How to Prevent Aggressive and Reactive Behavior in Puppies
How to Prevent Aggressive and Reactive Behavior in Puppies
While having a new puppy can be exciting and fun, it’s very important to start training early in order to prevent your pup from growing up to be reactive or in worse cases, aggressive. The good news is there are a few simple steps you can take to prevent these issues. Positive Reinforcement training along with socialization will be the most important factors in making sure your pup grows up to be well-mannered. Let’s talk about how to go about it.
Puppy Socialization
The most important step you can do is properly socialize your pup, between 4 and 12 weeks are the most critical time in your pup’s development. Introducing your puppy to a wide variety of environments, people, dogs, and different sounds will help desensitize your new pup to all these new things along with building confidence. During the early weeks of your pup’s life, it’s a great idea to use positive reinforcement training to reward good behaviors. Using things such as treats, toys, and even praise will help encourage the puppy to continue good behaviors. When starting the socialization process, it’s always better to take it slow and start in a less busy environment and work up to the busier areas. This gives your pup time to get used to being in new environments. It’s also important that as the owner, you are also learning the things that trigger your puppy. It’s always best to start at a distance that you feel comfortable and use one of those rewards to reaffirm the calm behavior. As you and your pup get more comfortable that distance away from the distractions can be closed. Closing that distance a little at a time can be challenging but using the same praise or treats as before and rewarding the good behavior. It’s very important to be consistent in your training. Even if you use your daily walks with your dog as a training session, that goes a long way in curbing these unwanted behaviors.
Identifying signs of fear in your pup
The most common signs of fear include barking, growling, lunging, cowering, or trying to get away. In rare cases, dogs will show signs of aggression in a situation they feel threatened. If, after the consistent training sessions, your pup still shows signs of fear or aggression, it may be helpful to contact a trainer to set up a personalized program to address these issues.
Why socialization for puppies is Important
Being Prepared with the knowledge and having a training plan for your new puppy will help prevent future issues. I can’t stress enough that the first five months of your dog’s life is the most important time for socialization. It’s easy to just play with you new pup and skip these important steps but with a little work you can take huge strides in preventing Reactivity and Aggression from even starting.
Feel free to reach out to OFF LEASH K9 TRAINING CHARLOTTE NC and we can help you with preventing Aggression and Reactivity in your pup!
If you have a dog that is already displaying aggressive or reactive behaviors.
Do you have a dog that is being people or dog reactive or aggressive? Proper training, exposure, and guidance can get them back on the right track. Utilizing educated training in your area is priceless. Make sure you are inadvertently praising or encouraging the unwanted behavior. Identifying the reason why your dog is being reactive or aggressive is the first step to overcoming it.
View this blog on; “The common types of dog aggression” or this blog on “Navigating the world with a reactive dog.”
