Training Aggression Out of Dogs

Dont get too excited, you're not going to like the truth.

This is actually a "debate" that was on a Facebook group. There are breeds that are commonly bred for human aggression by dumb fucks. However, UKC, ADBA, CKC (Canadian Kennel Club), and AKC have human aggression listed as not being and acceptable trait in ANY breed they register. Human aggression is actually extremely common in all breeds. However, it isn't desirable and it should not be bred to continue the genetic trait.

A lot of people believe HA (human aggression) can be loved or trained out of a dog. It cannot be. You cannot love the green out of my eyes. You cannot love the brown out of my skin. However, you can give me brown contacts and bleach my skin. As we all know, that is just a temporary solution to a long-term, genetic problem. 

Have you ever heard somebody say, "Oh Jessica, you are just like your mom."? Have you ever heard your mom say, "I don't know if I should be happy or scared that you're so much like me."? If you can have the same personality as your mom, dad, sister, grandma, grandpa (WHATEVER), why can't dogs have the same personality as their mom, dad, sister, grandma, grandpa (WHATEVER)? Well, I hate to break it to you, but, THEY CAN and THEY DO!

If your mom is a sarcastic asshole and you are a sarcastic asshole, you can't change that. Yes, of course you can monitor it, but you will always have those thoughts. You have just learned to bite your tongue throughout the years. It is the same thing with dogs. If they are HA, you can monitor it, but you can never train it or love it out of them. 

Having a HA dog is a HUGE liability. It is a huge liability to yourself and others. You claim how sweet your dog is with you and your family, but laugh about how he will do anything possible to protect you from danger because he's  growled at or bit a stranger before. WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU? THAT SHIT ISN'T FUNNY! THAT SHIT IS FUCKING SCARY! What will happen when you're walking down your dark hallway one night and your dog doesn't realize it's you? You will be either bit the fuck up, or dead. 

The debate in question that made me want to write this post was of an 11 week old puppy. An 11 week old puppy was already showing signs of human aggression to the guy's wife and young son. The puppy was already jumping up in their faces while he growled, snarled, and bit at them. Was the puppy properly socialized? Or is it a genetic trait? 

My suggestion is NEVER to immediately PTS (Put To Sleep). My suggestions were to contact the breeder and give the breeder the okay to give his contact information to the owners of the other puppies from that particular litter. By speaking with the other owners, it could give a lot of information as to it being something with that particular puppy, or the litter in general. Once you've weeded everything out, go from there.

If other puppies in the litter were already showing HA, I would immediately call it a loss and PTS. If more than one puppy is already showing signs of HA, it is obviously a genetic trait passed from one of the parents or their ancestors. Again, you cannot train genetics out of any living being. Now, if this is an isolated incident with only your puppy, you can continue your search with finding a professional trainer. 

If you are able to find a trainer, start with basic puppy manners and obedience. If this goes well, you will always need to monitor the puppy, even into adulthood. The moment your puppy, or dog, shows signs of aggression with either a family member or stranger, that is it. Dogs ALWAYS show signs before they "snap" (as some would call it). Any dog or puppy that shows signs of HA should immediately be put to sleep once basic training has been done. 

You may ask HOW I know this. Well, I've lived through it. I had a BBM (Bull Breed Mutt) who showed major signs of "fear aggression". I spent thousands of dollars on multiple trainers. I could always control the aggression by giving her a correction. What would have happened if I couldn't give her the correction soon enough? Eventually, she would have bitten. She would have been added to the "Pit Bull" statistics. I did everything in my power to try and "fix" her. I soon learned, no matter how hard I tried, I could never fix genetics. 

Some people say you can soft cull (Spay/Neuter) a HA dog. She was already spayed. The only thing I had left to depend on was training. However, training wasn't helping anything. I soon learned I would never have her aggression under control when she growled at me while I walked down the hallway one night. She was literally in attack mode.I quickly called out her name and she recognized it was me. What would have happened if I had the TV on and I couldn't hear her growl? I wouldn't have be able to alert her to the fact that is was me. That may have been the night she finally "turned" on her owner. 

After speaking with the previous owners about her, I learned this was something all of the dogs from her litter were like. They were all extremely shy and scared of strangers. They were fine, until they turned two. Two is the age where dogs become their true selves, if you will. So, my point being, if you already have an 11 week old puppy showing aggression towards humans (especially little kids), it has GOT to go. 

It is NOT all in how you train, raise, or love a dog. It is all in how you breed a dog. If a dog is bred poorly, it will show. If a dog is bred well, it will also show. 

My suggestion, stop buying dogs from back yard breeders.The first sign of a back yard breeder is a breeder who doesn't have registration papers and contracts.This will help tremendously with buying a dog that can potentially screw up the already overly falsified statistics. 

My second suggestion, if you're willing to buy a dog without papers, go to your local shelter and adopt an adult dog. Adult dogs are WAY more predictable than puppies. You already know the temperament of an adult dog. Again, it's genetics, not in how you raise them. You can buy a 500 dollar mutt from a BYB and give it all of the love, training, and attention every animal deserves and STILL have it grow up to be aggressive. If you adopt an adult, even though you don't know his background, you will already know what his personality is because he has already developed into the man that he was meant to be. 

THAT IS ALL