Best Dog Training For Aggressive Dogs

Is your dog’s temper too much for you to handle? Do you often find yourself being a bit apprehensive to taking your dog around others because you’re afraid that they may either begin barking intensely or even worse, attack someone?

You are not alone. For many years, I have been given the pleasure of training a lot of aggressive dogs. Temperament training is mandatory for more aggressive dog breeds but, I have also found many rare cases where even overly aggressive chihuahuas could use the training as well.

In this article I will outline several training tips, tricks, and techniques that will give you a much calmer, friendlier dog. 

Training Tools For Aggressive Dogs

There are some passive training tools that I will suggest that will not require a ton of work on your end, along with some particularly active training methods that will require for you to spend a few hours out of the day working on your dog’s behavior.

Dog Shock Collar Training/Training Collar

Shock collars (link to Amazon) are training devices in the form of a dog’s collar that can correct bad dog behavior either through electrical impulses, high pitched tones, or vibrations when placed around the dogs’ neck. Professional dog trainers have been using shock collars/training collars on dogs for decades. This tool has proven itself time and time again to correct aggressive behavior found in dogs.

Disclaimer: Shock collars can be dangerous devices if not used as intended. Please only consider shock collar training if your goal is to correctly train your dog and not to use it as a torture device as this can seriously injure your dog.

Calming Dog Chews

These dog snacks can be given to your dog to help with their anger management issues. I recommend using Zesty Paws Advanced Calming Chews (link to Amazon) on your dog. I have been using it for several years and it takes my dogs from 100 to 0 in a matter of a few minutes.

The treats contain melatonin, suntheanine, thiamine, organic chamomile, as well as some other purposefully combined ingredients designed to help with dog anxiety, nervousness, and aggression without leaving your dog feeling drowsy or tired. This advanced formula also comes in a variety of different flavors such as turkey, peanut butter, etc that your dog will love.

Please know that the calming dog treats should be used very strategically as the effects may not be as powerful after long-term use. These treats should also not act as a meal replacement for your dog.

Calming Dog Spray

ThunderEssence Dog Calming Essential oils (link to Amazon) is another great tool that can help in relinquishing unaccommodating aggressive behaviors in dogs. This spray is a vet recommended to help in calming dogs down.

To use this tool, you simply spray it onto your dog’s fur and give it a bit of time for the calming oils to take effect. This is a perfect tool for aggressive dogs as it allows for them to mellow out and get rid of aggressive behavior.

Active Training Methods for Aggressive Dogs

First, you must be able to assess the level of your dog’s aggressiveness. It is important to know exactly how aggressive your dog can be before considering training as some professional assistance may be needed in order to safely and correctly train your dog.

If your dog is mildly aggressive, all bark no bite, then this is good. These aggression levels are much easier to overcome and will only take a few weeks to a month in order to break your dog out of the uncontrollable barking behavior.

Fixing this behavior with your dog will require patience and consistency on your end. You will need to create a schedule for training your dog. It is best to work with them 1-2 times a week in order to effectively correct this behavior.

Focus exercises will teach your dog to focus on you and not on whatever they are barking at. Using dog treats to acquire your dog’s attention can be helpful.

The goal here is to distract your dog. Get them to understand that you are in charge and that their focus should only be associated with you.

Dogs can be very obedient creatures. Their only goal is to obey you and make you happy. Focus training will teach your dog that barking at other dogs or barking at strangers is displeasing to you and that it will not be tolerated.

Is your dog’s aggression becoming violent? It is not uncommon to find aggressive barking and growling in dogs that are Terriers. Terriers, for a very long time, have served as hunter dogs. Terriers are farm dogs that have been adopted by modern society. Farmers use them to hunt down rats and other rodents out in their fields that may have been killing their crop.

These dogs are very goal-oriented and need lots of mental stimulation. Aggressive growling in dogs usually stem from a lack of mental stimulation. Instead of focusing their anger and aggression towards hunting, they are focusing it on other people.

You need to redirect your dog’s aggression from having a hunter’s mentality into brain training exercises that will stimulate your dog’s mental ability just as their instinctual love of being hunters would have done. When a dog takes their anger out on people, places, or things without being provoked then that is a clear sign that your dog is not being challenged mentally.

It will cover a series of training tactics to effectively stop aggressive behaviors found in your dog as well as train you to study how a dog thinks and operates. I highly recommend using the program if you are serious about training your dog and breaking them out of their unpleasant behaviors.

Agility and obedience training courses are also helpful because they will allow your dog to expand their physical capabilities. They will come to realize that there is more to life than simply hunting rats or chasing the neighbor’s cat for hours or destroying your living room couch.

Exercises such as going swimming with your dog, taking them jogging, or playing fetch are all exercises that will effectively stimulate and expand your dog’s physical and mental capabilities while simultaneously taking up a considerable amount of their energy which will also inadvertently suppress any aggressive behaviors.

Dog’s want to serve and protect. They just have a hard time trying to show it. It is essential that you remember that training your dog will take time and will be challenging. It is up to you to take the time out to train your dog, play with them often and keep them happy, eventually, you will notice great improvements in your dog’s behavior.