Australian Cattle Dog Training Tips

All types of dogs, including your Australian Cattle Dog, can benefit from dog training. Jumping, aggression, and all types of obedience can be learned by your Australian Cattle Dog. Training courses and products are available at retail stores, while online dog training information can be accessed immediately.

Your Australian Cattle Dog is instinctively aggressive. In the wild, dogs need to be aggressive in order to successfully hunt for food, to continually defend against other creatures, and to protect their food, bed, and mate. Even though this aggressive trait has been minimized over time by selective breeding, we all realize that dogs are instinctively aggressive.

The good news is you can learn to recognize, prevent, and handle dog aggression.

Dogs most commonly exhibit aggression toward one of 2 groups:

1...strangers

2...family members

Each type of aggression requires different intervention because each stems from a different cause.

If your Australian Cattle Dog is aggressive toward STRANGERS, it might be because he has not had a real opportunity to interact with strangers. Your dog relies on you to help him learn about the world. You need to take your Australian Cattle Dog on plenty of trips outside of your home to help him become comfortable in different surroundings with different animals and people.

This process (called "socialization") helps to prevent aggression toward strangers by allowing your dog to learn through experience that he does not need to be afraid of new sights, sounds, and smells. You'll want to start this process slowly so your Australian Cattle Dog does not become overwhelmed. Over time, both of you will look forward this socialization process, while eliminating or reducing your dog's aggression toward strangers.

We had this issue with Andre, our daughter's dog. Andre was very aggressive toward everyone who came to our house to visit. It occurred to us that Andre never left the house, so the only world he knew was invaded by these visitors. We decided to attempt socialization of Andre by taking him to the local PetSmart store twice each week. We required him to walk around the store with us (on his leash, of course) where he encountered both other dogs and their owners. After our 4th trip to PetSmart, there was a dramatic improvement in Andre's behavior when visitors came to our house. I would expect that you would experience similar results with your dog.

The most common cause of aggression toward FAMILY MEMBERS is known as "resource guarding." Your Australian Cattle Dog tries to defend his possessions from someone he perceives as a threat. This overly possessive behavior results from the issue of dominance.

Dogs are inherently pack animals. A pack is a very structured environment. Every dog in a pack is aware of the hierarchy or rank of every other dog in the pack. Your Australian Cattle Dog views the family environment the same as a dog pack environment.

You can change your dog's dominant, aggressive behavior through frequent and consistent obedience training to establish your authority over your Australian Cattle Dog. Try conducting two 15-minute sessions each day to help your dog understand that you are in charge. Simply reward him with treats and praise for following your command ("sit") and briefly punish him for misbehavior.

Again, we experienced this aggressive behavior with Andre. He was extremely aggressive toward me at times, primarily when I walked into a room where he was sitting with my wife. I decided to help him understand my authority by training him to give me his paw ("shake"). I laid 5 treats on the floor in front of him and rewarded him after each successful shake with a treat. I also scolded him when he tried to grab a treat without shaking. We held twice a day training sessions. Amazingly, after the second day he had not only learned to shake but also dramatically improved his aggressive demeanor toward me. Try this with your dog - I think you will be pleasantly surprised with the results.

Do you want more information about socializing and handling the aggressive and dominant behaviors of your Australian Cattle Dog? Do you want lots of detailed information on a variety of other common Australian Cattle Dog behavior problems?