FOR A LIMITED TIME ONLY Watch Dunbar Academy’s brand new Canine-Dog Responsiveness webinar for FREEwhere Dr. Ian Dunbar explains common causes of reactions and how to address them with 10 easy and effective exercises.
Dog-Dog Aggression is really frustrating for dogs and their owners – both suffer from extreme stress but beyond that, stress and anxiety too often remains a chronic condition because most regimens treatment is too slow. Also, I think a lot of people are scared to try to resolve it quickly because of the label “aggressive”. However, upon careful analysis of the behavior, it appears that most dog-dog responses are fear-based (lots of jabs and squirts) and a significant proportion derived from extreme excitement. excitement and enthusiasm for wanting to play but don’t have the social intelligence or confidence to know how to do it appropriately. Hence the multitude of barks and growls. The response is not always aggressive; actually, most dog-dog responses are driven by excessive excitement or stress and anxiety by dogs AND their owners
Earlier today, I was looking for a Thursday Throwback photo to post on Instagram (my second post!!! Yay!) and found these two. These dogs are best friends: Claude (the big red dog), Dune an American Bulldog, and the little Frenchie Hugo. Here’s how they spend their time: sleeping when not playing. As they played, it seemed like they would kill each other. But when we shot and played back the footage without sound (so we couldn’t hear the constant barking, growls, and growls), more solicitation and play confirmation became apparent. All three dogs will exhibit about 30 friendly and pleasant behaviors per minute – mainly elbow flexion, weight shifting, and tongue protrusion. We call the metric per minute Trader friendly. When fighting dogs intend to deal damage, their Friendly Stat is NO.
The Friendly Stats is a great guide to explaining OTT (Over-The-Top) play styles to distinguish between heavy play and hostile/aggressive play. However, as always, Fight: Bite Ratio is the real deciding base for determining if a dog is actually dangerous to other dogs. The question is: How many fights require at least $250 worth of veterinary treatment? For more than 99% of dog species, Bite Rate: Any is a Number: NO, e.g. 3: 0, 8:0 or 19:0. Obviously, these dogs are NOT dangerous and so, because For the benefit of both the dog and the owner, a Quick Solution is needed and recommended.
For these dogs, Step Back, Let’s Sit-Watch habit with a Tug of war toys (as described and demonstrated in our latest Webinar on dog-dog reactions) quickly produces dramatic results – instant relaxation, instant withdrawal, lightning Sit and steady Stay with full focus on OWNER.
Undoubtedly, the best way to prevent unwanted harassment (or attack) by another dog, whether leash or off, is to instruct your dog to Sit or Down and Focus on you. This presents a much less challenging picture for the other dog – namely your dog’s backside (which often wiggles at the tug-of-war) and your dog’s focus on something important. much more than dissent, i.e. focus on YOU. Now, both the other dog and your dog feel less threatened, as one doesn’t keep an eye on the other and, as a result, it’s easier for you to deal with situations. And of course, all bystanders see that your dog is sitting obediently.
In addition to having a good time, the main purpose of playing Tug of War is to practice quickly calm down and build confidence in an OTT or nervous dog and get it to focus and interact with others. Friend.
But many people are unable to get their dog to sit and focus when it is excited or nervous, largely because they have neglected to remove the Feed and Food Rewards during training. Therefore, when agitated/stressed when meeting or harassed by another dog, they will blow the food (which has now become a bribe) and cannot be controlled by the owner.
And so go back and train again – but this time remove the lure food during the first session (no food on hand) and then gradually eliminate the need for food by asking No more no less, ie, see how much behavior your dog would be willing to offer in order to have the prospect of receiving a single food reward. To provide a point of reference here, the average Lab dog in the class will happily do 20 Puppy Pushes (40 behaviors) for a single treat.
Or, retrain with a Powered Drag Toy to become a powerful Secondary Enhancer. I like Tug of War as a training aid for dog-dog response because we don’t know how other dogs might react if you take food or a tennis ball. Your dog’s tug-of-war means nothing to other dogs but it will make world sense to your dog as an extra reinforcement.
For your dog’s peace of mind, absolute CONTROL is essential. The trusted Sit + Focus not only prevents a lot of harassment from other dogs, but it also helps your dog deal with its fears and anxieties. A lot of anxiety in stressful situations stems from not knowing HOW to act. For example, a lot of people (not me obviously) get extremely nervous at the prospect of having to speak in public and so we say to them, “Stand on two feet, hold the podium with both hands.” , take a deep breath and read the word out loud. -Print notes.” We don’t encourage them to move around, strain or exhale; just stand still and read the words. Similarly, with dogs, we need to. teach them HOW TO ACT when nervous and stressed or simply surround them with excitement; we want them to be quiet, calm and just focus on us. Control your dog’s excitement around squirrels, skateboards, and unexpected guests AND the entire training process keeps your nerves under control.
Try it out. The process works like a dream. Just 10 easy steps and you practice the first six without any other dogs around.
FOR A LIMITED TIME ONLY Watch Dunbar Academy’s brand new Canine-Dog Responsiveness webinar for FREEwhere Dr. Ian Dunbar explains common causes of reactions and how to address them with 10 easy and effective exercises.
