If Your Dog Is Aggressive to People, Never Stop Doing These 2 Things

Welcome to Dog Aggression Answers, where we show you how to address your dog’s aggression using scientific and humane methods. 

My name is Scott Sheaffer and it's my mission to help you understand your dog’s aggression and what you can do about it. In today's episode, you'll learn some important basic concepts to make your dog less stressed around strangers. You can implement these concepts with your buddy right now.
 
Some dogs seem to go on high alert when a stranger is in sight. On today's episode, I offer valuable insights into the world of canine fear and aggression towards people they don't know. We'll uncover the often-misunderstood signals dogs use to communicate discomfort and the crucial dos and don'ts for humans.

The revelation that most aggressive dogs only trust a handful of humans will change how you perceive their interactions with the world. Prepare to step into a journey toward creating a more peaceful existence for your four-legged companion and the strangers they meet along the way.

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About Scott Sheaffer
Scott Sheaffer, CCBC-KA, CDBC, CPDT-KA, is a certified dog behavior consultant who has worked with thousands of dog owners and their aggressive dogs. Scott specializes in the assessment and treatment of fear, anxiety, aggression, and phobias in dogs six months and older.

Disclaimer
If you have a dog who is aggressive and dangerous to humans, it is important that you immediately consult directly with an experienced and certified canine behavior consultant who specializes in dog aggression to humans. Take proper measures to ensure that your dog is never in a position to injure anyone. The information presented in this podcast is for educational purposes only and is neither intended nor implied to replace the need for the direct involvement of an experienced and certified canine behavior consultant who specializes in dog aggression to humans. Scott Sheaffer, the Grumpy Dogs podcast and USA Dog Behavior, LLC, are not liable for any incidents or outcomes resulting from following the advice given in this podcast.

Transcript

Scott Sheaffer, CBCC-KA, CDBC, CPDT-KA: 0:00

Welcome to Dog Aggression Answers, where we empower you to address your dog's aggression using scientific and humane methods. My name is Scott Sheaffer and it's my mission to help you understand your dog's aggression and what you can do about it. You'll learn why your dog is acting aggressively, ways to prevent aggression and treatment concepts you can implement. In today's episode, I'm going to answer the following question what are the two things I must always do if I have a dog that is aggressive to people outside of my family? And by aggression, of course, I mean things like barking, growling, biting, lunging up on people, those kinds of things. But aggression doesn't have to be all the way to biting. You can be barking and growling. It's those first signs of aggression. That's what I mean by an aggressive dog. The two principles we'll discuss also apply to dogs that use avoidance versus aggression when they interact with someone they aren't comfortable with. In other words, we know the basis of most aggression is fear-based. Some dogs about 90% respond with aggression to get the scary thing to move away, in this case the unfamiliar, stranger person. About 10% of dogs will use avoidance to deal with their fear involved with strangers, meaning they'll create the distance They'll get away from the scary person versus encouraging them to move away from the dog by using aggression. So this is called avoidant or avoidance behaviors About 10% of dogs. This information in this episode is foundational and, quite frankly, if I can be so blunt, it's really not optional if you have a dog like this. In fact, if all dog owners with human aggressive dogs or those dogs there's 10% of dogs who shy away from these unfamiliar people to the dog If all dog owners implemented this simple things I'm going to talk about in this episode, we'd see a drastic reduction in observed dog to human aggression and avoidance in virtually all contexts. It really is that simple. Stay tuned.

Scott Sheaffer, CBCC-KA, CDBC, CPDT-KA: 2:29

Welcome to the Dog Aggression Answers podcast. I'm Scott Sheaffer, your host and a certified expert in dog behavior. With the background of helping thousands of aggressive dogs and their owners, I'm here to share humane, science-based solutions for your dog's aggression. Stay tuned, always remember this one axiomatic principle Dogs that are aggressive to humans don't want attention from people they are not comfortable with, period.

Scott Sheaffer, CBCC-KA, CDBC, CPDT-KA: 3:06

It's kind of like I shouldn't even say kind of. It really is very much like young human children when they are around strangers. Now there are some children that are fine when they see new people for the first time and all that kind of stuff. Just like some dogs are fine In fact, most dogs are fine when they see people they don't know. However, there are some children human children who are a little shy, a little scared of strangers coming into the home and people that they're meeting. This is the same kind of fear that your dog has, or that some dogs have. They're afraid of unfamiliar people to them and they can avoid, which is about 10% of dogs and then about 90% use aggression to keep the scary person away, all in an effort to feel safe. When someone who is unknown to an aggressive dog gives attention to that dog, even well-intentioned attention, it almost always makes the person look a little bit scarier to the dog and can then escalate the aggression. So think about it. A person enters into the dog's space, the dog's a little afraid of this unfamiliar person to them, and what can make it worse is that sometimes people will start to do things that make it even worse. They're already afraid and now the human does some things that make it even worse, and we're going to talk about what those things are. All right. So here are the five things that people do, strangers do, to the dog. That makes the dog, that's already a little bit nervous and fearful, even more nervous.

Scott Sheaffer, CBCC-KA, CDBC, CPDT-KA: 4:46

Number one closed physical proximity. In other words, getting close to the dog, closing in on that distance, that body space, if you will. The dog says you know, I was feeling pretty good and I have 10 feet between this guy and me. Now the person is closing in on me. Now it's standing right next to me and I don't feel so safe and I feel scared. The next one and this surprises some people is eye contact. If you are around a fearful dog, do not look in its eyes. That is scary to the dog. That is a sign to the dog that you're being a little bit confrontational, even though you're not. But that's how the dog sees it and that's what dogs do to each other when they're about ready to escalate to a fight. Don't make eye contact with the dog. It looks scary to them when you do that.

Scott Sheaffer, CBCC-KA, CDBC, CPDT-KA: 5:36

Number three physical contact. In other words, touching of any kind. If a dog is scared of you, if you walk over to it and touch it, you're not helping your case In two ways really. You close that distance, which is not good. Now you're touching the dog. So this dog is already scared of you or scared of this stranger human, not gonna make him feel any better when you move over to the dog.

Scott Sheaffer, CBCC-KA, CDBC, CPDT-KA: 6:04

Next one is speaking. Now, I don't mean speaking to another human in the room, I'm talking about speaking to the dog. If you are addressing the dog, speaking to the dog talking, it can be a little scary because you're giving the dog attention, and remember our axiomatic rule dogs don't want that attention. Now, the problem with speaking to a dog, like calling their name or a good boy or whatever you say is you're almost always looking at the dog when you're doing that too. So it's kind of a double whammy You're looking and talking to the dog. The dog knows you are, and it's not making them feel any safer around this individual.

Scott Sheaffer, CBCC-KA, CDBC, CPDT-KA: 6:44

All right, let's look at the fifth one, the final one movement by the human. Now, this was a bit tricky. So we have a dog. Let's set the scenario again. We have a dog that's afraid of some stranger, whether it's you or someone else coming into the home or out on the street for that matter, and the dog's a little bit nervous. Well, when you move, if you're the kind of person, or if this stranger is the kind of person that moves a lot, that kind of looks scary. It's one thing to be standing next to a fearful dog, calm and relaxed. It's another if you start waving your hands and so forth Many times. Just in general, gesturing while you talk don't have to be any kind of flamboyant kind of movement. It can be just gesturing that normally where you talk, and that can make the individual look scarier.

Scott Sheaffer, CBCC-KA, CDBC, CPDT-KA: 7:31

Here's another component to this that makes us a little bit more tricky is it's important at the same time not to be standing there stiff. If you're stiff, that looks scary to a dog too, for lots of reasons. That's what dogs do. Dogs get stiff like humans, by the way, right before they fight or they're very stressed. They do that. So here's this dog looking at you and all of a sudden you're kind of stiff, you're trying not to move but you get real stiff. The dog says, well, that kind of looks scary to me, looks weird, and this is what my folks dogs do before we fight. So maybe I'm worried about this. So why you don't wanna be making all these big movements, even maybe just normal movements for that matter? You still want to have what we call a soft body, meaning you're kind of fluid, your muscles are relaxed and you're moving like you would normally move. Dogs are really really sensitive to this. In fact I don't do this anymore because it got kind of a dangerous.

Scott Sheaffer, CBCC-KA, CDBC, CPDT-KA: 8:31

I used to demonstrate this to clients with human aggressive dogs. I would be discussing this very topic in relation to their dog and I would say let me show you what I mean. And I would stand there real stiffly, not even really looking at the dog or paying attention to the dog, and the dog would start to growl. That's how sensitive they are to these kinds of things Me just getting stiff and demonstrating that for a second. The dog picked up on that and said I don't like that. He's doing that right now. So really an important thing.

Scott Sheaffer, CBCC-KA, CDBC, CPDT-KA: 9:02

These kinds of things the five that I just mentioned make humans look more scary to the dog. That is already scared. But what can you do to reduce how much strangers scare your dog or you scare dogs like this, and hopefully reduce the dog's aggression or avoidance of people? I'm going to share with you two things to always do when your dog is around anyone other than people they are completely comfortable with. And of course, these would be the same things you would do if you're around a dog like this. These have to be done 24 seven and must be done everywhere. So if you have a dog like this, you want to enforce these two things all the time, everywhere, and especially inside your home. See my episode on territorial aggression or territorial fear aggression, for more information.

Scott Sheaffer, CBCC-KA, CDBC, CPDT-KA: 10:00

So this is a different kind of an aggression that has a territorial component, and these two principles I'm not ready to talk about are exceedingly important in that contest. I'm going to call these principles, by the way, the two rules. The objective of these rules is to minimize the fear in your dog associated with unfamiliar humans to them. In addition to minimizing the fear, this is so important Over time, these exercises may also help to start the process of counter conditioning your dog to begin to accept and even possibly enjoy common human behaviors in some people outside of your family. What am I saying here? It's a way of desensitizing and making a new association with strangers, and this can only be done over time with lots of these good, positive exposures. And let me say this this is not a cure or fix or even any kind of significant behavior modification, but it is a start. It will certainly help. Before I list these two principles, I want to remind you that I have a large library of free short dog behavior articles on a broad range of canine behavioral topics that are searchable on my website. And did I mention they were free? Go to USADogBehaviorcom and select the articles tab to view these free articles.

Scott Sheaffer, CBCC-KA, CDBC, CPDT-KA: 11:36

Okay, now on to rule 1. Fearful dogs prefer that people they are uncomfortable with just ignore them, and by ignore I'm talking about an quote-unquote animal, ignore. More on that in just a second. Just because your dog may have interacted, for example, with Uncle Jake dozens of times in the past doesn't necessarily mean that your dog is comfortable with Uncle Jake. See, people get in trouble with us all the time. They'll say, well, my dog should be okay with my brother. Well, your relationship with your brother is independent of the relationship your dog has with your brother. So you always have to take it from the perspective of the dog. It is up to your dog to determine who they are comfortable with.

Scott Sheaffer, CBCC-KA, CDBC, CPDT-KA: 12:28

And when we ask people to ignore our animals, our scared dog, especially when they come in the house, but even outside the house, we do that by not looking at them, by not touching them and not talking to them. Okay, those three things. We're gonna talk about a fourth one in just a second. By not looking at them, not touching them, not talking to them, you can continue to talk to the people in the room. In fact, that's that's good, because it tells a dog that everything is kind of normal. When adults walk into a room with a fearful dog and they suddenly stop talking, that's what we call a behavioral cue. It kind of makes the dog a little more nervous. So I wouldn't even encourage you to keep talking to the people, not to the dog, though.

Scott Sheaffer, CBCC-KA, CDBC, CPDT-KA: 13:13

And, by the way, when you're asking guests or strangers that you're running into out in public, you can't say things like please just ignore my dog, because ignore is too subjective of a term. I'd like you and would recommend that you specifically say something more like hey, I'm working on my dogs fear with people that he or she doesn't know. Can you help me out here Just while we're together? Can you not look, touch or talk to my dog while we are together today? And by not looking, touching or talking to dogs that are fearful of unfamiliar people, by asking the person not to do that, humans, as we have stated, look less scary to the dogs. That's Reducing their fear, thus reducing the need for Aggression. I want to put a note in here, by the way. That's Really critical and I see this all the time, and it's not the owner's fault, it's not the dog's fault.

Scott Sheaffer, CBCC-KA, CDBC, CPDT-KA: 14:09

If you have a dog that is really, really cute, that's just like a French Bulldog, it's just adorable and the whole world wants to come over and see your dog, pet your dog and hold your dog. Okay, this is a problem if you have one of these dogs that is fearful of humans, because that dog doesn't know why the person's approaching. So we have an extra problem in that your dog is a human magnet. You have what I call leash candy. Everybody wants to come and get some. Got to be extra careful. I have a dog like this. It's a big dog. I have a great, pure white great Pyrenees and I'm telling you he's a human magnet. Everybody wants to come over and be with his dog. Now His name is Luke. Good news. Luke is real bomb proof. We've really worked a lot on that. People can really do things around him that normally I would really be nervous, but he's really bomb proof. We've really worked with him on that because of his role in my business, but, man, if he wasn't good with people, that could be a real problem. So if you have one of these dogs, be extra cautious and be extra firm about this kind of stuff.

Scott Sheaffer, CBCC-KA, CDBC, CPDT-KA: 15:17

Just to remind you, dogs that are fearful of unfamiliar humans to them Simply do not want human attention from anyone, except for the limited number of people they are comfortable with. Let's talk about that, the limited number of people they are comfortable with. This may surprise you, because I've done a lot of research on this, both externally and from my own Thousands of clients that I've worked with, because I always asked this question. A hundred percent of the time, and this is Especially true with territorial aggression if you have one of these dogs, it's afraid of humans, whether it's expressed through aggression or avoidance. These dogs normally only have about three to five people in their lives they are truly comfortable with, and that includes the family members I'm telling you I've asked this question hundreds of times and it is almost universally three to five people. So the reason I'm telling you this is the number of people you're going to have to do this with. Hey, don't look, touch or talk to my dog. Thing is going to be most people, like 99.999% of people, so it's not just a few, it's a lot.

Scott Sheaffer, CBCC-KA, CDBC, CPDT-KA: 16:38

Have you noticed that this rule is really a human rule? It's for the people that interact with your dog, or a rule for you if you're interacting with a dog like this? It's not a rule for the dog, this is a human rule. And this is going to be true also for the next rule, number two. However, as a dog owner, it's your responsibility, if you have a human, aggressive dog, to enforce these rules with all strangers who come into contact with your dog, those people outside of the three to five that your dog is okay with. And remember, your dog makes the call as to who is a stranger, scary person and who isn't not. You All right, let's move on to the last rule, rule number two. And, as I said, this is also a rule for the humans around your dog, not your dog. And this is a little bit more simple. And the first one is simple too. These are both very simple. It's just getting constant commitment to doing it that will really help your dog out.

Scott Sheaffer, CBCC-KA, CDBC, CPDT-KA: 17:35

In addition to asking people around your dog not to look, touch or talk to your dog, you must also ask these people not to approach your dog. We want to let dogs that are fearful of unfamiliar humans create and maintain the distance they need to feel safe. This is called the threshold distance, and of course we talk about this a whole lot in other episodes. This also is very axiomatic to canine behavior. This means for these strangers not approaching your dog in any way, but letting them approach us when they are ready. Don't go to my dog, let my dog come to you. Now, one of the things we have to be super careful with here is when the dog starts to feel a little bit safer because you're not looking, touching, talking, or the stranger is not looking, touching, talking and not moving toward the dog. Letting the dog maintain that safe distance Over time and this could even be in 15 minutes the dog will start to inch a little bit closer.

Scott Sheaffer, CBCC-KA, CDBC, CPDT-KA: 18:42

Where we have problems is you've got to be careful about this. Is the visitor to your home or that stranger you meet on the street is going to say oh look, everything's great now? No, it's not, it's not okay. Do not let them lose these rules all of a sudden because of that? All that's happening is the dog is saying I'm feeling not as scared and I'm going to let my defenses down a little bit. If the person were to look, touch, talk and move toward the dog at this point, things are going to go backwards real quickly, maybe even see some aggression, because the reason the dog and this is important the reason the dog is moving toward this person a little bit is decreasing that distance a little bit is because there's a contract. The contract says hey, you're not looking, touching, talking to me, you don't look too scary, you're not moving toward me, I'm going to come towards you a little bit. But if you violate that contract with the dog or if the stranger violates that contract with the dog, then all bets are off and bad things could happen the most. Oh, this drives me nuts when I'm about ready to talk about.

Scott Sheaffer, CBCC-KA, CDBC, CPDT-KA: 19:47

The most egregious example of this that I see is the hand in the dog's face or the fist in the dog's face somewhere, and who knows when, somebody came up with this idea that you make a fist and stuff it in the dog's face. Okay, bad, bad, bad. That violates really probably the don't look rule because you're looking at the dog to do this, you're almost touching a dog, okay, and you're definitely violating the distance thing Just because it's not your body coming up to the dog's face doesn't mean that it's okay. Your hand, a fist, coming into the dog's face looks very scary. Do not do this and if you see someone doing it to your dog, make sure they don't. Couldn't be worse advice.

Scott Sheaffer, CBCC-KA, CDBC, CPDT-KA: 20:37

I have no idea where this came from, and if you want to really experience what I'm talking about, to really internalize this knowledge, have someone, take their. I want you to sit in a chair and have someone, even someone you know, make a fist and walk over to you and put it right a couple inches from your face, and I want you to see how that feels. Doesn't feel good and think about it. You know the person that's doing this. You know they're not gonna hurt you and you're much bigger, most likely, than your dog is. Don't do this, just have them stand there. Do not look, touch, talk, don't approach Hands by the side.

Scott Sheaffer, CBCC-KA, CDBC, CPDT-KA: 21:16

All right, let's wrap this up and come up with action items here. If your dog is showing any signs of human aggression or avoidance of unfamiliar people or strangers because they're fearful, then you are to instruct people that they are not to look, touch or talk to your dog for the entire time they are with them, not just initially, the entire time. And the question I get all the time is when can they start to touch, look and talk to my dog? And my answer is when the dog tells them that they can, when the dog becomes so comfortable with this person that that might be appropriate. And secondly, they are not to approach your dog, including the infamous extended fist to the dog's face thing we just talked about. And when you're talking to the people here's a little human relations thought here and when you're talking to people, just ask them politely, like the example I gave earlier, and I found that 99% of people are more than happy to comply with your request. It's, I guess it's all in the asking.

Scott Sheaffer, CBCC-KA, CDBC, CPDT-KA: 22:27

Before we close, I want to remind you that I also have some free and some premium dog behavior videos on my website. Just go to USADogBehaviorcom and select the videos tab to view them. Thanks for listening today. Now go start managing those humans properly when they are around your aggressive or avoidant dog. Thanks for tuning in today. If you enjoyed the episode, subscribe on your favorite podcast platform and leave a review if this information is helpful. I always appreciate your insights. So visit dogaggressionanswerscom if you'd like to leave me a message Before we wrap up. This podcast offers educational insights, but for serious dog aggression issues, always consult directly with a certified dog behavior consultant. See you next time and stay tuned.