As we have talked about before, a dog’s world is made up of the 5 Canine Commodities; FOOD, WATER, SPACE, TOYS, and ATTENTION. There aren’t any behaviors that can not be traced to one or a combination of these commodities. The only one that is always in play is SPACE. When you or anyone else is with a dog, moving or standing still, they are sharing space.
The space that is usually “given” to the dog is the crate, which to the dog is nothing more than a box. If you leave them in the yard, it’s a box. If you put them in a room, it’s a box. They naturally love places with defined boundaries. Allowing them to believe that they are in control of any box is the reason behind all aggression. Even if the box is imaginary ( you walking them on a lead). For some dogs, it never becomes an issue. For other dogs, they are space junkies and can never get enough.
The smaller the space, the easier it is to defend and the more intense the defense. More and more we are hearing from clients who have given up the crate or a room to the dog and paying for it. A dog that is crate protective is an unstable dog and will eventually end up biting. If your dog becomes aggressive to anyone in the family who walks by the crate, how do you believe they will respond to someone outside the pack?
To be perfectly honest, once this is occurring most people do not have the knowledge, confidence, and ability to correct this behavior and it just gets worse. Most trainers don’t work with this and will recommend euthanasia, especially if there has been a bite. This is compounded if the dog is protecting food/treats/or toys in the crate or space.
If a dog has no issue with this…good. But if they do, you need to control access in and out of the crate, and what goes in an out of it while they are in there.
When a dog is protecting something against another dog, they start with eye contact, then usually a growl, lip curl / quiver, and then a nip. Very often people miss the eye contact or don’t understand it, the growl, and the lip curl / quiver. We only notice the nip. Dogs were designed to communicate with other dogs, not people. After a dog establishes dominance, they keep it with presence and eye contact. If another dog steps out of line, there is often a growl, or lip curl/quiver. Only in rare instances is there a nip or bite. Dogs know who is in charge in a group by the other dogs reaction to each other.
Like most things, it is easier to prevent than treat, whether you have a puppy or a rescue. If they show any signs of aggression from taking over a spot on the couch to guarding their cage, here is what to do. For something like the couch, walk up, hook two fingers under their collar, face away, and lead them off/out of where they are. This sends a much different message than pulling them off towards you as you are talking or yelling at them. With the crate, when you are home with them put them in the crate with their leash hanging out of it. At the first sign of aggression, open the crate without saying a word, lead them out of the crate, then let them go back in and repeat as needed. To take the front door away from your dog, when someone knocks or rings the door bell, the dog will beat you there, step in front of them facing them as you open the door leading whoever it is in the door.
None of the above will work if you are afraid of your dog. That’s the bottom line with all aggression behavior modification. We can show you how to do it effectively and safely but cannot do it for you.
Crate aggression is a result of humans reacting to a dog instead of the dog reacting to them. A dog’s world is simple, but not always easy to understand because we try to humanize them. What makes dogs awesome is that they are not human. Don’t treat them as if they are, for their well being and ours.