On-Leash Aggression: Power Brakes and Power Steering

September 21, 2010 By

“The better part of valor is discretion, in the which better part I have saved my life.” – Falstaff, in Henry the Fourth.

Last time I started to talk about various steps you can take to address on-leash aggression. A big of part of dealing with and eventually alleviating the problem is avoiding over-threshold outbursts in the first place. That’s where the quote above comes from.

First and foremost, put the phone in your pocket, leave the coffee home, and start paying attention to your surroundings! You need to be proactive not reactive.

Second, start practicing leash skills for both you and your dog.

If you are approaching potential trouble, and you know best what that is based on your dog, one option is to stop and then block your dog’s view.

This is simply practicing a fast pivot in front of your dog and then getting a sit.

You see me looking at Caffeine before the pivot both times: I am being over cautious about losing balance and stepping on my dog, my knee is still interfering with my balance. (I’ll be making a better version of this when I am walking better.)

After you make the emergency stop you can then decide what to do: “Body block” so your dog cannot see? Start walking in another direction, away from trouble?

Another option is a quick change in direction without stopping at all.

Note, as highlighted in the video, this is not turning and jerking the leash. Start out using a lure and teach your dog a cue that tells her to turn around. Practice this and make it a game!

These are two examples of simple exercises you can use to avoid on leash hazards. Are there any other exercises you have used to avoid trouble?

On-Leash Aggression: Don’t Watch That. Watch This!

August 26, 2010 By

Aggressive looking dog on leash

Wow.

Solutions for on-leash aggression are not 500, or even 1000 word blog posts.

I’m going to go over a few things you can do in a series of entries while also dipping, ever so slightly, into the theory behind them.

While working on this issue, keep safety at the very forefront of your mind. Also, avoid trouble spots and avoiding getting your dog into problems where you know she will lose control. Think of every incident as “practice” for the aggressive behavior. Also think of how unhappy and stressed she gets. Dogs don’t enjoy being aggressive. They are usually terrified.

Consider Getting Help

If you are having a very difficult time with this on-leash aggression, find a dog trainer. Any kind of aggression is serious stuff and some help and guidance from a professional can make a huge difference.

Don’t Watch That, Watch This!

If you’ve been reading my blog for any amount of time you should be able to guess what I am going to talk about first. Attention. Grab a piece of paper and write down all of the things that your dog cannot pay attention to on-leash when she is paying attention to you instead. Got it? That’s why this is important.

You’re going to have to work extra hard on this. Play the “name game” everywhere. Until you can get your dog’s attention outside, in the face of serious distractions, this strategy isn’t going to work. But when this does work, there is a lot more going on than just a useful tool to distract your dog.

Your dog has a conditioned emotional response. When she sees a dog her emotional state changes and she is responding by barking, growling, and/or lunging. If you can get her to redirect her attention to you when a dog first comes “in range,” you can slowly change her initial reaction and take the opportunity to start to change her opinion.

Before:
See/smell/hear dog -> become fearful/angry/frustrated -> bark/lunge/growl.

After:
See/smell/hear dog -> think of Mommy/Daddy -> look at Mommy/Daddy.

The timing is the tricky part here. You want to figure out when she first notices the other dog and get her attention before she reacts. Easier said than done, I know. You may need help, perhaps from a “spotter” that can focus on the environment for you so you can focus on your dog.

Hardware

If you have a big and powerful dog, or even a medium-sized and not-so-powerful dog, control on-leash may be an issue. Dogs are strong and can generate a lot of pulling force very quickly. Collars anchor the leash very close to where they can generate the greatest amount of force. Traditional harness actually do anchor it where they are the strongest. (Ask any dog sledder.)

A front clasp harness, like the Sense-ation or Sense-ible from Softouch Concepts, anchors the harness in front of the dog. This takes away most of her leverage and can prevent you from ending up face down on the pavement. They do this with simple leverage – it’s really hard to pull a leash forward when it is attached to your chest. Also, rather than hurting your dog or making her uncomfortable they actually eliminate the stress a collar can cause.

For tougher dogs, or situations where there is a greater mismatch between the strength of the dog and strength (or size) of the handler, a head halter may be necessary. The Snoot Loop has become my favorite of late. This can be uncomfortable for some dogs, but in cases where a lack of control can lead to a safety hazard, it may be necessary.

Next week: power steering and anti-lock brakes.

Video of the Week?

I think these videos are starting to become a tradition. What do you think?

I can’t say “Don’t Watch That, Watch This!” without taking you…One. Step. Beyooond!!

And now you know why, when I first saw that famous scene with Gerard Butler in “300,” I busted out laughing.

On-Leash Aggression: Where Does It Come From?

August 19, 2010 By

My dogs, apropos of nothing.On the comments for last week’s post about on-leash aggression and on-leash greetings, Melinda asked where on-leash aggression comes from. I promised a response here in the blog, since it’s not a short topic.

Before we can really discuss where on-leash aggression comes from, we need to understand what a Conditioned Emotional Response (CER) is. A CER is an emotional reaction that occurs as a result of a cue. This reaction is acquired, or learned, via past experience.

Most of us are familiar with Dr. Ivan Pavlov and his dogs. Here’s a more up-to-date example though.

Dwight is conditioned to expect an Altoid when he hears the Windows™ chord. Dwight’s reaction is not overly emotional, but the clip does illustrate a point: these conditioned responses can be powerful enough that they can cause a physical response.

On-leash aggression is frequently (if not always) a CER. Encountering another dog becomes a cue for an emotional reaction. The cue can be very specific — a particular size, color, shape of dog, a dog approaching, a dog receding, a dog barking, or very general — any dog, any time. For some dogs these leash isn’t even required for the response.

So the question is, what can cause these associations?

One obvious possibility is a bad experience. A fight (or even just a minor squabble) with another dog can do a great job of causing a bad association with encountering other dogs. This is one of the reasons that many professionals are wary of on-leash greetings. The relatively high risk of things going badly, combined with the leash, provide fertile ground for a bad association.

Another less obvious potential cause is frustration. As I mentioned in the post about on-leash greetings, dogs that expect to be able to interact with other dogs can become frustrated, and frustration can escalate to aggression. If encountering another dog while out for a walk leads to frustration enough times, a CER will result. Even if the frustration does not escalate, the struggling, lunging and barking can look a lot like aggression to other dogs anyway, risking a bad encounter.

Last on the list of top reasons for on-leash aggression is our good friend socialization, or lack thereof. A dog that is not sufficiently socialized with other dogs can react to seeing them with fear — which can lead to aggressive behavior — especially when they feel confined by a leash. After a few repetitions, a CER can be created.

One of the reasons that many trainers are skeptical of techniques that address on-leash aggression with physical corrections or other harsh punishments is that they may fail to address the underlying CER. Will a leash pop or stimulus from an electronic collar break the association, make it worse, or just create another unwanted CER?

I’ll look into solutions for on-leash aggression next.

On-Leash Aggression: No Greetings!

August 12, 2010 By

I have a rule at my classes: on-leash greetings between dogs are not allowed. I learned this rule at St. Hubert’s Dog Training School, and have found it to be pretty common among dog trainers. Owners, however, often find it surprising.

There are three big reasons why you shouldn’t let your dog greet other dogs on-leash:

 
  1. Leashes can lead to dysfunctional greetings.
  2. Dogs that are permitted to greet on-leash learn to expect it, and when they can’t greet they get frustrated.
  3. When your dog is on-leash, you want her focus to be on you.

Watch two dog-friendly dogs greet off-leash. Broadly speaking, they tend to sniff faces and fannies, while circling or at least approaching each other from oblique angles. The mutual sniffs are important: especially or the first time but often for subsequent meetings too. I think of good greetings are relaxed and circular.

Watch two dogs greet on-leash. It couldn’t look more different! The leashes make circling and sniffing difficult, if not impossible. Oftentimes the people involved keep the leashes tight, further restricting movement and leading to more straight-in approaches and raising the anxiety level. I think of on-leash greetings as tense and linear.

When dogs are allowed to greet others while on-leash, they learn to expect it. When they can’t, they tend to become frustrated. On-leash aggression is frustration. How many times have you heard (or thought) “He’s not aggressive! He just wants to say hi!”? To make matters worse, what starts out as a display of frustration is often misinterpreted by the other dog as an aggressive display, leading to a snowball effect. Avoid the greetings and avoid the association.

But the best reason to avoid on-leash greetings is you. Want your dog to walk nicely on leash? You want her attention. Want to avoid on-leash aggression? Get her attention. The fastest and most reliable way to accomplish this is to make being on-leash about you and not about other dogs.

If you want to give your dog an opportunity to socialize with other dogs, arrange off-leash playtime with trustworthy dogs (that have trustworthy owners). In the meantime, make on-leash time fun and bonding time between the two of you.

Photo Credit: Tobyotter

On-Leash Aggression: There’s Always a Warning

July 22, 2010 By

Earlier I wrote about being “over threshold” — an emotional state that is intense and overwhelming enough that learning is almost impossible. Dogs that display aggressive behavior on leash often enter this state, and a key part of modifying this behavior is not letting them get there. (Or at least not letting them get there too often.)

The key to systematic desensitization and counter-conditioning (CC&DS) is presenting the triggering stimulus (usually an approaching dog in this case) without letting things get out of hand. I usually tell clients to think of it as a sliding scale of one to ten: one is asleep, ten is biting something with intent to harm. When working CC&DS we want to be somewhere around the middle: the dog needs to be aware of the stimulus but not over threshold. (The threshold is not ten. Where it is, and where the right level to be working is, varies from dog to dog and situation to situation.)

A common complaint is that a dog goes over threshold so suddenly that it is impossible to predict. Their dog shows “random” or “sudden” aggression, and working CC&DS is not possible.

Aggressive behavior is rarely, if ever, random or spontaneous. In the case of on-leash aggression, we already know the trigger: other dogs encountered when on leash. The only real question is the specifics. On approach? On recede? From behind? Bigger dogs? Smaller dogs? White dogs? Black dogs? All dogs, all the time?

There is always a specific trigger or, more accurately, a specific set of triggers. There’s also always at least one visible sign before a dog “explodes” into an over threshold aggressive display.

Figuring out these signals requires a good working knowledge of canine body language. For example any of the following could be an indication that a dog is becoming anxious:

  • Ear carriage. Ears may go back against the head, or may start to orient forward.
  • Tail carriage. Between the legs? Up straight in the air?
  • Panting.
  • Lip licking.
  • Stiff body posture.
  • Piloerection. (Raised “hackles”)

The indication is there. A big part of the trainer’s role in helping someone deal with a fearful or aggressive dog is teaching her to read her dog and take control of a situation before things get out of hand.

Photo Credit: geyergus

On-Leash Aggression: What is Over Threshold?

June 16, 2010 By

This morning I was running late. It was one of those things that, if you show up late, you run a good chance of being told by a bureaucrat you’ll have to start over from scratch and wait another four months for chance to be on time.

I was stuck in traffic and not pleased. Why was the guy in front of me going so slow? Why was the guy behind me in such a hurry? Who programs these stupid traffic lights? Do they even pave these roads? Why does the Takeaway bother to book interviews if Hockenberry is never going to let them get a word in?

Of course, none of this made sense. None of the people or things I was raging at really deserved it. (Except maybe Hockenberry.) My anxiety and fear about being late had developed into an angry response. This was a pretty trivial situation. If I had been late it might have lead to a major inconvenience, but it was no life and death situation. However I somehow still ended up angry and not thinking clearly.

This happens to us humans a lot, we read and hear about (and probably witness) aggressive driving very often. Most often perpetrated by people that are not thinking clearly over pretty trivial things: late for work, late for an “important” appointment, late for a late movie.

And we’re supposed to be the smart species.

So picture what’s going on inside a dog that is responding aggressively to a situation on leash. Fearful and anxious feelings eventually becoming frustrated and angry feelings. A dog that, if one allows that dogs “think,” is not thinking clearly. We’ve learned a lot about the cognitive abilities of dogs the past few years, but introspection and self-awareness are not on the feature list yet. Why should we expect them to be able to deal with a situation that so many of us fail to handle?

We call this “over threshold.” An emotional state that is intense and overwhelming enough that learning just isn’t going to happen. When someone is stuck in traffic, angry and frustrated, a passenger explaining to them that it’s not worth getting so upset over probably doesn’t help. When a dog is in a full aggressive display during an on-leash encounter, a human offering food or delivering a reprimand doesn’t help either.

It’s probably possible to cause enough discomfort for both individuals that the aggressive display stops, and it may even be possible to cause enough discomfort that they will be afraid to enter that state in that situation again — but I am assuming that you don’t want to do that.

Last week I referred to the systematic counter-conditioning and desensitization process that is used to address leash aggression. When we gradually introduce other dogs at a distance, and then close that distance, we are making sure that the dog never reaches this over-threshold state. The goal, and it’s not always easy, is to find a level where the dog is aware of the other dog(s), but is still in an emotional state where learning can take place.

Happy motoring.

My Dog is Aggressive On Leash

June 8, 2010 By

Somewhere in the top ten reasons that people contact me for training help is on-leash aggression. Often when they do contact me people are bewildered — their otherwise friendly dog simply goes crazy when they encounter another dog while out on a walk!

This is a very common problem. Why does it happen?

  • Frustration – having a leash tied to his neck means your dog cannot move freely. When this means that he cannot check out a nearby dog, it leads to frustration. Repeat this a few hundred times and the frustration can become automatic.
  • Fear – a dog that is already nervous around other dogs can feel restrained or confined by a leash. Similar to the pattern with frustration, if this happens enough just seeing another dog on leash can cue the anxiety.
  • Bad experiences – a bad experience on-leash can cause a bad association to seeing dogs on leash.

These are all variations on a theme – being on-leash becomes associated with fear and frustration. So what can be done to avoid or alleviate this problem?

Well, if you are not already experiencing this problem here are a few key steps:

  1. Train your dog to walk nicely on leash. If your dog is well-behaved on leash he is probably paying attention to you and not other dogs. That’s more than half of the game right there.
  2. Avoid on-leash greetings. When dogs greet each other on leash, their movement is limited and misunderstandings can very easily happen. Moreover, if your dog expects to be able to greet other dogs on leash, you have already set him up for frustration!
  3. If you see trouble avoid it. Discretion is the better part of valor. It only takes one bad experience!

How can you alleviate it? Well, you may need to seek some help from a trainer. There is no quick fix for this issue. Implementing the list of preventative steps above will go a long way toward making on-leash aggression easier to deal with, but it will not go away by itself.

Like most behavior problems, systematic counter-conditioning and desensitization are going to be a part of the solution. Gradually introducing other dogs at a distance, and then closing the distance while giving your dog very high value rewards (often food), and practicing defensive on-leash techniques, changes your dog’s opinion reduces the fear and frustration.

Classes like St. Hubert’s Dog Training School’s Feisty Fido class are geared toward practicing these techniques. These classes are fantastic since your dog gets the attention required to keep things safe, while also providing you with access to other dogs for the training.

I’ll be revisiting this issue a few more times over the next few weeks. Are you experiencing this problem? What have you tried to address it? Have you had success? Let me know in the comments.