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Dear Yvette,

We adopted a young dog from a shelter and he is snapping at us. It seems that he hates us, and we can't help but wonder why this is going on. Our family has always been kind to him, and always given him what he needs. Is it possible he was abused in his former home? Other people seem to say it is genetic and there is nothing we can do about it. Why does our dog hate people, especially us, so much?

Cindy

Aggression is a difficult behavior to deal with. Emotions run deep, and in our heart of hearts we may feel hurt or betrayed that our dog does not love us for some reason. That hurts – because it doesn't really get any lower than feeling snubbed by a dog.

Oddly, people seem to equate aggression with either abuse or genetics. These things can absolutely contribute and create a dog that bites, but neither guarantee it will happen. For example, many people can think of a rescue that they know was abused, and yet the dog remains gentle.

What this means is that we often cannot answer, “Why.” It is an interesting exercise from an academic perspective, and we may be able to make good educated guesses. “Why” has limited use or impact on rehabilitation. Useful information is, “What is the trigger?” When we can identify the trigger, and we can make decisions and potentially work the problem. “Why” is not necessary.

But since you asked, let's take a moment and look at “why.” In my opinion, aggression rarely can be traced to one signal event. Most people feel that a dog bit for no reason, and out of the blue. But when you begin delving into the dog's history you find a string of situations that accumulate, and a string of warning signals that were overlooked.. Bites do not come from nowhere.

Typically, I see a diverse demographic of clients, and most are intelligent and non-violent. Yet the dog is aggressive. Commonly though, you will find some similar conditions, and those are often preventable. It is not uncommon for a person to obtain an animal from a source with less than ideal standards.

Inaccurate information or poor decision making processes can bring the wrong match into a home. Since most puppies are balls of fur that follow their humans endlessly, the family assumes puppy classes are not needed. A wakeup call comes when the puppy decides there is a fun world out there. Catch up on obedience begins, hopefully not too late. If aggression is at issue, then hopefully the professional has the ability to spot it, or festers longer. The longer the problem sits, the greater the chance a bite happens, and the poorer the prognosis on rehabilitation.

For the most part, these are nice, caring people that did not have access to critical information at key decision making times. They are often doctors, lawyers, teachers, and laborers. People rarely discuss aggression. It is not easy to say, “My dog is biting.”

In the end, when the dog finally bites someone, the family asks “why.” Aggression can, and often is a domino effect. It can happen to dogs with the nicest and most responsible owners. And many of them say, “We wish we knew.”

Yvette is an award winning pet writer and pet behavior columnist. She also is the author of Meeting Milo, a North American dog bite prevention program to reduce the approximately 2 million children bit by dogs annually. She is the owner of AwesomeDogs.ca and works as a behavior consultant in London, Ontario.

This column was originally featured in The Londoner
See more of Yvette... www.awesomedogs.ca
www.meetingmilo.com

Yvette has 2 dogs of her own, KIKI and KAYA. Take a look...

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