Thursday, December 29, 2011

How Effective Dog Training Deals With Aggression

Behavior modification trainings are necessary not only for individuals but also for canine species. The more aggressive a dog is, the more important a behavior training will be. An aggressive dog needs to be tamed and calmed down to avoid troubles and problems. For your dog to be a responsible member of the canine society, you have to teach your pet discipline, obedience, respect and proper behavior. Destructing, violent and aggressive actions such as snarling, barking and teeth gnarling should be discontinued. These aggressive actions may spell harm not only for you but also for other people. These could also be a threat to the safety of people around.

The best way to train dogs with intimidating, hostile and violent behaviors is to have them subjected into dealing with aggression using effective dog training. Hostile and violent behaviors of dogs also include barking, snarling, teeth gnarling and biting humans and other dogs. Thus, even fellow dogs would be afraid and threatened to be surrounded by these intimidating, hostile and violent canines.

A dog's aggression can be attributed to several factors. The dog owner plays a crucial role on the type of dog your pet will grow up to be. The behavior, attitude and approach of the dog owner will influence what behaviors the dog will be able to emulate. If the dog owner uses physical violence in the training, the dog will also replicate the same aggressive personality. Other negative behaviors of dog owner that may also be modeled by the pet include harassment, constant reprimands and ignoring.

Dog owners are also discouraged against keeping the dog inside a dog or imprisoning the pet because such behaviors will just trigger and stimulate hostility, rebellion and negative disposition in your pet. Punishment should also be kept at a reasonable pace and intensity. Excessive punishment will just be harmful to your pet and to you as a dog owner as well. Make sure you also feed your pet well because they usually become hostile when they are hungry. Aside from the personality and behavior of the dog owner, with effective dog training its essential to remember that the environment also influences the behavior that the dog will learn. If your pet is surrounded by dogs that usually bark and snarl, there is a high probability that your dog will also learn such hostile and aggressive behaviors. If the dogs surrounding your pet always show physical attacks, that negative behavior will certainly be imitated by your pet. So you have to be careful with the environment you expose your pet to.

Most aggressive and violent behaviors of a dog can also be explained in a survival perspective. Most dogs usually get violent and aggressive when they feel or see a threat to their safety and to their surroundings. In certain situations, aggression and hostility may be necessary for a dog to avoid getting killed or imprisoned. A dog may need to attack another dog or a human in order to defend or protect its own safety.

The breed may also place some dogs in a higher probability of displaying threatening behaviors. Breeds such as Rottweilers, St. Bernards, Dobermans and Pit Bulls seem to be naturally wired to be aggressive and hostile. They also have the size often associated with bravery, arrogance and dominance. In addition, some breeds are also cognitively wired to react aggressively and violently when they are faced with an unfamiliar stimulus or situation even though there is no direct threat to their safety or survival. Thus, you should expect a relatively hostile behavior when a pet dog is surrounded by other dogs, strangers or children. In general, aggressive and violent behaviors of dogs indicate an unfamiliar stimulus, previous negative or traumatic experience or being reinforced and rewarded for aggressive behaviors. So, you should think twice before approaching or going near or even touching an unknown dog.

Medical conditions may also explain the aggressive nature of some dogs. For humans, aggression is triggered when someone is in pain. The same holds true for dogs as well. They easily get irritated when they feel pain. That irritation can lead to aggression and violence. Thus, it is advisable to bring your new pet to a veterinarian for a medical check-up so you will already be prepared if your dog has existing medical conditions that stimulate aggression and hostility.

The best short-term strategy used in effective dog training is to stop a dog from being aggressive or violent towards another dog or a human is to distract its attention. You should cut the eye contact from your pet to the other dog or to the human by making your pet turn its head in the opposite direction. You can run in the opposite direction so your pet will also run after you. You can also throw a treat or a toy towards the opposite direction so your dog will chase after it. Since it may not be advisable to remove the stimulus that triggers the hostility in your dog, you have to take your dog away from that situation.

As soon as you start handling your dog, make sure your pet know who is the boss. Make sure you assert your authority and dominance so your pet will learn to obey and respect you. Once the dog has been imbibed with obedience and discipline, it will be easy for your pet to follow your commands. Some dogs tend to behave aggressively because they think they are the alpha leader in the pack. As a dog owner, you have to make your life easier so you have to straighten out the rules and the roles in the pack.

In dealing with a hostile and aggressive dog, you have to be firm. You have to take control over the training. Do not look or sound lenient. When you make rules, stick to them. Do not allow your pet to manipulate you. Always remember that you are implementing effective dog training for your dog to change to a more positive behavior. However, you also have to recognize and deal with the natural aggressive tendencies of dogs. By nature, dogs will always bite and bark.

These actions are their ways of releasing and expressing their feelings of discomfort, fear and pain. What you have to be careful for is that there are no warning signals that indicate that your pet is about to be aggressive. They usually just bark and bite without any warning or sign at all. As a dog owner, you also have to be sensitive to other actions that may just be a cover-up for aggression and hostility such as prolonged stares, whining, panting, pinning of ears to the head, yawning and even freezing in its position. When your pet starts showing these behaviors, try to calm your dog down.

Never punish your dog while it is acting aggressively. Punishment will just intensify the emotions. When you behave aggressively towards your pet after the dog may just condition your pet to act more aggressively and violently. With effective dog training You should also never yelling at your pet. Attacking aggression with aggression will just bring threats and danger to people and dogs surrounding your pet. Never aggravate your pet's fear and discomfort by making your dog even more afraid of you.

If you think your pet's aggression and hostility has gone way beyond your threshold, you can always call for assistance from a professional dog trainer on how to mellow down your dog's temper. It is advisable to deal with aggression and hostility issues and problems as soon as possible to avoid further troubles and major problems. Two of the most common strategies used by dog trainers and dog owners are the time out and counter conditioning. In counter conditioning, you can change the way your dog sees other dogs. Instead of harm and threat, the sight of other dogs can already elicit positive emotions.

The time out strategy is usually used after a dog has been reprimanded. The dog is usually left inside a room for 30 seconds to internalize the rationale of the negative attention from the dog owner. Aside from controlling your dog's negative behavior, you should also spend a considerable amount of time to develop positive behaviors in your dog- this will improve your effective dog training.

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