Dog behaviourist – Why U Should Never Teach Ur Dog to Defend Himself?

Dog behaviourist Advice – Why You Should Never Teach Your Dog to Defend Himself

“I want my dog to snap at other dogs and defend himself because he’s been bullied so much, he’s got a right to keep others away”. Yes, personal space is a thing in the canine world too and sometimes dogs do defend it my snapping at other dogs which is perfectly fine if they are being harassed or bullied by another dog. However, I never recommend teaching your dog to snap at other dogs in self-defence. Why? Because what gets reinforced will happen more often – and often escalates! Here’s my dog behaviourist take on this topic.

Do You Want Your Dog to Practise Reactivity?

My puppy had a bad experience with another dog recently. It was completely unprovoked, my puppy wasn’t being a menace jumping up or anything, she was very gently and calmly trying to approach another off-leash dog from behind politely sniffing her butt, just like dogs too (we all know that butt sniffing is the most polite way of approaching another dog, not face-to-face, right?). This dog had a very bad reaction to it and my dogs calming signals (turning away, lowering her head, licking her own lips, lying down on the ground) which should have been enough for the other dog to turn away, only made the dog’s reaction more aggressive. And when my puppy lied down the dog lunged on top of her in a very vicious way. This is what happens when reactivity towards other dogs escalates, the dog stops listening to the signals that tell her the situation is fine and her ‘stay away’ signals got heard. And the escalation happens when a dog practises the behaviour over time, they learn that the more aggressive they are the more likely they get the result they want: space.

If a dog is put in a situation they aren’t comfortable in often enough, they can learn that the only way out of it is aggression. This happens when a dog isn’t socialised early on (within the first 16 weeks of age), poorly socialised dogs are taken to dog parks or when a dog gets bad experiences with other dogs. They learn that mild warning signals don’t work, only the severe ones will. And those will then increase.

Dogs are creatures of habit, the more often they do something, the more often they will do it.

This happens with reactivity too, a dog who first reacted to other dogs being jerks, starts to react to them when approached by them. Then it’s not about the jerks anymore, all of sudden any dog can be a jerk in the dog’s opinion and he starts showing reactivity in situations where the other dog doesn’t provoke it. This is when a simple warning for space behaviour has become reactivity towards other dogs. This is no longer acceptable behaviour, this is an issue that should be dealt with a dog trainer or dog behaviourist to teach the dog a better way of reacting to other dogs. It also requires management, a dog who is fine with other dogs as long as they don’t approach him doesn’t belong to off-leash dog parks simply because there’s no guarantee that the dog will be left alone – and that’s just a dog fight waiting to happen!