Reasons of Dog Aggression

Dog aggression is a major problem faced by dog owners everywhere and to overcome this hurdle, one must understand the crux of the problem. Dog aggression mainly stems from a dog's dominance and frustration. But again, the reasons for frustration and dominance could be numerous like lack of exercise or lack of calm-assertive leadership. To stop the dog aggression in your dog, you must first and foremost find the reason of dog aggression in your pet and then devise a way to deal with the problem. Here is a lowdown on some of the reasons for aggression in dogs.

Illness

A number of illnesses could lead to dog aggression. Take for instance a dog that has never shown any signs of aggression suddenly start to growl, bite or snap, it could be a result of illness. Thyroid disease, brain tumor and rabies are some of the few illnesses that could cause dog aggression. Talk to your vet the find out more about which disease could be causing the same.

Establishing Dominance

Very often aggression becomes a means to establish dominance in the canine world. Dogs who display such behavior feel that they are in charge and growling, snapping and biting follows if they feel their dominance is being challenged. If your dog is showing signs of aggression in order to establish its dominance then it may very well bite, snap or growl when you try to move it off the furniture, grab its collar, restrain it or give it a leash correction.

Fear

Fear is another major reason for dog aggression. Usually, dogs display aggression when they sense they are in danger and in that case, aggression comes naturally to them as a means of defending themselves. This may happen if the dog is cornered with no means of escape or he may think that you raised your hand to hit him not pet him. A frightened dog will bite if he feels there is no means of escape the impending harm and biting is the only way to save him.

Possession aggression

This type of aggression arises when the dog becomes possessive of a toy, a bed, food or maybe your yard or any other object. A dog exhibiting possession aggression will growl if he sees anyone approaching his food bowl or somebody approaches him while he is chewing his toy. These dogs may bite strangers as they enter your home. However, the degree of aggression differs from dog to dog and between objects. A dog may not care if you pet him and sit next to him while he is chewing a rubber toy but may growl or snap when you do the same thing while he a toy he is possessive about.

Frustration

Aggression caused due to frustration is often referred to as barrier frustration or redirected frustration. It arises when the dog is unable to get to something and as a result he gets frustrated and this comes out in the form of aggression. As this grows, so do growling, barking and biting. This is often seen in dogs that spend their day tied or restrained on a leash or a behind a chained link fence.