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Puppy training to curb Aggression

Before writing about a particular case of a dog with possessive aggression, I need to describe what training a puppy needs after entering into your home.

You need to remember we normally purchase a puppy at eight weeks of age and all puppies are born with a desperate need to survive. Some puppies maybe timid, whilst some others are docile, with a few that are dominant.

The dominant ones will fight to gain the most possible food. Even though we wean the puppies when their mother runs out of milk, there is still a need of survival that continues with the breeder feeding them. Even then, we still see their need to eat not only their food but also anyone else’s that is available. At this age, some puppies will warn others away from their food, whilst others will accept a more dominant puppy pushing it out of the way.

It is therefore not surprising that when a puppy goes into a human household that even without other sibling competition, the puppy could see the new owners as a threat to their food. It is irrelevant to them who gave it to them in the first place.

I am not talking about all the puppies because most will accept the test of removing the food whilst they are eating as acceptable. If you immediately return the food, they will also learn that unlike dogs, we are not permanently depriving them, so learning not to fear us.

It is the puppies that growl or bare their teeth at humans that need to learn such aggression is unacceptable.

The problem here is many owners look at such a sweet little growling puppy like a baby, and walk away. In other words, the puppy has seen that it can chase away humans if it uses aggression. From then on, things only become worse.

So many people see such a sweet puppy defending itself as harmless. At this age, humans rarely stop this because they feel to show anger would seem so cruel. Humans have a natural aversion to such demonstrations of anger because firstly, how can anyone be angry at such a sweet little puppy and secondly, such anger makes us feel as if we have lost our control. We also have a fear of people’s criticism, describing us as being an angry person.

Kathryn, who was writing here a few weeks ago, was talking to me about my next theme. I told her the subject and she said she had an eight-week-old puppy that curled its lip and growled at her when she fed it. I had a similar problem with a much older pup called Rio who too curled his lip at me. I will be writing about Rio next week. To me he just reminded me of Alien in the film of the same name. I nearly burst out laughing but we are both aware of the potential danger of letting this go without some immediate action.

Both of us simply gave the pups a lot of gruff verbal aggression. We play acted and pretended we were so annoyed that all our words, that mean nothing to a dog, helped create an angry tone that shows through our body language. This a puppy can easily understand.

In Kathryn’s case, her puppy immediately rolled over onto it back in full submission. It has never shown any aggression again, nor is it likely to. In Rios case, he simply sat up but he has already learned for months that normally he can make humans back away so he still needs more retraining. He has bitten his owners who tried to test him for aggression, but their retraining efforts had no effect.

As Kathryn says, many people would think that we are cruel to shout so aggressively at such a young puppy. Often they consider we should wait until it is older like Rio. That is completely the wrong thinking. A puppy at eight weeks has no relative age like a human baby and yet many humans treat them that way. They still see a weak innocent baby puppy yet they are capable of survival and have the ability to protect them selves.

Some puppies will see humans as competitors and react has it had done with its siblings. Any older dog that corrects such a puppy would use gruff tones with aggressive body language, which the puppy understands. If the aggression is greater than the puppies, it will react in normal submission and that should be the end of the problem.

Many humans do not see the potential danger in a puppy showing relatively feeble aggression at this age, so dismiss it. They do nothing because it seems so young, sweet, and innocent. Yet as much as we dismiss the puppy, it will dismiss us as weak. This is because we have not shown any retaliatory reaction. It then believes we have submitted and so it learns it can control humans.

Whilst its power at such an age is initially weak, its memory is not and it will remember for when it does have the power and ability to enforce its control in a far more devastating way.

This week has been a bad week for dog attacks on people and particularly bad for the Rottweiler when in fact it can be any other type of dog. It is just the bigger they are the worse the injuries or fatalities.

Whilst there maybe a knee jerk reaction calling for all sorts of ways to stop such attacks, they may well be just as futile as most existing dog aggression laws.

Muzzles on dogs in public would not have saved the baby or the child in the garden. It will certainly not stop attacks like the one on John Stalker’s wife, as they were guard dogs that had escaped.

I disagree with the RSPCA position of ban the deed not the breed. I think we can all agree of any breed most are not aggressive. It is the few that ruin their reputation completely, tarring them all with the same brush. The problem with their premise is that it means that only after a deed do we act. Therefore, does some child have to die first before anyone can take any action about a known aggressive dog? Not much comfort for those injured or killed.

There has to be a better way and one that attempts to stop the attacks before they happen.

Years ago, Police dog handlers in York wanted powers to visit owners with dogs that they considered were a danger. They could offer advice on how to re-train their dog. If owners were unwilling to do so and the dog was, in the handler’s opinion, out of control, then they could remove the dog. No such legal power currently exists: it should.

Here in Spain we are a little more fortunate because of this section of the Spanish Dangerous dogs act by Royal Decree 287/2002 of March 22
c. Those dogs with a record of aggressive tendencies or prior attacks to humans or other animals.
This means we can act if we feel any dog is becoming a danger in our area and following a Denuncia the dog’s owner must register under the act. This means we do have the power to pre-empt possible attacks.

Another is for the introduction of temperament tests at differing ages of the dog’s life. Vets already do this if they do not wish to loose their fingers. They are often the first in the dog’s firing line as they may cause the dog some pain or discomfort. Surly as they process the pet passports why can they not also carry out a standard temperament test as well. If they find dangerous aggression, they must advise some appropriate action. Maybe the Passport could record such test results.

I personally would like to see a total ban on the use of guard dogs. I am not against those dogs that simply bark, only those that are becoming more and more aggressive with each passing day. A modern monitored burglar alarm is far more efficient and does not kill the innocent.

People need some urgent and effective action if we are to try to stem the increasing numbers of attacks that currently lead to horrible injuries and an ever-increasing number of deaths. What changes in the dog aggression laws do you think would work?

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