What Are the Treatments for Aggressive Dog Behavior?

When you have a dog that is really a sweet, playful puppy inside, it can be tough when the dog begins to exert symptoms of aggression. It can also be stressful if you fear the dog may cause harm or has already caused harm to yourself or to another human being. Fortunately, Vetinfo says that most dogs who experience aggression can recover with the right course of treatment and with a committed owner.

  1. Veterinarian Treatment

    • Sometimes dog aggression is a symptom or a sign of another underlying problem. Taking the dog to the veterinarian for a thorough checkup may result in finding an undetected issue. Sometimes treating the health issue can fix the aggression.

    Behavior Modification Training

    • Behavior modification should be conducted by a professional trainer. The trainer will identify what triggers the dog's aggression, how severe the aggression is, who the aggression is toward and more. The trainer will then give the owner a set of tasks to work on with the dog in hopes to re-teach the dog. For example, if a dog is aggressive about food, then a behavior modification trainer may instruct the owner to place a treat into the dog's bowl. The hope is that the dog will associate a person near its food as a positive thing, thus ending the aggression associated with it. Behavior modification should use a positive, reward-based approach, as Vetinfo warns against using any aggression to treat aggression, including hitting a dog, locking the dog up or using any punishment tools on the dog. This can make aggression much worse.

    Medication

    • In conjunction with behavior modification, a dog may take medication to help with behavior modification. K9Aggression recommends that dog owners take the dog to a veterinary behaviorist or at the least insist that the vet consults one before prescribing medication. Veterinary behaviorists are like psychiatrists to humans, and a regular veterinarian may not have adequate training to prescribe the right medication to effectively help the dog.

    Euthanasia

    • Some dogs may have an incurable disease which contributes to their aggression or the dog may be a victim of abuse so damaging that the aggressive behavior does not go away with training. In these cases, many experts recommend euthanasia. In the case of extremely violent dogs VeterinaryPartner.com says it's the responsible thing to do.