Help keep the peace at home between your dogs.
Unlike humans with aggressive tendencies, dogs can't enroll in anger management classes and sort out their feelings. They can, however, learn to get along with their canine housemates. It just requires some home training. Sound simple? Well, not exactly. Dog aggression is a complex problem that varies from situation to situation. Controlling it involves several factors to consider, steps to follow, and of course, trial and error. OK, it takes some work, but here are some tips to get you started.
Instructions
1. Familiarize yourself with the different types of dog aggression. For instance dominance, fear-induced, food guarding, owner protective, possessive, territorial or play escalation.
2. Establish the cause of aggression by observing the onset. Is it over food? Did it start off as playing?
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.
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.
5. Reward the victim of aggression. For instance, by giving just him a treat or petting only him.
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.
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.
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