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    ARE YOU BITING OFF MORE THAN YOU CAN CHEW?: ARE YOU REALLY READY TO WORK WITH AGGRESSION CASES?
    ARE YOU BITING OFF MORE THAN YOU CAN CHEW?: ARE YOU REALLY READY TO WORK WITH AGGRESSION CASES?
    ARE YOU BITING OFF MORE THAN YOU CAN CHEW?: ARE YOU REALLY READY TO WORK WITH AGGRESSION CASES?
    Ebook105 pages59 minutes

    ARE YOU BITING OFF MORE THAN YOU CAN CHEW?: ARE YOU REALLY READY TO WORK WITH AGGRESSION CASES?

    By Pamela Dennison

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    About this ebook

    Introduction from Pamela Dennison:

    I have to warn you. This is not a “touchy-feely, warm and fuzzy” book. Running safe and successful aggressive dog classes is hard. This book will ask you many questions about your own creativity, sensitivity and skills - as a trainer, a confidant, and a mind reader to both dog and human. I will be asking you to be honest about your limitations and your expertise.

    Just because you want to do something, doesn’t mean you can (or should). I always wanted to be a runway model, but at 5 feet tall and usually about 5-10 pounds overweight, it just wasn’t going to happen.

    My tone may seem a bit blunt or snippy, but it isn’t meant to be that way. However, it is meant to make you think, really think about all that’s involved in working with aggressive dogs, leading an aggressive dog class and help you decide if you should run such a class. This will require a great deal of thought, soul-searching and planning on your part.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherShadow Publishing
    Release dateJan 1, 2014
    ISBN9781617811647
    ARE YOU BITING OFF MORE THAN YOU CAN CHEW?: ARE YOU REALLY READY TO WORK WITH AGGRESSION CASES?
    Author

    Pamela Dennison

    Pam Dennison, CDBC, CWRI is a member of the DWAA (Dog Writers Association of America) and is a Certified Dog Behavior Consultant with the IAABC (International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants), member of The Pet Professional Guild, Truly Dog Friendly and former member of NADOI and Association of Professional Dog Trainers. Many of her books and articles have won and been nominated over the years for special awards by the DWAA.

    Read more from Pamela Dennison

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      Book preview

      ARE YOU BITING OFF MORE THAN YOU CAN CHEW? - Pamela Dennison

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      Lately trainers running aggressive dog classes seem to be on the rise. This is good and bad. Good because people who own aggressive dogs have more options for working with their dogs than ever before. Bad because it means that aggression in dogs is on the rise. Good because more people are preferring to work with their dogs, rather than opting to euthanize, and bad because so many trainers who run classes are not qualified to do so, and often end up making the dog worse.

      I have found that the best trainers of aggressive dogs own aggressive dogs. They’ve worked through the issues and can call their dogs recovering aggressive dogs. Recovering, because I don’t believe that any aggressive dog can be completely trusted, but enough, so that his or her life isn’t all that limited. For instance, as of December 24, 2012, when he passed away at the age of 13-1/2, Shadow, my human aggressive dog was rated in the Top 20 in APDT Rally for two years in a row and had many titles, in many different sports, which included his CGC, CD, TSW, ARCHEX, NA, NAJ, and TD. More importantly, the last few years of his life, he would meet new people and within seconds mug them for petting and within days, become someone’s new best friend. Did I need to manage him at times? Yes, but those times were few and far between. I always say that Shadow was 100% reliable in 99% of life’s situations. Pretty darn good for me.

      Trainers who don’t own aggressive dogs can lead an aggressive dog class, but living with an aggressive dog is the best teacher.

      These trainers experience up close and personal the fears, frustrations, the cost and time limitations, as well as the stigma that society places on owners of aggressive dogs. To maximize the training, it’s important to remember that there’s an owner attached to the top half of the leash and not just focus on the dog.

      For example; Nancy came to me to help her with her dog aggressive dog, Tyler. My first lesson is always without the dog. Within seconds, she was bawling her eyes out. She hated this dog, truly hated him with every ounce of her being. She had tried other trainers, using prong collars, choking, hanging, shock collars, and spent a great deal of time and money to no avail.

      We got through the first lesson and I gave her homework. I met with Nancy and Tyler the following week. Again, within seconds she was crying uncontrollably. I could feel the hate rolling off of her and saw (physically and felt the emotions) what it was doing to Tyler. So, we took a walk instead of working on my lesson plan. While Nancy cried most of the time, she was able to hear me on some level. I told her to pretend she liked Tyler. Act as if. Call him silly nicknames, smile even if it wasn’t real, and try to stop her bad thoughts about him. I truly believe that dogs can read our minds and our energy.

      At the next lesson I saw a completely changed human and canine and I was astounded. The connection between them was immediately apparent and this time Nancy cried with happiness. Tyler became her heart dog and went on to be quite successful in his rehabilitation.

      Knowledge of the process

      Ask yourself these questions:

      Are you familiar with the desensitization and counterconditioning process?

      Have you successfully worked though issues with one of your own dogs?

      Have you trained your own dog(s) to a high level of obedience?

      Are you familiar with the desensitization and counterconditioning process?

      When I ask this, I don’t mean a rudimentary knowledge, as a little bit of knowledge can be a dangerous thing. Trainers with only a little bit of knowledge will tell their clients to, feed the dog when it sees a trigger, or Begin with the dog in a sit or down stay and feed it when it sees a trigger, or for human aggressive dogs, Ask strangers to feed your dog, but often don’t followup with anything else. Very dangerous and very ineffective. If that’s all you think there is to the process, then perhaps you shouldn’t work with aggressive dogs right now.

      I mean an all-consuming mastery of the subject. I don’t care if you know all of the big words by heart, as long as you know what those terms mean and how to apply them. How to apply them are the operative words here. Knowing the theory is all well and good, but many trainers still don’t know what to do when faced with an aggressive dog.

      For example, what I call the DR’s. I love the DRs! DRI, DRH, DRL, DRA, DRO. I know how to use them, what situation calls for which one and how to explain them to my students. The DR’s are all about differentially reinforcing behavior under different conditions and for different reasons to yield a different behavior. DR procedures are often used without punishment procedures accompanying them. They allow us to be positive in reducing the presence of an inappropriate behavior.

      DRL: Differential Reinforcement of a Low Rate of Response. Let’s say you’re working with a dog that barks in the crate. You’d observe what length and intensity the dog is barking. Then you’d wait until the dog barks less and reinforce that behavior. You’d repeat the new level for a few reps and then raise your criteria and wait for an even lower rate of response and offer a reward. After a few sessions, you’d reinforce complete quiet. It must be done systematically though. You can’t go from quiet for three seconds with 10 minutes of barking in between, to raising your criteria to 10 minutes of quiet with three seconds of barking. There’s a fine line between going too slow and going too fast with DRL; it takes finesse to learn how to read each dog and each situation properly. Otherwise you may end up with a dog that barks for 10 minutes when your goal is to diminish it completely.

      DRH: Differential Reinforcement of a High Rate of Response. You’re working with a very low key, couch potato kind of dog, and you’re trying to build drive. You’d wait for the dog to show some enthusiasm during a time of day or a situation where he would normally be more active and those times and those actions are what you’d reinforce.

      At a recent R.E.W.A.R.D. Zone seminar, I worked with each type of the above dogs. We used DRL with a Border Collie. When she was calm and focused, with her tail lowered* and her breathing back to normal, - we reinforced her and were able to begin training her. We used DRH with a slow and insecure German Shepherd. When she exhibited even the slightest

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