If you have an aggressive dog, training is critical. An unreliable dog is a social menace – and an unreliable companion. Your dog may guard its food bowl, growl at men, bully smaller dogs, bark at cars, snarl at your friends or lunge at runners. Regardless of what triggers your dog’s behavior, start aggressive dog training right away.
helps by treating the cause and by teaching you corrective techniques that will help your dog’s behavior. Keep in mind that with a physically threatening, aggressive dog, training might require an expert. Here are some of the steps you will need to take.
Visit the vet. A dog aggression flare-up can result from an inconspicuous such as a neurological problem, hormonal imbalance, lead poisoning, diabetes or mineral deficiency. Brief your vet fully on the aggression problem so the doctor can test for diseases that can cause the behavior you described. Aggressive dog training will not help much if the underlying health cause remains untreated.
Correct rather than punish your dog- Fear can be overwhelming for your dog, resulting in fear aggression. Do not add to your dogs fears by using punishment to control its behaviors. Correct the wrong behaviors rather than punishing for them. If you forcefully discipline an aggressive dog, training with any kind of correction may make its behavior worse rather than stop it.
Lincoln Kern has been raising and training dogs for over 45 years. He provides his advice on proven dog training techniques including obedience training, training to remove problems such as barking and aggression and schutzhund training. His Guide for New Puppy Owners is well-known, and he writes extensively on puppy training.