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August 31st, 2009 by KittyKitty

Of the various types of aggression issue dogs may have, aggression towards people tops the list as the worst of these issues. If a dog is already displaying aggression towards people, it could easily become a biter and cause serious injuries to a visitor to your home or even a family member.

You will need to correct your dogs behavior if you see it displaying aggression towards people. Dogs usually have a reason that has caused they to become aggressive . Usually the reason for a dog’s aggression towards people is that the poor animal had been abused by someone when it was a younger animal.

It is pretty easy to be aware of a dog that is showing signs of aggression. The dog will be snarling or growling while displaying his teeth. The dog will also raise the hair on his back, bark aggressively and perhaps snap it s teeth too. A dog in this state of aggression towards people could easily escalate from aggression to actual biting unless something is done to defuse the situation.

The dog has probably reached this level of aggression towards people over a long period of time-due to some kind of negative conditioning. Your dog’s aggression towards people can be reconditioned by using only positive conditioning to  reverse his problem and create a bond of trust and confidence between you and your dog.

Do not let your aggressive dog run loose until you have retrained him not to be aggressive towards people. Keep your aggressive dog inside a fenced yard or on a lead so that he cannot run loose and possibly attack somebody passing by.

To correct your dog’s aggression towards people, use the following training advice. To get started, bring your dog with you on a visit to a friend of yours-someone who maybe your dog already knows may work best. By meeting away from your dog’s own territory, you are decreasing some of his aggressive tendencies. You should already have put your dog’s leash on before you start the training. The leash gives you the control you will need in case your dog decides to lunge at your friend. In case your dog does act aggressively towards your friend,  you should immediately calm him down with a firm “no” and put him back into his sit position. However, do not yell at your dog or punish him for this aggression. Doing that will only negatively impact your training efforts, by keeping your dog tense.

You do not want to pet or praise him till he is sitting in a calm and relaxed way. If he is doing the right thing, sitting in a relaxed posture, now is the right time to reinforce him with praise and a treat. This way you are using positive reinforcement to show him you are very pleased with what he is doing right now-which is nothing but sitting and acting calmly and not aggressive towards people. When your dog shows any aggression at all, you must repeat this step to get it to eventually sink in. The positive conditioning works because you are gradually desensitizing your dog’s fear of people and his response of aggression towards them.

You will have to give your dog repeated training sessions for this training to work. Once he has become relaxed around the friend you began the training with, you can begin introducing  him to other people until he shows he can relax when meeting anyone new.

Start the training by introducing your dog to 1 new person at a time. too many people could make it difficult for your dog to relax. Once your dog has shown he can remain calm when meeting a variety of new people one on one, you may increase the amount of people around during the training. Of course, you want him to be comfortable around groups of people in every social situation, so he can be part of the family.

If you use these steps your dog’s aggression towards people will be corrected, and he will finally be around people without feeling like someone may abuse him. Not only is the training going to help your dog, you will finally have a pet that you know won’t be a problem and a hazard to your family and visitors, and you can begin to enjoy your dog’s company a lot more.  Now a walk with your dog in public will be fun instead of a challenge.

Read more articles on solving dog aggression problems towards other dogs, dog fear aggression and dog aggression over food as well as many other articles with helpful dog obedience training advice at http:// www.Behave Doggy.com.

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