Dogs are naturally aggressive creatures, who developed their instincts for aggression over eons from the need to hunt and protect themselves-just to survive. There are many types of dog aggression, bu when a dog is aggressive towards people, that is the type of aggression most urgently needing our attention to correct.. Any time a dog begins to act out aggressively to humans, it is a warning that your dog may actually be willing to bite someone, perhaps a family member or a guest to your house.

You will need to correct your dogs behavior if you see it displaying aggression towards people. Usually a dog will have a reason that has resulted in his becoming aggressive. Often the reason for aggression towards people is that the dog has been previously abused by a former master or someone else.

If you know what to look for, the signs of aggression towards people are easy to spot. Growling and snarling are obvious signs that a dog is feeling agitated and aggressive. Often a dog feeling aggressive will be barking, snapping his teeth, and have all the hair on its back raised up. At this stage of aggression there is a possibility that the dog will soon bite, unless the situation is defused.

For a dog to become this aggressive towards people, it has usually arrived at the its level of aggression because of some type of negative conditioning. Therefore, by using positive conditioning, you can gradually correct your dog's aggressive nature-repeating a steady training method of positive reinforcement to restore your dog's trust and confidence in people, and thus finally remove his aggression towards people.

Do not let your aggressive dog run loose until you have retrained him not to be aggressive towards people. Be sure to keep your aggressive dog inside an enclosed yard, or if you have no fence, be sure to keep him on a lead so he cannot get loose and possibly attack any passersby.

Use this following training advice to correct your dog's aggression. To get started, bring your dog with you on a visit to a friend of yours-someone who maybe your dog already knows may work best. By meeting away from your dog's own territory, you are decreasing some of his aggressive tendencies. Before you start the training, put  your dog on his leash. By controlling your dog via his leash, you can prevent any lunges by your dog. If your dog tries to get at your friend, put him straight back into his sit position with a correction and a firm "no". However, do not yell at your dog or punish him for this aggression. If you yell at your dog or hit him, he will not be able to relax, and you will be hurting your own efforts to calm down his aggression.

Make sure your dog has remained in a relaxed sit position before giving him any praise or rewards. After he has become calm and deserve his rewards you can do praise him and give him a treat. By only praising and rewarding the behaviors you want, you are using positive reinforcement to get the responses form your dog that you want to see. When your dog shows any aggression at all, you must repeat this step to get it to eventually sink in. The positive conditioning works because you are gradually desensitizing your dog's fear of people and his response of aggression towards them.

You will have to give your dog repeated training sessions for this training to work. Once your dog is relaxed around your friend, you can try the training with different people, until he can meet a new person without getting aggressive.

In the early days of his training just have him meet 1 new person at a time. This is due to the fact that a larger crowd of people could easily be overwhelming for the dog, and make it impossible for him to relax. Once your dog has shown he can remain calm when meeting a variety of new people one on one, you may increase the amount of people around during the training. Your eventual goal is to stop your dog's aggression towards people in any social situation.

These simple steps should help you correct your dog's aggression towards people, and teach him that he can relax around your friends and family. If you have successfully corrected his aggression problems towards people, you will finally have a dog that is safe and fun for your family and friends to be around.  Now a walk with your dog in public will be fun instead of a challenge.

Please click here to read my full review of the best on-line dog training program.