In doing some research for my recent articles on aggression in dogs, I’ve found some other websites that are worth your attention.

1. The San Francisco SPCA (Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, a non-profit founded in 1868) has several useful pages. Start here: http://www.sfspca.org/behavior/aggression.shtml and there are also good pages on understanding dog aggression and curbing it at home.
2. Here’s a site that was created after the people suffered from sending their dog to a “board and train” facility that didn’t work out. They have created quite a comprehensive site, good for anyone with an aggressive dog, lots of good basic information as well as many scholarly footnotes that actually are linked to places the articles can be found. I used to be a librarian, and I was impressed with how this site was put together. It’s not easy to find all the pages, though, so keep looking around. They also run a support group on Yahoo groups. I tend to be a little leery of websites with K9 in their names, as often they have a different training philosophy than mine, but in my browsing around the site, I didn’t see anything I disagreed with. http://www.k9aggression.com
3. Wikipedia is a website that is an online encyclopedia that anyone can help edit. It has a basic article with more links to other sites: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog_aggression They use the term “dog aggression” to mean only between dogs, but here I use it in a more general sense, to include attacks or bites on people as well.
4. Stan Rawlinson is a British dog behaviorist and trainer who uses pain-free methods. His article, Interdog and Human Aggression, is at http://www.doglistener.co.uk/aggression/interdog.shtml The title made me wonder if the article would cover humans being aggressive against dogs, but it didn’t! Interestingly, he comments that the most aggressive dogs he has encountered have been Toy Poodles or other small breeds, because owners will tolerate behavior from tiny dogs that they would not accept from larger ones.
5. This last website is not actually about this topic per se, but I found it so pertinent that I am adding it here: http://www.clickersolutions.com/articles/2001/dominance.htm is an article that gives terrific background on how the “Wolves are Pack Animals — Dogs are Wolves — You Gotta be Alpha” school of thought (my description) came to be, and why it is not accurate. The article is titled The History and Misconceptions of Dominance Theory and it is by Melissa Alexander, author of the excellent clicker training book, Click for Joy! This is her website and is worth looking around.

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When I went to spell-check this article in the blog writing software I use, I accidentally hit a button I didn’t know about, which allows me to easily add links to books at Amazon. I’m sure I’ll be using it a lot. Here is Melissa Alexander’s book, admittedly not on the topic of dog aggression but it does follow from the last paragraph!

Click for Joy! Questions and Answers from Clicker Trainers and Their Dogs (Karen Pryor Clicker Books) by Melissa C. AlexanderRead more about this book…

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