Aggression in Dogs – Recognizing and Understanding It

Aggressive behavior is part of the normal and healthy behavioral repertoire of mammals. As part of their upbringing, dogs learn to deal with these impulses appropriately. Sometimes, however, dogs with aggressive behavior present us with special challenges where familiar training strategies are not enough.

To get to the bottom of the causes of aggressive behavior, we use a current model of aggression research. First, we deal with the processes that occur in the brain in various forms of aggression, and together we work out the adjusting screws we can turn to positively influence aggressive behavior. We also consider the needs that underlie the aggressive behavior, discuss suitable alternative behaviors, and present training approaches that can be derived from the model for practical application.