How to Retrain an Aggressive Dog
An adult dog who growls or nips at people is like a ticking time bomb. Dogs with the audacity to express displeasure by showing their teeth or biting are often the ones who don't understand the family-pack order or those who, for lack of a better leader, have taken up the alpha role themselves. Follow these steps to bring peace back into your home.
- Difficulty:
- Moderately Challenging
Instructions
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1
Have your dog spayed or neutered if you haven't already done so. This won't make much difference in the personality of a male over 18 months old; but do it anyway because breeding an aggressive dog is irresponsible.
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Establish yourself as the pack leader and put the dog at the bottom of the pecking order, below all other family members. Control everything about the dog's life: when and where he eats, what toys he can have, where he sleeps, when he gets to go outside. Crate the dog when you can't keep an eye on him.
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3
Use a prong collar or a remote collar to correct your dog when she misbehaves. Because dogs don't have our language ability, you can't correct a dog by explaining to her why you don't want her to chew the furniture. Dogs learn best by a combination of positive and negative reinforcement: praise when she's good, appropriate correction when she's bad.
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Socialize your dog. Once you've established that you're the pack leader, your dog will look to you for instruction on how to behave in new situations. Don't inadvertently praise your dog when he's afraid by petting him or speaking in gentle tones. This doesn't calm your dog, it says to him that he's reacting correctly.
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Practice submission exercises and taking the dog's food or toys away while she's eating or playing.
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Contact a professional trainer if at any time you become afraid of your dog, or you think he might hurt someone. A professional can decide whether your dog can be rehabilitated.
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Comments
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while I agree with taenbolek I couldn't agree less with patrisha. positive reinforcement is the best start but taking away food/toys etc is not done in a way like its eating and now you cant but rather establishing a n.i.l.i.f. style of training ( nothing in life is free) which is exceptionally helpful with training ALL dogs and used by ALL reputable dog trainers. its about re establishing the heirachy in the home. as for the shock collars. u don't just zap where 'no' will suffice. when re training a mastiff x rottweiler/ridgeback I acquired from a irresponsible dog owner that could not control the aggression in her. the start of the training with new people involved bringing people over, when aggression was shown she was told NO, when behaviour wasn't corrected by her I used the 'beep' function on the collar, when still no response the zap plus beep. they learn quick and with aggressiveness don't mess around. usually once their at the 'i may just attack you stage' they probably aren't hearing commands from their 'owner' anyway. she still strongly dislikes the look of some men but I never get past the beep stage with her and rarely even that. in the time ive had her ive had a child who is now 3 and I trust around her completely. N.I.L.I.F, check out the in depth article on the web, I believe that's what was meant.
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Patrisha Lynn Thoreson
Mar 13, 2011
Oh goodness. This is a recipe for disaster. When you have an aggressive dog challenging them, provoking them, and trying to force them into submission is some of the WORST things you can do. Using a prong or shock collar on an aggressive dog has proven to increase aggression issues especially when human aggression is the case. Trying to make them "submit" by taking away food and toys is just asking to be bit if you already know the dog has aggression issues. Please, please, PLEASE contact a professional trainer if you are dealing with aggression, this is an issue that is not fit to be 'fixed at home'. Make sure your trainer uses only positive reinforcement methods as dominance-based or traditional training methods tend to either mask the aggression or increase the aggression, either way it is not good. -
taenbolek
Oct 19, 2008
While this article leaves quite a bit out and may not explain things thoroughly, this covers [the subject] fairly well. I appreciate the reference to spaying and neutering, although I do not agree that a remote or prong collar is an appropriate correction for something like chewing furniture etc. Rather, it would be more effective to say "No." and redirect the dog's misbehaviour to something for [that] purpose, like a toy or chew, and praise. Dogs generally develop destructive behaviour when they are bored, so to keep your dog well exercised and to change the toy selection every day so s/he does not bore of a toy is a much better technique.
