Why dogs become aggressive?

By Zosimo Jimeno   May 31, 2023 | 03:15 pm PT
Why dogs become aggressive?
A dog is muzzled as it plays with two other dogs at a park for dogs in Hanoi, August 2022. Photo by VnExpress/Quynh Nguyen
Dogs do what dogs are trained to do. Adult dogs train their puppies what the adult dogs were trained to do.

So, when an owner brings home a puppy before it is trained by the adult dogs, it should not be offensive to say that it is the responsibility of the owner to train that puppy.

Sadly, many dogs live their confined lives, to just being pet, hugged, posed for Instagram, do some tricks for social media clout, be bragged by its owner or worse still, to breed and farm for more puppies.

The way to train a dog to be aggressive is easy. Frustrate the dog long enough and the dog will be guaranteed. Of course, no good person would do this. However, many good dog owners actually do this without knowing about it. Ignorance, on the part of the owner, is the biggest factor in owning a dog with bad behaviour.

Ignorant to the dog breed, the size of the puppy that would grow up to, the temperament of the breed and needs of the dog, compatibility, will lead many problems. Incompatibility - It is common to come across dog owners who are not compatible with their dogs. Like each human being, each dog breed has their own level of activeness. All dog breeds build up energy over time, in matter of hours.

Remember that what's one hour to a human is seven hours to dogs. If by the end of a long working day, all that the dog owner wants to do is have a quiet dinner and watch movie, that downtime will always be ruined when the owner has a hyperactive breed of dog. Hyperactive dogs need lots of activities. The type of activities varies depending on the type of hyperactive dog breed. Many breeds love puzzles but hyperactive ones need to go for long walks AND run in open spaces.

All dogs are furry balls of energy. They need release. Depriving dogs from releasing their pent-up energy will result in frustration, leading to worser behavior over time. They can turn anything indoor as chewing toys in mild cases while the worst is when they are so easily startled that they bite. This is not to blame the dog owners being lazy to invest time to play, teach, train, walk or run, with the dog. It is just owner’s best friend’s activeness is not compatible with owner. When the dog owner cannot cope with the untrained dog albeit the bad behavior, they do the next bad move. They give the dog to another person who is just as ignorant. No two ignorant owners are the same, in terms of their compatibility with that same dog, as well as vested time in training the dog. However, it is still the same dog, frustrations building aggression over time.

Dogs, regardless of breed, cannot be confined. Even chickens cannot stay in their coup 24/7. By caging a dog, any dog, the owner would unwittingly be training the dog to be aggressive. It is the same outcome when dogs are chained to the same spot all day, every day. Pit bulls are working dogs and they are built with physical strength. They need to know what their "job" is and be trained for it from a young puppy. Depriving them their "job" only frustrates them. Again, frustrations build aggressions.

Though not all dogs breed has natural efficacy to be guard dogs, they still need to be trained. Golden Retrievers are not the best guard dogs. At best they bark at strangers. They would more likely than not lick robbers and burglars to death. Assuming natural guard dogs like Alsatian German Shepherds, Dobermans, Rottweilers, Boxers, etc., still need to be trained. Otherwise, they will bark with any movement, sound, or smell, from outside the home, their established territory. Guard dogs also need to be given a different set of training as to how to behave outside the house, i.e., during walks or run.

They need to know what is good behavior versus what is bad. More importantly, they are trained to obey any call back. City slickers make their maids walk their dogs. That's the big mistake. Another red flag is when dog owners paying a meager sum and leaving this part to another untrained person, to walk their dogs. Even if the dog is trained how to behave outdoors, dogs recognize only their trainer’s command.

One can only hope that the trainer is the owner. There are centers that offer behavior training for dogs with professional dog trainers. With only a few centers in country and far between, the bigger challenge is if the dog owner is willing to be there at such training. This is something that cannot be delegated to the maid. In short, unless the dog is trained for aggression, the dogs are not the problem. It is the lack of leadership, ownership, ignorance, and/or absence in training the dog by the owner."

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