Inter-household Aggression Case Study

If you’re dogs are acting aggressively toward each other, read how my Virginia Beach dog training program can help your dogs get along!

While working with another dog trainer, we talked about how dog owners are often under the impression that dog training is all about teaching your dog what not to do. “Don’t go in the neighbor’s yard, don’t eat the garbage, don’t ignore my commands, don’t fight other dogs, etc.” While it is good for your dog to know what his boundaries are, owners should focus more on being a leader and guider for their pets, by teaching them what they would like their dogs to do. As a trainer, I teach dogs to do one thing: focus on the owner.

While that may sound like a simple task, it isn’t as simple as it sounds. There is no magic word or method that will have your dog trusting, respecting, and listening to you in one hour or even one day. Instead, it takes time, consistency, and a combination of techniques geared toward enhancing the relationship with your dog. This will serve as your dog’s motivation for focusing, wanting to maintain that bond. What exact techniques we use will differ on a case by case basis, but by the end of training your dog will always have an ear trained on you–ready to listen to your commands instead of distractions or their own desires.

I was recently able to help an owner achieve this level of success with her two dogs, Lucy and Bonnie. Their owner called because they were showing aggression toward each other. These behaviors were rooted in anxiety; neither Lucy nor Bonnie were ever taught how to behave around other dogs and so they panicked anytime they were over-stimulated by each other.

When I arrived for the in-home consultation to observe the dogs’ behavior and make recommendations, I noticed that Lucy seemed a bit more high-strung than Bonnie, constantly barking and looking for attention. Lucy’s anxiety-induced hyperactivity clearly annoyed Bonnie, resulting in aggressive behavior from her. According to their owner, whenever Bonnie reacted, it was game-over and both dogs were in a full-blown fight.

To solve these problems, we began working on basic obedience, “place” training, and set up a really consistent day-to-day routine- that way both dogs learned what to do in the home, limiting their overall anxiety and could focus on their owner’s guidance. “Place” training was especially crucial in this first part of the program. This is where both dogs are assigned a designated, calm space in a communal part of the home. You don’t want to lock your dogs away in a separate part of the home, but instead, teach them what you expect their behavior to be. If you don’t teach them, they will never learn and so I had to show their owner what she was doing wrong. Once we honed in on those few basics, Lucy, Bonnie and their owner began to enjoy their new calm, low stress home environment together. This is a win!

Because their owner kept to a consistent training schedule and executed the methods per my instructions, Lucy and Bonnie are now happier, well-behaved members of the family, who focus on their owner instead of on each other. This took many weeks to achieve, but with consistency, patience, and proper understanding of your dog’s behaviors, any training goal can be reached.

Every dog and every situation is different and before beginning the training program, we always do an initial consultation to properly evaluate your dog’s behavior.

If your dog has a similar behavioral issue or any behavioral issue at all please give me a call at 800.649.7297 today to set up that initial consultation. Regardless of your dog’s age or severity of behavior, change is possible.