We’ve already explained what to do when dogs attack, and many of the techniques described there will help. But the complication with multiple dogs is that they will attack as a pack.

In the wild, dogs do this by sending the more submissive dogs around behind the prey while the dominant dogs approach from the front, so the most important thing to remember if you do encounter multiple dogs is to not let any of them get behind you.

Prevention

Of course, the ideal approach is to never get into a situation where you have to defend yourself and your dog against multiple dogs, and here is where a little prevention goes a long way. Your best offense is your own dog — pay attention to her body language and energy. She will become aware of other dogs in the area long before you do through her nose.

If your dog suddenly alerts by stopping and looking off in one direction, sniffing intently and possibly raising a paw, there’s probably a dog there. It may just be a neighbor walking their dog, but if you have any doubts, calmly change direction.

Next, and especially if you’re in an area known to have loose dogs around, there are items you can take with you on the walk to use for prevention and protection, such as:

• A sturdy walking stick or cane, which can be used to claim your space if dogs confront you, and as a defensive weapon if necessary.
• Dog repellent spray, such as DirectStop®, which uses citronella and is safer than something like pepper spray for the other dogs, you and your dog.
• A backpack, sweatshirt tied around your waist, or other disposable object that you can use as a distraction if a dog does come at you. The idea here is to get the dog to bite the object instead of you or your dog.
• Treats or food, which can also work as a distraction when thrown at the attacking dog.
• An air horn or very bright flashlight, which can be used as an attack deterrent as well as a way to signal others that you might need help.

Finally, one of the best preventative steps you can take is to socialize your own dog so that he does not become over-excited or aggressive when he sees other dogs. Keeping your own dog calm will keep a situation with an aggressive but distant dog from escalating into an approach and attack.

Precaution

When on the walk, always know your surroundings, and have an escape route in mind in case you are attacked by dogs — a place that you and your dog can get to quickly but other dogs can’t, like a business (whether dog friendly or not), the back of an open pick-up truck, or inside of an apartment complex or yard with a gate.

Get to know your neighborhood, and if there are any yards with dogs that bark or lunge at the fence when you pass by, try to avoid them. Take another route, or walk on the opposite side of the street.

But… when you are passing a yard with a barking dog, remain calm. Don’t speed up or try to run past — this will just teach the barking dog that its behavior makes things leave “her” territory more quickly, and will make the barking worse.

Get to know your neighbors and fellow dog walkers, and do exchange information about any encounters with aggressive dogs in the area so you can adjust your route accordingly.

Action

If, despite the above, you and your dog are approached by multiple dogs, there are still ways of avoiding a dog attack, and rule number one is to remain calm. Not only can this keep the situation from escalating, it will keep you focused and able to better deal with whatever happens.

Be aware of the dogs’ body language and know the signs of an imminent attack to look for so you can block the dogs before they strike — tension in the body, raised hackles, and ears flat against the head are some of the signs to watch for.

If it does escalate to an attack, know how to break up a dog fight, and use the tools you have brought with you to assist in that process. As Cesar explains, always focus on the dog with the highest energy level, and remove this one from the fight first, even if it’s your own dog. Call for help but do not rely on it showing up, and maintain your calm, assertive energy.

Have you had to deal with more than one aggressive dog at once? Tell us your story in the comments.

The post When (Several) Dogs Attack… appeared first on Cesar's Way.

Nine hour plane flights are great for looking through more of your email questions and writing some answers, so here we go.

Post Attack Trauma

Question:

Nancy A., California: Two days ago as my boyfriend was with our English bulldog Django, a pit bull came and attacked both of them. Django was left with a swollen face and a deep abrasion and my boyfriend was left with a fractured finger and bites on his hand trying to save our puppy. Django is acting his old self and is recovering great but I am concerned as to what signs to look out for so he does not become aggressive or scared of dogs.

Answer:

Nancy: I’m glad you asked what signs to look out for to keep Django from becoming aggressive or scared, because the first place to look is at you and your boyfriend.

I hear this story all the time: Someone’s dog is attacked or gets into a fight, and then their biggest fear is that it will happen again.

Remain Calm and Assertive

And how do humans deal with this fear? By obsessing on it. Suddenly, every encounter with a strange dog becomes a potential fight, and we tense up and become fearful and anxious ourselves. That energy goes right down the leash and into your dog, and reinforces the wrong idea: “Strange dog makes me nervous, be alert to danger.”

Note that you said that Django is acting his old self. Of course he is. To him, that fight was over the second the other dog stopped biting; done, a thing of the past. And that’s great. Although it was naturally a very traumatic event, you and your boyfriend need to let it go as well.

Keep Them Social

Ideally, you should enlist some friends or neighbors with dogs and organize a pack walk. This will keep Django socialized, and help the both of you realize that you don’t need to be fearful just because he’s around other dogs.

Defensive Dog

Question:

Wendy D., Pennsylvania: Hello Cesar I have a Chihuahua. I was having depression problems so I went out and got a dog just to get me out of bed. The dog did help but then I took a turn for the worse. My brother moved me in with them to help me get better. Well, Zeus my dog does not like anyone but me and my son. So when my sister-in-law’s nicest kids came over Zeus went after them and I will not have that from him but I am having trouble with him and other people. I really need your help.

Answer:

Wendy: Pets can be wonderful therapy for things like depression, and trained mental health dogs are becoming more and more common. That said, however, by adopting Zeus to treat your depression, you have put an unfair burden on him. It is not natural for dogs to nurture unstable or weak energy unless they have been trained for it, so you brought Zeus into a situation without a strong pack leader. This may have helped you — but now it’s your turn to help him.

Become a Pack Leader

Your entire household, including you, your son, brother and sister-in-law, must step into the roles of pack leader, with the entire family taking part. You need to establish rules, boundaries, and limitations for Zeus, as well as a very regular routine for him and you. He also needs lots of exercise to reduce his excess energy, and you should be the one walking him, for at least half an hour twice a day.

Exercise Will Benefit You Both

Not only will this be good for Zeus, but it will be good for you — some studies have shown that physical activity does help with reducing depression.

Of course, I don’t need some studies to prove that. When I went through depression and a suicide attempt three years ago, I learned two things firsthand.

One: My pack abandoned me after I abandoned myself; they did not want to associate with me because of my energy.

Two: My pack helped me come back, and lots of exercise together was a huge part of that process.

As it is, Zeus is aware of your mental state and that is what he is reacting to. He has clearly bonded with you and your son, and steps into the role of protector when your sister-in-law’s kids come around. By taking advantage of calm, strong energy from everyone in the house, you’ll help Zeus find his place in the pack and reduce his need to protect you when “outsiders” (in his mind) are there.

Wake-Up Trouble

Question:

Jesmane S., California: My dog Charlie has always had anxiety problems. She has awful separation anxiety and she doesn’t get along with other dogs — especially little ones. Although she’s calmed down after turning one, I think that anxiety has picked a new target. We have to try and wake up my brother to go to school and other things. But he’s like a log so you have to shake him. Charlie now bites and scratches us when we try to wake him up. This is especially dangerous for my grandma, who has diabetes, because if she gets bitten she won’t heal.

What should we do?

Answer:

Jesmane: Imagine how this looks to Charlie. Every morning, somebody in the family goes in and “attacks” your brother while he’s asleep. You don’t mention it, but I’m sure that the shaking comes with a lot of calling out his name loudly and other excited energy. Charlie is just trying to protect him.

Begin Setting Boundries

The first thing to do, for now, is make your brother’s room off-limits to Charlie while you’re waking him up. The simplest way is to not let Charlie in and close the door, although she may complain about this, in which case someone needs to be outside the door to correct and redirect her if she tries to bark, scratch or whine. If necessary, someone else in the household should take her for a walk during the wake-up process.

If Charlie currently sleeps in your brother’s room, then you need to establish a new place for her for now. Sharing the room just establishes it as Charlie’s den, and so will make her even more defensive when the morning starts with a lot of excited energy.

You should consider crate training Charlie as well, since this will help with this problem and the separation anxiety by creating her own place for her to go.

The post Cesar’s Answers From The Air appeared first on Cesar's Way.

When people ask me for help with their dogs, I ask them to tell me what they think the problem is. Quite often, they immediately diagnose aggression. “My dog is aggressive on the walk.” “My dog is aggressive around food.” “My dog is aggressive all the time.”

In fact, in a recent Facebook survey of my fans, when we asked you to pick the single most serious problem you have with your dogs, aggression was the number one choice.

However, more often than not, the dog is not aggressive. It is curious and excited on the walk, it is not calm and submissive before being fed, or it’s just an excited dog in general. In reality, very few dogs are actually aggressive. But, because they have big sharp teeth, we tend to interpret any incident in which a dog approaches another dog or human quickly as aggression, especially if we don’t know the dog.

If a strange dog approaches us and our dog on the walk, we often become apprehensive ourselves. Our dog interprets this as weak energy and is forced to protect us, and their defensiveness can then lead to the other dog becoming aggressive in defense as well.

However, other behavior problems in dogs, if not resolved, can lead to aggressive behavior. Here are a few of the major ones.

Fear, Anxiety, and Insecurity

All animals have three natural responses to danger: fight, flight, or avoidance. They will either attack, run away, or try to hide from that danger. Fearful, anxious, or insecure dogs will not naturally fight. They will run or hide. However, if either of these things does not remove them from danger, then they can lash out aggressively.

A dog in a constant state of anxiety can eventually stop trying to run or hide first because its internal energy is very high and very scattered, so they can progress to reacting aggressively to everything.

These kinds of dogs require lots of exercise in order to burn up that excess energy and bring them back to a calm, submissive state. They also require calm, assertive Pack Leaders who will build up their self-confidence by providing protection and direction.

Frustration

When a dog’s needs are not fulfilled, the dog experiences frustration — particularly if what’s missing is exercise. An otherwise happy-go-lucky, high energy dog stuck alone in a small apartment for twelve hours a day can become so frustrated that aggression may result. The problem is made worse if the humans don’t also give that dog discipline by providing rules, boundaries and limitations.

If you can’t be home to walk your dog at least every four hours, then you need to take the dog on a long walk before you leave and after you return home.  In the meantime, make sure that there are plenty of things to mentally stimulate your dog while you’re gone, like toys with treats hidden in them, acceptable things to chew on, and so forth.

Lack of Socialization

A dog knows how to be a dog and how to relate to other dogs. It’s only when human behavior short circuits that process that a dog becomes antisocial. This is particularly common with smaller dogs, because humans have the irresistible need to pick them up at the first sign of danger.

You never see someone pick up their Rottweiler because another dog on the walk is barking at it. And yet, for breeds like Chihuahuas and Yorkies, this is the first thing that people do, and it completely confuses the dog.

They associate being picked up (affection) with another dog being aggressive toward it, so what do they do? They learn that this is what you want. When they meet another dog, it’s time to go crazy with barking and lunging so they can get their “reward.”

Even without picking the dog up, we can make it antisocial through our reactions. If we become tense or nervous and tighten up on the leash when we see another dog, then we’re teaching our dogs to see other dogs as a threat.

Dog on dog aggression is not natural. It’s a learned behavior and we teach it. In order for our dogs to unlearn it and become socialized, we have to become aware of what we’re doing to make our dogs antisocial and we have to learn what to do to let our dogs be dogs.

Injury or Illness

Sometimes, a dog that has never shown any signs of aggression will suddenly lash out and snap at a family member unexpectedly. If none of the above cases apply, then this may be your dog’s way of letting you know that it’s in pain and the snarl or nip is a spontaneous reaction similar to someone yelling “Ouch!” when they stub their toe on the coffee table.

If your dog suddenly lashes out at a familiar human when being touched, then your first step should be to visit the vet and find out if there are any physical causes for the reaction. If this is the case, your dog will be grateful to you for helping stop the pain.

A lot of people assume that a dog is either naturally aggressive or not, but this isn’t really the case. Aggression is not a cause, but a symptom. If your dog is aggressive, then it’s telling you that something else is lacking. By paying attention to the behavior, we can understand what our dog is telling us and then figure out the cure to the problem.

Does you dog currently display any of the undesired behaviors that might lead to aggression? Now that you’re aware, how do you intend to address the issue? Share it with us in the comments.

The post The Rundown On Aggression appeared first on Cesar's Way.