How can you be sure if your pet dog is already acting aggressively or not?
Aggressive behavior in dogs can be exhibited in different ways, so don’t go ahead and diagnose your pet dog just yet!
This behavior can range from something seemingly harmless such as consistent barking, growling and snarling to something bordering on dangerous such as dog biting and attacking.
Pet owners such as you need to understand that handling aggressive behavior in dogs is a process that requires a detailed assessment so that treatment for it can be done effectively.
Therefore, in order for you to properly address them, you need to familiarize yourself with the following types of aggressive behavior.
Fear Aggression
Dog behavior:
You notice that your pet dog is nervous, frightened, stressed and insecure constantly all the time. He usually reacts sensitively to the simplest and littlest actions, such as ringing telephones, buzzing doorbells, chirping of the birds and even your own footsteps.
Aggressive barking, growling, baring teeth and biting are common behaviors.
The reason:
Your pet dog fears that his life is always in the danger of being harmed. For example, you might raise your hand to throw a stick away, but if your pet dog views your action as something harmful, he may bite you in order to protect himself.
Advice:
Seek professional consultation as your pet dog will not outgrow this kind of aggressive behavior.
Territorial, Possessive and Overprotective Aggression
Dog behavior:
You start recognizing that your pet dog seems to be “randomly” barking angrily at people or animals that come near him or near you.
Your dog starts to become a threat to anyone violating his territorial space or possessions. He may lunge, growl, snap or bite anyone who goes near his territory and family. Sometimes, your pet dog may even attack you.
The reason:
Your pet dog aggressively defends a place, a thing or a person he strongly cares for. Territorial aggression is being defensive of their property.
Remember that his sense of territory may not just be limited to your house – if you walk your dog around the neighborhood, he may feel that the whole neighborhood belongs to him, too.
Possessive and overprotective dog aggression refers to aggression directed towards people or animals that are thought to be threats to your pet dog’s family or loved ones. An example of this is Maternal Aggression where a newly birthed female attacks everyone who approaches her or her puppies.
Advice:
If your dog is still a puppy, it’s crucial that you modify this behavior now. Seek the assistance of experts as your dog may become more dangerous as time goes by.
Pain Aggression
Dog behavior:
Your usually sweet and charming dog may bite you if you try to approach him while he’s under a whole lot of pain. You may see your dog exhibiting aggressive behavior even while you’re grooming him. Biting, growling and baring his teeth are common signs of pain aggression exhibition.
The reason:
Pain is subjective, even in dogs, so something that isn’t painful to one dog may already be considered painful by your dog. Keep in mind that your pet dog may not be acting aggressively intentionally – diseases like arthritis, skin disorders and ear conditions, among others, can make him act aggressively unwillingly.
If the cause is a medical problem, observe for signs of Coprophagia, too.
Advice:
Go to a veterinarian to determine if your pet dog has a medical problem that needs to be treated immediately. Never use training tools that can willingly subject your pet dog to pain. You wouldn’t like it if you were hurt while training, would you?
Social Aggression
Dog behavior:
Some signs of a socially aggressive dog are growling when his sleeping is disturbed, howling loudly when the owner starts displaying affection towards the outsider and also baring his teeth when his favorite possession or favorite place is taken away from him and given to the outsider.
He’s described as “Jekyll and Hyde” because he seems affectionate when everything’s in its proper place while he seems dangerous when challenged.
The reason:
Dogs think of their family as a social group; therefore, its family members – including you – all have “rankings” or status within the family.
A social hierarchy or a ranking system is produced by your pet dog in order to make this family orderly. When something or someone such as an outsider comes in the family and ruins the social hierarchy that your dog firmly believes in, your dog is most likely to direct his aggression towards this outsider with the hope that this outsider will eventually go away.
Advice:
Avoid threatening your pet dog directly. Instead, do positive reinforcement such as rewarding him when he does a pleasant activity, waiting for him to stay still so that he can feed and behave himself to be petted.
Frustration Aggression
Dog behavior:
Your pet dog bites your hand when you hold him back by a collar, your dog growls at you when you leash him and he even tries to attack you when you put him on his cage.
Another exhibition is when you’re bitten by your dog when you interrupt a fight between him and another dog.
The reason:
Dogs become frustrated when they are restrained while they’re excited or provoked.
To overcome this frustration, they instead aggressively attack the person restraining them. In the case of Redirected Aggression, additionally, what happens is they’re provoked by Person A but they can’t attack Person A so they attack a nearby person, Person B, instead, so if you’re the unfortunate person who is nearby, your dog is most likely going to attack you.
Advice:
Prevent this type of dog aggression in the first place. When you notice that your dog’s slowly being provoked, chase the provoker away and distract your pet dog by playing with him while using reward-based training.
Keep your dog busy and happy to prevent him from being frustrated.
So, ever had any experience handling these types of aggressive behavior in dogs? Let’s share and discuss simply by commenting below.
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