Triggering

Negative associations from the past or unfamiliar stimuli can be triggers that generalise from one specific trigger, to wider and wider categories of events. Some fears can produce a state of hyper-arousal and chronic stress in your dog.

~ T R I G G E R R E A C T I O N S ~ 

The biggest contributor to fear aggression is a lack of proper socialisation and training. The most important time window for socialising a puppy is from the age of 3 weeks to 16 weeks old. Puppies at this age experience very little fear, so the more they’re exposed to, the less they’ll be afraid of as they get older. This includes new dogs, new people, new objects, new sounds, etc. The more your puppy can see, hear, and do, the less likely they are to develop fears as they get older.

Children can be a big trigger for fear aggression, because they haven’t learned how to approach dogs, and small children don’t quite have full control of their limbs yet, posing an intimidating figure to a dog. Having been hurt by a child, even unintentionally, can have lasting consequences for your dog. 

Our nurse, Isabella has a Border Collie who for the first year and a half of her life was terrified of children. This is due to her never having a good experience from birth, through the critical learning period until positive situations along with positive reinforcement and training, situations came into play. Then the good experiences began happening and Fly gained trust of children and is now a qualified therapy dog who just adores them!

When you have identified the trigger, put your dog in the position where she does not have to experience the trigger. Less repetition of aggressive behavior means there is more of a chance the behavior begins to decline.