Dog aggression, throw the first punch.

There are only two reasons a dog becomes aggressive. They are play and fear.

Play aggression is the rarer form. It usually occurs when a young puppy is encouraged to play too rough with people. Because of a puppy’s instinct to please, the puppy begins to think that being rough pleases people.

This is desire to please by being rough is how police and military bite dogs are trained. The dog is taken out and sent after someone wearing either a bite sleeve or suit. When the dog bites and holds on it is praised. Then when it lets go it is rewarded with a toy (usually a Kong) to play with. The dog makes the association between the two. Knowing that the Kong is definitely a toy, the dog sees biting a human as part of the game. The difference between this and a pet dog is that these dogs have “off” switches.

Sometimes people accidently train a puppy to be aggressive by playing more roughly than they should. The dog grows up thinking that all humans want to be played with as roughly as possible. And often a dog that has been taught to play rough with humans also thinks it should play that way with dogs. These dogs do not have “off” switches. And playing rough with humans can also result in being fear aggressive with other dogs.

The most common form of aggression though is from fear. For whatever reason the dog has become deeply fearful. And when something or someone triggers that fear the dog has three choices, negotiation, fight or flight.

The first and best choice is negotiation. Dogs do negotiate, they do it through body language. When a properly adjusted dog is confronted by something that it is not sure is prey or predator, it uses body language to say “I don’t have to fight and I am not a threat to you.” Provided that the dog knows what to “say” and the object or being answers or ignores the dog, the dog will attempt to avoid confrontation. Many dogs that do not grow up in a pack, or who do not have any pack based training, may never learn to negotiate.

Flight should be the second choice. If there is no good reason to fight, and the dog has a way to move away from the danger, it should leave rather than fight. But if the dog cannot retreat, because it is backed up against an object or on a line, the only choice left is fight.

Some dogs chose to fight even when there is the choice of flight. This may be because they do not know they have an escape option because at some point they chose flight and it did not work.

Dogs also believe if you are going to get into a fight, you throw the first punch. This is why even a small dog will launch itself at a large opponent. A fear aggressive dog will always try to throw that first punch even if it does not need to.

Once a dog has become fear-aggressive it is going to take work, a lot of work, to undo this reaction. The dog does not see itself as being wrong, it truly believes it is fighting to save its own life. The dog’s judgement has become so warped, and its fear so deeply ingrained, that it sees no other option.

But it can be fixed.

First the owner must establish trust in the dog. Many dogs love you but they have not learned to trust you. Without the dog trusting your judgment, the dog will never have an “off” switch.

So any training to deal with aggression has to meet these conditions.

1. The dog must trust the owner so that when the owner sees the dog is fearful, and is about to go to aggression, the owner can tell the dog that it does not have to become aggressive.
And the dog must learn to do what the owner is telling it to do.

2. The owner has to know how to recognize the aggression before the fight starts.

3. The owner must have an “off” switch that works both before and after a fight starts.

4. The dog must have training in group situations where it is tempted to become aggressive but is never allowed to succeed.

5. The training must trigger the ability to negotiate before turning to fight or flight.

6. The dog must learn not to fight even when the other dog is challenging it.

7. You must have the ability to protect your dog if the other dog becomes aggressive even though your dog has done everything right.

8. You have to learn to avoid situations where your dog will be attacked.

What I cannot tell you is how long this will take. It depends on how long the dog has been aggressive, how deeply the fear has entrenched itself, and how much time you can devote to working on it. I have had many dogs respond within a few weeks of training but others have taken much longer.

Genetics can also play a part. In any litter one puppy will be the most confident and another is the most fearful. Plus as any good book will tell you all puppies go through a period where they have a lot of fear reactions. Most will go through this with little harm. But a very few will never gets past this stage without help from a good trainer.

I am currently working with the most fear aggressive dog I have ever seen. And I have been working with this dog for almost a year. This is a rare European breed, the only one I have worked with so far. It hasn't been easy but I never give up on a dog.

When we started the dog was afraid of everyone, dog or human, other than its owners. I believe it was born this way. In fact had the breeder been a good breeder they never would have placed the dog since I am sure this behavior was abundantly clear even when it was a puppy.

This dog did not come in until it was almost five. And unfortunately the only time the owner tried to deal with it they went to someone who used a shock collar. That just made things worse.

But with a lot of dedicated work from the owners we are getting there. The dog comes to pack almost every week. The only problem left is that the dog still has trouble with its body language. He body still says fight when she means play.

But where they could never have anyone in their house before the dog now lets other humans be around her. And she doesn’t challenge every dog she sees.

Finishing this dog is actually up to her new pack mate. A couple of weeks ago they added a puppy to their house. Like many dogs this once super fear aggressive dog learned to get along with puppies before she learned how to get along with adult dogs. And instinct has kicked in, all dogs take part in raising puppies in the pack.

The new dog will actually grow to be a much larger dog. They are best friends. This dog will become the dog she was meant to be.

A word of warning, by itself a puppy does not cure aggression in adult dogs. Had they brought the puppy in a year ago, this dog would have killed it. But through their hard work they now will have two great dogs.

If you are here to find a trainer, and you can’t come to me or Pat, then read the other blogs here on this site for selecting a dog trainer.

Consider the following things.
1 Can the trainer specifically tell you how the training will deal with aggression? A simple “I can fix this” is never enough.
2 Will the trainer let you see them work with aggressive dogs?
3 Take in the list above. If the trainer cannot tell you how they are going to do those things, don’t train with them.
4 What will the trainer do, and what will it cost, if the dog needs more training. Remember some trainers will actually encourage the aggression so you keep coming back until you run out of money.


Doug

A Boston Terrier's Tale, an update

The most popular article on this blog, judging by the number of views, is A Boston Terrier's Tale.

I just got this picture from Moose's owner. I'd like to share it and his e mail with you.


Doug,

I wanted to wish everyone at PPMIM a happy holiday season and give you an update on Moose. I would imagine a lot times in your business, you work with a dog and then owner and K-9 disappear and you never know the rest of the story. Moose as you remember was an adopted dog and a very troubled one due to 15 months of abuse. He had severe
fear aggression toward large dogs and men. I 'm happy to report, thanks to PPMIM, Moose continues to be a success story. He no longer has any fear aggression towards large dogs or strange males and hasn't for over a year. All the group therapy and continually practicing the principles learned has paid off with huge dividends. Moose continues to be an ambassador for the Boston Terrier breed. At the dog park he spends the entire time racing from dog to dog as if he is the official greeter. He really has turned into an amazing dog. Moose has demonstrated a passion for frisbee and runs side by side with his sister Lily(lab pit mix) like a veteran. In his down time his favorite thing to do is snuggle. I have attached several photos of Moose doing what dogs are supposed to do.. just enjoy life. Thanks again for providing a safe and controlled atmosphere which allowed Moose to shed his fears and become a normal, life loving companion.

David

I'd like to take a lot of credit for this, but it was a good owner, comminted to his dog, hard work on both their parts, and a solid system that made this happen. I just got to see the results.

Doug

Canine Rage Disorder

I’m not a veterinarian so I can’t make any judgments about medical causes of this condition, but I have seen one case of extreme Canine Rage Disorder. So this blog is about rage and a possible behavioral explanation for the rage.

I received a call well over a year ago. A vet referred an owner to me. The owner explained that he had a French bulldog that was extremely aggressive. The dog was fine with another dog in the home, his wife and he, but would suddenly attack any other dogs or humans.

I like to know generally what I am going to be asked to deal with before people come in for an evaluation. But usually I wait to get the details. And I deal with aggressive dogs all the time. But this owner was almost frantic. He said he was reluctant to even bring the dog in for fear it would attack me. I assured him that I was used to working with aggressive dogs. I told him that if the dog did attack it was an occupational hazard I have learned to live with.

I will not work with any dog without the dog and owner coming in for a free assessment before taking the dog. First I like to have an idea of what the dog is like. And it is very important that the owner understand the Manners in Minutes dog training system and be willing to do the work required for the training to succeed. If the training is to succeed the dog, the owner and I must be on the same page and be able to work together.

I always come out to see the dog as soon as you pull up. I am watching the dog as you bring it in. The dog tells me a lot about itself from the minute I first see it. By watching this I get a lot of information about what is going on with the dog.

Except for that evening every aggressive or dangerous dog has told me, via body language that I needed to watch out. This dog gave me nothing to alarm me. But I was on guard because of our phone conversation.

When a dog comes in I have you wait at the door. The dog is always on a line. I watch the dog and ask a couple of questions. But I am really looking at the dog’s behavior and judging its reaction to the center. If all goes well I have you drop the line to see what the dog does next.

I was a little more cautious than usual but again did not see anything. I deliberately stood away to the side at a distance. Then I told the owner to just let go of the line.

When I do this I am looking at three things, confidence, curiosity and caution. The dog has walked in and has already figured out by smell that there have been thousands of dogs in here. To a dog that is supposed to mean that the center is possible a den for a really large pack of dogs.

First I want to see if your dog confident enough to leave your side. A dog that has no confidence will just stand there with rear and front ends lowered. A dog with too much confidence will start peeing on everything in sight to “mark” territory.

A dog with normal curiosity will quickly begin to explore. And if the dog has the right amount of caution you will see it in their body language. When you go to some other pack’s den, you need to be prepared for confrontation.

This dog stood calmly for a moment. He took two steps. Then he turned suddenly and latched on to my shin.

It hurt. But I was a cop for 24 years. Police work is a contact sport and I have the scars, healed broken bones and surgical reports to prove it. It wasn’t very high on my list of pain situations. And I don’t panic easily.

Normally I would have just growled hard at the dog and walked my way up the line (reaching down would have guaranteed an attack at my face) until the line pulled the dog off my shin. But the owner was panicking and any movement on my part would have escalated the situation and made things worse.

I stood there taking the bite and calmly told the owner to slowly pick up the line and pull the dog off of me. Then I had to calm the owner who was reacting all out of proportion to the situation.

After I calmed the owner I had him attach the dog to a point so that the dog could not make another mistake and started to find out what had happened.

The owner told me he got the dog several years ago. The dog was normal and had no aggression. When the dog was two it disappeared from his backyard.

The dog was chipped so they checked regularly with the Humane Society to see if he showed up. After a year the figured the dog was never going to show up. They bought another dog. They did report the dog as stolen.

After the dog had been gone for two years they got a call from the Humane Society. The dog was at the shelter and had been identified via the chip. They went and got him. The Humane Society told them that the police had gone to a home of an older lady on a mental health check the welfare. Due to the lady’s behavior they had taken her in for an evaluation which turned into a mental health hold. As there was no one to take the dog the Humane Society had been called. When they checked for a microchip they found one and discovered the dog had been reported as stolen. As there is no legal right to stolen items in Colorado, the dog had to be returned to the owners regardless of how the other woman got the dog.

They took the dog home and he seemed to be fine until they took him for a walk in the neighborhood when he tried to go after every dog or person he saw. They thought time would cure him but he hadn’t gotten any better.

Then the owner told me that he suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder from his military service. With all kinds of alarm bells going off in the back of my head I asked some more questions and then did some behavior testing.

My greatest concern was whether or not the dog had lost the ability to trust. If he had, then the chances that training could undo the damage were minimal, at best. As a rule of thumb I will not work with a dog that has lost that ability to trust. But there were some signs that he still had the ability to trust.

I do not like people to sign up for training at the end of the assessment. I want you to be very sure before you start with me that this is what you want. And based on what I now had heard and seen I wanted to think about this dog before committing to training it.

I sent them home with a brochure and told them to think it over. I also wanted to thing about whether or not I was willing to work with this dog.

I mulled it over for a couple of days. I decided that the dog was worth the effort. And I believe that if they followed my instructions that we could fix the behavior. But I knew if it failed the dog would be too dangerous to ever have even the slightest chance of getting loose. I decided that I would impose some unusual conditions.

I decided that if the dog worked with me, and it did not work, then I would refund their fees but that they would have to agree to put the dog down. If this dog was so traumatized that training did not work, the dog's life was one of constant fear and that kind of dog was just too dangerous to everyone.

Then I thought about the owner. I figured his wife would keep that agreement but I wasn’t sure about the husband. I knew they loved the dog and they might be tempted to keep it even if the training wasn’t working. Sadly sometimes there is no choice but to put a dog down. But not everyone will make the best decision for the dog.

Luckily they never called back, so the decision was taken out of my hands. I never learned what happened to the dog.

Assuming that all the information they gave me was accurate, I believe that whatever happened the two years that dog was gone filled that dog with rage. And sadly I will never know more about what caused it and if it could be undone.

I haven’t seen anything even close to this since, but I know the next phone call for this condition will come sooner or later. I hope the outcome is better.

Doug

A Boston Terrier's Tale

In March I received a call from a man with two rescues. Both dogs had some behavioral problems that needed to be dealt with. But one of the dogs, a Boston terrier, was showing signs of severe aggression. The dog had just bitten two of his neighbor’s dogs, a boxer and a wire haired pointer, without provocation.

He had called Boston terrier rescue in a nearby state. The lady he talked to told him her rescue Boston had also been dog aggressive. She put the dog on doggy Prozac and suggested he do the same.

He did not want to medicate the problems, he wanted to fix them so he called me.

When we talked about the dogs there was a red flag on Moose, the Boston terrier. Moose was in his fifth home.

The more times a dog has been re-homed, the less chance there is of success. The reason is simple. A dog sees being moved not as a wonderful opportunity to start over, but as failure. The dog feels it has been kicked out of its pack. No matter how dysfunctional the pack is, it is the dog’s pack. When a dog goes from home to home without success, the dog can lose the ability to trust.

He came in with the dogs for an evaluation. Moose had a lot of aggression and was in really tough shape. But I saw two things that made me decide to work the dog. One there was just something about Moose that made me think he could come back. But more importantly I had an owner who did not want to give up on this dog and was going to apply the things I taught him.

Moose came in for his first private training session. It went well. He came back three weeks later for his second class. It was obvious that Dave had worked with him conscientiously and that Moose trusted Dave.

Then we moved him into my Neighborhood Pack sessions. This is where I can put your dog with other dogs and other people. I can find the triggers, show you how to recognize them, and give you the experience to deal with them.

At his first session Moose tried to start a fight with every other dog in the place. He was stopped before he got himself into trouble learning that Dave would not tolerate those behaviors and could now control him.

His second group Moose still wanted to go at with some of the dogs, but no longer had to challenge everyone. When his behavior was acceptable, Dave praised him. When it wasn’t Moose was corrected in a way he understood. Dave was becoming his pack leader, and you respect and obey the pack leader.

Each time Moose comes to group he improves.

There are still some hurdles for Moose to clear before we are done. He is fine with the neighboring boxer he bit, but the wire hair can trigger Moose by getting wound up. And due to being bullied by a Rottweiler when he was in another home he is still aggressive with Vino. But each time he comes in he is doing better.

Here is the e mail Dave sent me.

Doug,
Since you are a little better at analyzing dog posture, please take a look at the attached photo and tell me which dog is about to attack. To answer your question, yes the boxer is Angie and she has been bitten by Moose twice. One down and one to go. Buddy the Wired Hair Pointer, is next. If you remember one of our earlier conversations, the lady that runs (deleted) Boston Terrier Rescue suggested I put Moose on Prozac. I'm sending this picture to her. Titled I don't need no stinkin Prozac. Just a good trainer and owner that doesn't give up.

Thanks Pikes Peak Manners in Minutes you help save my life.

Moose.

PS dad helped me type this

The picture at the top was attached to the e mail.

Doug