subject: How To Deal With Aggressive Dog Behavior [print this page] If you are a dog owner, chances are, your dog might be exhibiting aggressive behavior. This could either be baring of its teeth, growling, quickly snapping, barking, and worst of all, biting another animal, object, or person. While it is normal among dogs, this can prove quite troublesome for their owner. Neighbours and passersby that get attacked would most likely file a complaint or sue you since the canine is your responsibility.
It is important to find out how to deal with your dog's aggressive behavior in order to avoid such issues.
You have to understand that a dog communicates differently. A simple gesture, like a hand reaching out, might only mean "hey, let me pat you", but a dog may perceive it as a threat, and display aggressive behavior accordingly. There are other things can trigger aggressive behavior.
The most common reason for displaying aggressive behaviour is when somebody is getting near its territory; this could be either just his favourite spot, or your entire yard, or even the entire street where he always walks, endangering other dogs and human passersby.
If you have multiple dogs, there's a good possibility that they will display aggressive behaviour towards others. Long ago, dogs travel in packs, similar to today's wolves and wild dogs. They follow a sort of hierarchy, with the most dominant dog on top, asserting their position over other dogs thru aggression. This is also true among domesticated dogs.
Your dog may be very friendly towards you but then suddenly snarl or bare its teeth if he thinks something is challenging its position, like being grabbed around the collar, or when being approached while resting. This is also why dogs that normally live together peacefully suddenly attack each other.
Another, more uncommon trigger of aggressive behavior is fear-motivated aggression. Your dog, like any other animal will fight back when threatened and react aggressively towards anything that he perceives as harmful. Children might run towards your dog, wanting to pat it, but your dog might think that the children are attacking him and could possibly bite them.
Finally, if your dog's aggressive behavior gets triggered, and it can't get to the object that caused the trigger, your dog could possibly direct its aggression towards something or somebody he can reach. This redirected aggression could put you or your other dogs at risk of being attacked.
