One of Hour Most Difficult Dog Behaviour Problems

Aggression is one of the most serious dog behaviour problems for many dog owners. Behaviors such as growling, snapping, or biting are upsetting and scary, and dogs of any breed are capable of aggression. While aggression cannot be cured overnight, there are steps you can take to stop it.

Talk to Your Veterinarian

Dogs who show sudden signs of aggression may have an underlying medical problem. There are a number of conditions and diseases which cause aggressive behavior. Talk to your veterinarian to determine whether this is the case for your pet. Treatment or medication may make big improvements in your dog’s behavior.

Call in a Professional

If you have ruled out a medical problem, it is time to call in a professional dog trainer or behaviorist. Because aggression is such a serious problem, dog owners should not attempt to fix it on their own. A professional can help you create a plan to manage your dog’s aggression. To find a professional dog trainer or behaviorist, ask your veterinarian for a referral or check out the Association of Pet Dog Trainers website.

Determine What Produces the Aggression

Your first step is to figure out what causes your dog’s aggression. Some dogs growl when someone approaches them while they are eating or chewing a bone. Others react aggressively towards children or strangers. You cannot come up with a plan to change your dog’s behavior until you know the reason behind it.

Avoid Situations That Produce Aggressive Dog Behaviour Problems

Now that you know what causes your dog’s behavior, you can avoid those situations. If your dog growls over his toys or his food bowl, you can feed him in his crate or take away certain toys. If he is aggressive towards strangers or other dogs, you can keep his exercise limited to your own backyard.

Create a Plan

Your trainer can help you figure out the best plan for managing your dog’s aggression. The plan will be different for each dog depending on the cause and the degree of the aggression. In most cases, you will be using positive reinforcement (i.e. lots of treats and praise) to teach your dog new behaviors. For example, if your dog is mildly aggressive towards strangers, start off by standing far away from someone your dog does not know. The distance should be far enough away so that your dog has not started to growl or snap. Then, give him lots of treats and praise. Gradually decrease the distance between your dog and strangers, continuing to use the positive reinforcement. Your dog will begin to learn that strangers equal treats, and you should see a decrease in aggression. This same gradual process can work for getting your dog used to a variety of other situations.

If you want to read more about how to get rid of your dog behaviour problems, click here, or check out our other resources in the right hand column.

Our Most Common Dog Behaviour Problems

Dogs will be dogs, and most dogs will bark, whine and howl at times – it’s only natural. Dogs vocalize to communicate with humans and to express themselves. Sometimes we want our dogs to bark in order to warn us about potential danger or protect us from harm. However, excessive dog barking can be considered being of of many typical dog behaviour problems. What is the solution? Well, your dog needs to understand when to bark and when to be quiet, and it’s your job to teach this to her. Start working on problem barking as soon as you can. The longer you wait, the harder it gets to still the behavior. It is a good idea to teach your dog the Speak/Quiet Commands. This may be easier said than done. However, with dedication and consistency, you can teach your dog to bark on command AND to be quiet.

Why Dogs Bark – Typical Dog Behaviour Problems

It is important to understand that dogs bark for various reasons. They do not bark just to annoy you and your neighbors, nor do they bark for spite or revenge. Dogs don’t bark just because they can (though it might seem that way at times). Certain dog breeds bark more than others – some types of dogs were actually bred to be barkers. Then again, the Basenji does not bark at all (though the breed can vocalize in other ways). If you listen closely, you will eventually learn your dog’s different barks. Understanding the reason why your dog barks is the first step towards controlling the behavior. In general, dogs will most commonly bark for the following reasons:

• Warning/Alert: It is natural for a dog to bark when someone is a the door or when strangers pass the house or car. Many will bark if they sense some type of threat, proclaiming “I’m here protecting this place so don’t mess with me.” The sound of this bark is usually sharp, loud and authoritative. Honing this instinct with training can help protect your home and family.
• Anxiety: Anxious barking often seems to be an an act of self-soothing for many dogs. It is often high-pitched and sometimes accompanied by whining. This type of barking is common for dogs with separation anxiety.
• Playfulness/Excitement: This type of barking is especially common in puppies and young dogs. Many dogs will bark while playing with people or other dogs. Even the sound of the bark tends to sound upbeat and possibly musical. Some dogs will bark excitedly when they know they are about to go for a walk or car ride.
• Attention-seeking: When you hear this bark, you will usually know just what it means. This bark says “Hey! Hey! Look! Here I am!” Other dogs may whine and bark together to get attention, almost like the tone of a whining child.
• Boredom: The bark of a bored dog sounds like a dog that barks just to hear her own voice. Though it tends to be annoying, it is also kind of sad. Bored dogs often bark to release excess energy, and sometimes bark out of loneliness. They usually need an activity and perhaps even a companion.
• Responding to Other Dogs: This is probably a familiar scenario – one dog down the street starts barking, and one by one the rest of your block joins in. It’s like a cacophonous rendition of Row Your Boat.

Hope this could shine some light on your dog behaviour problems, well just the barking for now, but we take this one step at a time.

If you want to read more about how to get rid of your dog behaviour problems, click here, or check out our other resources in the right hand column.

When it comes to puppies, there are a lot of dog behaviour problems that come to mind. Barking, biting, peeing, pooping, scratching, well, I can go on all day right? You know what I’m talking about. That is why I decided to set up this little blog, about just that; dog behaviour problems.

Dog Behaviour Problems and a few pointers on how you can get started to get rid of them

• Start the training early
• Follow through with the training
• Talk to your instructor and ask what he or she thinks. Should you take more courses?

One thing I learned really fast was that I can’t do this on my own. I need help from someone that knows what their doing. So what I did was to start looking around for people who could help me train my little puppy. After looking around for courses both in schools and online I decided to try the online way. Why? Well, first of all it’s LOT cheaper! But not only that, you can redo all you forget. You have the course with you at all times, which is really great for me. When I started thinking about getting a dog, I thought I would do great from the start since my family always had dogs as long as I could remember. But was I wrong, I had grown up with my mom and dad taking care of the dog, I just walked it now and then… so it was really a lot more work then I figured it to be from the start.

Regardless, I love my dog and I love training and practising with him. And that’s what I want to talk about in this blog; training you pet and getting rid of your dog behaviour problems.

More About Getting Rid of Your Dog Behaviour Problems Here

This guy really knows how to get your best friend to be a nice little buddy, he uses the right techniques for everything and it works like a charm.