Did you know that a dog jumping up on people is a sign of dominant dog behavior?  Dominance issues are one of the more serious dog behavior problems.  If a dominant canine is causing headaches for you, you need to stop dog jumping now.

Dominant Dog Behavior

Canines are pack animals.  Each pack has a leader who asserts his dominance over the other individuals in the group.  The leader will often do this by “jumping up” on another pack member and putting one or both front paws on the other’s shoulders.  Are you seeing any similarities here with your pup’s behavior?

Watch how two canines greet each other.  Each will stand quietly and allow the other pup to sniff him.  They don’t jump all over each other when they first meet.  This kind of behavior is very ill-mannered in the canine world, because, as mentioned above, putting front paws on another individual is a way of asserting dominance.  

In the pack, a subordinate individual would NEVER jump on the pack leader.  The leader will not tolerate this behavior if he wants to remain the leader, so he corrects the subordinate pup immediately.  

If you allow your pet to jump up on you, and you don’t correct him right away, you’re confirming to him that he’s the alpha dog in your household.  This is a sure recipe for dog behavior problems.

Controlling A Dominant Dog

It’s important that you don’t allow your pet to jump up and get his front paws on you.  If he attempts to jump up on you, turn to the side and block him with your hip.  If he manages to get his paws on you, turn your back on him and make a point of ignoring him.  Once all four feet are on the ground, tell him to “sit” and then pet him.  

Never reward him with attention for jumping up on you.  If he ambushes you and gets those front paws on you, don’t yell “no” or back away or push him off with your hands.  He’s liable to think you’re playing with him, which will make him jump even more.

A dominant dog will often demand your attention.  You must be the one who decides when he gets attention.  Ignore him when he demands that you pet him.  If he’s very insistent or pushy, use a water pistol to squirt him in the face.  When he gets down, tell him to “sit” and then pet him.  Never give in to his demands.

Make him earn your attention.  Have him sit-stay before you pet him.  Your dog needs your love and attention, but you need to give it to him on your terms, not his.

More Dog Obedience Tips

Consistency is extremely important to stop dog jumping.  You won’t be able to end any dog behavior problem if someone in your household is encouraging it.  

Spend ten minutes a day training your pup.  You’ll be amazed at what a difference even a few minutes a day will make in his behavior.

Your goal now is to look for a good dog training course so you can learn to control dominant dog behavior.  Try to find one that offers a free consultation with an experienced dog trainer, so you can avoid accidentally reinforcing problem behaviors.  With love and attention, you can stop a dominant dog jumping up on people.

Dog food aggression is one of those dog behavior problems that is difficult for us humans to fully understand. It just doesn’t seem to make sense that your dog would consider you a threat to his/her food resource. I mean you gave him the food in the first place, and if you feed your dog’s the same kinds of foods that I do, it’s not all that appealing anyway!

But, what is your dog thinking?

If your dog glares at you, snarls, growls and positions himself between you and the food he is actually saying to you “this is mine, go away, find your own”. He is basically telling you that he considers himself as the leader or alpha dog in your household. Dog food aggression (sometimes called canine possession aggression) is a dominance issue, it is serious and needs to be addressed immediately, it won’t just go away.

We’ve all made the mistake of laughing and even encouraging our feisty little dogs when they first display the “cute” signs of dog food aggression. Don’t fall into this trap! Food or toy aggression in dogs should never be tolerated as you never know when it can escalate into something more dangerous for you or a family member.

Why Does Your Dog Display Dog Food Aggression?

Canine possession aggression can be triggered by any number of factors but in most cases it can be attributed to one of these common causes:

- Your dog is desperate for this food, in his mind he doesn’t know if or when he will get more food. Therefore he protects or guards his food, just like he would have done in a pack situation in the wild.

- Your dog may begin to see you as someone who is always taking good stuff away. He comes to view you more as a threat than a provider (you’ve got to turn this thinking around).

- Dog food aggression can be part of the general confusion regarding who the leader is in your owner - dog relationship. Often it is not an isolated incident, it’s something you need to rectify.

- It’s possible that your dog doesn’t even understand that his dog food aggression is unacceptable behavior. In such cases there is an obvious communication breakdown between human and dog.

General Rules For Correcting Food Aggression In Dogs

- If your dog is directing his aggression towards other dogs the best solution is to simply separate them at meal times. Feed them in different rooms or in their crates.

- Involve all of your family members in this dog food aggression training.

- Take control of feeding time. You control the time and place of dinner time - own the food!

- Make your dog earn any food. Just simple tasks like sit or a down stay is fine.

- Make it clear to your young puppies that it’s good to have people around when they are eating. If you do this from day one you will almost certainly prevent dog food aggression problems.

- If you encounter dog food aggression it is a good idea to feed your dog after you and your family eat. This again is a throwback to your dogs pack mentality where the alpha dog or leader of the pack (which is you) eats first - your dog will understand this technique.

- Don’t let your dog “win” the food through his growling, this would reward the very behavior you are trying to eradicate. Don’t bully or intimidate your dog though, it’s much better to make him actually like having you around at meal time (follow the tips below to achieve this).

- Never respond to canine possession aggression with aggression of your own. In essence what this does is to lock you and your dog into a battle of wills. Your dogs next move will most likely be to step up his level of aggression to counter your action.

Dog Food Aggression Training Techniques

Firstly, be careful. If you believe your dog poses any real physical threat to you or family members I’d advise getting professional help. Speak to a professional dog trainer or animal behaviorist.

Below is a list of training techniques which could help your dog overcome his dog food aggression. Remember all of these techniques are designed to work towards reconditioning your dog to enjoy having you around anytime. Mix it up, show your dog who is boss.

- Hand feed your dogs, even stick your hands into your dogs bowl while he is eating.

- Stroke and pet your dog while he is eating and at the same time talk to him in a calming tone. All you are doing at this point is showing your dog that it is a good thing for you to be around.

- Stand at a distance your dog is comfortable with, then gradually reduce this distance over time. You can flick a few treats in (or near) the bowl as you slowly reduce the distance.

- Put your dogs bowl down with nothing in it, your dog will look back at you as though you are crazy. He’ll then literally beg you to come over and fill his bowl.

- Feed your dog as normal but hold back a few pieces of his meal. When he is finished licking the bowl, he’ll look back up at you, then you can come over and give him the remaining food.

- Drop a few of your dogs very favorite treats into his bowl each time you walk past it. After a while of this your dog will welcome the sight of you approaching the bowl.

- When your dog is eating, call him over to you, when he gets to you reward him, make it worth his while then let him back to the food bowl.

- While you are preparing your dogs meal put him in a down-stay or sit position, only release him from your command once you have put his bowl down. By doing this you are controlling meal time and establishing (or re-establishing) your role as your dogs leader.

- Work with another family member on this technique. Put your dog in his collar and leash and have him sit with your helper while you prepare the food. When you are ready release your dog and allow him his food. Again you are controlling the situation.

- Try the “Trade Up Method”. What you do is take away the food or toy your dog is guarding, and replace it with something better. You can use an obedience command such as “give” or “leave it” to encourage your dog to release the precious resource he is guarding. You then take this resource (the food or toy) and give the trade up item to your dog. Once your dog has finished with the new item, you can then give back the resource you took away. This technique proves to your dog that he will receive something great for giving something up, it will recondition his thinking.

- Every time you are with your dog have him in a pinch or prong collar with a leash attached. Whenever he displays any signs of dog food aggression you immediately administer a correction to your dog by snapping on the leash. What this does to your dog is build a negative association to the act of his food guarding antics.

Good luck with your training efforts.

Does your little toy dog know who is in charge? Or do they think they are in charge? Some people are not bothered that their little toy dog seems to run the household and may mistakenly call this being “spoiled.” A better description would be lack of training or failure to set limits. The life of a little dog can become dangerous without some official “human” rules.

Dogs have excellent ability, senses and ways of communicating with us. They do need to learn the limits of living in our human society without allowing them to be “little people” who can just do as they please. Dogs are like children. They feel more secure and understand how they fit into the world around them when rules and limits are set for them.

Because small dogs are less dangerous and are capable of doing less harm, aggressiveness is often overlooked and uncorrected. People often put up with a small dog’s aggressiveness. However, all dogs are much more enjoyable when they are well mannered. A toy dog with good manners is an ideal companion. Teaching good manners to your small dog will allow him to be welcome everywhere he goes.

Obedience commands are the ideal way to teach small dog manners and prevent or correct problems. The first thing any dog or puppy should hear when he is headed for trouble is a stern “NO!” He must learn this word means to stop immediately whatever naughty thing he is doing. That “NO” should always gains his immediate attention. Remember to praise him when he does the right thing.

For a puppy to remain safe he needs to learn four or five commands. Teaching him the command “Wait” will keep him from jumping out in front of a car. Sit, Stay and Come are the other important commands to teach your toy puppy for his own safety. The commands of “Leave it” and “Out” are also important commands for the curious toy puppy. Begin training your toy puppy as soon as he has settled into his new home. Buy a good training book especially for the toy puppy and look for the gentle training methods. Even better is training classes with a professional trainer. Definitely learn whether or not the trainer has ever worked with toy breed dogs and puppies.

A toy puppy should also be taught to lie on his side at a very young age. This training is especially valuable for the toy breeds that have a lot of hair and will require regular brushing.

Even though your toy breed puppy is very small, and quite easily to pick up, and carry around, train him to wear a collar and leash as soon as possible.