Baby Formula

Dealing With Aggressive Dogs

If you have concerns about your dog’s aggression towards your children, then I would like to introduce you to a technique I call, “Toddler Proofing”.

A dog’s emotional re-programming from feelings of aggression to feelings of excitement, or at least tolerance, to your child’s touch is the technique of Toddler Proofing… tolerance.

For families who want to prevent their kids from being bitten by their dogs when they aren’t looking, this process is CRUCIAL.Since 65% of all cases of dog biting are to the face, all families should take preventative training seriously.

Children cannot always be prevented by their children from pulling their dog’s tail, climbing over him, or curiously trying to take food out of his food bowl, so it only makes sense to consider preventative training.  And while this article can in no way guarantee that this will work for all cases of dog aggression with children … it is a great starting point.

The secret behind why Toddler Proofing can be so effective for fixing dog aggression with Children is because it uses a process of giving what I call, “Hi Value Emotional Rewards”, to your dog when your child is doing something irritating to him BEFORE the dog can experience the aggressive emotions.

Here’s how Toddler Proofing works:

Step #1: Make sure you know what your dog loves more then anything in the world. You need to have a Hi Value emotional reward in order for Toddler Proofing to work.You could use treats such as cheese or meat for some dogs.  For other dogs it might be to chase a ball.When you child goes to bother him, you will be using this reward as a way to interrupt the normal emotional pattern your dog experiences.Always be sure to to have this reward handy.

Step #2: Start small! You should not try all at once to get you pooch to accept all sort of behavior from your child.Instead, you should pick a behavior that only mildly bothers your pooch.Let’s say the behavior we want to work on is allowing your dog to tolerate having his tail pulled without growling in this example.

WARNING!!! You should NEVER do anything that puts you or your child at risk of being harmed by your dog.These techniques should only be used for mild cases of aggression.  If your dog is dangerous, or you’re afraid of being bitten you should not follow these instructions and should instead consult a professional trainer in your local area to help you with your issues directly.This article cannot address every factor considering your safety, because there’s simply too many of them.You should be very careful.

You want to only “slightly” bother your dog and then reward him. Start rewarding your dog with a treat, while pulling his tail, if you want to train him to be more accepting of “Tail Pulling”.  When first grabbing his tail don’t pull it, just lightly grasp it.Be sure to reward your dog with a food treat, or other reward, exactly at the instant your grab his tail.

When receiving a reward, you can FORCE your dog to feel an emotion of excitement when his tail is being touched, rather than feeling aggression.You can reprogram your dog so that he gets excited about having his tail touched by doing this repeatedly, since it usually leads to a reward.Reprogamming his emotional mind is, in effect, what is happening!

Add more discomfort slowly. It is time to increase the discomfort when you dog willingly lets you grasp his tail 10 times throughout the day without growling or showing signs of aggression.Do this SLOWLY and CAREFULLY.Never push a dog past his comfort zone.Continue to reward your dog with food treats, and instead grab his tail slightly harder.

BACK OFF and squeeze lighter if you notice your dog is bothered by this harder grasping of his tail.

The goal is to slowly teach your dog that having his tail grabbed is a good thing.

Continuing to reward your dog for having his tail grabbed while getting a treat, you are able to continue increasing your dog’s tolerance threshold.  If done correctly you can increase the tolerance threshold of how much discomfort a dog can feel before acting aggressive substantially.This wonderful technique of Toddler Proofing can fix dog aggression with children.

In many cases Toddler Proofing like techniques have been used on working dogs like seeing eye dogs.In cases like these, trainers need to train the dogs to tolerate having their tails stepped on or run over by wheel chairs.Owners who might accidentally cause their dog pain, still need the dogs to not bite their handlers.

All sorts of behaviors that children do to dogs that cause aggression, such as whisker and tail pulling or feet touching, can be effectively fixed using Toddler Proofing strategies correctly.

I hope this helps with the reduction of aggression from your dog towards your child!