Dog Fear Aggression Stopped
11 Oct 2009
It is a sad situation when a dog becomes traumatized through fear. The fear that they are feeling is so strong, that they may actually respond to their fear with aggressive behavior. The source of the fear is usually something traumatic that happened to them in the past, such as severe neglect or some kind of abuse. It is not unusual to find a dog seriously stressed out by very loud noises-such as gunshots, thunderstorms or fireworks.
You can easily recognize the body language of a dog with fear aggression issues. You have most likely noticed a dog acting very oddly when he is very fearful. The fear aggression displays itself with a few ugly body postures, including the dog cringing down in an extremely exaggerated version of a submissive stance. The dog that is suffering from fear aggression will also carry his tail tucked between his legs and next to his tummy, his ears will be pulled back, and his teeth will be displayed in a snarl as he moans, whines and even growls. It is easy to see the poor dog is feeling tormented.
If your dog is suffering from fear aggression or you encounter another dog that is displaying the fearful body language above, do not try to comfort or pet the dog to help it with its fear problem. The danger is that these dogs sometimes lunge out and bite at whatever is closest to them-whether it is the object of their torment or whoever is close by. This is an example of misdirected aggression and you want to be sure it is not misdirected towards you.
You will need to diagnose the reason behind your dog’s fear aggression before you know the right approach to correcting it. What caused this dog to have such a pronounced problem? If you have raised the dog yourself, of course you will have insight as to when and why your dog became traumatized. If your puppy arrived to you after growing up somewhere else, he could have already been traumatized by abuse from a human or another dog. You can figure out the cause of his fear by paying attention to when it first begins-note whether it is triggered by another dog or person or a loud noise. If it is obvious that your dog acts unnaturally afraid of certain people or dogs, then you have a pretty good clue that the dog has been abused or attacked. Some types of fear triggers are prety obvious-such as a dog being terrified of gun fired. There are time when the root of your dog’s fears are not easy to figure out, and may even be due to some sort of mental issues your pet is suffering from.
If the cause of your dog’s problem is not apparent, you can consult with a professional dog behaiorist to diagnose the reason for his fear. Remember, in order to correct the fear aggresion problem, you need to figure out what originally brought it about.
Once you hav established the actual cause that triggers your dog’s aggression and fear, you can begin to desensitize him and overcome his condition. If you have a dog that is fearful of another dog, you should try to expose your dog to a friendly dog for a few minutes at a time, to eventually teach him he can relax in the company of other dogs. It is smart to have a leash on your dog to prevent him lunging at the other dog or from running off. If your dog is known to lunge when fearful, you may want to also use a muzzle to prevent him accidentally biting you during the training.
Be sure you only use positive techniques while working with your dog. Any negative conditioning will just serve to maintain his fearful state. To correct the problem of fear aggression, you are going to have to be very patient and understanding with your dog. Fear aggression is a deep rooted problem that has severely affected your dog’s psyche-it will take some time and effort on your behalf to correct this issue. Of course, the effort is well worth it, if you can help your dog become well adjusted and happy pet.
I sure hope you have a better understanding of fear aggression so you can get to correcting this problem if your dog has it.
I have many more helpful articles about dog aggression and other dog behavior problems and on dog obedience training techniques for you to read at: www.BehaveDoggy.com.
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