Perhaps one of the biggest challenges that any dog owner can face when rearing dogs is dog aggression. Although this may seem so challenging, it can actually be easily dealt with as long as an owner understands dog growth periods and the factors that may influence the development of a dog’s aggressive behaviour. Having the knowledge on the early growth periods of dogs can help an owner to understand the cause of aggression. It is important to note that puppies have a critical need for socialization from three weeks of age until 14 weeks of age. But the best time to purchase puppies should be between seven and eight weeks of age because this is the time that puppies can be trained for proper socialisation in the new home. Consequently, eight to ten weeks is a crucial period because it is at this time where a puppy must not be harshly disciplined but rather must be handled gently by adults and children.

The 14th week starts the juvenile period that ends when the puppy achieves sexual maturity, usually at about 14 to 15 months of age. If a puppy has not been socialised by the time he is 14 weeks old, he may never be trustworthy around people or other dogs, resulting to a manifesting aggression towards people or other dogs as well.

Dog aggression may also be influenced by heredity. Protective breeds such as Dobermans, Akitas, and Rottweilers are expected to be more aggressive than Golden Retrievers and Labrador Retrievers. The environment also plays a major role in influencing aggression on dogs. The living conditions, lack of socialisation, excessive punishment, being attacked or frightened by an aggressive dog, being spoiled or given too much unwarranted praise by owners, being isolated from human contact or being exposed to frequent teasing by children are just some examples of environmental factors that can cause aggression.

On a clear note, dogs are not humans. They have a pack order that determines their social rank and is established and maintained through body language. When dogs live with people, they look at humans as members of the pack and try to establish their place in the social order by challenging the more submissive family members, particularly the children. If dogs display a dominant gesture such as growling while guarding the food dish, and they are not corrected for this behavior immediately, they will establish a bit of dominance to build on with any or all family members. If these dominant gestures remain uncorrected, the dog will surely gain dominant status over one or all family members which on worst cases will never be corrected no matter how hard you try. So the best way to avoid aggression is to start when he is still a puppy so you will not have to worry about it as soon as he gets older.