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Originally Posted by yorkietalkjilly  Dog aggression is usually just a bad habit they form out of insecurity from a perceived feeling that they need to handle a situation as they have no strong leader doing it. NILIF teaches a dog that you are their source for everything in life they want or need and thus they begin to recognize you as a leader in total control of their world, their protector. Thus the need to aggress begins to subside about the same time there is a trust and bond that forms between you two as you work as a team in obedience and agility together, further teaching your dog to look to you and follow your commands only(they begin to do this by rote in time - responding without thinking) and they learn not to take matters into their own hands - or paws, as the case may be. Obedience training, learning to control their impulses and follow commands, actually modifies their behavior and most people are surprised at how a previously nervous or insecure, dominant/aggressive dog begins to calm down and change to an agreeable, happy pet that has left its old ways in its dust.
Dogs living in feral conditions or in the wild hold a deep respect for their leader and leave attempts to control other dogs or children that might come near to the leader or the leader's chosen "pack police". Pet dogs that see their human as their family leader do the same and if children or other dogs come near, they leave them to you and see no further need to try to handle them themselves with aggression. Keeping them safe from noisy children or other dogs is the leader's job. (Sorry, I did Spellcheck and sometimes it enlarges the font in the section where my cursor is resting and I can't change it back! Don't know why it sometimes happens.) |
Oh my goodness now I feel really good about this! I'm really excited to train her and get started. Thank you so much for your advice! She has to have knee surgery and we were holding off for a few months to get her listening to us first to avoid further injury. But it's not an immediate surgery so I'm going to look into an intro to agility class first!