When once-friendly dog suddenly snaps or growls at you, it can be very scary and even downright heartbreaking.
In fact, of all the canine-behavior cases I see, owner-directed aggression can be the most emotionally challenging issue that pet people face.
But don’t worry: There are things you can do to help solve your dog’s sudden aggression problem.
We’ll explain everything you need to know, including not only some of the reasons this can happen, but what you’ll want to do about it, below.
How Do You Know if Your Dog Is Being Aggressive Instead of Just Grumpy?
To distinguish between grumpiness and aggression, we’ll need to start by defining aggression.
Aggression is a threat or harmful behavior directed towards another individual (be it a dog, human, or another pet).
A few common examples of threats and harmful behaviors dogs may exhibit include:
- Hard stares
- Growling
- Barking
- Snarling
- Lunging
- Snapping
- Biting
On the other hand, dogs can easily feel overwhelmed, tired, like being left alone, or even feel unwell — they can just feel, for lack of a better term, grumpy.
Grumpiness is really just another way of saying less-tolerant than normal. Any dog who is pestered or pushed beyond his level of tolerance could potentially lead to an aggressive response.
Just as you might feel a bit more testy if you were forced to stay up until 5am working on your son’s 4th grade science project they were supposed to complete weeks ago, or might be feel snappy when you’ve been sick and unable to leave the house for a week, your dog’s attitude and tolerance can be influenced by a number of outside factors that have nothing to do with whether he is a “good” or “bad” dog.
However, grumpiness shouldn’t be taken any less seriously — these signals should always be respected. A grumpy response could tell us there is something more, perhaps even medically, going on.
In such cases, dogs may do things like:
- Warning growl
- Removing themselves
- Warning nip or air snap
- Yelp or bark
In general, “grumpiness” does not lead to bites unless you continue to provoke your pooch. But the more times they find themselves provoked, the greater the risk for a bite to occur in the future.
Addressing Your Dog’s Sudden Aggression: What Should You Do?
Regardless of whether he is growling at you because he is being aggressive or he is just telling you off, you must always heed your dog’s warnings.
Your pup has every right to tell you he doesn’t feel like cuddling, having his hair brushed, or sharing his food.
Ultimately, we need to understand the root cause of his aggressive behavior. What type of dog aggression is he displaying? What has caused your dog to act aggressively, and how can we help him?
Often, owners will need professional assistance from a qualified behavior consultant, positive trainer, or veterinary behaviorist to determine the underlying reason for his aggro behavior. In fact, aggression is one of the leading reasons people call a professional for help.
But unfortunately, the dog training industry is unregulated, and not all trainers are equally qualified or educated.
So do your homework, choose a reputable dog trainer or behavior consultant with a solid evidence-based ethos, who is certified by an organization with a positive-based code of ethics. Additionally, don’t be afraid to ask questions.
It is especially important to obtain professional advice if your dog has bitten you or your dog has bitten someone else — particularly if the bite was severe enough to require medical treatment.
Whether you try to treat your dog’s sudden aggression issues with professional assistance (recommended) or on your own (not a great idea), the basic plan of attack will be the same.
All dog behavior issues are treated by addressing one or more of three similar components:
- Ruling out medical conditions or assessing for medical interventions.
- Training (behavior modification).
- Implementing management solutions.
We’ll talk about each of theses three facets below.
Step 1. Ruling Out Medical Issues
If your dog’s aggression seems unusual and out of character, it is advisable to see your vet.
Your vet can do a complete check-up to rule in/out any underlying medical issues. This is one step that many people don’t think about, but pain or feeling unwell can be a common reason for the sudden onset of aggressive behavior.
Even if there are no medical issues causing the sudden aggression, behavioral meds (available through your vet) may represent a treatment option, and your vet may be able to guide you towards appropriate medication options.
However, the cautionary tale here is, behavioral medications should always be used in conjunction with behavior training. Otherwise, we are not addressing the root cause of the aggression; we’re just treating the symptoms.
Alleviating the symptoms may, however, be helpful for the training process, as it will help him to feel more relaxed and less anxious, thereby allowing him to learn new coping strategies.
A two-pronged combination of behavior medication and behavioral training can help you more safely socialize an aggressive dog.
Let’s look at my dog as an example of how medication and behavior modification work together. My dog is on canine anxiety medication because she has “stranger danger” issues (as well as generalized anxiety).
We have made incredible progress with by implementing behavioral modifications to address her underlying issues while she’s on anxiety medication. Without the medication, she couldn’t remain calm enough to take in the training — she was over threshold and too overwhelmed to learn. The medication takes the edge off, helping her get back into a learning state.
Accordingly, we’ll soon be able to start weaning her off of these meds knowing we have helped create better coping strategies and more positive associations with her triggers.
Step 2. Implementing Training Solutions
Once you’ve established that your dog is in good health (or you’ve begun treating any health problems causing the aggression), you can start using aggressive dog training procedures to help your dog overcome his aggressive reactions.
It’s important to remember that our dogs aggressive behaviors do not happen in a vacuum, and they do not occur “out of nowhere”. There is nearly always a reason why a dog bites, snaps, or growls — we humans are just not always good at picking up on our dog’s more subtle cues (although learning dog body language can go a long way towards recognizing when your dog is uncomfortable, before they escalate to more extreme behavior).
An aggressive reaction is an emotional response — it’s the result of our dogs feeling nervous, scared, stressed, or over-stimulated, and so we need to address the emotional underpinnings.
This typically involves one or more of the following techniques:
Desensitization (aka Getting Your Dog Used to Triggers)
Desensitization involves slowly, consistently and repeatedly exposing your dog to his trigger (aka, the thing or action that is setting your dog off) at a tolerable distance or intensity. This is often done in “baby steps” until you reach the end goal.
If, for example, walking near your dog’s food bowl triggers him, you might try sitting or standing at a far enough distance that there is no response from him at all, and do that several times a day for 30 seconds.
Over time, your dog will become desensitized to your presence near his food bowl. He will learn that you being near his food bowl does not result in anything bad happening to him.
Then, over time, you can begin moving closer and closer to his bowl at meal times.
I never advise “poking the bear,” (so to speak), or in this case, sticking your hand in his bowl while he is eating. But you may, over days, weeks, or months, be able to walk by your dog while he is eating without soliciting a reaction.
Counterconditioning (aka getting your dog to think more positively about triggers)
This is a big word that really means changing your dog’s underlying emotional response. You can use counter-conditioning to change your dog’s mind so that instead of thinking a given stimulus is bad or scary, your dog will begin to find that it is harmless (perhaps even good), and therefore not scary at all.
For example, if sitting close to your dog triggers his anxiety and aggressive response, you can try tossing treats to him every time you sit on the couch with him. Start by sitting far enough away that he doesn’t act reactively — this might even mean that you start on the floor.
The goal is for your pup to equate you sitting next to her with her favorite things (like cheese, peanut butter, or yummy sausage)! The associations she makes with you sitting near her will change over time as your proximity begins to foretell good things.
Teaching Your Dog Alternative Behaviors (Instead of Biting, Do This)
Sometimes, in addition to desensitization and counter-conditioning, we need to provide our dogs with an alternative way to cope.
Basically, we need to give them an action that they can perform instead of biting, growling, or some other type of aggressive reaction.
If, for example, your dog reacts aggressively when you get up to walk to the kitchen, you can teach him that when you stand up, it means “go to your bed” (and get a nice tasty treat for doing so).
By teaching the dog to do something instead of reacting aggressively, it will give him clear direction, a predictable outcome, and it will mean that he’s about to enjoy something tasty and positive.
Establishing a Relaxation Protocol (aka learning to calm down)
Teaching anxious dogs to relax is one of the first things I teach new clients. Believe it or not, this doesn’t come naturally to some dogs — especially high-octane working breeds who are used to always being “on”.
Teaching your dog to learn how to chill out and relax can your pup cope with his overall environment and help him to settle down. Karen Overall’s Relaxation Protocol is one tool to help with this, but there are others as well.
If you think about it, all of these training solutions work together.
When we counter condition a dog, we can also desensitize him at the same time. Similarly, when we ask for an alternative behavior, we are also desensitizing, and the reward he is earning for the new behavior is an example of counterconditioning.
Step 3. Incorporating Management Solutions Into Your Life
Management is a key component to helping your dog through the difficulties he is experiencing.
Management helps to prevent aggressive reactions, and in some cases, it may be all you need to do to address the situation. Prevention goes a long way towards keeping everyone safe and setting your dog up for success so that he doesn’t even have the opportunity to make mistakes.
For example, if your dog acts aggressively when his food bowl is down, some management solutions would involve feeding him in a separate space and then picking the bowl up and putting it away once he is done eating so that it doesn’t continue to sit around and be a guard-able object.
Management tools can also help to keep you safe.
If your dog is triggered by scary situations while out on a walk and redirects this onto you, one management solution could involve conditioning him to wear a muzzle.
If your dog is triggered by strangers or other dogs, this might not only be a good solution to keep everyone safe, but it may also cause strangers to steer clear of you, creating a little less anxiety for your pooch.
What Not to Do When Faced with Sudden Dog Aggression
A common misconception about aggression is that our dogs are actually trying to dominate us. This then leads people to attempt to gain the upper hand by using force, intimidation, and punishment.
But here’s the thing:
- Your dog is not trying to be dominant. Your dog isn’t trying to gain rank by displaying signs of aggression. The entire concept of the “alpha” has been completely debunked, as that kind of heirarchy is simply not how dogs operate, so no need to worry about your social standing with your dog. Think of aggression as a defense mechanism — an emotional response to something scary or anxiety provoking.
- If you punish your dog for growling or reacting aggressively, there is a good chance you’ll make that aggression worse. Punishment often results in more stress and anxiety in your dog, which will only make aggression more likely.
- If you punish your dog for growling, they may bite without warning the next time. Again, growling is a warning, which is a good thing. We do not want to punish our dog for communicating, because communication lets us know our dog is uncomfortable. If we punish our dog and shut down growling as an option for communicating discomfort, you haven’t made the dog less uncomfortable, you’ve just taken away their option to say “hey, I’m not OK with that.” Next time, the dog will be more liable to go straight to biting to defend themselves, since they’ve learned that they only get in trouble for growling. I don’t know about you, but I prefer a warning! Additionally, punishment and aversive training tools such as shock collars have been proven to increase aggression in dogs.
Ultimately, you want to avoid punishment or corrections if your dog is acting aggressively. Instead, try some of the strategies discussed earlier.
Imagine you have a dog that does not like having their feet touched. The dog may be so uncomfortable with having his feet touches that he might growl whenever someone touches his feet.
If you choose to yell or smack your dog for reacting negatively to having their feet touched, you’ve proven the dog’s worst fears to be correct. They emotionally felt like something bad would happen if a human touched their feet and now they’ve confirmed — yes, bad things happen when people touch my feet. I get yelled at or hit.
The dog has also learned that growling does not do anything to discourage humans from touching his feet. Growling is our dog’s way of saying no, but when we ignore that “no,” they are left with no other option than to bite.
Think of it another way — if you are absolutely terrified of snakes, you can’t be bullied into not being afraid of snakes. Someone can yell at you every time you cringe away from a snake, or they can hit you every time you pull your hand back from a snake, but that won’t change how you feel about snakes.
How do you change your feelings about snakes? Through slow, gradual immersion therapy. You might start by sitting a few feet away from a tank of snakes. Then, you might sit beside the tank. Next, you might sit beside a snake handler. Finally, after doing these smaller steps over the course or days or weeks, you might touch a snake with one finger. Then you might brush you hand over the snake, and finally you might briefly hold the snake.
You have to slowly build upon positive (or at the very least, neutral) experiences with snakes that get slowly and gradually more challenging, without ever jumping too far forward to become overwhelming (for example, if you went straight to holding a snake on day one, you likely wouldn’t be able to do it).
Our dogs need this kind of slow, gentle progress for overcoming their fears too! Yes it’s a lot of work, but it’s the only way to truly help them and change their emotional state.
Why Would a Dog Be Aggressive Towards His Owner?
There is a motivation behind every behavior. In many cases, whether we realize it or not, aggression can be caused by fear or anxiety.
In fact, fear and anxiety are the most common reasons I get called for aggression-related cases, and many of these dogs have reacted aggressively at least once in their lifetime.
Often times, when a dog feels anxious or fearful, their parasympathetic nervous system (which operates on an involuntary basis) kicks in, dumping hormones into the dog’s bloodstream. This rush in hormones triggers the dog’s fight or flight response.
Also, in our society, dogs have a lot of restrictions placed on them; leashes, barriers, and the threat of consequences can both increase the anxiety and trigger an aggressive response because the dog has no option to flee.
Fear and aggression are not the only motivation for a dog to act aggressively towards you, though perhaps one of the more common reasons.
Some of the other common motives that can lead a dog to attack his owner include:
Resource Guarding (AKA possession aggression)
The root cause of resource guarding is also anxiety — the dog is concerned about people being close to his valued possessions. These valued possessions could include food, toys, beds, or even people.
Sometimes aggression brought on by resource guarding seems sudden, when in fact your dog has given several subtle warnings that you’ve failed to detect.
Medical
There are many reasons why your dog might act aggressively that are caused pain or sickness. It is a good idea to talk to your vet and have a complete wellness exam, especially if the aggression is a new or a sudden change in their normal behavior.
Redirected Aggression
This is often an aggressive response that is redirected onto the closest person or another animal. For example, if you try to break up a fight between two dogs, there is a high likelihood that this aggression could be redirected onto you.
Similarly, if your dog is lunging and barking at the end of his leash at a passerby, he could turn and redirect his frustration onto you.
It’s not your dog intentionally aggressing onto you — their just all worked up and you’re the closest available object to release all that pent up frustration onto.
Trigger Stacking
Trigger stacking refers to the cumulative effect of multiple triggers.
Imagine this: You are watching a scary movie at home. Suddenly, there is a large banging noise and the creak of a door down the hall. That noise and squeaky door likely caused you to jump a lot higher and your heart to beat much faster because you were already scared to begin with.
Similarly, your dog may be able to handle one or maybe two of his triggers with tact, but once the third one happens, he loses his ability to remain composed.
Age Related
Dogs who are experiencing Canine Cognitive Dysfunction (doggie dementia), can often become suddenly aggressive. Some senior dogs may become more irritable in the evening if they have dog sundowners syndrome. Similar to humans, aggression is a common symptom of CCD and is due in part to their confusion and memory loss.
Physical Disability
Dogs who have trouble hearing or seeing can react defensively if suddenly startled. Sometimes it can feel like this happens overnight if your dog is getting older and his senses begin to decline.
Consider talking to a vet or doing some in-home experiments to determine if your dog is blind or deaf.
Rage Syndrome
Though this term was coined in the 70’s, Rage Syndrome is currently considered idiopathic aggression (idiopathic simply means the cause is unknown).
The onset of this is generally between the ages of 1-3 years and is more prevalent in certain breeds, suggesting a possible genetic component.
Cocker and Springer Spaniels, Dobermans, German Shepherds, and Lhasa Apsos seem to be the most susceptible. Nevertheless, “Rage Syndrome” or idiopathic aggression is pretty rare.
A behavior consultant or veterinary behaviorist can help you get to the bottom of the issue.
No matter the cause, just remember that aggression is the byproduct of an emotional response; it is not a conscious choice.
What Kinds of Things Commonly Trigger Aggression Towards People?
Aggression rarely just happens. Something your dog is feeling, or something in his environment triggers that fight or flight response.
Depending on your dog and his unique situation, triggers could vary greatly.
Some of the more common triggers I see include:
- Being touched, moved, or lifted.
- The dark can exacerbate movement or sound-related triggers.
- Someone getting up off the couch or moving around the house. This could be one person in particular or anyone who moves.
- Moving near your dog’s bone, food or favorite toy.
- Approaching strangers or other dogs when on leash.
- Having someone visit the house.
There are so many scenarios and different triggers, and each one could have a different root cause.
My dog, Juno, is “people selective”. This means she likes certain people and dislikes others.
The people she dislikes either look unusual to her, are doing something unusual, or they try to approach her.
Her resulting reaction stems from general anxiety and fearfulness of unusual or novel stimulus. Because I am aware of her specific triggers, I can better control her environment, and we can work on positive and controlled socialization.
I suggest making a list of all of your dog’s triggers. One great idea is to keep a journal. Sometimes we don’t know what the trigger is (or all of them) until we start logging the situations as they happen, documenting when and where they occur. Journaling may allow you to start seeing a pattern emerge.
Part of the problem with sudden canine aggression is that it comes about, well, suddenly. After all, if your dog is typically prickly, you wouldn’t consider displays of aggression to be sudden.
Quite often, these dogs who exhibit sudden aggression are normally quite happy and easy-going. They’re usually friendly dogs, not the Cujo-type canines we might imagine them to be.
But that doesn’t mean these dogs aren’t tipping their hand, because many are giving clues that there’s a problem. In fact, one common misconception about sudden aggressive behavior is that it happens “out-of-the-blue.”
However, in reality, our dogs give us plenty of warnings. It’s just that these warnings may be subtle and often go unnoticed or unheeded.
We’ll talk about some of these signs below
What Are Some Warning Signs that Your Dog May Become Aggressive?
Dogs communicate with their bodies.
Unfortunately this isn’t how humans primary communicate — we rely a lot on verbal language, and as a result we often fail to learn our dog’s primary form of communication, which is body language.
We bring our own human biases to the table, and often misinterpret our dogs’ body signals, assuming they are synonymous to human behavior, which could mean we are entirely missing what they are actually telling us.
Aggression is like a ladder. At the bottom of the ladder are avoidance behaviors, calming signals, and subtle signs of stress like yawning and lip licking.
As we climb the ladder, we see the warnings become more and more overt, such as stiffening of the body, freezing, or a hard stare. Once we have reached the top rungs of the ladder, it might be too late. This is where we see lunging, snapping, growling and/or biting.
The more you begin to learn about dog body language, the easier it can be to manage your dog’s aggression by recognizing the early warning signs. You can mitigate a problem before it becomes one.
The video below shows several early warning signs.
Why is My Dog Aggressive Towards My Husband But Not Me?
There are several reasons that your dog may be aggressive towards one particular family member over another.
It could be that your dog feels safer with you, you are more predictable, or that you are not doing anything to provoke the aggression. Other family members may be unknowingly triggering an aggressive response, thus becoming a trigger themselves.
Your dog may also be resource guarding you. He may feel anxious when other people are close to his prized human.
My former dog, Stewie, used to growl when my husband came to bed. This is because my husband wasn’t as good at reading Stewie’s body language as I was, and often provoked him by getting too close.
I, on the other hand, was able to avoid this type of reaction by paying close attention to Stewie’s signals. Over time, he learned that my behavior was predictably safe (I never solicited cuddles from him) and that my husband was predictably unsafe (he would try to force him to cuddle).
Stewie’s growl and avoidance was all that transpired, and eventually he would just automatically get up and leave the room as soon as my husband came to bed. But it easily could have gone in a different, more aggressive direction.
Learn about muzzle punches — a way dogs warn people that they’re treading on thin ice!
How Can You Prevent Your Dog from Becoming Aggressive with You?
Of course none of us want to be on the other end of a dog’s aggressive reaction.
The best way to prevent your dog from becoming aggressive with you is to take the time to figure out what is normal and abnormal for your individual dog.
Preventing a bite in the first place is our main goal. Often these bites seem to come without warning or when we least expect it, but here are some things you can do to prevent a bite:
- Be considerate. We often forget about the concept of consent with dogs and autonomy when it comes to our pets and put them into situations that they perceive as unfavorable.
- Have your dog examined annually by your vet. As he begins to age, you may want to visit your vet every six months, including routine blood work.
- Notice subtle changes in his behavior or daily routine. Try to pinpoint what is happening right before this change of behavior occurs.
- Keep your dog’s mind mentally stimulated. This means providing lots of enrichment such as walking games and puzzle toys, allowing him to sniff a lot during walks, and playing other types of brain games.
- Avoid punishment. If your dog thinks of you as being scary, they won’t seek you out for comfort when they are feeling worried or anxious and it can be detrimental to your bond.
- Be consistent. If your dog is anxious, having a consistent routine. When you act predictable, it can help your anxious pouch feel more at ease.
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Aggression is not a conscious decision, it is an emotional reaction, often with complex underpinnings. It can be difficult and emotional for everyone involved. But if can often be remedied by employing the tips discussed above or by consulting with a certified trainer.
Do you have a story about your dog’s aggression you’d like to share? What management tools were successful for you? We’d love to hear about your experiences!
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