Reasons for Dog Aggression
One of the biggest problems that a dog owner may face is that of an overly aggressive dog. Dogs are naturally aggressive by nature-at least to some degree. That is because all dogs are descended from pack animals. The packs survived by using their natural aggressive tendencies to hunt and kill their food and to protect their dens and their pack mates from the dangers of predators. In today’s societies, dogs that are too aggressive are going to run into problems. One of the most obvious of these problems is an aggressive dog attacking and biting another dog or person.
Today’s dogs still have the aggressive instinct, but have much less need to display it. That is a good thing, because in today’s society there is no future for aggressive dogs outside of the guard dog industry. A dog that is aggressive enough to bite is often put to sleep, so as a dog owner you will need to control your dog’s aggression if he has an aggression problem. In order to correct his particular dog aggression problem it is a good idea to first identify the reason behind your dog’s aggression.
There are many reasons for a dog aggression-here is a list of some of the 6 most prevalent types of dog aggression and the reasons causing them.
- Dominance Aggression: In dog society each dog must learn his place in the hierarchy of the pack. Some dogs are more dominant, while others are more submissive. By each dog knowing and accepting its place in the pack, peace and order is kept intact, and friction is reduced. When two dogs meet you will always see them greet each other with ritual sniffing about the other dogs face and of course, the other end too. Dogs quickly sort out who is the more dominant dog and as long as one of the dogs submits, the dogs will get along. However, if neither dog agrees to be submissive, the dominance display can turn into dog on dog aggression and lead to a fight.
- Territorial Aggression: aggression is also part of a dog’s natural instinctive aggressive behavior. Dogs developed this type of aggression because it was important to protect their dens and their families from predators. Today this is evident when our dogs act like watchdogs and bark at the arrival of something at your house. An over developed sense of territorial aggression is a problem that could lead to your dog attacking visitors or other dogs that come to your house.
- Fear Aggression: Fear aggression is displayed when a dog is so afraid of some stimulus-perhaps a person or another dog-that he lashes out aggressivley at whatever is nearby. He may even try to bite someone who is offering comfort, so keep a distance form any dog you see that is suffering from fear aggression problems. You will spot this type of aggression easily. It is the opposite of dominance aggression in appearance. The fearful dog will be in a slinking, cringing posture. It’s tail will be tucked way up between its legs and close to the stomach, while the mouth will be snarling and maybe snapping. The dog will make whining, moaning and growling sounds. It is clearly a very disturbed animal as long as the stimulus continues.
- Medical Reasons for Aggression: A common example of a dog that has become aggressive due to a medical reason would be a female dog who has given birth to puppies or is still pregnant, and having hormonal issues. This again would be quite natural-obviously due to the Mama dog’s need to protect her offspring. However, some dogs just seem to be wired for aggression from early age without any obvious causes. Well, some people are like that too. So, a dog could have some kind of psychological issue that results in aggression that is otherwise not apparent. If a dog that is usually not aggressive begins acting aggressively all of a sudden, it could be the result of not feeling good. The dog may need a vet visit to see if it has a medical problem needing attention.
- Predatory Aggression: Once more, predatory aggression is something that is part of a dog’s wiring. In nature dogs use this to hunt down and kill their prey for survival. Nowadays, a dog expresses this by chasing things, for instance the neighbor’s cat, or another dog, or sometimes cars or even people. You need to stop an aggressive dog from chasing because this could easily lead to some bad relations (especially if your dog kills your neighbor’s cat or bites a passerby) and it will need your attention to correct
- Redirected Aggression: A good example of redirected aggression would be when two dogs are barking furiously at someone passing by behind your back fence. Maybe the person is teasing or agitating the dogs somehow. If the dogs get too over excited with their aggression towards the person they can’t get at, sometimes they will end up turning on each other just to get rid of some of that aggression. These same dogs are not actually aggressive towards each other normally, but as a result of the redirected aggression, they momentarily lost it and fought with each other.
Now that you can identify which type of dog aggression your dog has and the reasons behind this particular type of aggression problem you can figure out what remedial steps to take to correct his aggression and make him the well behave and well balanced dog he should ideally be. By training your dog to overcome his aggression problems, no matter what the source of them is, you will help your dog to become a well behaved, well balanced and happier pet. A dog that is comfortable and relaxed around your family and visitors, and even other dogs, is a lot more fun to have as a pet.
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