One of the biggest dog behavior problems that pet owners find themselves faced with is an aggressive dog. Aggressive dog training can sometimes be difficult, but it’s worth your effort because it can end up saving your dog’s life. It’s also the leading reason why most dogs are given up to or put down by animal shelters. Training an aggressive dog shouldn’t be done on your own without the help of an experienced dog trainer, but there are some aggressive dog training tricks that can help you with your goal.
Dogs are essentially pack animals, and they understand this instinctively. Because of this, it’s important that you establish your dominance over your dog through consistent dog training and reinforcement. This doesn’t mean you have to use treats to make him obey, rather consistency and positive reinforcement will help your dog learn that his existence in your pack means that he should only react to the pack leader – you. The trick is to make sure that your dog is aware that you are the pack leader and that you always remain in the forefront as the leader of the pack. This gives him an incentive to react in a certain way when you give him positive reinforcement.
How to train a dog not to be aggressive with other dogs is about establishing yourself as the leader of the pack. Dogs take a dominant role in the relationship when there is an established hierarchy. You need to teach your dog that he cannot act aggressively towards you, your family, your friends, other dogs, or people. Some aggressive behaviors are perfectly normal for a dog that has not been trained properly. These can include barking or howling, marking their territory, and playing tug-of-war with other dogs.
Some of these problems can be fixed with training your dog but you need to keep everyone on the same page. One good example is the Frisbee game. If you throw the Frisbee and the other dog makes contact with it, you are not being rude. Rather, you are using the game as a form of challenge to see who can throw the Frisbee farther out of reach of the other dog. If you keep everyone on the same page during the training process, then everyone will learn quickly and efficiently.
How to train a dog not to be aggressive with other dogs begins with classical conditioning. Classical conditioning is an effective tool that teaching a dog how to react according to what you say. When you use a treat to reward your dog for acting appropriately, he picks up on the reward and knows that he must behave in a particular way to get that treat. This is the basis for classical conditioning.
The problem with reactive dogs is that they seem to have a “free” choice when it comes to how they act. Any time you use a command such as “free,” they immediately know what you want them to do. However, many reactive dogs have a difficult time listening to commands such as “free.” They are constantly responding to their surroundings instead of following commands. You can’t instruct a dog to stay away from an object or stay on a particular spot until you remove the object, the dog has no choice but to follow the orders.
How to train a dog not to be aggressive with other dogs begins with conditioning him not to react to things in certain situations. The old idea of using a short leash and jumping on a dog to pull him away from something undesirable worked in the past, but today’s obedience classes have moved away from this type of method. One way to teach your dog not to react inappropriately is to start him out on a one way leash. For your first training session, keep the leash just above his head and eventually move the leash down to his bottom.
In this way, he learns to recognize your commands like “stay” and “come,” then move the leash to a place at your side, then over to the side of your body and so on. Eventually, he will be able to move away from you without reacting to your voice, then you can eliminate the short leash and start moving him into position to receive his treats. Remember, a dog does not learn from one session of training, so continue to practice with him for several weeks until he appears to be responding well to your commands. When he responds well, introduce him to short line training, and continue with regular street passes, treats, and more.
