Dogs and Violent Behaviour

You have to try and understand why the dog has become dangerous and there are two useful ways to help you in this. The first is body language. A dog that is aggressive because it is afraid will look very different for one displaying dominance aggression. These signs can be learnt. Secondly, think like a dog! Understand that the dog thinks of itself as a wolf and you as its pack. All dogs, are by nature, creatures of hierarchy and will be happiest if it knows exactly where in the hierarchy it stands. A confident or powerful dog may vie for dominance if it feels unsure. All dogs want to be honourable members of the pack, valued for their role in it. In short the approach you take to curbing a dangerous dog depends largely on why it has become dangerous all the best urban

Hello rbailey, I think that any dog can be rehabilitated, but for some it may be necessary to spend much time and efforts to succeed. It all depends on how bad the poor dog was abused. I'm afraid a dog's life is not so valuable in some people's opinon, so they rather put them to sleep than try to rehabilitate them. Of course, they would need to be real lover of the dogs and they would need much information about dogs in general to be able to bring the dog to the normal. But, as I say, most cases end up with the dog being put to sleep, because people think it can't be changed and they are afraid that behaviour may reinstall after a while.

Some dogs develop aggressive behaviour due to the way they are treated. Some, I'm afraid, seem to be just born with that trait. I had a litter or four puppies who were brought up in exactly the same way, alongside the family and other animals in a caring environment. Unfortunately one of them turned out to be unpredictable and after it had bitten visitors twice had to be put to sleep. The other three are well loved family pets and I trust them to sleep alongside my children. I have no idea why one was different, and I have no idea what I could have done differently. I tried many solutions, from heirarchy training to extra attention to punishment but he just seemed to dislike strangers to the extent where he could not be trusted.

Yes I am sure that it is very difficult to change the behavior. Just think of how an abused child may lash out and behave badly, even once (if not especially once) they are removed from the negative environment to a safe and loving environment. They don't really want to behave this way, but they are afraid and don't know how to be any other way. It takes a lot of time and effort, but the child could eventually learn how to adapt to a normal environment. Animals are just the same, but may be even more difficult to help because we don't understand animals the way we do fellow humans and of course animals can't talk to us and tell us how they feel. Have you ever seen the show Dog Whisperer? Cesar Millan has helped a lot of dogs on the show who are like this. In one episode, there is this fat little bulldog who the whole family was actually scared of. It was crazy. Cesar actually got bit by it, but he said he didn't blame the dog. By the end of the show, the dog was being nice towards everyone.

It depends on why the dog is being violent. Is he insecure and doing out of defense because he thinks someone or something is threatening him? Or is it out of dominance? The only way you could really find out would be to know something about his history and observe what is going on and how he's reacting to what is happening around him. Ever watch that Cesar Milan show? He is the best at this stuff.

Hello rbailey83, I am an avid lover of dogs. I have adopted a few dogs who were left abondned out of abuse. I have discovered that by being loving to the dogs and constantly playing with them will eventually cast away the violent behaiviour as they come to respect the hand that feeds them. Taking them for a drive or walk daily and rewarding them with treats everytime you are pleased with them and also giving them special treats (Chewies or different dog meals) like on sundays for example will also make them realise that the current atomsphere they are in is different from what they have earlier been thru or experienced. My dogs (I have four of them out of which two are adopted) also had this violent tendency but have now changed and have become a lot calmer. By them being happy will make them protative of their enviroment hence making them much calmer to you but aggresive to outside threats. I hope this helps you. Thanks, God Bless & happy mylotting.