Dog Aggression

The first advice I would give in addition to eyeluvdogs advice, is to ensure you and your family members have read and understand the techniques in the bonus book "Secrets to becoming the Alpha Dog". These are great techniques for maintaining or establishing your position at the head of the household. No matter what the problem is all dogs need to know where the stand in the house for both yours and their peace and comfort.

Here are some ways to reinforce your position-

1) If you come across your dogs while they are sleeping or lying on the floor then you can reinforce your position as alpha dog by making them move so that you can pass by.

2) Make sure that you always go through doorways first. A good method to reinforce your position as alpha dog is to walk your dogs around the house on the leash, making your dogs wait while you walk through doorways first.

3) At mealtimes make sure that your dogs eat after all of the humans have.

4) Do not feed your dogs tidbits or let it pester you at the table. Save the morsels and tidbits for training sessions instead.

5) Do not greet your dogs straightaway when you arrive home. Make it wait until you are ready and then call it to you.

6) Whenever your dogs want attention or anything wait till they are sitting and being well behaved.

7) When you give a command make sure that you are in a position to enforce the action that you require from your dog, especially in the initial stages of Alpha Dog training. Also, use the Alarm-No-Command technique as described in the Alpha Dog bonus book to reprimand your dog if it does not obey your command.

The key to a well behaved dog is reinforcement. Reinforce good behaviour with praise, and bad behaviour with reprimands. Reinforcing good behaviour (such as a friendly approach to another dog, even if it starts off friendly from 10 feet away...as soon as it goes bad, reprimand and stop any forward movement right away).

You should reprimand your dog for unacceptable behavior, no matter what that behavior is. If you do not reprimand your dogs poor behavior then it will feel that it has the right to behave that way and it will take much longer to correct the behavior.

What I recommend you do, is the next time your dog acts poorly and exhibits dominant tendencies (growling), saturate your dog with the garden hose or a bucket of water, or if it is inside, throw a heavy blanket over your dog and be sure to reprimand it. DO NOT yell, as this has no effect on the dominant dog. Growl instead, use a guttural growl like " AAHHH!" instead of "No!", as this makes a sharper sound then "No" (If done correctly it may hurt your throat a little).

Also it helps to review basic obedience training (if you haven't had a chance to really push obedience, now is the time to start) and have your dog know, sit-stay, down-stay and heel. These should be practiced while out walking your dog in low distraction areas - then you can build up to having him sit-stay while another dog is near.

In addition to the verbal reprimand, with large dogs I find it is extremely effective to give a jerk on the leash sideways rather than upwards or backwards. A sideways jerk should knock a larger dog slightly off balance and bring it's attention back to you - the leader. This can be done more successfully if the collar is up near the top of the dogs neck, rather than around the base. As when a collar is near the base of a dogs neck, it's at a strong point (near the chest), where the dog is more liable to pull against it and ignore your reprimands.


Before attempting an introduction to another dog, I would recommend training your dog to wear a muzzle. As well, give your dog a workout before an introduction, at least a 30 min fast walk/15 min run, this will make his mood less agitated and full of energy!

Hope this helps, feel free to post progress/questions!
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