The problem is that such methods tend to be far less effective and lead to more dogs in shelters and more dogs being put down due to a lack of success in training.
The best way to effect change with dogs is with a stabilized approach to dog training. In other words, an effective dog training program should include tons of positive motivation stabilized with humane and proper correction.
In this video I show a simple way for you to think about correction as it relates to dog aggression.
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4 Responses to “How to Correct Dog Aggression”
I have a male mini dachshund 11 years old and a female mini spayed 5 years old and a 90 lbs and a 14 month old Bassett we have had him for 9 months. The problem is he keeps trying to attack my male mini is there something I can do he is very aggressive with food toys and his bed please help I don’t want to give him away.
You haven’t mentioned what you’ve tried so far to fix the problem?
Hello Ty , I am having a huge issue with my 2-3 yr old female pitbull. I rescued her from a high kill shelter and I thought she was the sweetest dog ever. When I took her home she immediately got along with my other toy breed, so I decided to take her to the dog park(biggest mistake ever. The first two times she played along great with the other dogs but the third time there was a boxer who began biting her legs almost in a dominating way and my dog stood there looking shocked or nervous and was afraid to move. I quickly left but brought her once more and this time she ran after other dog jumping on them and biting the back of their necks pinning them down, which caused 2 altercation in when I decided she shouldn’t be in the park. I took her to an off leash trail which she got along great with the other dogs but was very forceful in play. At the end of the trail there was this squirrely looking dog in the bushes , which she ran after and grabbed its neck shaking it around as if she caught prey . She ended up crushing the other dogs jaw and it costed our home owners insurance 4400 dollars. I felt horrible that I put the the other dog and my own dog in this predicament. One day I was walking my dog and she pulled the leash so hard it broke and she went after another dog which she jumped on the back and grabbed it neck, but she did not injure the dog because I got to her on time. Another issue was my sister left the backyard gate open and my dog ran out and bit another dog which the dog had to get stitches on its leg and I had to go to court and pay a fine. The issue with my dog is that she doesn’t behave aggressively when she goes after these dogs, because she has never growled or show her teeth she goes after them and just tries to grab them. I paid for a trainer to come to my house and after the first session he brought his other pittbull to see how my dog reacts and he noticed that my dog is just over excited that leads to forceful play and so he said i need to set limitation. I am trying to continue training her but it doesn’t seem to work . i can never have peace of mind because I always feel like she gonna get out the house someway and attack another dog. She is amazingly sweet with people and anyone can do absolutely anythings to her, her treat , or her food and she does not mind. Her issue is focus , and she has high prey drive( she just killed a raccoon, which I am sad about) but I can’t seem to get her focus when other dogs or people are around. pls let me know of any suggestions. I don’t want animal control to get , I don’t want her to bite another dog , and I don’t want to get sued pls help
Thanks for the comment. I’m going to be very blunt, though, on a few points:
- You didn’t off leash train her yet you took her to off leash trails. If you don’t have control over a situation you should never put your dog in that situation. The same goes for the dog park.
- You have to be responsible enough that dogs don’t get out of yards.
- You’re fooling yourself. You think that because she’s not growling or showing teeth that she’s not being aggressive. This isn’t the case. There are many dogs that don’t give outwards signs of aggression. For example, the majority of the pit bulls that I’ve worked with that have aggression problems don’t growl or show teeth before they attack. Even if we decided to look at the semantics and say ‘well, aggressive behavior is this and prey based behavior is that’ it doesn’t matter. In the eyes of the law a pit bull who attacks other dogs doesn’t get the benefit of the doubt of having their motives questioned.
The silver lining here is that you know you’ve screwed up. My intent isn’t to make you feel bad but the reality is that you seem to have made one bad choice after another and now you find yourself in a huge predicament. The truth is that you need a great deal of education on what you have and how to fix this.
Like I say, you’re on the right track now because you admit mistakes and recognize things need to change.
I’d say the changes that need to be made include:
- High level obedience. You don’t have much control over this dog. You’ve got to start there.
- Proper management of her. You can’t allow fences to not be locked, you can’t allow her off leash around heavy distractions, you can’t have her just meeting any which dog.
- With the obedience you need to learn proper handling techniques on how to maintain calmness with her when she’s in public.
At the very least I’d recommend our Curing Dog Aggression program- https://www.dogbehavioronline.com/curing-dog-aggression-p/
But the truth is that with her high levels of aggression you’d do well to get her into some intense training like what we offer here in Utah or with a qualified trainer in your area.
Best of luck.