No one wants a dog’s aggressive behavior to keep them from enjoying themselves around other people or dogs. Perhaps your dog growls, lunges, or barks at people and other dogs during walks? Or snarls at the vet during routine examinations. Fortunately, this behavior can be helped by managing aggressive dog behaviors through positive reinforcement and other behavior modification techniques. Let’s discuss how positive reinforcement works for treating aggressive dog behaviors.
Defining Aggressive Behavior in Dogs
We typically don’t like to label a dog as “aggressive”; instead, we use an operational definition that clearly defines the specific behavior. For example, instead of saying that we are training a dog’s aggression on leash, we might say that we are addressing the growling and snapping behavior towards strangers while on leash.
We also don’t like to use labels like “bad” or “aggressive” to define a dog. A dog that is being very aggressive towards people at a vet’s office may be a sweetheart at home. The specific environment that the dog is in may bring about the particular behaviors. It is our job at Beyond the Dog to treat these behaviors. Now, let’s look at the role of positive reinforcement for training aggressive dogs.
Does positive reinforcement work for aggressive dogs?
Now, positive reinforcement doesn’t necessarily eliminate aggressive behaviors. What it does is allow us to teach an alternative behavior that competes with the aggressive behavior.
An example of this would be a dog that lunges and snaps at dogs that pass by during walks. What we could do as an alternative behavior is to teach a “sit stay”. This command competes with the aggressive behavior, so they can’t comply with a sit stay while lunging towards someone. This command also allows you to have reliable verbal control when other dogs are passing, which then allows you to implement the other behavior modification techniques that we use to help eliminate or reduce aggressive behavior in dogs.
Beyond the Dog uses strategies such as pairing to make a situation less stressful for the dog. Let’s discuss how pairing is used to treat aggressive behaviors with dogs.
Targeting difficult situations through pairing
Pairing is when two things are linked through an association, which includes using treats when around the situation that causes stress. Doing this will create an association with the difficult situation and good things (like treats). Over time, and regular training the difficult situation will become less aversive, and it is more likely that the dog will use aggressive behavior. Many behavior consultants will use pairing before introducing operant behaviors using positive reinforcement.
We are here to help
Beyond the Dog Dallas offers personalized one-on-one training sessions, including training at your home and neighborhood, board-and-train programs, and virtual training programs.
Would you like help addressing your dog’s aggressive behavior?, or do you have any other behavioral concerns or would like to teach you dog high level obedience commands? You can also contact our Pet Behavior Team for a free consultation, where we can chat with you and provide a personalized recommendation that meets your needs. We recommend you check out our puppy training blog or our TikTok channel.
We use scientifically proven training methods, backed by over 20 years of hands-on experience. Beyond the Dog Dallas is led by our co-founders, Dr. Kristyn Echterling-Savage, a Certified Applied Animal Behaviorist (CAAB) and Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA), and Sean Savage, a Certified Dog Behavior Consultant (CDBC) and Certified Professional Dog Trainer-Knowledge Assessed (CPDT-KA).
