Dog-to-Dog Aggression: Understanding and Fixing It

Chapter 1: Why Your Dog Acts This Way (And What It Really Means)

Let’s start with a moment of honesty. You’re reading this because something about walking your dog has become a source of dread. Maybe your heart rate spikes when you see another dog a block away. Maybe you’ve started crossing streets, changing your schedule, or driving to empty parking lots just to give your dog a chance to relieve himself without an incident. You love your dog. You wouldn’t be here if you didn’t. But there are days when you wonder if you’re doing something wrong, or if your dog is simply “broken.”

You are not doing something wrong. And your dog is not broken.

What you are dealing with is a very common, very understandable problem. Dog-to-dog aggression—the lunging, barking, snapping, and snarling that turns a simple walk into a battle—is rarely what it looks like from the outside. It looks like rage. It looks like your dog is “mean” or “dominant” or “trying to be the boss.” But that’s not what’s happening inside your dog’s head. What’s happening inside is much simpler, and much more human. Your dog is scared, or frustrated, or confused. And because he doesn’t have words, he uses the only language he has: his body, his voice, and his teeth.

In this chapter, we’re going to strip away the myths and get down to the real reasons your dog behaves this way. Not the folk explanations you’ve heard at the dog park,