Skip to content. Aggression is the most common and most serious behavior problem in dogs. Virtually all wild animals are aggressive when guarding their territories, defending their offspring and protecting themselves. Species that live in groups, including people and dogs, also use aggression and the threat of aggression to keep the peace and to negotiate social interactions. Aggression encompasses a range of behaviors that usually begins with warnings and can culminate in an attack.
Dogs may abort their efforts at any point during an aggressive encounter. A dog that shows aggression to people usually exhibits some part of the following sequence of increasingly intense behaviors:.
It can be just milliseconds between a warning and a bite, but dogs rarely bite without giving some type of warning beforehand.
If your dog has been aggressive in the past or you suspect she could become aggressive, take time to evaluate the situations that have upset her. Who bore the brunt of her aggression? When and where did it happen? What else was going on at the time? What had just happened or was about to happen to your dog? What seemed to stop her aggression? You need an accurate diagnosis before you can hope to help your dog. Aggressive behavior problems in dogs can be classified in different ways.
A beneficial scheme for understanding why your dog is aggressive is based on the function or purpose of the aggression. If you think of aggression this way, you can determine what motivates your dog to behave aggressively and identify what she hopes to gain from her behavior. They live in certain area, and they defend this area from intruders. Wolves are highly territorial. Some dogs display the same tendencies. They bark and charge at people or other animals encroaching on their home turf.
