Aggressive behavior can be dangerous. When your dog pees on the carpet or destroys the TV remote, it can be aggravating, but nobody will be left with a scar. I have dealt with aggressive dogs for well over a decade now and I have seen firsthand the physical and emotional scars inflicted on people. I also know from firsthand experience that the emotional scars left from an aggressive dog last much longer than the physical scar.
So I don’t treat this subject lightly – I’ll also share a little known secret with you. There are many things that can contribute to aggressive behavior – genetics, environment, physical problems etc. But the biggest reason for aggressive behavior (drum roll please) DOG TRAINERS!
I hate to say it but dog trainers and dog training methods are one of the biggest contributors to aggressive behavior in our dogs. Not all trainers, but a large portion of them use and teach methods that promote aggressive behavior in dogs. Let me share a quick story with you to make my point:
A few years back I went to the home of a single father who was trying to train a dog that he had just adopted a few weeks before. They had hired a trainer before me but asked him to leave because of his harsh methods. I was informed that the other trainer had used a choke chain and every time the dog growled the trainer would hang the dog off the ground.
I asked to see the dog. The father went over to the kennels and put the dog on leash. As he approached me I could tell that the dog was stressed. He handed the leash to me and the dog attacked me.
The father and daughter watched in horror as I fought the dog off me. Luckily I was holding onto the leash and was able to quickly bring the dog under control, but not before sustaining a few serious bites to my right arm.
The father was shocked and could not understand why his dog attacked me for NO REASON!
That’s when I informed him that dogs always attack for a reason. It was very clear to me why his dog attacked. Let me explain.
The day before the other trainer used a choke chain, every time the dog growled the trainer would lift the dog off the ground and cut off the dog’s air supply. What the trainer was doing was punishing the dog for growling. When a dog growls he is giving you a warning.
This dog was being punished for growling, what did the punishment accomplish?
HE STOPPED GROWLING!
A growl is a warning, and now this dog would no longer give a warning because he was choked every time he did.
So when the owner handed the leash over to me and there was no growling I thought I would be able to work with the dog – but the dog went straight to defending himself. In the dog’s mind he was probably thinking, “Here’s another guy that is going to choke me,” and immediately went to defend himself. You really can’t blame the dog; recent history had proved that strange men over the house holding the leash meant serious business.
My point to all of this is that aggression is not something to be dealt with lightly. An important point to remember is that aggression is always triggered by something – when dealing with aggressive behavior the trainer needs to figure out what the trigger is and then how to condition the dog to behave differently.
Negative training methods will take a toll on your dog and can eventually lead to aggressive behavior. An important point that I always try to teach in my classes is that the relationship between you and your dog is like a checking account.
Every positive thing that you do with your dog is a deposit. Giving your dog a treat, playing ball, praising your dog, taking your dog for a hike, etc. are all positive activities that put deposits in your relationship checking account.
Every negative thing that you do to your dog is a withdrawal. Scruff shaking, smacking, hitting, yelling, leash correction, etc. are all negative activities that take a withdrawal from your relationship checking account.
Here’s the important point to all of this: You need to make sure that you are making more deposits than withdrawals.
Conclusion – I used to teach group dog obedience classes with choke and prong collars. At the beginning of the six week course I would see happy, friendly dogs walk in. At the end of the six week course I would see angry, aggressive, fearful dogs walk out. If they attended another session they would get worse.
I didn’t realize the full seriousness of the situation until I went to watch a friend teach a class. During the class I saw how many leash corrections the dogs would get. I counted one dog receive over 150 corrections in a sixty minute class. It all adds up and has an effect on the dog.
It’s time to start using a positive approach to train dogs. Aggression is a huge problem here in the United States. My final word of advice is to educate yourself. Learn about positive methods to train your dog. As dog owners, we need to all take steps to make sure that our dogs are friendly, happy, and well-behaved.
Happy Training!
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