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

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.

2. 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.

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.

4. 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.

5. Practice submission exercises and taking the dog's food or toys away while she's eating or playing.

6. 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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[taenbolek]

on 10/19/2008 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.