How Do You Know if Your Dog Is Being Aggressive Instead of Just Grumpy?
To distinguish between grumpiness and aggression, we’ll need to start by defining aggression.
Aggression is a threat or harmful behavior directed towards another individual (be it a dog, human, or another pet).
A few common examples of threats and harmful behaviors dogs may exhibit include:
On the other hand, dogs can easily feel overwhelmed, tired, like being left alone, or even feel unwell — they can just feel, for lack of a better term, grumpy.
Grumpiness is really just another way of saying less-tolerant than normal. Any dog who is pestered or pushed beyond his level of tolerance could potentially lead to an aggressive response.
Grumpiness shouldn’t be taken any less seriously, and these signals should be respected. A grumpy response could tell us there is something more, perhaps even medically, going on.
In such cases, dogs may do things like:
In general, “grumpiness” does not lead to bites unless you continue to provoke your pooch. But the more times they find themselves provoked, the greater the risk for a bite to occur in the future.
Addressing Your Dog’s Sudden Aggression: What Should You Do?
Regardless of whether he is growling at you because he is being aggressive or he is just telling you off, you must always heed your dog’s warnings.
Your pup has every right to tell you he doesn’t feel like cuddling, having his hair brushed, or sharing his food.
Ultimately, we need to understand the root cause of his aggressive behavior. What type of dog aggression is he displaying? What has caused your dog to act aggressively, and how can we help him?
Often, owners will need professional assistance from a qualified behavior consultant, positive trainer, or veterinary behaviorist to determine the underlying reason for his aggro behavior.
In fact, aggression is one of the leading reasons people call a professional for help.
But unfortunately, the dog training industry is unregulated, and not all trainers are equally qualified or educated.
So do your homework, choose a reputable dog trainer or behavior consultant with a solid evidence-based ethos, who is certified by an organization with a positive-based code of ethics. Additionally, don’t be afraid to ask questions.
It is especially important to obtain professional advice if your dog has bitten you or your dog has bitten someone else — particularly if the bite was severe enough to require medical treatment.
Nevertheless, whether you try to treat your dog’s sudden aggression issues with professional assistance (recommended) or on your own (not a great idea), the basic plan of attack will be the same.
All dog behavior issues are treated by addressing one or more of three similar components:
We’ll talk about each of theses three facets below.
If your dog’s aggression seems unusual and out of character, it is advisable to see your vet.
Your vet can do a complete check-up to rule in/out any underlying medical issues. This is one step that many people don’t think about, but pain or feeling unwell can be a common reason for the sudden onset of aggressive behavior.
Even if there are no medical issues causing the sudden aggression, behavioral meds (available through your vet) may represent a treatment option.
However, the cautionary tale here is, behavioral medications should always be used in conjunction with behavior training. Otherwise, we are not addressing the root cause of the aggression; we’re just treating the symptoms.
Alleviating the symptoms may, however, be helpful for the training process, as it will help him to feel more relaxed and less anxious, thereby allowing him to learn new coping strategies.
For example, my dog is on canine anxiety medication because she has “stranger danger” issues (as well as generalized anxiety).
We have made incredible progress with by implementing behavioral modifications to address her underlying issues. This two-pronged combination of behavior medication and behavioral training can help you more safely socialize an aggressive dog.
Accordingly, we’ll soon be able to start weaning her off of these meds knowing we have helped create better coping strategies and more positive associations with her triggers.
Once you’ve established that your dog is in good health (or you’ve begun treating any health problems causing the aggression), you can start using aggressive dog training procedures to help your dog overcome his aggressive reactions.
Because the aggressive reaction is an emotional response, we need to address the emotional underpinnings. This typically involves one or more of the following techniques:
Desensitization involves slowly, consistently and repeatedly exposing your dog to his trigger at a tolerable distance or intensity. This is often done in “baby steps” until you reach the end goal.
If, for example, walking near your dog’s food bowl triggers him, you can try sitting or standing at a far enough distance that there is no response from him at all. Then, over time, you can begin moving closer and closer to his bowl at meal times.
I never advise “poking the bear,” (so to speak), or in this case, sticking your hand in his bowl while he is eating. But you may, over days, weeks, or months, be able to walk by your dog while he is eating without soliciting a reaction.
This is a big word that really means changing your dog’s underlying emotional response. This way, instead of thinking a given stimulus is bad or scary, your dog will begin to find that it is harmless, and therefore not scary.
For example, if sitting close to your dog triggers his anxiety and aggressive response, you can try tossing treats to him every time you sit on the couch with him. Start far enough away that he doesn’t act reactively — this might even mean that you start on the floor.
The goal is for your pup to equate you sitting next to her with her favorite things (like cheese, peanut butter, or yummy sausage!). The associations she makes with you sitting near her will change over time as your proximity begins to foretell good things.
Sometimes we need to provide our dogs with an alternative way to cope.
If, for example, your dog reacts aggressively when you get up to walk to the kitchen, you can teach him that when you stand up, it means “go to your bed” (and get a piece of meat for doing so).
By teaching him to do something instead of reacting aggressively, it will give him clear direction, a predictable outcome, and it will mean that he’s about to enjoy something tasty and positive.
Teaching anxious dogs to relax is one of the first things I teach new clients. Doing so can help the pup cope with his overall environment, and it will also help him to settle down. Karen Overall’s Relaxation Protocol is one tool to help with this, but there are others as well.
If you think about it, all of these training solutions work together.
When we counter condition a dog, we can also desensitize him at the same time. Similarly, when we ask for an alternative behavior, we are also desensitizing, and the reward he is earning for the new behavior is an example of counterconditioning.
Management is a key component to helping your dog through the difficulties he is experiencing.
Management helps to prevent aggressive reactions, and in some cases, it may be all you need to do to address the situation.
For example, if your dog acts aggressively when his food bowl is down, try feeding him in a separate space and pick the bowl up and put it away once he is done eating.
Management tools can also help to keep you safe.
If your dog is triggered by scary situations while out on a walk and redirects this onto you, you could condition him to wear a muzzle (which is also an example of a management solution).
If your dog is triggered by strangers or other dogs, this might not only be a good solution to keep everyone safe, but it may also cause strangers to steer clear of you, creating a little less anxiety for your pooch.
Aggressive Puppies that came home early
The biting phase can be worse and more painful with puppies that are purchased at six to seven weeks old. This is because the mother dog does a great job of teaching her youngsters not to bite too hard, and it is best not to interrupt this training too early.
It really is best for your puppy to stay with its mother until it is 8 weeks if possible. If you have brought home a younger puppy you may this article helpful.
Remember that biting, hard biting, is normal puppy play. Every puppy, happy and relaxed enough around you to be playful, will bite! At least to begin with. Even with 8 weeks of education from Mom, your puppy is used to biting other puppies and adult dogs. They need to learn to be more gentle on bare human skin. And on our clothes!
It takes time to teach a puppy not to bite, and I’ll show you how to do that. But for a while, you will be subjected to regular assaults with a sharp little set of needles. You are going to have to be tough, and you will need to protect small children from the puppy’s attentions for a while longer.
I see this kind of very intense growling and biting much more, in families with small children. This is because kids get puppies over excited.
The answer is to limit the amount of time that small children spend in lively play with your puppy, and supervise them more closely. If you can encourage calm stroking, rather than rough playing this phase will pass more smoothly.
Because puppy play can seem like aggression, small children can become very upset by it. Not only does the biting hurt, it also feels like their puppy doesn’t love them. Of course this isn’t true.
The puppy is as loving as ever – he just doesn’t understand how to play gently yet. Regularly separating the puppy from your kids will give them both chance to calm down after play time.
Why Does My Puppy Attack Me? Puppy Training | Part 4 | Doggy Dan Webinar
Life with an aggressive puppy can be very stressful. Signs new puppy owners think might show aggression include biting, nipping, stiff posture, growling, snarling, lip curling, humping, resource guarding and eye rolling. But not all of these are signs of puppy aggression, some are actually part of normal puppy play. In this expert guide we will help you to spot real signs of puppy aggression, and raise your young dog to be a friendly member of the family. We’ll tell you what to do if you have an aggressive puppy, and how to separate this from over excitement and playfulness.
We’ll show you how to spot signs of puppy aggression, and cope with aggressive puppy behavior. We’ll look at dealing with aggressive puppy biting and true aggression in puppies. We’ll also look at how play can seem like aggression, as well as answering your common aggressive puppy questions.
Labradors are generally known as a gentle breed, yet I frequently talk to new Labrador puppy owners that are very worried. They are worried because their nine or ten week old puppy is aggressive. This is not what they expected and they are afraid for what the future will bring.
These are not people that are being pathetic about a few little nips. They are new puppy parents with very young puppies that are launching into frenzied attacks. Whilst looking angelic in between. It’s about children in tears, it’s about snarling and biting. It’s even about puppies drawing blood. If your puppy is behaving like this, I have some great news for you! Read on.
Growling and snarling in small puppies is loud, and ferocious. If this is your first puppy, you are likely to be very concerned. But the good news is, in puppies, growling is not normally a sign of aggression. We’ll look at signs of true puppy aggression in a moment. But for now, most of the behavior people think is aggression is actually play.
The fierce growling that accompanies the biting and the tugging at clothing is quite normal. And while Labs usually grow up to be gentle creatures, small pups are a different story. That’s right! Your puppy is perfectly normal! He has not turned into a demon dog – all puppies – and I mean ALL puppies make this horrible, vicious sounding, noise when they play.
“But, but!” you cry “what about the biting? And the blood!” Now here’s some good news and some bad news.