PNWPBR Pitbulls

How To Control Your Combative Companion

Aggressive: characterized by or tending toward unprovoked offensives, attacks. Defend: to ward off attack from; guard against assault or injury; to strive to keep safe by resisting attack.

Before you begin to deal with your dog’s undesirable behavior it is important to figure out whether the behavior is defensive or aggressive. Go back in your mind and examine and re-examine all the circumstances surrounding the incident that you can recall, including events leading up to it. Dogs rarely do something without a reason, but it may not be readily apparent to us, and that can lead to labeling a behavior that is wholly defensive as aggressive which can drastically alter the way we go about changing it.

There are probably few truly Aggressive Dogs, and even those rarely exhibit across-theboard aggression. Fear aggression can be an unpredictable behavior and the simplest — yet most difficult to fix. You can’t rush it. You have to take it slow and steady, sometimes even taking a few steps back.

Anytime you are dealing with an animal, particularly a dog, trust is an integral factor, and never more so than when working with a fear aggressive dog to help it overcome that
fear or at least become less reactive. This fix takes time, concentration and great patience; in the beginning the concentration will be almost solely on your part and patience will be necessary to allow that dog to learn that he can trust you not to allow whatever it is that causes fear to harm him.

Perhaps the most common example of true aggressive behavior is toward other dogs, often of the same sex, and even dog aggressive behavior isn’t always; sometimes it is a more accurately a preemptive defensive behavior; an attempt to warn the other dog to stay away to avoid contact that might necessitate the dog’s having to defend itself. Dog Aggression can be a manifestation of fear aggression, or it can also be that you just have a dog that doesn’t tolerate other dogs. Period.

Fear and dog aggression can usually be mitigated using variances of the same methods. The first step is to gain trust and build a bond. Teaching the dog to depend on you takes time and more than affection and reassurance. Trust is built on everyday care, on feeling safe, on consistency — your dog understanding that in a given circumstance he can count on you to behave in a certain manner, without fail, to not fall apart, panic or lash out.

The second integral piece to this puzzle is to key your dog to focus on you and only you when you direct him to or when he is feeling unsure. “Look at me” or some variant of that is a handy command to use for this. Use high value treats as a reward and increase the amount of time he focuses on you without looking away before he gets his treat. As he gets better at it, teach him to maintain that focus when there are distractions around.

Then, once you begin to firmly establish those trust parameters and have a solid focus developing, you’re going to have to gradually begin stretching the boundaries, approaching whatever the situation is that sends your dog into an attitude of fear or dog aggression. Not too close; begin at the outer limits of his comfort zone, where he can observe without reacting. Before he starts to react in any way, use your focus command. When he’s accomplished that, reward and retreat and go do something fun.

This approach does two things: it desensitizes your dog to the stimulus, whether it’s something he’s afraid of or another dog, and it begins to make a connection between being in the proximity of the negative stimulus and having good things happen — like treats and doing fun things. But don’t think for a minute that you’re fooling your dog into accepting; you aren’t, you’re teaching him. Dogs aren’t really that easily duped. What they are is trusting and it’s up to you not to betray that trust and to guide your dog.

There will be setbacks. When that happens, go back to a level of exposure where your dog is non-reactive and build back up. It’s unlikely it will take as long to regain the lost
ground as it did to initially attain it. Never forget, though, that there will always be the possibility that an incident can trigger a return of your dog’s previous reactions, so don’t neglect reinforcing the all-important focus training. It could be the deciding factor that stands between your dog and a series of unfortunate events one day.

About the Author

Collin is a trainer and pet enthusiast. He has spent much of his time working with pets and their families in a variety of fields, but now focuses his time on sharing his expertise with others. Visit Collins website Pet-Super-Store.com for great deals on pet fences and unique pet beds.

SMOKIE AT THE BULLY PITBULL SHOW WITH BLUE LINE FAMILY DAL MAR CALIFORNIA