Aggression in dogs is the most serious behavior problem that pet owners must deal with and it is largely preventable if the owner understands canine growth periods and the factors that influence the development of aggressive behavior.

Health authorities report that more than one million people are bitten each year. This number probably represents only half the actual bites; the rest go unreported.

Critical Periods of Socialization

Knowledge of the early growth periods of dogs helps to understand canine aggression. Puppies have a critical need for socialization from three weeks of age, when they can see and hear, until fourteen weeks of age. Puppies should be purchased between eight and ten weeks of age for proper socialization in the new home. Eight to ten weeks is a fearful period, during which the puppy must be disciplined and must be handled gently by adults and children.

Fourteen weeks starts the juvenile period, the dreaded adolescence. If a puppy has not been socialized by the time he/she is fourteen weeks old, he/she may never be trustworthy around people or other dogs. If there are problems, a training program is designed for the dog's temperament and personality. Once suspicion and aggression start it will only grow as the dog gets older.

Puppies raised in kennels where they receive only little human handling will often remain shy of people. They may always be fearful especially under stressful conditions.

Dogs reach sexual maturity at six to fourteen months of age. During this period, they usually begin to bark at strangers and become more protective. Male and some females will begin to lift a leg to urinate. Introduction to strangers (adults, children and other dogs) on the home property during this period is important.

Factors Influencing Aggression

Genetic and hereditary factors play a major role in aggression. Inbreeding can create unstable temperaments and hormones can contribute to aggressive behavior. You can also see aggressive behavior with intact males, females in heat and females nursing puppies. Our environment can also influence aggression. Living conditions, lack of socialization, excessive punishment, being attacked or frightened by an aggressive dog or owner. Being isolated from human contact or being exposed to frequent teasing by children or aggravation by a neighbor. Obviously, dogs are not people. Dogs have pack order that determines their social rank. A pack order is established and maintained by body language. Some dogs occupy dominant or alpha status and some have low rank or omega status. When dogs live with people they look at humans as members of the pack and try to establish their place in the social order by challenging the more submissive family members, particularly the children. If dogs display a dominant gesture such as growling while guarding the food dish and they are not corrected for this behavior they have established a bit of dominance to build on with any or all family members. If these dominant gestures remain uncorrected the dog slowly will gain status over one or all family members.

The subtle signs of dominance usually go unnoticed until the dog bites the human for infringement on his alpha position. The owner misunderstands the progression of behaviors and blames the dog for biting. These dogs frequently end up at animal shelters and destroyed because their owners misunderstood the development of canine aggression.

Types of Aggression

There are several types of aggression: defensive or induced by fear, pain, punishment, possession, territorial, intra-sexual, predatory or parental. A dog may exhibit more than one type of aggression.

Dominant aggressive dogs are characterized as confident and macho. They stand tall, up on their toes, with the ears up and forward. They carry their tails high and wag it slowly and stiffly from side to side. They often have their hackles up, stare menacingly and emit a low growl with lips pursed and teeth exposed. They will place a paw on the shoulder of another dog, mount legs and push children aside when going through a doorway.

Dominant aggressive dogs are demanding of attention. They demand to go outside, demand excessive affection, are possessive of their sleeping areas and stop eating when approached. Many of these dogs will not obey commands, especially submissive commands (such as "down" or "wait"). Males and some females will mark in the house on everything, even if their bladder is empty.

Defensive aggressive dogs are much more ambivalent in their behavior. They display submissive body language (ears back, often flat against the head; avoidance of direct eye contact; lowering of the head and body; tucking tail between the legs; submissive urination) and they lick hands and roll over to expose their bellies. They resist handling, hate to have their feet touched, don't like to be groomed, and often shy away from human hands. These are the fear biters; they may snap and if cornered will often bite people who turn and walk away.

Preventing Aggression

The primary goal is simple never allow any dog to achieve dominant status over any adult or child. If dogs always know their social ranking and are never allowed to challenge people, they will usually be good family members.

The first rule for preventing problems is to match the right breed and puppy to their owner. The litter bully will take over the home of a submissive owner and a shy puppy needs extra attention to adjust to an active household.

Puppy testing by a professional breeder and professional trainer is recommended when purchasing a puppy. The test includes social attraction, following restraint, social dominance and elevation dominance.

Aggression prevention includes early socialization. Puppies should be handled gently, especially between three and fourth months of age. They should be hand-fed by children and adults and taught to take food without grabbing or lunging. They should not be allowed to chase children or joggers, jump on people, mount legs or growl for any reason. They should never receive or be part of rough, aggressive play such as hand fighting, wrestling or tug of war games. Puppies should never be physically punished for aggressive behavior; instead, they should be denied the rewards of aggression, restrained from repeating the infraction and taught alternative positive behavior.

If puppies bite at or jump on children, the children should take charge and tell the puppy Off! Then, the children should cross their arms to protect hands and arms from being grabbed and turn away. Puppies love to play; if fun is denied when they get too rough, they will learn to play calmly.

Puppy parties, where children of all ages visit and play gentle games and offer rewards are helpful for the children and the puppy. A professional trainer is recommended to teach the children how to behave and teach the puppy correct behavior.

The puppy should be part of the family pack and should learn to accept delivery people, repairmen and other strangers. Once they have been vaccinated against the common canine diseases, puppies should be exposed to non-aggressive dogs so they learn that other dogs as well as people are friendly.

Older Dogs

Food rewards help train young puppies as well as praise but as dogs get older they must receive praise for good behavior and mild discipline for bad behavior. Dogs should earn everything they receive from their owners. They should sit to receive petting or treats, sit before going out the door, sit before getting out the car, sit to have the leash attached to the collar. These exercises constantly reinforce the owner as the boss.

Dogs should not be left unsupervised with children, especially children who do not live in the household. Children should be taught to use the basic commands so they can exert control over the pet.

Dogs should not receive excessive praise or constant petting especially for doing nothing. Excessive praise and petting elevates the dog social status and sends him/her mixed signals.

Neutering and spaying dogs will not solve all problems but will help prevent dominance aggression and inter-male fighting in 50% of all cases. The prevention of aggression requires that the owner win each an every confrontation with the dog. If the dog wins a showdown by growling when you try to get him off the sofa or take his toy or approach his food bowl, he receives a "go" signal for the next step in an attempted takeover.

Genes, Environment and Temperament

Please remember this: Once a dog has reached dominant status, punishment cannot be used to correct a dominant aggressive dog!

A professional trainer may make the dog revert to a submissive aggressive or defensive aggressive animal but remember that your dog is a proven biter and must be under control and watched at all times. It is important that you keep the dog well socialized.

Treatment

Treating aggressive behavior is best handled by a professional animal trainer/behaviorist.

When seeking a professional trainer always seek advice from your veterinarian and carefully interview trainers and talk to their clients that had aggressive dogs.

Treatment consists of listing all the things that trigger aggressive behavior and preventing these situations from developing. For example, if the dog growls when you try to remove it from the couch, don't allow it to get on the couch.

The first impulse is to minimize contact between an aggressive dog and the person or people he/she is most aggressive. The individual who is having the most difficulty with the dog should become the main provider for everything the dog needs: food, water, exercise, praise, affection and all play activity. This person must be able to train the dog to obey basic obedience commands of sit, stay, come and down. He will probably need a lot of help with the down command (which puts the dog in a submissive position) so he doesn't get bitten.

All other family members must totally ignore the dog: no play, food or affection. The dog must look on that one person as its sole provider of everything. Once the aggressive behavior is under control other members of the family need to participate.

The dog must be rewarded for any signs of submissive behavior such as ears back, looking away (avoiding eye contact), rolling over, licking, crouching, or lowering the head. Any dominant gestures that the dog will tolerate should be used frequently and the dog must be praised and given occasional food rewards for submitting. The dog must earn everything.

Once a dog starts to respond, then counter conditioning can be started but this should only be done with a qualified trainer/behaviorist. Counter conditioning includes working with a dog that doesn't like it feet or hindquarters handled; it is also referred to as desensitizing the dog to certain stimuli or conditions.

To counter condition a dog that does not like its hindquarters handled, first teach the dog to stand on command, then, with an experienced trainer controlling the dog's head, gently touch the rear end. If the dog submits, praise and give a food treat. Repeat praise and reward for each positive response. Gradually increase the duration and frequency of handling and praising the dog for each act of submission.

Aggressive dogs can be retrained under the right circumstances. Before starting a program to correct aggressive behavior, realize that the dog may never be trustworthy around other people or children and may bite if provoked. Owners should always be given the honest facts. They should never feel guilty for having an aggressive dog euthanized but they should also realize if they are likely to make the same mistakes with another dog they should never own a dog.

Owners

Aggression should not be taken lightly. It is a behavior that does not get better on its own. It will continue to build and get worse. Seek a professional trainer/behaviorist and determine a route to take with your pet. The outcome is the reward your pet and family members share by having a pleasant environment.