Aggressive dogs are a nuisance to their owners and can even pose a threat to other people. Vizsla puppy has strong hunting instincts, but they don’t have any way to satisfy those urges most of the time. Instead, it leads Vizsla puppy to be aggressive to get what it wants or needs- which is usually food!
Some of the reasons why vizsla puppy is aggressive are breeding environment, health issues, inherited traits, lack of food, improper training, and boredom. Along with this, environmental change, higher energy levels, hunting ability, and lack of stimulation may also make your puppy aggressive.
In this article, we will cover all these issues. And also how you might be able to help your dog behave less aggressively.
Why Is My Vizsla Puppy So Aggressive?
Usually, Vizals are famous for their loving and laid-back demeanor. But sometimes, your puppy might show aggressive behavior. Why?
However, to settle your queries, here are some reasons why your Vizsla puppy might be aggressive.
Unhealthy Breeding Environment
If you bring a puppy from a breeder, it may not be very nice because of the environment you raised it in. Breeders usually breed puppies for profit and not to produce happy dogs with healthy temperaments. As a result, the puppies end up living in their filth. In addition, puppies become aggressive when you leave them in an unfamiliar environment for a more extended period.
Inherited Traits
Puppies born from aggressive parents are more likely to be aggressive themselves. As with humans, inheriting specific attributes from a parent can lead to behavioral tendencies in offspring like aggression.
Therefore, if both the parents are destructive, the behavior of their puppies doesn’t fluctuate from them.
Vizsla Puppy Might Be Aggressive Due To Lack of Socialization
Puppies need socialization at a young age. In lack of proper introduction in new situations or people, they may become fearful and aggressive when meeting strangers as an adult. Thus, this can lead them to become overly protective of their family and territorial (i.e., aggression when they see another dog).
Due To Lack of Exercise
Puppies who do not receive enough physical activity can suffer from pent-up energy, which could lead to them becoming aggressive with other dogs or people in the environment. They may also chew on things more often than they should and display destructive tendencies.
Vizsla Puppy Might Be Aggressive Due To Inadequate Training
Puppies without adequate training will likely revert to natural behaviors that they might have learned from their parents or siblings, like aggression and territoriality over items in the environment. They become aggressive when you leave them due to work commitments (i.e., attack when they’re lonely) for too long.
Instinctive Behavior
People used to breed Vizslas for centuries as hunting dogs with good prey drive, which means they can catch any animal, including coyotes, foxes, deer, and other large animals.
And this means that Vizsla puppies, as well as adults, are likely to have a “predator instinct,” which makes them chase, catch, kill, or sometimes tear apart any small animal they see in the house, such as cats or rabbits.
Vizsla Puppy Might Be Aggressive Due To Lack of Boundaries
Since you restrict puppies from doing what they want, it might offend them. Thus, they try to show their dominance through aggression. These puppies may be difficult to manage because their owners have not set clear boundaries, leading them to take over the home (i.e., attack when their owner tells them to stop jumping on the furniture).
Lack of Stimulation
Puppies need an outlet for their energy. They might become aggressive or destructive if there is not enough stimulation in the environment. Thus, this leads to boredom, and you can manage this by giving them treats and toys.
Vizsla Puppy Might Be Aggressive Due To Nutritional Deficiency
There are many causes for aggressive behavior in Vizsla puppies, but a nutritional deficiency is one possibility. Why? Because malnutrition can be the underlying cause of all sorts of destructive behaviors, including aggression and anxiety.
Usually, the puppies become anxious due to hunger, and this can lead to aggression. The anxiety results from the puppy not having enough food in its stomach and feeling stressed because it doesn’t know when or where its next meal will be coming from, so it might start biting at humans.
Lack Of Attention
One of the most common reasons for the aggressiveness of Vizsla is because they are not getting enough attention. It could be from their owner or even other people in their environment. With a lack of proper love and care, puppies can grow up to have a lot of anger inside them, leading to aggressive behaviors like aggression.
Vizsla Puppy Might Be Aggressive Due To Diseases
Vizslas are prone to some health issues like allergies, hip dysplasia, and cataracts.
- Allergies: Vizslas are prone to allergies that cause them to itch uncontrollably. And this can lead to other problems such as skin infections from scratching themselves raw or hair loss due to constant licking at the itchy spots.
- Hip Dysplasia: Hip Dysplasia is a genetic condition that affects the hip joints. It can lead to arthritis, severe pain, and lameness in one or both rear legs.
- Cataracts: Cataracts are an age-related eye disorder that causes vision problems such as blurred/cloudy vision, poor night vision, and diminished color perception.
As all these diseases make your Vizsla puppy irritable, they induce aggressive behavior.
History Of Accidents And Abuse
Vizslas that have experienced accidents, mistreat, and abuse in the past are more likely to be aggressive. Due to the previous frightening incidents, they will lose faith in humans and act out more aggressively.
Thus, Vizsla needs time to adjust back into the society they had before, or it may continue being aggressive for an extended period. However, this type of aggression is difficult to control. Still, if you focus a little, you will be able to manage it.
What Causes Aggressive Behavior In Vizsla Puppy?
Aggressive behavior in Vizslas may be due to several factors and can be due to genetic predisposition or bad experiences, which we have discussed above. But more often, the types of aggression interlink with the causes of aggressive behavior:
Dominance Aggression
Dominance aggression can be in the form of a dog growling over its food bowl or fighting for dominance when on walks. It also includes dogs that guard their toys and owners against intruders. Dogs with this type of aggression are territorial by nature, but it is essential to understand that not all Vizslas suffer from this type of aggression.
Predatory Aggression
Predatory aggression is when your dog starts barking and becomes agitated when you are cooking a meal in the kitchen or if they hear strange sounds outside at night. Dogs with this form of aggression take joy in chasing prey to attack it, but most Vizslas will never show signs of predatory aggression.
Fear Aggression
Fear aggression is where your Vizsla becomes aggressive when it sometimes startles them. Such as approaching strangers. Your pal can show this by growling and barking in unfamiliar places like the vet’s office. In addition, dogs may show aggression due to fear, or when it sees its owner hurting.
Protectiveness Aggression
Protectiveness is where your Vizsla may become aggressive if they see someone attacking you that isn’t a stranger to them or when a strange dog approaches their territory. Dogs with this form of aggression are very protective and can sometimes confuse someone attacking an owner versus playing rough. Vizsla may also become aggressive someone approaches them that looks similar to the person shooting their owner.
Territorial Aggression
Usually, territorial aggression is where your Vizsla will growl and bark at strangers or strange dogs in its territory. Still, it can quickly change into other types of charge when an intruder doesn’t leave. Dogs with territorial aggression will only be aggressive to people or dogs in their territory, not just anyone walking past them.
Pain Aggression
Pain is when your Vizsla becomes aggressive because a person or animal might have recently hurt them. They may also become more protective of themselves. It is because approaching others for a more extended period makes them anxious and uncomfortable.
Learned Aggression
Usually, this aggression arises when your Vizsla has learned to become aggressive from watching other dogs or animals in the home. However, they may also know this behavior outside of the house. Dogs with this type of aggression are more likely to act aggressively if another dog initiates an attack first and will defend themselves or their territory.
Do Vizsla Dogs Grow Out Of Aggression?
Vizsla Dogs grow out of aggression as they mature into adulthood, but during puppyhood. You have to take your dog’s age and breed temperament into account when looking for the cause of aggressive behavior. Hormonal changes may be causing this behavior in your Vizsla. Some of the most likely reasons for aggressive behavior are:
- An unspayed female dog that is experiencing hormonal changes
- Husbandry issues such as scolding, isolation, or poor living conditions
- The presence of other animals and people around during a stressful event
- Possible genetic or medical health issues
How To Calm Down Your Vizsla?
The aggression of Vizsla can be destructive and even life-threatening sometimes. Thus, it would help if you calm your dog down immediately.
Moreover, some ways you can adapt to calm down your Viszla are as follows.
Give Your Vizsla A Safe Place
You can give your dog a safe place where it feels comfortable. There are many ways to create such an environment, but the most effective is giving them their bed in a quiet and dark room with no other animals around.
Play With Your Dog
When you play with your Vizsla, you are increasing your level of dopamine and serotonin. Thus, your dog will be more relaxed and calm. Additionally, playing fetch with them is pretty popular as it tires out the dog’s mind while also building a solid relationship between Vizsla and the owner.
Give Your Vizsla A Treat
If your dog likes treat, you can give them one as a reward when they behave well. Besides this, giving your Vizsla’s favorite food as a treat can distract them from the troublesome situation.
Teach Them How To Perform Tricks
If your Vizsla knows how to perform tricks, they can be more confident, which will help them behave better. Thus, it would help if you taught them as soon as possible what are some of their favorite things like “sit” or “rollover.”
Take Away Items That Excite Your Dog
To avoid provoking aggressive responses, you should take away any items that excite your pet and decrease their emotional states, such as toys or other animals in the house.
Hire A Professional
If your Vizsla is aggressive to the point that any of these methods cannot control it, you should hire a professional trainer to help with this behavior problem.
Can Vizsla Harm Someone?
A Vizsla can bite someone with their razor-sharp teeth. Thus, biting from their sharp teeth will be fatal and life-threatening.
Although this is not normal behavior for a dog, it sometimes happens. Significantly, Vizsla is under stress or has become too protective of the family that feeds them and takes care of them.
Further, as these dog breeds were hunting dogs, they have the instinct to bite things. So it makes them prone to biting someone while the family is out on walks or with friends and can even happen when the dog has never seen that person before.
How To Stop Vizsla From Biting Someone?
When you have a Vizsla pup who’s not only been biting people but also other pets, it can be challenging to know how to stop your dog from biting. However, there are a few steps that you can consider to help resolve the aggression in puppies with ease.
First Step
Try and identify the cause of your dog’s aggression. It may be either some trigger factors or something more severe like mistreatment and abuse in the past. If you assume that your puppy survived an accident in the past before they came into your home. Then you can use the following step to solve this issue:
Second Step
After you have identified a trigger for your Vizsla’s aggressive behavior, it will be an essential point to address to improve the aggression levels and stop them from biting anyone or anything again. It could be something as simple as playing with children too roughly, which is often the cause of many dog bites and more hurtful things such as fear.
Third Step
If your Vizsla pup bites the leash, people, or other animals for no reason, it could be due to a lack of attention and exercise they are receiving within their new home. To stop this aggressive behavior in Vizslas, you will need to apply these two points by giving them more attention and exercise while also addressing the reason for their aggression.
Last Step
Even if you have addressed your Vizsla pup’s aggressive behavior in all ways, You should ensure that they don’t harm the people through reckless biting. It will only cause the problem to worsen, and it could label them as dangerous dogs.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I recommend you take some time to train your pups. Also, teach them the difference between a gentle ear scratch and an aggressive paw. It’s also essential for owners not to reward such behavior by giving pets treats, praising them, or petting them during moments when they are aggressive with other animals.
Further, a Vizsla owner dealing with aggression problems should always be cautious and mindful of their dog’s behavior. If they notice any warning signs, such as snapping or growling, when the animal sees another pet, person, or object, it would be best to prevent them from interacting with these things at all costs.
If your Vizsla is aggressive and you are looking for a way to stop this behavior, consult your veterinarian or animal behavioral specialist.
