Own an Aggressive Dog on Long Island?
It can be very frustrating owning an aggressive dog or puppy, more so these days. Besides the liability, there are the emotions, and we aren’t talking about the puppy or dogs feelings here, we are speaking about yours. For many dog owners on Long Island, their dog was always aggressive, but for a lot, unfortunately, it is something that they acquired somehow along the way. Both are heartbreaking in different ways.
A puppy or dog that is aggressive usually leads a restrictive life-style; however, that too often is the best case scenario, there are many times where the puppy or dog finds itself being rehomed once too often. Rehoming aggressive dogs frequently can increase the tenacity of the aggression or even lead to other aggressions, not limited to: fear aggression, dog on dog aggression, resource and food aggression, handler aggression, people aggression, and the list goes on.
There is said to be a fine line between fear and aggression as fear aggression is one of the many forms of aggressions that exist.
How Does a Puppy Get to Be Aggressive?
There are the breeders that simply breed to enhance the quality of the breed. Dedicated Dog Training believes the majority of these come from dog trainers involved with dog sports!
This group of breeders is not looking so much for “looks,” but more for traits. The sport Schutzhund which originated from Germany was a dog sport that was used to qualify dogs for breeding, without having a title in this sport; you were not allowed to breed. Temperament is what a good breeder focuses on. They raise puppies to be confident, expose them gently to everything, and socialize them. These often are the breeders that do not make a killing, with the exception of a few, on selling their pups, but do ensure by interviewing buyers that they are qualified to own such a puppy!
Many times puppy mills are responsible for puppies that are born with “weak nerves.” It is genetic related in this instance. In the dog community, there is discussion about individuals breeding fear aggressive dogs purposely for the intent of having them become fighting dogs (one must wonder, and think – Pit Bulls), after all, what better traits to breed if you wanted your dog to fight to the end? This type of breeding is obviously done intentionally (of course, the wrong intentions).
Then there is the breeder that is just in it for the money, they care more about the business aspect of breeding then taking in less profits for their troubles while improving the breed; these dog breeders in our opinion, are not intentionally malice, but have no right to breed.
Then you have the folks that want to explain child birth and rearing to their loved ones and think that breeding is the way to go about doing so, again, my opinion, this is ludicrous and sometimes irresponsible too! Please do not misunderstand me, if a qualified breeder does this, great idea – because he or she has their breeding program under control and is using a successful program to teach.
Additionally, there are breeders that have accidental litters – these are the dog owners that were careless at first and then realized that these puppies could be cute!
When a puppy is born with genetics that support aggression, intervention can decrease or mitigate the severity of responses to certain stimuli; however, if you see it, it means it is present, for these dog owners on Long Island, prevention and management is a must as their program will be concentrating on how to manage your dog in their presence; whereas a dog that acquired aggression from an event in their environment may have a different behavior modification program. Aggression is funny, how’s that for an oxy-moron? With aggressive dogs they do have an input as to how far they can go; the trick is for the dog trainers to identify through observation what the limits are and how to successfully get there!
How Does an Aggressive Puppy Get More Aggressive?
A puppy that was born with aggression, often can acquire more aggression through his surroundings and inadequate leadership or a bad occurrence or two. For example, a puppy that is born with fear aggression, is naturally afraid of dogs, gets bit by one. And if that wasn’t enough, the owner thinks that by flooding (throwing the puppy into a pool of dogs to have him or her overcome their fear) this puppy is the answer and even creates more hostility or aggression towards other dogs, maybe even his owner. Yes, these people are out there, sadly, but true, you may have even adopted one of their dogs or puppies.
Sometimes, it is not as easily detected as the example above; many times the aggression grows and grows in small amounts that coupled with our busy schedules makes it very easy to go undetected until, unfortunately an incident.
Whether it is easy or a bit more difficult to put your finger on, most aggression, in our opinion, can be suppressed by good leadership. Fear aggression is a perfect of example of that. With fear aggression, the puppy or dog usually does not have confidence in their owner, so they cannot rely on him or her to protect them from what give the idea of danger to them.
Training Aggressive Dog, Not For Everyone
Training an aggressive dog on Long Island is not for everyone, not for every dog trainer too. Let alone owning an aggressive dog, it is very difficult for the owner to comprehend the way the dog sees things. Way too many dog owners fail to achieve the results they could in obedience dog training because of their preconceived notions on how to train a dog or how to raise a puppy; they are often stuck on believing that a puppy is human, they are not. Puppies are not human and how dare you think they want to be human; that’s like saying that you want to be a dog! OK, back on topic.
Most dog trainers on Long Island fail to recognize that your average puppy owner does not see things the same way as they do, so it is really not about what a good dog trainer you are, but more about what a good teacher you are – you have to be able to get the dog owner to think the way you do, they need to buy into the philosophy otherwise,at best, short term results can only be expected…. And that is with obedience training, imagine aggression issues.
Many times aggression issues are brought on by poor leadership, that’s right! If you cannot take control over your pack, whether you believe in the terminology or not, it exists, the puppy or dog will. The severity of their intervention depends on their personality as well as how poor or seemingly unorganized or lack of consistency exists in the home. Show a dog democracy and more than likely they will show you dictatorship!
How Do I Show the Dog That I am the Boss?
….very carefully! Many dog owners that we encounter on Long Island think that they have to become aggressive with a dog or puppy to earn their respect. In contrast, many dog owners that we encounter believe that the application of a correction to their dog to discourage unwanted behaviors in cruel & aggressive. WOW! And you thought us Long Island dog trainers had it easy! A correction is not aggression, well, I suppose it could be, but it should NOT be; a correction is to discourage, make bad behavior less desirable as a reward is to encourage and make good behavior more desirable, Nothing more, nothing less.
If you meet aggression with aggression chances are there will be an immediate injury, and future ones to come. This type of outdated thinking will get you more aggression. We are smarter than dogs, we can multi-task, we can plan – they can’t they live in the moment. Any human that does not try to outsmart their dog is wasting our advantage. If the dog is aggressive and you are not in a position to administer an effective and meaningful (the dogs know what he is getting corrected for) correction, you MUST acknowledge that the window has left, a correction knowing the dog will not understand why is – cruel!
Showing the dog that you are in charge means changing the way that way you carry yourself, changing the way you do certain things, etc….These things are best left to be discussed by a professional dog trainer in person or at the very least for some quick hints and tips via phone.
Contact Dedicated Dog Training of Levittown
We are devoted to dog training. Long Island has many dog trainers and we know a lot of them are very passionate about what they do. That said, we believe we are amongst those top dog trainers and have a dog training school that will provide you with:
- Dedication
- Honesty
- Transparency
- Integrity
- Knowledge
- Awesome customer service and
- Solutions!
If you would like more info on aggressive dogs please contact us, we are one of the few that dog training businesses that handle aggressive dogs on Long Island, if we can’t be of service, we may be able to point you in the right direction. For many, we have been their last stop and solution to their problems. Contact Dedicated Dog Training to learn more about what we can offer your dog, you and your family!