Your dog is aggressive toward dogs or people

Dog aggression

Aggression is drive pointed at a perceived threat. There are fourteen types of it, and each one has its own motive and its own fix.

Maybe it started with a growl you explained away. Then hackles at the window, then a lunge at the end of the leash that nearly took you off your feet. Maybe there's already been a bite, or something close enough to it that you haven't stopped thinking about it.

Now you walk at odd hours, cross the street when you see anyone coming, and put your dog away when family visits. You love your dog, and you're scared of what could happen if you get it wrong. Is this you?

Why is your dog aggressive?

Your dog's aggression comes out of three things: genetic disposition and drives, the way they were socialized and raised, and what behaviors have been conditioned.

Every dog is wired for fight or flight. Handling either builds the confidence to stand down, or it feeds the reaction.

Here's what most owners never get told. Aggression is not one thing. Fear, possession, territory, rank, protection, prey, redirection, pain, conflict with the handler — those are different problems that all look the same from across the street. Two dogs can growl at the identical moment for opposite reasons, and the work that helps one of them makes the other worse. Breed characteristics and genetic makeup, along with environmental reinforcement, can raise or lower what your dog came loaded with.

And aggression is learned fast, because it works. The growl made the other dog back off. The lunge made the stranger walk away. Your dog got paid, and dogs generalize a paying behavior quickly — especially in defensive drive.

That's why naming the type matters more than anything else you do. Get the type wrong and you can spend a year making the problem worse.

How we work an aggressive dog

We name what type of aggression you're dealing with, then we build the control that lets you interrupt it before it fires.

First your dog's temperament is evaluated — drives, disposition, engagement, and the type or types of aggression in front of us. This is the part that can't be done over the phone or off a video. Garrett reads your dog live, and that read decides everything after it.

Then your dog gets a map. With aggression we don't start with commands. We start with trust and relationship building, then the reward mark, engagement, and leash yielding — because a dog that won't engage with you has no reason to listen to you when it matters. The control commands come next, then chapter 39 itself, matched to the type your dog actually has.

Every dog is evaluated first, and dogs with a bite history are welcome here with accurate disclosure.

Now the part you deserve straight: aggression and reactivity must be managed, controlled, and new positive behavior conditioned over time. Your dog's drives are genetic, and they're staying. The finished picture is a dog you can read early, interrupt and redirect reliably, and live with safely — and a handler who knows what they're looking at to be successful.

20+ years · author of Building A Solid Canine · every dog is evaluated first

Two ways to start.

Bring your dog to a Saturday.

Garrett reads your dog live at the Saturday workshop in Placerville, CA — that's a Working Evaluation, $200. You get the full day, the printed workbook and the full book, and your dog's written route through it. Every dog is evaluated first. Bite histories welcome with honest disclosure.

Or we come to you.

An In-Home Session at your house, up to two hours, with the same workbook, book, and written route.