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Step 1
Familiarize yourself with the different types of dog aggression. For instance dominance, fear-induced, food guarding, owner protective, possessive, territorial or play escalation.
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Step 2
Establish the cause of aggression by observing the onset. Is it over food? Did it start off as playing?
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Step 3
Try to prevent a repeat once you suspect the cause. For instance, supervise your dogs when they eat and train them not wander over to each other’s bowls.
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Step 4
Try to determine whether the aggressive dog simply plays rough and acts pushy, or is seriously aggressive. One way is to observe a fight that breaks out. Dogs that don’t want to inflict damage grab around the ears, sides of the neck and shoulders. True aggressors aim for the front legs, the throat, the belly and the eyes. The non-aggressor may grab the aggressor by the ear and hold on, so that the aggressor cannot get to his throat.
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Step 5
Reward the victim of aggression. For instance, by giving just him a treat or petting only him.
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Step 6
Reward the aggressor for ignoring the victim. For instance, in the case of a dog that habitually redirects her aggression on her more passive housemate when she can't get to another dog that passes by the fence.
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Step 7
Take the "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em approach" if the above steps don't work. The traditional school of controlling aggression is to clearly establish who the top or "alpha" dog is by greeting, feeding and letting the alpha dog out first so that the more submissive or "beta" dog will follow his lead. However, keep in mind this doesn't always work with a truly aggressive dog.
Comments
diggitydogg said
on 10/19/2007 I agree. After all is said and done, it's usually just a matter of them getting used to each other without the need for "professional" intervention. You identified what the aggression stemmed from, which was half the battle.
harrise said
on 10/19/2007 I was sent away by three trainers who in turn alerted other trainers about my "aggressive" female Malamute. She was 2.5 years old when I adopted her, and still had a reputation around these parts. Frustrated, I spent weeks reading and reading and reading some more. I finally settled on a negative reinforcement schedule with increasing positive reinforcement as the aggression decreased. Her problems revolved around food and toys, with blood a common occurence. An 18" piece of garden hose to the snout broke up most fights. Forcing the St. Bernard (she was having issues with him) to walk with her, letting the two of them sleep in the bed with us, and after a week the hose was trash. Now I have a pack of five that all get along perfectly. Professional trainers are very difficult to find. Like the employee who says he has 10 years experience, but has had only one year repeated ten times...
diggitydogg said
on 7/27/2007 Neutering a male dog is key in helping curb aggression. Good point to include that was definitely an oversight.
melmkeshlear said
on 7/27/2007 Fix the dog and enroll in an obediance class with
people that have been teaching for along time and have
lots of background. Taking an aggressive dog to a Petsmart class just isnt going to cut it- you need to contact a breed club and see if they have an instructor that is starting a class. These people are usually old timers with the background your looking for.
Operant training is another possibilty. A good trainer in this form is worth their wt in gold.
MK