A Few Tips on Stopping Dog Aggression
Dog aggression continues to be a major concern for many of you, so I am revisiting the topic today with a few tips on how to stop dog aggression.
1. Don’t wait to break up a problem. Be proactive. For example, if you know your dog gets overexcited when you are walking it and you see another dog, make sure you have complete control of the lead and that your dog is paying attention to you. If not, this may be the time to make a quick turn without warning, which reminds your dog to watch you and be ready to obey the next command instead of looking for a fight.
2. Make sure your dog knows you are in charge of the pack. Enter and exit rooms first, make the furniture off limits and use obedience commands.
3. Most importantly, spay or neuter your dog. So many times, this really helps lessen all that aggression towards other dogs.
If your problem child is a puppy, the advice on how to stop puppy aggression is pretty much the same. It is especially important to teach your puppy obedience and enforce proper behavior towards people and other pets at a young age. If you allow your puppy to act up, you are missing a valuable training window, especially if it is going to be a large dog. After all, puppies learn quickly and are smaller and easier to handle than adult dogs.
This post is sponsored by DogObedienceAdvice.com
Great advice, especially #1 – being proactive!
I also just wrote an article on aggression at my blog (here’s the link if you don’t mind my putting it in here):
http://www.naturaldogblog.com/blog/2007/08/dog-training-what-is-dog-aggression-and-how-do-i-stop-it/
I focus primarily on using a dog’s prey instinct to help them relax and give them a way to channel their energy – the energy that might have otherwise turned into aggression had it not been given an outlet.
Woulda tracked back…but it doesn’t look like you have trackbacks enabled?
Keep up the good work!
Neil - September 1, 2007 12:11 am