Free Tips for Managing Boxer Dog Aggressive Behavior

For this Omaha in-home dog training session, we got to work with a pair of lovable Boxer pups. We shared tips to boost 4-year-old Nari’s confidence while petting her and addressed concerns about potential Boxer dog aggressive behavior. We also gave her strategies to stop reacting to other dogs. This will help her avoid showing aggression towards her roommate, 4-year-old Herbie.

While discussing Nari’s reactions to other dogs, I saw that she lowered her head whenever someone tried to pet her. The body mechanic of a confident dog is a noise parallel to the ground or higher. Sometimes lowering the nose can be a dog’s cut off signal, but it can also mean the dog has lower self esteem or is intimidated by the person.

In this case I thought it was a result of lower self esteem so I used this as an opportunity to show the guardians how to pet in a way that boosts a dog’s confidence.

When you have a dog that acts submissive and nervous with humans, they often channel their emotions in other ways. This was the case in Nara’s household. When a person would try to pet her, she’d lower her head, almost to indicate she didn’t think she was worthy. But Nari would also act out when she was on a leash or towards her doggy roommate Herbie. This seems like conflicting behavior, but its important to remember they happened separeately. Both emotional states can exist in the same dog, just at different times.

As you saw in the video, above it’s important to work with a nervous dog at their pace. When Nari ducked her head in response to a hand coming towards her, you should never continue towards a furry friend. Take their cue and try a different approach; be more passive and wait for them to come to you.

By building up Nari’s confidence with humans, it should help fix her aggressive dog behavior and reactive behavior towards other dogs. This is one of the first stpes you need to take to stop dog aggression.

What Causes Boxer Dog Aggressive Behavior?

A good dog behavior expert will tell you that many dogs act in a way people perceive as aggressive toward other dogs because of stress. This stress is often made worse by feelings of insecurity. That’s one of the reasons you need to stay posiitve when dealing with a Boxer dog aggressive behavior

Boosting a dog’s confidence is an important part of rehabilitating a dog with aggressive behaviors. I shared several tips to boost Nara’s confidence during this in home dog training session. These include Celebrating desired behaviors, enforcing rules consistently, and teaching them new tricks and cues.

Since dogs learn in part through association, creating a positive experience can help stop dog aggression. I took out a clicker and showed the guardians how to train Nara to stop her reactive behavior towards other dogs.

With enough practice, this will help condition her to look away from other dogs instead of staring at them. The great thing about this trick to stop aggressive dog behavior is anyone can do it, even if they aren’t a professional Boxer dog trainer.

As you can see in the above video, stopping a dog from reacting is the first step in stopping aggressive dog behavior.

Tips to Stop Reactive Behavior Towards Other Dogs

Once a dog is reacting (barking, lunging, etc), you aren’t going to be able to reach or help them until they stop their emotional outburst. We often call this “above threshold.” And just like humans who are having an emotional outburst (spider drops on your arm, etc), dogs cant stop the outburst. When they happen, dont try to talk to or work with your dog, just move away.

Finding a distance your dog is comfortable with is the most important factor for this secret to stop dog aggression.  You want to be close enough to get the dog’s attention, but far enough away so it does not react.

If the guardians reward Nari for ignoring other dogs, they can help her stay calm around them. Once they achieve this step, they will be able to start practicing at a closer distance. It takes time and patience as you should only move forward in small steps.  This way the progressive practice helps Nara practice not reacting and being calm and comfortable. Do this at the proper distance often enough and many dogs stop reacting all together.

I’m hopeful that Nari’s aggressive dog behavior will diminish and eventually stop altogether. If the dog is still acting aggressive in a month, we may need to schedule a follow-up session. This will help us build on the progress and introduce other techniques to reduce aggressive behavior.

We created a video to help the guardians remember the positive dog training tips from this in home omaha dog training session. You can check out the roadmap to success summaery video below.