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Paws & Claws

Jill Bowen has practiced veterinary medicine in England and Texas. She lives in Blacksburg now, and answers local pet owners' questions every week in The Roanoke Times and roanoke.com.

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Q Our family has two dogs, a middle-aged, sweet-tempered Labrador bitch and a young Lab mixed breed. This latter dog is becoming rather aggressive -- last week it attacked a neighbor's puppy. It also will go to bite me if I approach when it is being fed or try to take a toy away. I am now rather nervous and wonder what to do.

A Your dog is showing the typical behavior of territorial aggression. Territorial aggression occurs when people or dogs approach dogs on territory they consider their own. This territory may include not only the house and yard but also the car, neighboring streets and even the neighbors' yard.

This is the behavior of a dominant dog that thinks it is the alpha dog and that its job is to guard all these areas. Such dogs will try to intimidate strangers.

The self-assured dominant dog will settle down once it has been properly introduced to the stranger, person or dog. However, anxious or fearful dogs can never be trusted and can suddenly erupt into aggression with little warning. These dogs need to be properly restrained whenever they are out in public or whenever visitors come to the home.

Growling is an aggressive act, a threat and warning, which if unchecked will escalate and lead to nipping, biting or worse. Puppies typically begin to become serious in their aggressive behavior when they are about 6 to 8 months old. It is at this point that steps should be taken to curb this behavior because if it is ignored, it will steadily progress so that by the time the dog is about a year old it may have progressed to biting.

Ideally, an experienced dog trainer should be consulted at the first signs of aggression. Once the aggression has progressed to the biting stage it will need a lot of work by a professional trainer to retrain the dog. In order to avoid confusion in the dog's mind, the owner must also follow the instructions of the trainer because consistency is most important. Otherwise, the dog will behave perfectly for the trainer but revert to its previous behavior with the owner.

The dog must learn that the owner is the leader of the pack, to be obeyed. In some cases it is not possible to completely retrain the dog so it is safe around small children and other dogs.

Jill Bowen has practiced veterinary medicine in England and Texas and has taught at Texas A&M University. She lives with her veterinarian husband and two cats in Blacksburg. If you have a question, please write to her in care of The Roanoke Times, P.O. Box 540, Christiansburg, VA 24068, or send an e-mail to bowen508@verizon.net.