What You Need to Know About Aggressive Dog Behavior in Female Dogs
by Evan Davis, Admin
Filed under Dog Behavior
Another piece of the puzzle to aggressive behavior, especially in female dogs, has to do with dog jealousy. Basically, jealousy has at its root the need to prevent any intruder from entering territory associated with the dominant member of the pack. That, by the way would be you!
What’s is going on here is very similar to what happens in the human world. Jealous, and possibly aggressive dog, wants the complete attention of its owner. It doesn’t want to share. Jealousy occurs when another person or another dog enters the territory, or in this case the home. Just as jealousy work in the human world, the dog wants to be the “only one.” That is the intention driving aggressive behavior where jealousy is concerned.
Jealousy and aggressive behavior in female dogs come together when the female has borne a litter of puppies. In this sort of situation, jealousy become particularly pronounded whn the puppies are kept in the home after rearing. Instinctively, the female expects the puppies to leave home once they reach adult hood, but in the artificial domesticate environment, that doesn’t always happen. In this sort of aggressive behavior, the object of the jealousy is the dog or the person whom the dog is jealous of. The jealousy manifests itself as a show of viciousness.
This jealousy is particularly pronounced when puppies are reared and kept in the household. As the puppy reaches the age of about three months the mother may begin to feel jealous as her maternal instinct fades and the time draws near for another heat. In spite of the attempt to treat both dogs equally and always to talk to both at the same time, feeding both at the same time and exercising both together, the jealousy continues to grow. You see what’s happening–the puppies should be out of the nest, but as they reach adulthood and linger at “home,” the mother become jealous of the the owner’s attention to the now grown dogs.
Correction might seem to work at first, but in time generally becomes less effective. If you are a really good handler your training methods will be good enough to make both dogs obey the command “Leave” when they are in your presence. The danger lies in the times you leave the dogs together on their own, for the slightest boldness on the part of the youngster in approaching the older one’s basket or toy, etc., will infuriate the older dog, and she will set on the youngster tooth and nail.
There you go, just a brief insight to another aspect of aggressive dog behavior and how you might control it. I know we didn’t talk about specific techniques, but I think with a better understanding of the causes of jealousy and aggressive behavior you’ll have insight on how you might set about handling it.
[tags]aggressive dog behavior,dog jealousy,aggresive behavior in female dogs,dog behavior[/tags]
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need advice
my mother’s dog (lab/retreiver mix, 1 yr old) recently snapped at my toddler, did not bite or break skin.
Dog is very spoiled – how to correct aggresive behaviour towards my child.
Help
Hi. Thank you for your question. A little more information would be helpful. That is, did the dog snap out of the blue, as it were, without any provocation? Do you know what the dog was doing and what the child was doing at the time of the incident?