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.
I think this frustration issue is an important one. We really need to teach our dogs to better handle frustration or to have constructive ways to “be patient.”
You know I’m no fan of corrections in these situations because for me … I don’t believe you can change the behavior until you change how the dog feels.
Yes, frustration tolerance is an important issue!
Great series! The book Control Unleashed has been a great resource for me on teaching my dog to be calm on the leash. While it’s agility-centric, it has lots of great lessons for non-agility dogs,too. I’m looking forward to your next post on solutions to on-leash aggression!
Control Unleashed has some great info it. I plan on reviewing it at some point. Thanks!
Great post. Absolutely loved the video clip. What a great demonstration of CER in humans and how it creates a physical response.
I love the video from The Office–absolutely hilarious! I just wish I could remember what I did to trigger and encourage my dog’s emotional response. I don’t believe that a leash pop or electric shock collar are best for this problem because of the frustration factor. I actually think that might have been a reinforcer of the behavior. I totally agree with Roxanne’s comment about needing to know how the dog is feeling in order to change the behavior. I have had a trainer tell me that it doesn’t matter WHY a dog is doing something, just that the behavior needs to be corrected. But I feel that knowing the WHY is important for determining the best method for working on the behavior problem. What do you think?
I am also wondering if it is better to socialize with “stranger” dogs when the dog is a puppy? I guess I figured that growing up with my two other adult dogs was enough.
Thanks for your great posts!
Melinda
It is absolutely better to expose a puppy to a variety of different puppies. In a safe, happy and fun manner of course – that is really the most important reason to get to a puppy kindergarten. Being familiar with one or two dogs isn’t enough.
I am in total agreement with you. My dog gets reactive when on the leash and before I had a handle on the psychology of it all, walks became very stressful for me. They still are actually, as it is impossible to avoid dogs other leashed dogs when living in a city, but certainly banning leash greets has done a lot to help. It can be awkward at times and I feel rude, but the mental and physical safety of my dog is more important than avoiding embarrassment on my part.
I don’t want to have, or seem to have, an anti-social dog, but at the same time, I don’t want to have a walk deteriorate into a situation where I’m apologizing for my dog’s reaction to another dog. I see her moments of reactivity as my fault for allowing her to engage in a situation I knew would cause her stress. As dog owners, we have to look out for our dog’s well-being and if this means not participating in a common form of dog interaction, then so be it. Unfortunately for me, our dog-owning culture praises leash greets. But I usually say, “sorry, she’s in training and can’t say hi” or “she get’s very frustrated on the leash so I think we’ll keep going, but have a great day”.
As far as the actual execution of all this goes, we’re getting there. Believe me, I know it’s easier to talk about than to actually accomplish all the time. I take treats with me on walks and praise and feed often. When dogs or families walk by I have her sit and look at me. Usually, the sit is punctuated by many losses of focus, but hopefully those breaks will slowly disappear. My thought is that if I treat while distractions are passing she will eventually learn to associate the distractions with calm behavior that gets a treat and not with frustration.
I do wonder if I’ll be able to get to a point where I can tie her up outside the market while I run in for a gallon of milk. In the past she’s been hit or miss with other passing dogs.
So hang in there, Melinda. Leash walks are work, not play. Denying leash greets is not cruel. It’s a smart, consistant way to reinforce that when your dog is on a leash, you, and nothing else, should be the object of his/her attention. Dog parks, day care, friends’ yards are the place for play and social interaction, where, by the way, my dog does great.
Thank you so much for this series. It has been more helpful than anything else I have found, even from local trainers.
My last comment was meant for the leash greeting post, obviously. Sorry for the confusion.
I’m glad you have a handle on things, and that you found this useful. More are coming.