression
By 'emotional reasons' this is relating to any significant change of circumstance that may have considerably effected or upset your Dog. The classic example is when a new baby arrives in the family. Suddenly the Dog is no longer the centre of attention they once were and responds accordingly. As Pack animals Dogs may also presume that their importance in the Pack (the family) has suddenly diminished, so in order to regain your attention they may potentially display signs aggression is a misguided attempt to fall back into favour with you. In situations like these a combination of Home based retraining for the Dog and reward based incentives are effective to curb aggression.
Medical Reasons For Aggression
If a Dog becomes ill, it cant tell you. So sometimes, if this is the case, aggressive behavior can be a by product of a potential illness. There are many medical conditions which are easily treatable but may well come under this criteria so it is of absolute importance that you get them to a Vet as soon as is reasonably possible.