AGGRESSION AND PUPPIES

Aggression is one of the most serious behaviour problems that a pet owner has to face. Once established aggression problems can be difficult and dangerous situations to correct  (see Aggression Page).

Socialization: Puppies who do not have a chance to learn about humans when they are young are likely to grow up to be antisocial adults that exhibit avoidance fear or aggressive behaviour. This can be prevented by providing plenty of opportunities for social contact very early in life.

Habituation: Puppies need to learn all about the environment in which they will live as adults. Without adequate exposure during early life, novel situations and handling elicit(bring out ) fear or aggression when the puppy is exposed to them in later life. Puppies should experience a wide variety of sights, sounds, odours and situations such as car rides, traffic, bicycles, noisy vacuum cleaners, hair dryers, lawnmowers etc.

Training: Training plays a very important part in allowing owners to gain control.  Owners who have good verbal control of their pets are less likely to encounter aggression during confrontational situations.  Young puppies can easily be taught command responses by using food-lure reward training.

Taking control, setting the boundaries and teaching:  family members should begin to take `leadership`  control of the pet soon after it is adopted. This can be done by using obedience commands and by controlling resources.  (See The Learn to Earn Programme in the download section)

The puppy should learn to defer to family members by responding to a command before receiving anything. Boundaries must be set so be consistent and family members must be in charge at all times.

Food Guarding: Puppies should learn to be comfortable eating eating their dinner when humans are near by.  This can easily and safely be accomplished when the puppy is young. Dinner time should be a social time for the family and the pet. A family member should occasionally sit on the floor with the food bowl in their lap, hand feeding and gently stroking the puppy.  Visitors who are present during puppy`s dinner time can casually drop small pieces of moist food into the bowl as they walk by.

This approach is only safe for puppies without problems and older dogs with established food aggression problems can be difficult and dangerous to treat.

Object guarding: To prevent object guarding the owner should occasionally trade toys for treats. When the pet has a toy in its mouth, the owner can hold a piece of kibble in front of the puppies nose and say Drop It as the puppy opens its mouth to take the food. When the puppy finishes eating the owner should requests a sit and then give back the toy.

If you have any questions about Puppy Aggression please contact WellBehave.