Coalition for Contemporary Canine T - Recently Updated Pages

He Just Attacked Out of Nowhere

SmartDogs — Sat, 31 May 2008 17:51:25 CDT

http://smartdogs.wordpress.com/2008/01/28/he-just-attacked-out-of-nowhere/

As a dog trainer I’m frequently called on to help people deal with aggressive dogs. It is some of the most difficult, rewarding and sometimes heartbreaking, work I do. Dogs evolved to be our companions in life – but they can also be very dangerous.

If you have an aggressive dog in your home, do not try to fix the problem yourself. Dogs can be very dangerous, even small dogs. Earlier this month a 6-month old child in Lexington, Kentucky was killed by a Jack Russell Terrier.

Don’t risk your life, or worse yet, a child’s life, by ignoring aggressive behavior or trying to trying to fix it on your own. And don’t make the dog someone else’s problem by dumping it with a rescue group without telling them the real reason you are getting rid of him.

To fix a problem like this you need to hire a dog trainer who has experience working with aggression. We suggest you look for one who is a member of the International Association of Canine Professionals or the National Association of Dog Obedience Instructors.

Aggression is part of animal life and although there are many ways that animals express aggression, some features are common to most aggressive actions. One of these is escalation. Aggressive encounters usually start with a low risk, low intensity exchange of aggressive displays. If these initial displays don’t end the encounter, increasingly intense – and progressively more dangerous - patterns of behavior follow. If neither animal backs off, the encounter will eventually end with the most potentially damaging behaviors the animals are capable of. This progressive increase in the intensity of aggressive behavior is called escalation.

Emotional aggression arises from impulsive actions and is therefore less affected by weighing risk against reward than resource-based aggression is. Because of this, emotional aggression tends to escalate far more quickly. A dog that is reacting out of fear, frustration or other emotional triggers will typically escalate more quickly than one who is calmly defending his territory.

Dogs are masters at emitting and reading subtle contextual cues; most people are not. The first signals a dog emits when he is aroused are usually very subtle and can therefore be missed by an inexperienced or inattentive person (or dog). When those initial, subtle signals are not acknowledged, the dog’s actions will escalate, especially if he is emotionally aroused.

I believe that this is why many people describe aggressive encounters with dogs as occurring without warning. The warning was there, but it was so subtle that the person missed it.

Escalation is a vital factor in canine aggression. The first step to curing problem aggression is being able to recognize key signals the dog exhibits early in the process. If we interrupt the dog at an early stage in arousal, it is usually easy to redirect him to more appropriate behavior. But if the dog has escalated to an overt threat stage by the time we try to intervene, we are far less likely to be successful – and far more likely to be bitten.

Another key factor to keep in mind when you are faced with an aggressive dog is changes in rates of behavior. When most people observe an aggressive dog, they look for specific reactions and postures (growling, bared teeth, stiff movement, etc.). These changes of the dog’s outward state are important, but we should also look for signs of increasing arousal such as changes in rates of behaviors. Escalation to the next level of aggression is often indicated by changes in rate of behaviors like pacing, panting, blinking, wagging, or other repetitive actions. For example, you may see a dog start to pace more quickly right before he moves into the next, more intense stage of aggression. When you observe the acceleration in the rate of an action like pacing in an already aroused dog, make a mental note of the postures, expressions and movements the dog displayed right before the change occurred. Some of these are likely subtle signals of aggression that you’ve missed in the past. If the dog is still in an early stage in the process, it may be possible to divert his attention and redirect his behavior to another outlet. If he is strongly aroused, there is more warning to avoid additional conflict or injury.

It is also important to realize that arousal happens quickly and calming down takes time. Aggressive reactions are physiological, not just psychological, reactions. Changes like increased respiration, heart rate, elevated adrenaline levels and other factors take more time to abate than they do to arise. To prevent an aroused dog from re-escalating, you should take him away from the source of his arousal and give him a chance to calm down.

And remember – UNLESS YOU ARE AN EXPERIENCED, PROFESSIONAL DOG TRAINER – do NOT try to work with an aggressive dog yourself. This article is purely informative. It is not intended as a guide to working with aggressive dogs.

Trained dog

Lionheartk9 — Sat, 31 May 2008 11:17:13 CDT

WHAT IS A TRAINED DOG?

What is a trained dog? What qualities define this creature? I hope that by enumerating these qualities we can come closer to formulating the "curriculum", as it were, that results in a Trained Dog™.

So, what does a trained dog do?

1. A trained dog comes when called.
2. A trained dog moves consciously with relation to his person - not chasing, not lunging, not pulling her down the street.
3. A trained dog can be "parked" for short periods, staying out of the way quietly and without protest.
4. A trained dog understands that it is his responsibility to reserve attention for his person at all times.
5. A trained dog demonstrates willingness to obey commands he disagrees with ("Come away from that disgusting smelly thing now!") or doesn't like ("Give me that bone back").
6. A trained dog cooperates willingly under a variety of distracting environments with attentiveness to his handler.

What does a trained dog not-do?

1. A trained dog is not a menace to family, neighbors, or strangers.
2. A trained dog is not destructive to property.
3. A trained dog is not roaming the streets wreaking havoc and chaos wherever he goes.
4. A trained dog is not a burden to his owners nor to the community in which he resides.
5. A trained dog is not escaping his owners home, yard or other confinement in pursuit of entertainment elsewhere.

He's just a pet

CRNelson — Tue, 27 May 2008 00:56:23 CDT

How many times do we hear that statement? "He's just a pet. I don't need a bunch of fancy tricks." What happens to the dog cursed with being "just a pet"?

Just being a pet means he doesn't need to learn all those obedience commands. "All I want him to do is listen to me!" "He doesn't need to do any fancy show stuff and I certainly don't want him to be a robot!" Being a pet means selective learning. If he owner doesn't care if their dog can sit and stay, then it doesn't matter! Pet dogs aren't responsible for personal behaviors, can act out and often be encouraged to do so, and do not have to listen to owners when an excuse for bad behavior is easier to give than a reliable command.

The curse is the dog lives a very limited and restrictive life without learning some pet tricks which focus mental activity towards owner responsiveness.

An easier way for me to articulate my thoughts on this is to turn it around and ask "In what way do dogs benefit from learning all those 'fancy tricks'?"

First, it stimulates their brains. They learn how to learn. It relieves the boredom of looking out the window or sniffing the same old smells in the same old backyard. Second, it develops a positive attitude towards working with the owner and a spirit of cooperation, making obedience a pleasant and enjoyable means for dogs to obtain positive time and energy from their owners rather than having commands be merely a means of keeping dogs from doing what they want. Third, it establishes the owner's authority and develops the habit of obedience. It teaches them self control. It teaches them a sense of responsibility. It teaches them that sloppy, "sort of doing what you're told" isn't good enough and improves consistent performance. It improves their confidence in themselves and in the owner as a leader.

The most amazing thing I have found resulting from teaching dogs what many people would consider "fancy tricks" is the sense of pride in themselves the dogs develop. They appear to be truly pleased to be contributing to the work of the household, or what, from their perspective, is their pack. They seem to know the difference between being put through their tricks for enjoyment and and being respected for doing real work. They have a real interest in developing a relationship with me. They become partners rather than attractive nuisances.

Depriving a dog of these benefits, whether through ignorance or laziness...that is absolutely a "curse".

Dog is Dead

CRNelson — Mon, 26 May 2008 23:08:39 CDT

[please comment in thread below]

Over 100 years ago, Nietzsche declared that God was dead. What he meant is that God had ceased to be a felt experience and had become merely an ideological affiliation. Instead of having an actual experience of the divine, one was a member of an institution, Lutheran or Methodist or one of any number of others.

I wonder if dog is dead, too.

A good many people seem to be wrapped up in sentimentality about dogs -- a sentimentality which effectively prevents one from seeing and knowing the actual animal. There are institutions which support this view of animals as helpless victims of human subjugation and cruelty. (There is money to be made promoting that view. And since money is the ultimate argument in the USA, there is no arguing against that viewpoint.) Sentimentality toward dogs leads to guilt. The owner feels vaguely guilty, and so wants to deny "ownership" of another living creature. Few seem to feel this way about turtles, and I conclude that it is because dogs are mentally and socially so similar to people that this uneasiness exists in the first place. Psychologically, I think that guilt underlies the benign neglect that so many dogs experience. It's bad enough to own a dog (and it is the institutional quality of having a family dog that leads people to go out and get one), but far worse would be to compound the crime by ordering it around. And so the "poor dog" gets relegated to the back yard, or worse, when his lack of education leads him to misbehave in completely predictable ways. We don't like to look at what we feel guilty about, and it is not a confessional age -- unless you go online, where "confessions" are posted on message boards.
Those of us who don't buy into the sentimental view - we see too many dogs too closely to do so - are nevertheless at risk of losing sight of the actual dogs. It may be tempting to see a dog as just representing so much money in return for grooming or training or breeding. It may be possible to lose sight of actual dogs while one is campaigning politically against various repressive laws. And if one gets too wrapped up in some training theory or other, the theory takes over and Dog is dead, lost in the abstraction.

Websites

CRNelson — Mon, 26 May 2008 23:05:05 CDT

Ponderosa Kennels

Offering dog training in Maryland. We train for the home, for the field and for work. Obedience for the home and for competition; retriever training for the hunter and for the field trialer; detection and USAR dogs for the street. Video training tips and clips. Training articles on puppy training, obedience and retriever training.

22705 Jefferson Blvd.
Smithsburg, MD 21783
301.748.8518

Smart Dogs Training Center LLC. Offering group classes and private training sessions for pet dogs and problem dogs in Goodhue, Dakota, Pierce and Wabasha Counties and the SE Twin Cities area. Check out SmartDogs Weblog for interesting articles on training, news, health and more.

New Jersey's Ocean County premier dog training facility. Ultimate Dog Training offers the highest quality pet dog training in the county and the state. Problem solving to socialization and advanced off leash training in a large enclosed field is the primary focus for all Ultimate Dogs. Articles on training, health, nutrition and behavior can be found on this site.

www.lionheartk9.com
Dog Trainer in Maryland located in Carroll County, dog obedience training and residency dog training offering help with dog aggression, dogs with separation anxiety, housebreaking tips for puppies and adult dogs and other dog behavior problems.
Linda I Kaim
Coeur d'Lion K9 Behavior Management
Westminster Maryland
888-835-8620

Canine Coach "Postive Teamwork, Positive Results". Located in Northern WI, offering balanced dog training in group and private settings, Pet Tech Pet First Aid Instruction, Kinaesthetic bodywork and more.

Follow Me Dog Training LLC is leading you to success in the Richmond Va area. Renée Lamoureux offers in-home private lessons with real world distractions. Problem solving, basic obedience, leadership modification and fun training for all dogs. Check out our website and blog for articles and information about dogs, dog training and the Richmond, Va area.

Suburban Dog - The loss of Freedom

CRNelson — Mon, 26 May 2008 23:04:06 CDT

Dogs need to experience the freedom and joy of simply being a dog.
This entails exploring life from the end of their nose, what they feel under their feet and how scents relate to what natures tells them as they run free across open fields, at lakes or along the beach.

Our dogs are being forced into a box of confined life at the end of a leash and the boundaries of a fenced yard.
The more this contained and imposed life is forced upon our dogs, the more stressed, agitated, and aggressive they become.
Laws, banned areas, fear and lack of basic knowledge of canines in general are making our dogs outlaws by virtue of birth.

Off leash has to become the "norm" of dog ownership. Owners need to get their dogs into large socialization groups early. Training classes where off leash is taught as basic skills must happen in all training programs. Owners need to learn that off leash trained dogs are more stable, calm, well mannered and socially behaved, than their dogs who are not being taught off leash skills.

Dog Training Challenges

CRNelson — Mon, 26 May 2008 23:02:49 CDT

Most dog trainers will agree that the dogs are not the difficult ones -- the people are. Owners can be so heavily invested in their dogs' misbehavior that they allow or even induce it, often unconsciously. One of the tasks dog trainers face is to make the owner's behavior more conscious, even as we do the same with their dogs. Sit, down, and stay start to look easy.

Another challenge we face as dog trainers is that it is largely a mentored profession. It has to be: I have seen talented self-taught trainers, but not competent professional ones. Yet... we all, especially the younger generation of trainers, run the risk of failing to grow in our profession if we simply accept received wisdom and do not make it our own, which necessarily entails at least slight modifications. There *are* differences in technique, if not in outcome, even in the most defined methods. How do we work within a method and still grow? Are our mentors helping or hindering that process? I believe strongly that we have to think for ourselves. No method relieves us of the burden of making good judgments concerning a dog we are training.

Another way to put this is: Has dog training arrived at such a state of perfection that, having mastered Method X, one no longer has anything to learn? That doesn't correspond to my experience: every dog feels new to me, every dog is an individual. That is the contradiction we face: we need to learn standard approaches (more than one), but we can't apply one method unthinkingly, come hell or high water. Nor can we flit around using a little of this and a little of that.

I sometimes describe dog training as a process of my showing students a well-used trail of breadcrumbs: "Here is how other people have gotten to where you want to go." We can't pretend it's the only way, even if we think it's the best way. The problem in the age of too much information is that everyone's an expert, even if they've never trained a dog before... they read it on the internet. How do we persuade the ill-informed that they need to forget most of what they've read?

We do it by pointing at the result, the trained dog. I tell people that before they come talking methods to me, they should become an expert at at least one method. Learn clicker training or KMODT all the way through to a trained dog, and then we'll talk. In other words, talking about dog training does not equal dog training.

In my opinion, "control freaks" are overrepresented in the dog world, and they strive to control not only what we do but also what we think and say. This has its roots in insecurity. Paradoxically, the antidote is to stop claiming that one knows everything about training dogs. It's time to carve out some more breathing room, even while we respect and hold on to what is valuable in the advice that we get. That can only be done by everyone thinking for themselves.

Fortunately I have lost a few of my chins since this photo was taken.

Works in Progress

CRNelson — Mon, 26 May 2008 22:31:27 CDT

What is a Trained Dog?

"He's just a pet"

"Suburban Dog - the loss of freedom"

Dog is Dead?

Available Dogs

EastwoodKennel — Fri, 23 May 2008 00:43:33 CDT

Coalition for Contemporary Canine T Home

CRNelson — Thu, 22 May 2008 10:18:52 CDT

Coalition for Contemporary
Canine
Training

or "He Just Attacked Out of Nowhere!"

Articles	Works in Progress
Websites	Available Dogs
Calendar of Dog-Related Events

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Calendar

CRNelson — Wed, 21 May 2008 17:42:40 CDT

Please place a LINK to your dog-related event within this calendar; use the "Link" button in the Edit toolbar. Save, and then create a page to describe that event.

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Articles

plnolan — Tue, 20 May 2008 05:14:19 CDT

"He Just Attacked Out of Nowhere" by Janeen McMurtrie

"My dog is a great dog, but...." by Linda Kaim

"Dog Training Challenges" by Catherine Nelson

He's just a pet by Margot Woods

Maximizing Potential _Guidelines for Effective E-collar training for the field by Pat Nolan