Aggression and Biting
Dogs bite for a number of reasons - jealousy, fear, predation, lack of trust, hunger, over toys, domination, arrogance, brattishness, short fuse,
for example. Natural Dog Training identifies the root cause of the dog's aggression, and removes his very desire to bite - making him
completely trustworthy. A dog that obeys commands not to attack, cannot be trusted when the authority figure is absent, because commands do
not remove the urge to bite or attack. Every family needs to have access to information on how to own a dog that is trustworthy with their
family, guests and passers-by on the street - yet still protects them efficiently.
35 years of research that has been conducted within the dogs' own home environment has enabled Pam to establish just what triggers aggression -
and therefore how to defuse it successfully and permanently. Through achieving a deep understanding of what motivates a dog to bite,
Pam is able to show owners how to cure it in a stress free way that keeps the dog's trust - which treating symptoms alone, and trying to
impose our own logic onto the dog can never do.
Pam’s demo video, Before and After Speaking Dog Language, very clearly demonstrates this control that dog owners can achieve over aggressive
dogs through treating the actual cause of the problem. And you can learn these proven techniques through her book, booklets, home training kit,
or by calling her in.
Shifting our perspective, and using techniques that look at ourselves through the eyes of the dog, instead of vice versa, has successfully
cured aggression in killer Pit Bulls, as well as in ankle nippers - and all degrees of aggression in between.
Natural Dog Training has a proven solution. Pam’s house calls, Living with an Alien, her home training kit, booklet on curing behavior problems
all give you the answers.
New Research Findings, 2008:
Disproving the “Alpha Training” myth.
These extracts from scientific Conservation and Environmental journals are in direct dichotomy to the academic journals and conventional dog training that promote the winning of dog fights as a
criterion for "leadership". These studies have been conducted on packs of wild dogs where harmony exists because there are no famine conditions, and there is no human interference. Natural Dog Training achieves a very high success rate in curing aggression, when applying these natural principles.
1) Extract from: African Wildlife Foundation:
"Behavior
African wild dogs live in packs of six to 20. The aggression exhibited towards prey is completely nonexistent between members of the pack and there is little intimidation among the social hierarchy."
2) Extract from: "Social Behaviour. [Carnivora Species Information.]
"The reason wild dogs do not act aggressively to assert rank may be due to the fact that the entire social system is so cooperative-dependent that if one should be injured, the pack would be less effective in hunting for food. An African wild dog pack is dependent upon abundant food, and only one pair breeds, and those puppies are dependent on their parents for such a long period of time, that cooperation is a necessity. So, instead of an active hierarchy, they have a passive hierarchy, with cooperation being emphasized rather than dominance."
On the other hand, because dogs learn by example, long term studies in the homes of dogs that have been so-called “Alpha trained” by being dominated and made to submit reveal that dogs that these dogs in turn, dominate other dogs, visitors, children, etc.
Alpha training is therefore one of the main causes of aggression and dog fights in domestic dogs, and is easily reversed by following Nature's blueprint for harmony between members of a social unit.
Below is a copy of an article that Pam Whyte wrote for Men's Health:
Hound a bad dog
The basics
1. Animals are not all humane. Don’t imagine this dog is after you to play ball.
2. If you panic, you ignite his hunting instincts.
3. Dogs look for the weak spot. If you’re in distress, you’re food.
The details:
To make sure you don’t become doggie’s little bone, the best strategy is to climb a tree. Standing still and staring him down is not guaranteed to stifle his attack. If he is stronger than you, you’ll only incite him further. If he is attacking you, it means that he has honed into your weakness.
Mad-dog options: If you do what is natural you will get what is natural - a bite out of your butt cheek. Without flight, aggression or positive resistance, the instinct to attack is reduced. If you are cornered by a powerful dog and can’t get away, as a last resort, drop to your knees and curl into a ball with your hands laced over your head.
Adapted from Preventing and Curing Aggression in the Domestic Pet, by Pam Whyte.
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Nature is not like a human laboratory – it is not a hit and miss affair. Considering the fact that dogs are potential weapons, the current academic approach to dog handling which teaches theories in place of proven facts is costing innocent lives. Both humans as dogs, as many dogs that attack people (when the “weapon” goes off the wrong way) are then euthanased. You or your child could visit a house one day where the “Village Dog Theory” has been taken as fact, and because dogs learn by example – the dog’s “safety catch” will be off.
The only long term research that has been conducted into the Alpha, or Village dog theory is by independent researchers who work outside the mainstream dog system. Otherwise, no long term studies whatever at all have been conducted in order to verify these theories. The results are not what the dog owner or the academic would remotely anticipate or expect.
Scientific, empirical, independent results show conclusively that – because the dog’s instincts are designed to learn by example, alpha trained dogs all turn on those weaker than themselves – smaller pets, children, women, the elderly, etc. This is exactly what occurs in a pack of wild dogs in the wild, because only where there is an aggressive leader (or shortage of food) in the wild – does conflict occur within a pack of dogs. Otherwise, leadership is determined through strength of character, and power play. The African Wild Dog Foundation (which studies dogs objectively, i.e. it has no profit- or ego- driven agenda or vested interests in dog aggression) states:
“Wild dogs live in packs of six to 20. The aggression [that is] exhibited towards prey is completely nonexistent between members of the pack and there is little intimidation among the social hierarchy. (African Wild Life Foundation.)
So why use dysfunctional communities that are living under famine conditions, where conflict and dog fights are used as models - instead of functional packs where the dogs are not living under survival conditions, so trust, peace and harmony therefore exists between leaders (trusted captains) and their packs? Would Social Reform studies amongst humans use conditions amongst war torn countries in famine conditions as a model for civilization?! Or do they use communities where the crime rate is low, and the leader is loved and trusted to learn conflict resolution programs?
The insanity that prevails through imitating uncivilized “Village” dogs, instead of functional communities of wild dogs living in a balanced ecology, where there is a stable community to be caught up in the “bully cycle”, resulting in innocent people, especially children, and pets being increasingly attacked, mauled and killed.
The African Wild Life Foundation has solid, objective, scientific facts to offer – not theories that are lacking in long term research, with the objective being instant, ego-driven short term gratification of subduing a perceived enemy… and not long term consequences in the dog’s own home. Dogs that have been coerced into submission no longer trust humans; cowards become bullies; and they have just received an on hands lesson in abuse and aggression. Dogs do not follow the instruction of the leader (he is not an army general) – they follow the example of their leader (or the tyrant - as the case may be.)
1) a dog fight is not the way leadership is won;
2) a dog fight is not winning the World Cup - the score has not been permanently settled…
3) long term studies reveal how these submitting (cringing) dogs frequently retaliate at a later stage. The “submission” is only superficial. The body language of the submitting dog in no way reveals what he is actually feeling. (Anger. Submission is not a choice. A functional community cooperates with one another – it does not bully and cooerce.)
These are the long term research results that have come from studying pet dogs in their own homes from the time Alpha training first made it’s appearance in the 80’s. These studies have been conducted on dogs months, and even years after they have been Alpha trained. Rigged army and laboratory situations in no way reflect what actually takes place where dogs live and interact with their families in the long term.
Research that is conducted on wild dogs in their natural habitat brings no glory or profit to the environmentalist. Because they have no hidden agenda, they observe it without preconceived expectations and report it objectively, as it is. They do not copy the dogs – they observe them. They therefore do not use dog fights as an excuse to “legitimately” give expression to their own insecurities. The environmentalists point out that where dogs have trusted leaders, and they are not stressed – domination, submission and aggression do not take place between the members of a pack of dogs, baboons, chimpanzees, meercats… in a functional community. In the jungle - unity is strength, and in the wild - strength equals survival. Dogs cannot afford to have “inhouse” strife within a kill or be killed environment for which the domestic dog is equipped. They are built to survive, not to commit social suicide.
Now what about the ‘aggression [that is] exhibited towards prey” (extracted from the African Wild Dog Foundation quote?
Just as in Dingo’s, wolves, and wild dogs - under certain scientific conditions (such as hunger and the presence of hunting steroids in their blood stream and central nervous system) - vulnerable human beings can also perceived as prey by the domestic dog. And firstly because of the scientific inaccuracies reported above, as well as because of the fact that a dog’s predatory instincts do not reveal themselves within rigged military and laboratory conditions – the academics who promote Alpha (“Village dog”) training claim in their journals and text books that “Dog aggression is like diabetes: incurable”. And: “once a dog is “cured” [inverted coma’s ours] of aggression, he can never be trusted not to attack again. (In other words – he has only been cured in theory.) And: “Never leave a dog alone with a baby or a young child” – which is completely impractical and this way they “cover their backs” to conceal the fact that their theories are nothing more than that – hypotheses that have never ever actually been proven in real life situations. Or in any situation, for that matter.
Which explains why The Centre for Disease Control, Los Angeles Post; Time, Medical Journals and Veterinary Journals all state that we are experiencing a dog aggression epidemic. It is coming from our current mindset – the very dangerous and very widespread misperception that dogs are automatically bad and must therefore be forced into submission in order to make them obey. (As if obedience is a choice, and makes a dog or a person actually want to be good when no one is there to give the command or to threaten and intimidate!) This is the ego and profit driven dominate/submit theory which comes from copying Village dogs fighting over food, and following the example of a treacherous and tyrannical bully - and calling it leadership.
Leadership? I don’t think so. And nor do you.
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If you would like to know more about research that has been conducted into the conditions that prevail when predatory aggression (which accounts for 99% of all dog attacks on people by their own pets) occurs – I shall be happy to direct you to the Ethologist who has successfully cured aggression in breeds such as Rottweillers and Pit bulls through applying these natural principles.
An Institute for Animal Protection in the USA points out that at the identical time that the Village Dog Theory become widespread – dog aggression toward small pets, children, women and the elderly escalated among dogs that were previously totally reliable, and had never shown any signs of aggression before.
This subject has been very thoroughly researched by an Independent Ethologist, unconstrained by the restrictions of the academic system, in South Africa, and it has already saved the lives of many innocent people, as well as many pet dogs from the fate of euthanasia after an attack that could have been avoided – of only the correct scientific (as in nature, not in man made laboratories) were available to the dog owners. When personal baggage (such as the need to win, or gain academic recognition by being published through introducing new theories) does not influcent the results of objective scientific studies - it gives families the opportunity to imitate conditions in the wild where:
(The) aggression (exhibited towards prey) is completely nonexistent between members of the pack and there is little intimidation among the social hierarchy.
So how is leadership (as opposed to dictatorship or winning over a perceived enemy) established? Through fascinating, subtle, and very powerful ritualistic power play which Nature’s Formula for teaches with astounding results. Why? Because this is what isbuilt into the dog’s DNA, and therefore this is what makes sense to him, and what he relates to. Once families have seen the DVD’s and video clips – they gain true power over their dogs through applying tried, tested and proven facts.
NOT theories. Would you listen to a theory on where the break is in your car in order of prevent an accident – or would you rather be taught the actual facts? So why, when it comes to dogs, who have proven themselves over and over to be potential weapons (or they couldn’t protect us), are we so ready to be taken in by mere theories - instead of demanding hard, proven facts. Which are now available to us, and we can see working right in front of our eyes - because they are the laws of Nature that govern dog behavior – so the dog’s instinct can instantly relate to them.
That is how powerful the principles that govern behavior in the wild are, when compared with man’s “theories”, which are in fact one unproven theory after another… obedience training, motivational training, clicker training, alpha training, electric collars, water pistols, citronella oil, superficial behaviorism, bribing, guess work, gimmick, and more guesswork and more gimmicks…
When the Laws of the Jungle that govern survival, and therefore behavior have been around since the Stone Age. And therefore need no opinions, guess work, modifications, upgrading or new fashions. None of these alter the dog’s basic DNA which is what ultimately determines the way he perceives our actions, and indeed, the world around him. When these simple laws are understood and applied, they turn dogs into truly our best friends – not our opponents or enemies that must have war waged on them so that they cringe in fear of us. (Submit). Domination is abuse. No one likes to submit. No one trusts those they submit to. No one likes those they submit to. And research has shown how many of these dogs just bide their time… until the right moment of retaliation. This is very clearly demonstrated on unrehearsed, spontaneous video footage that reflects real life. Dogs are not technology that comes equipped with software or on and off switches that just need to be programmed into “submit, and therefore obey for evermore mode” – they are highly intelligent sentient beings – or why live with them. We may as well cuddle up with a computer or a laboratory rat. When our dog is in harmony with us - in other words, to quote the African Wild Dog Foundation: “…aggression ….is completely nonexistent between members of the pack and there is little intimidation among the social hierarchy”, then abuse and hostility (which is what dominating actually is) simply fall away, and even the youngest members of our family can handle large, boisterous dogs – as the video footage which correlates the behavior of the wild and domestic dogs demonstrates so profoundly.
If this sound too good to be true – remember, the truth is always simple. It is the human who complicates things.
Presenting communities that are in famine and at war as models for our own civilization, believe it or not – is exactly what is happening when we imitate dog fights, and call them “leadership”!. Which explains exactly why Los Angels Post, Time, etc. point out that we are experiencing a dog aggression epidemic…
