Dog behaviour is a funny thing. If a dog lives in the wild with its pack, its behavior gets sorted or it is forced out of the pack.

Its only a messy thing when humans get involved.

It might be clear from this that I like humans, but I like many dogs better.

I have had several years training dogs and I have to tell you that like any sensible dog trainer will tell you, there are very few bad dogs out there, but a hell of a lot of bad owners.

Owners who don’t train their dogs, that give too little or too much affection, that never take their dogs for a walk, and wonder why their dogs are not “normal”.

The pit bull story might be that just like guns don’t kill people, people kill people ” you might say that “dogs don’t kill people, bad owners don’t socialise their dogs”.

Yes, my first blog where I am not pulling any punches.

Yes there are aggressive breeds of dogs out there, because man bred them to have temperaments and abilities to run down animals, rip them apart and kill them. Then these breeds are released into urban homes and expected to be passive and happy when not exercised at all not trained, or just loved up (and not disciplined, not walked).

Aggression can stem from many places but besides breed, lack of socialisation is one of the major reasons dogs are aggressive with other dogs, other people and family members.

Aggression usually comes from a place of fear. When a dog doesn’t know if its going to be attacked, because it doesn’t hang with many other dogs, its first defiance will be attack or run. Often it will attack because it can’t run somewhere or it wants to stay near its owner and another dog wants to play.

Dogs that attack their owners, behavior issues

Then there is the curious case of dogs attacking the owner who loves them, walks them and disciplines them.

My dog can become aggressive with me, but only in certain settings. We mix sith a lot of dogs, and he thinks he is alpha over these packs, and often me. he will often attack me when I separate him from a dog pack we have just joined. He thinks he should make the decisions and my decision is bad for the pack.

If you truly understand dog behavior and why a dog is acting a certain way, because of standard pack or dog dynamics it can go a long way to solving your issues.

If you walk your dog regularly off lead, and they play nicely, aggression towards the owner, that causes serious harm is very rare. If the dog bites your hand or leg, because its running hard on beach stand and is having fun, a rush of blood to the head and too wound up with massive endorphins, then sometimes you just have to put the dog back on lead until they play at a level that you find acceptable.

Knowing that whatever environment you take your dog to in an urban setting (except for hunting dogs used in hunting environments) – well they are always going to have to cope with some artificiality and dogs that aren’t quite social. Perhaps your dog is being aggressive at you because you are breaking some common pack rule too?

Just saying ..