Dog Aggression - Part 3

Hi there,

This is the final article in the series on dog aggression. In the previous article we outlined aggression toward family members and discussed ‘Resource Guarding’ in detail. Today we are going to cover the other major type of aggression toward family members, that is:

Aggression Due to a Perceived Threat

Very often this type of aggression manifests itself during handling, this could be whilst bathing your dog, ‘loving’ it or similar.

Dog don’t like to be handled for several reasons:

• They may never have been accustomed to physical contact from a young age and get edgy when someone tries to hug them.
• They may consider themselves higher up ‘the ladder’ than they actually are so won’t tolerate lot’s of cuddles, hugs and kisses. This type of behaviour undermines their feeling of superiority so they tend to snap at the ‘hugger’ to show that they are the boss.
• They may feel scared or threatened by an event, for instance bathing a dog often scares the living daylights out of it so it snaps out of self defense. - A lot of owners, when confronted with a wild-eyed, half-washed, upset dog, feel that in order to complete the wash they have to forcibly restrain him. This only adds to the dog’s sense of panic, and reinforces his impression of a wash as something to be avoided at all costs.
• They may have had a bad or painful experience they don’t want to repeat, nail clipping is a common cause of this. When you clip a dog’s nails, it’s very easy to “quick” him – that is, cut the blood vessel that runs inside the nail. This is extremely painful to a dog, and is a sure-fire way to cause a long-lasting aversion to those clippers.

“Retraining” Your Dog to Enjoy Being Handled and Groomed

People often ask whether it’s possible to ‘retrain’ their dogs so they enjoy being groomed.

In a word, the answer is: YES! It’s a lot easier if you start from a young age though – handle your puppy a lot, get him used to being touched and rubbed all over. Young dogs generally enjoy being handled – it’s only older ones who haven’t had a lot of physical contact throughout their lives that sometimes find physical affection difficult to accept.

Practice picking up his paws and touching them with the clipper; practice taking him into the bath (or outside, under the faucet – whatever works for you, but warm water is much more pleasant for a dog than a freezing spray of ice-cold water! Just ask yourself how you’d feel if put under a shower of ice-cold water - you wouldn’t like it would you?), and augment the process throughout with lots of praise and the occasional small treat.

For an older dog that may already have had several unpleasant handling/grooming experiences, things are a little more difficult. You need to undo the damage already caused by those bad experiences, which you can do by taking things very slowly – with an emphasis on keeping your dog calm.

The instant he starts to show signs of stress, stop immediately and let him relax. Try to make the whole thing into a game: give him lots of praise, pats, and treats.

Take things slowly. Don’t push it too far: if you get nervous, stop.

Dogs show aggression for a reason: they’re warning you to back off, or else! If your dog just can’t seem to accept being groomed, no matter how much practice you put in, it’s best to hand the job over to the professionals.

Your vet will clip his nails for you (make sure you tell him first that he gets aggressive when the clippers come out, so your vet can take the necessary precautions!). As far as washing and brushing goes, the dog-grooming business is a flourishing industry: for a small fee, you can get your dog washed, clipped, brushed, and whatever else you require by experienced professionals (again, make sure you tell them about your dog’s reaction to the experience first!)

For more information on handling aggressive and dominant behaviors, as well as a great deal of detailed information on a host of other common dog behavior problems, check out SitStayFetch.

It’s a complete owner’s guide to owning, rearing, and training your dog, and it deals with all aspects of dog ownership.

To get the inside word on preventing and dealing with problem behaviors like aggression and dominance in your dog, SitStayFetch is well worth a look.

You can visit the SitStayFetch site by clicking on the link below:

Hope you found this series of articles useful, in the next article we’ll talk about Alpha dogs. This is a term that is being bandied about more and more but many people use it without understanding it’s true meaning or the ramifications if those meanings aren’t understood.

Speak to you soon

Stuart.

PS

If you have any questions or there’s anything you’d like some advice on post a comment and I’ll be glad to answer you.