It’s very important that you modify what you are doing based on what you see in the dog and read in their body language. That’s the entire reason we are studying dog language…so that you know how to best react to keep yourself and the dog safe. Most of these aggressive displays fall into either the yellow or red categories. This means that you’ll be slowing down or stopping your approach altogether when you see them.
Remember to use your proper greeting behaviors. This would be more with the yellow displays:
- Turn sideways
- Toss treats
- Avoid eye contact
These foundational steps will help diffuse that situation and prevent it from going into a red management state…with the objective ALWAYS being to get it back to the green management state.
You may need to remove the trigger or get assistance from a supervisor if you’re already seeing the displays are in a category that we would consider red. This is definitely not the time to show the dog who is boss. This actually can trigger more aggression from the dog and escalate the behavior…and we definitely don’t want to do that. For safety reasons you need to get help and not try to manage a red situation on your own.
Never, Never, Never…
Never enter an enclosure of a dog showing red aggressive displays. Even if the displays are yellow, slow down and take action to get them back to a green management state before entering the enclosure.
Recall in an earlier lesson when we talked about dogs having a need for space around them and that each dog will have their own personal space needs. When a dog is in an enclosure and confined, he has no flight options. Entering the enclosure alone when they’re showing aggressive displays increases the chance that you may get attacked.