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(yourself). It's important to remember that rescue dogs show aggression usually as a response to perceived threat, and that as long as you provide plenty of reassurance you can reduce its perception of threat substantially. Unless you are completely confident that the animal has a good rapport with other members of your family, leaving it unsupervized with them is a risk; and by the same token any stranger who visits your home will be considered a threat (in fact, since dogs are territorial animals, if you've done a good job of introducing your aggressive dog to your 'pack' it may even be more inclined to aggressive displays against these outsiders). The safest and easiest way to deal with this situation is to give your dog his own space, maybe in the yard behind your house, where he can feel comfortable and not be directly threatened by newcomers. It is important to strike a balance though: since aggression is also a dominance behavior in dogs, you don't want to encourage a situation where your animal feels like his territory is off-limits to you. Plan to spend a lot of time around your new dog at first; this not only establishes for him that he is in your territory, not you in his, it also helps with the reinforcement of his training. Be sure that you can make this commitment at least to begin with: taking an aggressive rescue dog home and just leaving it to its own devices is a recipe for disaster.

With the right support, training, reinforcement, and sensitivity, even the most aggressive rescue dog can become a faithful and rewarding companion. It will require commitment from you; it will require respect, both for the dog's needs and its capabilities; and it will require, at least to begin with, an adjustment in your daily life to accomodate the new arrival. But if you can give your dog these things, and if you make sure you yourself get the right support and training to deal effectively with your dog, you will not only have a valuable and faithful new friend, but the satisfaction that you've given help to an animal that really needed it.

Learn more about this author, Richard A. Hall.
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