Fear Aggression with People
Our dogs can display fearful behaviors, which can lead to growling, lunging and barking ferociously at strangers or distant family members and maybe even biting, mainly because of us. You would be hard pressed to find anybody that didn’t take their new little puppy around everywhere they went, met tons of people, other animals, exposed to variety of different environments, while that puppy was young between the ages of eight weeks and three or four months old. This is our most comfortable time with our dog. She’s a baby, she’s cute, she’s adorable, so full of love and everything is hunky-dory in the world.
So how does your dogs fear aggression of strangers or people, really begin. Well, this goes back to us again. At some point in the initial development of our dogs early experiences, we start to become a little uncertain, a little uncomfortable and maybe somewhat fearful, as to what our dog may do in any given situation. We have become nervous, we have become scared. This will become a giant hindrance and possibly have dire consequences on the overall sociability of our dog, down the road.
Early Imprinting
Much has been written about the importance of early imprinting on dogs during those first few months of life. While this is still a very important factor in helping many dogs to grow up and be a well socialized and happy member of our family, it’s not the determining factor in having a happy dog. We are the determining factor, in having a well socialized and happy dog.
Adopted Dogs
Much has also been written about how some adopted dogs may have been abused or had a frightening experience with a stranger, while that dog was young. In some cases this will be the primary reason for a dogs fearfulness and fear aggression directed at strangers. But again, there are many dogs that are mistrustful of strangers that have never been abused or had any bad experience during those early stages of life. It’s just as common for a dog to have a wonderful family and be fearful of strangers as those poor dogs that were abused and or neglected.
Spirit Animal Sanctuary
How do I know so much about fear aggressive dogs? It’s simple. We get two kinds of nervous or scared dogs here at the sanctuary. Those that were horribly mistreated and abused at the early stages of their life and those who came to Spirit, from the most caring and loving of families you will ever find. Sometimes just exposing our dogs to all the many stimulating things in our world, is just not enough. Occasionally we have to search inside of ourselves and work on our fears and uncertainties, to help the nervous dog get over his or her fears.
The Spirit Dog
- Spirit Dog and Bloodhound
Spirit Dog and American Bulldog, yellow and black Labs, Dutch Shepherd
© 2011 a.s.papszycki
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Filed under: aggression, pets, dog behavior, Spirit animal sanctuary, The Mind Of a Dog | Tagged: biting aggression, fear aggression, fear biters, my dog bites people, sanctuary photos | 3 Comments »
