The importance of self control
While straight out aggression by dogs certainly happens, the greatest cause of dog reactivity is fear based.
One of the most effective ways to prevent your puppy from growing into a fear based reactive dogs is to build his confidence.
Exposing your puppy to different people, different smells, different sounds, anything potentially scary is so important. Then he's used to these things and they become part of his life and are not threatening.
Another way to build confidence - which seems counter intuitive to many people - is by teaching your puppy self control. Yes, being able to control yourself builds confidence. It also reinforces your role as the leader of the household. Many dogs have fear based aggression because they feel forced to take the role of "alpha" in the household which they don't want and can't manage.
None of us - grown adults, kids, and dogs - particularly like having to exercise self control when we really want something. But it is good for us and when we look back we are often proud that we were able to control ourselves.
Booker hasn't been thrilled to not grab the treat out of my hand, but he is doing great on choosing to control himself, but this training is not only improving our trust and bond, but it will be important for all sorts of things in the future.
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