How to Stop Dog vs. Dog Aggression

When your dog is aggressive to other dogs, this can be a serious problem. There is a chance that your dog may attack an innocent dog, or at the very least frighten their owners and make your dog an unwelcome member of the dog park. Stopping dog on dog aggression takes a while, as often the aggression is due to poor habituation to other dogs or a memorable event that has your dog frightened. Whatever the cause, it must be dealt with carefully and constantly.

Stopping Aggression with Strange Dogs

For dogs that are aggressive to strange dogs, your first step is to turn the presence of a dog into a welcome and happier event. Grab a great deal of treats and take your dog to an open on leash (not off leash) area where it is likely to encounter other dogs at a distance.

• As soon as you notice another dog coming towards you, offer your dog a treat and tell it to sit or lay down. After it does so, reward your dog with affection and continue to give your dog a treat every few seconds in order to keep them focused on the treats and not on the strange dog. Wait until the dog has completely passed out of view before saying “Good dog” and standing back up.

• This should be continued for a while. Once you have completed this training multiple times, the next step is to make the sight of a dog a pleasant experience. An aggressive dog will always look at a strange dog. So sit your dog down as you did earlier, and give it a treat, then wait until the moment your dog looks at the strange dog and give it another treat. Only give it treats when it has looked at the strange dog, so that the sight of the dog means that it gets a treat.

• Once your dog shows less aggression at the sight of another dog, it is a good idea to call a friend with an unknown friendly dog and have them walk close to your dog as you continue to feed your dog treats. Be careful not to reward your dog for aggressive behavior – try to catch your dog before it starts to growl, possibly when it simply looks at the incoming dog or when it ignores the close dog’s presence.

• Soon your dog will consider the presence of another dog a good thing, and will be less inclined to show aggression. Your final step is to have your dog meet another dog, and feed them both treats together that they share. Keep your dog on a leash for safety, and be sure that the other dog owner knows what you are doing, but feed both dogs treats next to each other and if they do not show aggression, allow them to explore the other dog’s scent if necessary.

With a lot of time and patience, your dog should soon be less likely to show aggression around other dogs. It takes a lot of work, and your dog will still need to meet and play with other dogs before you can feel safe about taking away the dangers, but this is a great way to start turning your aggressive dog into a friendly dog.

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