How to Stop Dog to Dog Aggression with Training
There are a few reasons dog to dog aggression can happen. The primary cause is insufficient socialization with other dogs when he was a puppy.
Aggression between dogs can also result from over protective of his owner when any other dogs are near his owner.
When a dog starts to act aggressively towards other dogs, he could be afraid of other dogs (Fear Aggression). Without proper puppy socialization, all meetings could be scary experience for him. The lack of socialization could also make the dog tries to overpower the other dogs to show dominance or the tendency to act like a pack leader.
The best time to have puppy socialization is when you dog is between 10 - 16 weeks old. But, always remember that it is always not too late to teach your order dog the proper way to socialize with other dogs. But, it could take much more hard work and consistency from your training if you have an older dog that has developed dog to dog aggression.
"Why Dog to Dog Aggression Happens?"
Most of the time, dog behavior problems are resultsing from lack of leadership, inadequate training or improper socialization. Many dog owners forget that dogs are carnivore by nature. They live in a pack and fight with other pack of dogs for food. There is always one pack leader that controls the group of dogs, it has the power to stop the dog fight or attack. If we are inviting dogs to live with us, we have to be the pack leader that controls them. If not, the dog will take over that role and what we can see are dog behavior problems.
Dog behavior problems are not really problems for them (dogs), it is just problems for human. In dogs' world, it is completely normal to fight for food, to show dominance against weaker dogs,to take the role of a pack leader if no body is competent.
So, we have to act like a pack leader, we also need to teach them to be comfortable with human environment; we need to teach them that they are no longer need to fight for food. Therefore, with sufficient training, dog to dog aggression can actually be eliminated.
"Reasons for Dog to Dog Aggression"
- Dominance: He believes that he is the pack leader.
- Self Defense: Protect himself from other dogs or other human.
- Territorial: Treat a certain area as his territory and protect it from other dogs or people.
- Possessive: Protect his toy, food, and etc items from taking by other dogs.
- Overly Protective: Protect his owners from other dogs.
- Fearful: Scared of other dogs which make he acts aggressively to protect himself.
"Summary of Dog to Dog Aggression"
With the correct puppy socialization, your dog should become a well-balanced dog. Remember to train your dog as young as possible before it develops any dog aggression issue. Give your dog a chance to socialize with other dogs once a while by bringing him to friend's house or dog park. But do be careful in dog park because there might be unbalanced dogs around. There is a possibility that any of dogs there carries infection that might leads to dog health problems.
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