Aggressive Dog Reasons - Learn The Behaviors That Stimulate Your Pet To Behave Badly

Even the most darling looking pets can have unfortunate aggressive dog behaviors. To be able to cope with these behaviors and eliminate them, you first need to discover what is actually causing them. Dogs have lots of different kinds of aggression and just as many triggers for each of those types.

That’s right, your dog can be either Dr. Jekyll or Mr. Hyde and it’s up to you to find out what trigger brings out that unwanted Mr. Hyde, so that you can eliminate it or redirect your dog’s behavior around it.

What are these potential triggers? Have a look at the following list and see if any of these issues brings out the beast in your little beauty:

� Territorial aggression - In this case, an aggressive dog shows threatening behavior toward people who are entering into a space that he or she considers to be his or her own. You may find your dog barking or growling at your house guests, someone delivering mail, or even a person who is walking by your house on the sidewalk.

� Dominant aggression - this aggressive dog will �bully� animals or family members that are smaller than the dog or that the dog feels are �beneath� him or her in the family hierarchy.

� Fear aggression - this kind of aggressive dog is frightened, insecure, or nervous, and will growl, bark, or snap at just about any disturbance. If this dog feels cornered, he or she will be inclined to bite.

� Possessive aggression - this aggressive dog has the most Jekyll/Hyde-like behavior because he or she will seem perfectly content until you try to take food or a toy from him or her.

� Punishment aggression - Aggressive dog leanings in this style occurs when a dog has been abused, overly dominated, or has experienced too much negative reinforcement and has built up aggressive behaviors that would not otherwise have been there.

� Pain aggression - An aggressive dog of this kind is not reacting this way due to a behavioral problem that needs to be trained out of him or her, but is instead instinctively reacting from pain. The dog will bite or snarl involuntarily due to illness or injury.

� Predatory aggression - An aggressive dog of this nature is following hunting instincts and will interpret just about anything as prey that should be captured. This prey can consist of just about anything that moves and is usually another animal, a person, a vehicle, or something blowing down the street.

� Maternal aggression - An aggressive dog style may be adopted by a mother dog who has a litter of puppies, since she is running on instinct to protect them. Be careful, because mother dogs can often construe even the most harmless behavior as threatening.

Indeed, there may be other kinds of aggression that are causing your dog to behave the way he or she does, but this list can give you a good place to start your understanding of the triggers. Once you’ve discovered the triggers for your pet’s unwanted behaviors, you can then take the next step - behavior modification training.