dog aggression?
#358359 - 04/04/2012 10:51 AM |
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Hi,
I have a 3yo female GSD. I got her almost a year ago from the humaine society. When I got her she was extremely dog aggressive - barking and lunging everytime she saw another dog on a walk. She's been doing a lot better now, but she still shows agitation when she sees another dog. What she's doing now is going into her "alert" position: ears forward, eyes wide, body tense, tail up, and sometimes wagging slowly back and forth. She's completely fixated on the other dog until we pass them. From what I understand, this body language is one of dominance/aggression towards the other dog. I guess my question is twofold: 1) Does this type of reaction towards another dog warrant a correction? and 2) What is the next step to getting her to non-reactivity when she sees another dog?
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Re: dog aggression?
[Re: Shannon Pedroni ]
#358363 - 04/04/2012 01:27 PM |
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Will she respond to commands while she is tensed up? Is she pulling on the leash or will she stay in a heal?
IMHO, I would suggest re-directing through obedience commands and a fun reward when the dog is focused on you and not the distraction. Mommy is way more fun than barking at another dog. Set your dog up for success by starting at a distance that the dog just begins to react, and not so close that it is in a full frenzy. As the dog gets less reactive, you can move closer. If a chance encounter comes up and the dog gets too spun up to relax with a calm sit command, just calmly turn around and walk away from the other dog until you get to a distance that she will respond to you and offer the desired response to your command, then treat and have a party.
Another way is to give an appropriately strong correction when she reacts in an aggressive way towards another dog. This correction needs to be strong enough to elicit an immediate change of behavior in the dog, but not strong enough to shut it down and make it fearful. Not an easy thing to do for an inexperienced handler, and not as much fun for your dog either. This is effective on dogs with a hard temperament that quickly bounce back from a correction. There is a great example of Ed performing this on the LB video "Dealing with Dominant and Aggressive Dogs."
What did you do to change the behavior before? You say she is getting better. Is is just through repeated exposure, or are you trying to curb the aggressive behavior in some way?
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Re: dog aggression?
[Re: David Winners ]
#358364 - 04/04/2012 02:14 PM |
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Will she respond to commands while she is tensed up? Is she pulling on the leash or will she stay in a heal?
IMHO, I would suggest re-directing through obedience commands and a fun reward when the dog is focused on you and not the distraction. Mommy is way more fun than barking at another dog. Set your dog up for success by starting at a distance that the dog just begins to react, and not so close that it is in a full frenzy. As the dog gets less reactive, you can move closer. If a chance encounter comes up and the dog gets too spun up to relax with a calm sit command, just calmly turn around and walk away from the other dog until you get to a distance that she will respond to you and offer the desired response to your command, then treat and have a party.
Another way is to give an appropriately strong correction when she reacts in an aggressive way towards another dog. This correction needs to be strong enough to elicit an immediate change of behavior in the dog, but not strong enough to shut it down and make it fearful. Not an easy thing to do for an inexperienced handler, and not as much fun for your dog either. This is effective on dogs with a hard temperament that quickly bounce back from a correction. There is a great example of Ed performing this on the LB video "Dealing with Dominant and Aggressive Dogs."
What did you do to change the behavior before? You say she is getting better. Is is just through repeated exposure, or are you trying to curb the aggressive behavior in some way?
Yep! What he said
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Re: dog aggression?
[Re: Shannon Pedroni ]
#358372 - 04/04/2012 03:21 PM |
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Re: dog aggression?
[Re: Shannon Pedroni ]
#358373 - 04/04/2012 03:22 PM |
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oops duplicate post...
What would also be helpful is a rundown of your training used to date
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Re: dog aggression?
[Re: Tanith Wheeler ]
#358380 - 04/04/2012 05:00 PM |
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"MHO, I would suggest re-directing through obedience commands and a fun reward when the dog is focused on you and not the distraction. Mommy is way more fun than barking at another dog. Set your dog up for success by starting at a distance that the dog just begins to react, and not so close that it is in a full frenzy. As the dog gets less reactive, you can move closer. If a chance encounter comes up and the dog gets too spun up to relax with a calm sit command, just calmly turn around and walk away from the other dog until you get to a distance that she will respond to you and offer the desired response to your command, then treat and have a party."
Third.
Also what you have done so far.
Also, we have many threads on the board about desensitizing work with dog-reactive dogs. Have you seen any?
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Re: dog aggression?
[Re: Shannon Pedroni ]
#358389 - 04/04/2012 08:53 PM |
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I'm just getting to know the BAT system, so I can not speak of it intelligently, but after reading for a couple of hours, and watching some videos, I believe it to be grounded in behavioral science, and proven over years of utilization. IMO, anyone dealing with a reactive dog, either aggressive or fearful, could benefit from understanding the principles of this training method, and implementing the unique rewards system and understanding of the dog's threshold for stimulation into the daily life of the dog. Just understanding how to recognize the corresponding changes in behavior to fear, or improper excitement, can lead you to effectively deescalating the moments when your dog is reaching her threshold before she reacts in an unwanted manner, thus curbing the need for corrections altogether.
I don't know if it is permitted to link to another training site, but I'm sure you can find it using the google machine.
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Re: dog aggression?
[Re: Shannon Pedroni ]
#358393 - 04/04/2012 10:00 PM |
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http://leerburg.com/webboard/thread.php?topic_id=31875&page=1#355569
has a discussion of BAT. There are others, too. (Use BAT for the search term.)
Also, using the search terms desensitize and desensitizing (two searches) using "advanced search" (upper right on your screen) and expanding the date range to three years or so is going to give you very detailed, very step-by-step directions for this protocol:
"MHO, I would suggest re-directing through obedience commands and a fun reward when the dog is focused on you and not the distraction. Mommy is way more fun than barking at another dog. Set your dog up for success by starting at a distance that the dog just begins to react, and not so close that it is in a full frenzy. As the dog gets less reactive, you can move closer. If a chance encounter comes up and the dog gets too spun up to relax with a calm sit command, just calmly turn around and walk away from the other dog until you get to a distance that she will respond to you and offer the desired response to your command, then treat and have a party."
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Re: dog aggression?
[Re: Shannon Pedroni ]
#358420 - 04/05/2012 02:19 PM |
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When I first got her a year ago, whenever I'd walk her and she saw another dog (or heard one behind a fence), she's start lunging, barking, etc. She received a hard correction for this. After a few months, the barking & lunging stopped, but she would continue to pull on the leash to get to the other dog. Again, she would get a hard correction for this. She rarely pulls on the leash now, but will go into her "alert" position that I mentioned previously. I've been working on desentization a little, but I'll step it up a bit. I've just started working with a friend who has a GSD once a week on desensitizing her and increasing her engagement.
But as far as her "LOOK, A DOG! Must. Stare. Down." reaction - does this warrant a correction or not?
And on another note: is it true that you shouldn't have 2 female dogs? Everyone seems to think that females will fight (or there is a greater chance of them fighting) than a male/female combination.
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Re: dog aggression?
[Re: Shannon Pedroni ]
#358421 - 04/05/2012 02:26 PM |
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oh, and just so you guys understand my dog a little better. She has one of the most "stubborn" personalities, for lack of a better word. And a VERY high pain tolerance.
Started working her on the e-collar a week ago. Bought the dogtra low-hi one cause I know how willful she is. Started testing what level to set it on like Ed shows how to do in his video - she won't respond to anything lower than a 65 (on a scale of 1 - 127). I have actually used the 127 on her (refused to listen to my "come" command when she was busy barking at another dog). Told her "NO!" then I nicked her at the 127 level before repeating the command. Had to do this a few times before she came to me (and was given lots of praise for finally listening to the command). When she finally came she had this "HELLO! Did you not SEE the other DOG? HE WAS RIGHT THERE" kinda attitude.
This dog is awesome. She cannot be broken.
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