Dogs often bark as a way of expressing curiosity or fear. Dedicated training and addressing any underlying causes can help decrease excessive barking behaviour.
Any dog can bite and aggressive behaviour includes growling, snarling, showing teeth and lunging. It is important to consult your vet as health issues can contribute to aggression problems.
Aggression
Possessive aggression often occurs when pets are in possession of highly-valued items such as food, treats, chew toys, sleep places, or favored people. This can be prevented by teaching dogs to voluntarily give up objects on cue and by providing them with more rewarding items that are easier for them to obtain (beginning with low-value items).
Some dogs display aggressive behaviors as part of their territory marking and protective behavior, while others exhibit fear, defensive, territorial, or possessive behaviors in response to unfamiliar stimuli. Fear and conflict are the primary motivations behind most of these behaviours.
Some dog behaviours that deviate from the normal range might also be a sign of illness or injury, and these require further assessment by a veterinarian. Examples include mouthing, urine marking, and overactivity.
Intrusiveness
Dogs may show intrusive behaviours in response to fear, anxiety, uncertainty (conflict), inheritance, or previous learning. Examples include submissive urination, barking at strangers out the window, and territorial aggression.
Dog owners might reprimand a dog for its aggressive behaviour, but this can reinforce the concern that strangers are bad or scary. In some cases, the dog will learn that its aggressive behaviour may help it cope with the situation and will continue to use this behaviour.
Reward-based training techniques such as negative punishment (taking away something the dog likes) and extinction (permanently eliminating a behaviour) can be used to reduce or eliminate problem behaviours. It is important to try all possible options, including negative reinforcement and extinction, before resorting to more invasive training methods. In the case of extinction, the behaviour you are trying to get rid of usually gets worse before it gets better. This is called resistance to extinction. This is normal. A veterinary surgeon can advise on the safest method of reducing a dog’s aggression and intrusive behaviour.
Separation Anxiety
Dogs with separation anxiety or isolation distress behave in a highly variable way, ranging from panting and pacing to destruction of objects and escape attempts. The behaviours are typically triggered as the owner prepares to leave or shortly after departure. Other symptoms of the problem include intense vocalisation such as whining or barking, salivation and inappropriate urination and defecation.
Some dogs have separation anxiety because of their over-attachment to a person or specific people in their lives, and this hyper-attachment can lead to an increased level of fear and stress when that individual is not present. Other dogs might have been conditioned to feel anxious when left alone due to previous negative experiences. If you need more information then head to https://www.bulldogology.net/.
Regardless of the cause, it is important not to dismiss a dog with separation anxiety as just being nervous and needing to “work it out”. Left untreated this very real condition usually gets worse and may even lead to a full-blown ‘extinction burst’ in which a dog’s behaviour escalates dramatically before it goes away.
Fear
Fear is a natural emotion that causes pets to avoid situations and activities they perceive as dangerous. The danger may not be real or it may be based on historic pain (or both). The fear response can be interpreted as stubbornness, defiance or even dominance by owners who do not realise that their dog is attempting to avoid something that has caused or historically caused pain.
Many dogs with fear aggression display a threatening body posture and want to increase the distance between them and their trigger (commonly another animal or human). Although genetic predisposition plays a role, this behaviour is often learned as a defence mechanism due to negative past experiences, lack of habituation and puppy socialisation, environmental factors and sudden changes.