Dog Aggression - Part 2

In the previous article I mentioned that there were two main types of aggression in dogs. We dealt with one type in that article - namely dog aggression toward strangers - and today we’ll talk about a common problem with quite a lot of dogs, that is:

Aggression towards family members

A dog is aggressive towards members of his own human family for two main reasons:

1. Because he’s trying to defend something he thinks of as his from a perceived threat (you) - Also known as resource guarding, and though it may sound innocuous, there’s actually a lot more going on here than meets the eye. Your dog isn’t simply trying to keep his kibble to himself.
2. He’s not comfortable with the treatment/handling he’s getting from you or other members of the family.

1 Resource Guarding

As mentioned above, resource guarding is pretty common amongst dogs, most owners have encountered it albeit in a watered down form, and probably ignored it if it didn’t go any further.

The term refers to overly-possessive behavior by your dog. For instance he may snarl at you if you approach him when he’s eating, or give you “the eye” (a flinty-eyed, direct stare) if you reach your hand out to take a toy away from him.

It’s in a dogs nature to be possessive from time to time and sometimes they’re even possessive over things that have no conceivable value: inedible trash, balled up pieces of paper or tissue, old socks. More frequently though, resource-guarding becomes an issue over items with a very real and understandable value; for instance food and toys.

This type of behaviour all boils down to the issue of dominance.

Let’s take a moment to explore this concept… Dogs are pack animals, this means that they’re used to a very structured environment.

In a dog-pack, each individual animal is ranked in a ‘dominance hierarchy’ of position and power in relation to every other animal. Each animal is aware of the rank of every other animal, which means he knows specifically how to act toward each pack member in any given situation (whether to back down, whether to push the issue, whether to muscle in or not on somebody else’s turf, etc etc).

Now, to your dog, the family environment is no different to the dog-pack environment. Your dog has ranked each member of the family, and has his own perception of where he ranks in that environment as well.

This is where it gets interesting because if your dog perceives himself as higher up in the social rank than other members of the family he’s going to get cheeky. What’s more, if he’s really got an overinflated sense of his own importance, he’ll start to act aggressively toward them.

The reason for this is that dominance and aggression are the exclusive rights of a superior-ranked animal. No underdog would ever show aggression or act dominantly to a higher-ranked animal (the consequences would be dire, and he knows it!) This is where disobediance and even biting of ‘lower ranked’ family members comes from.

Simply put, your dog thinks he’s higher-up the social ladder than those family members and thinks they’ve no right telling him what to do or demanding the privileges of rank. In his mind he is quite within his rights to act aggressively toward them.

Resource guarding is a classic example of dominant behavior: only a higher-ranked dog (a “dominant” dog) would act aggressively in defence of resources.

To stop this skewed thinking on your dogs behalf you have to demonstrate to him that he is, in fact, the lower ranked dog and that all the other family members are higher up the ladder than him. Once this is clear to him he’ll never even dream of trying to prevent you from taking his food or toys – because a lower-ranked dog (him) will always go along with what the higher-ranked dogs (you and your family) say.

The best way to curb dominant, aggressive behavior is consistent, frequent obedience work. This will show your authority to your dog and it needn’t be a lot either. Only two fifteen-minute sessions a day will make it perfectly clear to your dog that you’re the boss, and that it pays to do what you say. However, make sure that these two obedience sessions are productive i.e. give your dog an intense training and not just play.

You can reinforce this fact by rewarding him (with treats and lavish praise) for obeying a command, and isolating him (putting him in “time-out”, either outside the house or in a room by himself) for misbehaviour.

If you feel a lack of confidence doing this training by yourself, it would be wise to consider investing in a good training manual or enlisting the assistance of a qualified dog-trainer.

You should also brush up on your understanding of canine psychology and communication, so that you understand what your dog’s trying to say to you. This will help you to stop any dominant behaviors before they get entrenched and help you to communicate your own authority more effectively.

Don’t forget to train regularly: keep the sessions short, no more than fifteen minutes each, and train at least twice a day.

In the final part of this article I will talk about the other reason for aggression in your dog. This is because he’s not comfortable with the treatment he’s getting from you or your family.

I’ll be posting ‘Dog Aggression - Part 3′ soon but if you’d like some more information about training your dog before then you’d do well to take a look at what I consider to be one of the best training resources available at the moment. You can get more information by clicking the picture below.

Speak to you soon,

Stuart.

PS
Be sure to leave a comment if you have any questions.