There are no “aggressive” dogs.
Aggression is the outcome of a problem, nothing more than a symptom. This is the reason so many dog owners are pushed into “control and management”. That’s all you can do with symptoms is control and manage them. You’re dealing with a living, intelligent and sentient being – not diabetes. Aggression is not a fixable condition – the cause of the aggression needs to be understood and terminated – once that happens, the symptoms disappear.
Personally, I don’t care that a dog is showing aggression – I need to understand the “why”, I’m going to focus on the why. Why is this dog so angry? Fix the why, the dog is going to be fine. A dog in a calm state never seems to be an issue – but a dog in an excited state? The question should be – why is the dog in this state? What brought the dog to this point in its life? That takes a conversation, questions need to be asked – and this is where the issues come in. For some reason, when you ask questions to get to the bottom of what’s really going on, dog owners themselves tend to attack.
But, dog trainers are now “experts” in the symptom called “aggression”. Fill your boots. What dog training has become is utterly ridiculous. But there is a reason for this. Trainers are setting themselves up to be the only ones that you can come to – they are making people feel that they are the only ones that can help the dog. That owners can’t possibly do it on their own – and we have a chorus of “hire a trainer”. This is not only foolish, but dangerous.
Humans are animals, we tend to forget that.
People get angry – and aggression can be a result. Does that make you an aggressive person? No. Then why do we think that a dog showing aggression is an “aggressive” dog. How is the dog in an overall calm state? Probably not aggressive eh? So we need to focus on getting the dog into a calm state and keeping it there. And there are many things dog owners can do on their own to accomplish this.
You see, a 5 year old child can look at a dog raging at the end of a leash and declare it aggressive. It doesn’t say much for dog trainers skills to diagnose a dog. Experts? You tell me.
Aggression is not a diagnosis, it’s a symptom. The dog is angry – understand and fix the why – problem solved. Step back and understand what’s causing the dog to show aggression, why is the dog angry? Focus on the cause, work on the cause – and the symptoms disappear. Yes, that’s how it works and it starts with the investigation of base needs being met. So often, the cause of aggression is fear, frustration, mental stress, not enough exercise, too controlled of a life too. The list of things that can cause a dog to show aggression is long.
The number one issue today for dogs is that either the dogs needs or the breeds needs are not being met. And that’s something that only the owner can do for their dog. You don’t need a trainer to meet the dogs basic needs – you only need understand what they need.