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What Makes A Dog Turn Aggressive?

June 08, 2022 by admin

It’s a good question and a serious concern for many dog owners around the world. So you can understand that we are talking about dog aggression. Aggression in dogs can be defined in many ways such as the threat of harm to another individual including a human or any fellow dog. Many people often consider aggressive behaviour in a dog when it comes to biting someone or guttural barking that sounds threatening but dog aggression could also figured out with one of the possible behaviours:

  • Growling
  • Snarling
  • Snapping
  • Biting and shaking
  • Showing teeth
  • Snarl (a combination of growling and showing teeth)
  • Becoming still and rigid

Bites too can vary from light touches to causing extremely serious injuries. Remember aggression is just the outward expression of an emotion and can be used to communicate various intensions by the dog. However, dog aggression can be dealt with ease if the reason and factors causing the aggression are determined and taken care with specialized ways so that other alternate methods can be used by dogs to show their emotion and convey their messages.

Aggression is just the outward expression of an emotion and can be used to communicate various intensions by the dog.

Various factors that cause aggression in dogs are:

    1. Fear – The most common reason for aggression in dogs is fear. The fear could be of their own safety from someone whom they might not know. It could be fear from fellow dogs, or fear of losing something that makes them feel comfortable like their toys, their shelter. .A fearful dog may only attacks when it feels it is unable to escape from a situation or defend itself.
    1. Frustration – Frustration is another common cause of dog aggression. Frustration is caused by building of stress and taken out in the form of aggression. It is also called as redirected aggression. It is usually caused when a dog is prevented from doing something that it wants or is forced to do something that it may not want to do or a dog is not being able to get to something it wishes for and such frustration can in result in aggression towards anyone nearby.
    1. Illness/Pain – Aggression in a dog can also arise due to an illness or severe pain. There are number if diseases that may turn dog ill and could become one more cause of aggression. Thyroid disease like hypothyroidism, rabies, and brain tumours and head trauma are just a few of the illnesses that can set the reason for aggression. Also, a dog in pain from an injury or wound or some other pain will also show the signs off aggressiveness by stopping others from hurting it. That’s why it’s very important to take precautions when handling an injured dog.
    1. Possessive Aggression – Dogs shows their tendency to guard their possessions from others even if they don’t need it. Some care about their food, their utensils in which food is served to them, their toys, yard where they live and play or some other object which they care for. In such an aggression the degree of aggression varies from person to person and so as the consequences such as growling, barking or even to bite a stranger.
  1. Maternal Aggression – Maternal aggression is also the most common in all dog species. A mother will always protect her puppies from threats. Mothers are extremely likely to be very protective of their litters. Mothers usually display emotional signals to strangers that may seem to them as threats.

 

A well structured obedience classes can help to prevent unnecessary casualties, it also build a
strong bonding between the dog and the owner.Aggression could be dangerous irrespective of the cause. This should be treated strictly by a
professional dog trainer to maintain a good relationship within the family.

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