When we talk about an aggressive dog, the image of a large dog showing its teeth and barking immediately comes to mind, something that indicates that it is a dangerous dog or that it wants few friends. However, it is the small breed dogs that for reasons still unknown, tend to be less friendly on many occasions.
Obviously medium or large size dogs can intimidate us much more if their behavior is not adequate, but at general levels it is the smaller dogs that tend to be more aggressive if they are not educated well.
Not the same a Aggressive pit bull, which can even end our life if it attacks us, than an aggressive Chiguagua, which can only give us a bite in the worst case. But regardless of breed or size, all dogs must be sociable and respectful, that’s why we leave you with these simple tips that will help you have a healthy and balanced dog.
Index of contents
- 1 1. How to avoid that my dog is aggressive: Education from puppy
- 2 2. How to prevent my dog from being aggressive: Socialize it with the environment
- 3 3. How to avoid that my dog is aggressive: Be authoritarian and calm
- 4 4. How to prevent my dog from being aggressive: Exercise with your dog
- 5 5. How to prevent my dog from being aggressive: Do not leave him alone and never hit him
- 5.1 Conclusions
1. How to avoid that my dog is aggressive: Education from puppy
Many people acquire a dog only to have it on a piece of land or in the garden of a house to carry out surveillance tasks. If your intention is to buy a dog and leave it unattended just to make it your private alarm … you better not have a dog.
A dog, of whatever breed, must be educated since it is a puppy. Dogs do not learn in a week or even two months, they need constant and evolutionary education during their growth. Even when they are adults (dogs over two years old), they must continue to be regularly trained.
One of the things that we will teach him as he grows is precisely that people cannot be bitten. As puppies they will want to bite everything, it is something completely normal because they are taking out the baby teeth or the real ones and they need to bite things … but one thing is to bite a toy or a stick and another very different thing is to bite a human.
Not even when we are playing should we let him bite us, it is something he must learn from a young age. It will be enough to scold him when he does, and leave the game for a few minutes. You can learn everything you need about their education from: How to educate a puppy.
2. How to prevent my dog from being aggressive: Socialize it with the environment
As much as we get (never better said) to think that a dog must respect other animals and humans just because we command it, we must assume that this will never happen naturally. Dogs are animals and as such they simply follow their instincts. It is our responsibility to educate and socialize them so that they really learn to respect their environment.
Dogs have to be socialized from puppies. Socializing means that the dog must know and interact with its environment, both physical things such as parks, gardens, streets, cars … how to the rest of animals, dogs, humans, cats, cows, sheep….
The best way to socialize our dog is by taking him from puppy to walk through our town or city, through the countryside and the mountains, on the sidewalk of our neighborhood, etc … You must know new places and visit familiar sites, but above all, you must have contact with other dogs (of all ages) and learn to respect them. Play with them, smell them, even let them scold you from time to time so you know that other dogs can scold you if you do something wrong.
It is super important to let our dog mix and be caressed by other humans, let them speak to him and that he knows how to respect them. Correctly socializing a dog as a puppy we will make it pleasant, calm and very friendly as an adult. You can get detailed information from: How to socialize a dog.
Dogs are animals that need to have a leader, which is colloquially known as an alpha male. In his pack we must assume that role of alpha male, that is, the dog must follow us and obey them.
We must be authoritarian when we want something, there is no point in ordering our dog to come and if he does not, let him be … We must be authoritarian, if the dog does not come our order, we must order it again and he must obey. When he does, we will congratulate him, pet him and give him a prize (chuche / biscuit for dogs).
But if you don’t obey… we should seriously consider spending more time on your training or hiring a professional trainer. If you are not able to make your dog come to your order, how can you expect him to listen to you if he becomes aggressive and bites someone?
We should not confuse training a dog well with being an unscrupulous sergeant. Let’s see … we must find a middle point, the dog must obey our orders if or if, the best way to teach him to obey with positive reinforcement.
On the other hand we must be calm people, this is essential to educate and live with a dog. If we are nervous, our dog will detect that nervousness and consequently he will think that something is wrong and will also be nervous. A nervous dog can be scary or aggressive, a nervous dog can panic and be unpredictable.
Our state of mind is fundamental for him, that is why we must always remain calm and patient, so that he learns to be calm and to be patient.
4. How to prevent my dog from being aggressive: Exercise with your dog
Dogs need to exercise daily, obviously it depends on their age, puppies and older dogs do not require exercise, but healthy adult dogs do. Go jogging with our dog, or ride a bike and let him chase us, skate with him or simply climb the mountain on beautiful trails surrounded by nature…. It is enough for him to burn off his excess energy and be a calm dog.
We must use common sense, we must not overdo it with exercise since our dog could suffer a heat stroke or an attack. We simply need to exercise at a calm but steady pace and assess when it is enough for our puppy.
Smaller dogs generally have less endurance, so they need much less exercise. However, some large dog breeds are also not very fond of exercise (such as the Bernese Mountain Dog for example), it is our obligation to inform ourselves about what is recommended for our dog.
In addition to burning his excess energy, our dog will strengthen his bond with us. If our dog is not suitable for exercise due to his age, breed or health, g
oing for a walk and sunbathing or letting him play in the park with other puppies is the best option for him to burn his energy.
Remember that when you finish exercising with your dog, you should not let him drink plenty of water like a desperate man because he could suffer a stomach twist. It is best to let him calm down for a while and then let him drink water, if he drinks a lot we will separate him and let another time pass before he continues to drink more. You can get more info from: Stomach twist in dogs.
Dogs that do not exercise accumulate excess energy that ends up exploding somewhere, often in the form of excessive nervousness or aggressiveness. So exercising with your dog is highly recommended, if possible, on a daily basis.
5. How to prevent my dog from being aggressive: Do not leave him alone and never hit him
Leaving a dog alone for long periods of time can lead to separation stress, undesirable habits, or becoming unstable or violent. Dogs are pets, they like to be with their boss, that is, with you.
It is inevitable to leave a dog alone at home in inevitable, but it should be for a short time. We can’t go to work in the morning and leave him alone until dinner time, when we get home from work … that’s not good for a dog. We can leave it at the home of a relative you know, a friend or in the company of another dog with whom you get along.
Using aggressiveness against our dog is one way to teach him that being aggressive is normal. That is why we must NEVER hit a dog, it is not only an act of cowards but we will be giving a bad example to our dog. A dog that is mistreated ends up being aggressive by its very nature.
Leaving a dog alone at home for long periods of time often means that the dog has broken things, bitten cables, slippers, furniture … It is completely normal, due to the stress of loneliness. You can get more detailed information from: Separation stress in dogs. The biggest mistake is seeing something broken and going to attack our dog … since the mistake was ours for leaving him alone for so long, not his.
Conclusions
As you can see, it is very easy to avoid having an aggressive dog, we simply must invest time in its education, be patient and practice with good examples. Our behavior is essential for his education and for him not to be an aggressive dog.
And if we still do not get our dog to be calm and obey us, or if we see signs that it is dangerous, we can always go to a qualified professional trainer to facilitate our work.
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