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There are many types of aggression in dogs and in order to be able to deal with the behavioral issue you need to identify the cause of the aggression.

For example there are three main categories that the displays of agression can be classed into:

• Hunting instinct – all dogs have a natural instinct to hunt to provide themselves with food. It is a trait that was obviously very useful in the wild and was also used create hunting dogs as human companions so today this instinct is much more prevalent in some breeds of dogs than others.

• Defending themselves – dogs are naturally inclined to defend themselves against other creatures that they perceive as a threat.

• Defending their resources – they will defend their food, their territory and other pack/family members if they believe that there is danger or a threat to  that item or person.

Fig is a rescue dog that was a stray, he is also a cross breed of more than one type of terrier. The hunting instinct in him is very strong and it has been quite a challenge to get this undesirable behavior under control. Our dog training manual has been invaluable in helping us to resolve this issue (once we identified where the behavior was coming from) and I will talk about it further in future posts.