Fred Hassen, Darin Shepard and I were invited to attend the I.U.P.A Police Conference in Orlando (Aug 2008) to put on a demonstration for the opening of the event. We were a big hit with the crowd and had a great time.
Here is a great example of the level of focus and obedience we are able to attain using the Sit Means Sit system of training. We had a great time working with the various trainers and interacting with the crowd.
Kody and I were invited to attend a wellness fair sponsored by Biotest of Boca Raton for their employees. We had a great time and all the employees got a real kick out of Kody.
Three of the clips which demonstrates how are style of training teaches a superior level of control without sacrificing any desire on the dog’s part. Shown here is my dog Kody, who up to this point has had very little bitework instruction.
What I call “The Invisible Leash” is a key concept of mine. It could be considered one of the truly fundamental aspects of interacting with a dog.
What is “The Invisible Leash”?
It is actually two things:
1- Consider it to be that bond that you have developed with your dog. Think of it as several “invisible” strings that are wrapped around each other forming a rope like construction. These strings are made up of your on-going interactional history with your dog.
Are you a good leader who is fair and consistent?
Are you spending quality time with your dog?
Do you interact with your dog in a positive manner?
What lessons are you teaching your dog?
Does he/she know your expectations/rules?
Does he/she get enough excersise?
Does he/she receive proper nutrition?
Does he/she receive proper medical attention?
An honest evaluation of these questions will give you the relative strength of this “Invisible leash”. A dog will be bound to you through this leash and will act accordingly. Remember, you can always strengthen this leash, and like wise it can be damaged.
2- Our system of training utilizes a remote trainer to gain the dogs attention and help them to focus on us. So this too can be considered an invisible leash of a different kind.
I tell my prospective clients, during my initial demonstration- “You have two decisions to make when hiring a trainer. First, do you feel that you can trust them and the style(s) they utilize. Second, can you see not only the benefit in the style they use, but even more importantly- is it something you will use.”
My use of the remote trainer supplements and enhances my training and interaction with my dogs. It is not meant to be used in lieu of or a crutch to a poor relationship with your dog. Proper use of the remote trainer in combination with informative education in dog behavior will make your “Invisible Leash” stronger than it is today.
What You Should Know About The Kinds Of Dog Aggression
Animals that live in groups have to be able to communicate in order to cooperate and avoid disputes. Communicating involves a set of postural and facial signals that indicate the animal’s mood and intent.
Affiliative (Friendly) Behavior decreases the social distance between participants in an interaction. A relaxed body, rapid tail wag, jumping, whimpering, barking in a playful way and a “happy face” are characteristics of affiliative behavior.
Aggressive behavior is also a part of normal social behavior. Dogs have choices to make as to how to react when social conflict presents itself. These choices are termed agonistic (social conflict) behaviors. One choice a dog can make when he feels threatened or challenged is to avoid the social conflict by fleeing. Avoidance behaviors include looking away, backing away or trying to escape. Another choice a dog can make is to display
submissive behaviors in order to turn off or inhibit a threat. Active submission is expressed by ears flattened or pulled back, tail tucked, eye contact avoided (looks away), body turned away, eyes dilated, and whining or high pitched vocalizations. Passive submission is expressed by the dog rolling onto its back, exposing its abdomen and sometimes urinating. A third choice a dog can make is to threaten. Threatening behavior is a warning that if the recipient doesn’t stop what he is doing, a bite could
happen. Threatening behavior is expressed by barking, growling, staring, showing teeth, lunging, snapping, and inhibited bites. The last choice a dog can make when it is threatened or challenged is to act aggressively.
What is aggressive behavior?
Aggressive behavior has the intent to do harm to another. Animal behaviorists generally discriminate two kinds of aggressive behaviors, offensive and defensive. Offensive aggression is expressed by lunging, chasing, and moving toward the opponent. The dog’s body postures make him appear larger and more intimidating by standing up tall with a stiff body,orienting towards the opponent and raising the hair on the back. His tail
is straight up in a vertical line and may be wagging slowly. The dog’s ears are up and forward or pricked forward. There is direct eye contact or staring, teeth are bared and he may be barking and/or growling. Defensive aggression is when the dog is protective or fearful. He may hold his position or move away. His body is crouched, the hair on his back may be raised, and he is usually not directly oriented toward the opponent. His tail
is usually down, ears pinned back and he may look away from his opponent, or alternate between staring and avoidance of eye contact. The dog’s teeth may be bared and he may be growling, barking or whining and whimpering. Ambivalent behavior is when the dog has mixed motivations, and displays both offensive and defensive behaviors such as staring with ears flattened or crouched body posture and lunging. When the dog has not
yet decided what to do, he may engage in displacement behaviors such as licking, yawning, scratching, and/or sneezing.
What are the different types of aggressive behavior?
Dominance Aggression is motivated by a challenge to the dog’s social status or to his control of a social interaction. Dogs are social animals and view their human families as their social group. If the dog perceives one of his family members or other dogs have challenged him, he may threaten or attack. Challenges may occur over a preferred resting spot, food or toys. Even hugging or reaching over the dog may cause the dog to respond aggressively. Dominance aggression is the reasons for fighting between family dogs. Sometimes one dog is bullying the other dog by following it around and instigating fights even though the other dog is being submissive and trying to avoid confrontation.
Dominance aggression is most commonly seen in males between the ages of 18-36 months. It is an offensive type of aggression.
Possessive Aggression is when the dog is defending a valuable
object such as a bone, a toy, or a favored sleeping place such as a couch. Possessive aggression may have offensive or defensive components. Sometimes dominance and possessive aggression will overlap.
Territorial Aggression is when the dog is attempting to defend his perceived property, the house, the yard or even a regularly walked path. The dog may be so motivated to get at the intruder that he jumps fences or goes through windows and doors. The owner may or may not be present. Territorial aggression has mostly offensive components but may have defensive components as well.
Protective Aggression is when the dog is attempting to protect you or himself from a real or a perceived threat such as a stranger or another dog. It has mostly offensive components. Possessive, territorial and protective aggression are similar forms of aggression and may overlap each other.
Pain induced aggression is a defensive reaction in response to pain or discomfort when handled in certain ways or from a medical problem or physical injury.
Fear aggression is a defensive type of aggression. The dog
is afraid of unfamiliar people and/or animals or has had a less than pleasant experience, lack socialization or is genetically predisposed to fearful behavior. The dog tries to leave
by escaping (backing up, jumping) or tries to hide (under tables, chairs, behind owner) and may attack if he feels he cannot get away from the thing scaring him. He may also attack when the threat is retreating from him. The fearful dog tries to make himself look small by crouching or ducking his head. He may freeze or quiver, his ears are back, tail tucked and his eyes are dilated and the whites of his eyes show.
Inter-male/inter-female aggression is offensively motivated and occurs when the dogs are competing over a resource such as mates, food, or space. This is just another name for dominance, possessive, territorial or protective aggression to other dogs.
Maternal aggression is when the female perceives her offspring are threatened and can be offensive or defensive.
Redirected aggression can be offensively or defensively motivated and occurs when the primary target of aggression is inaccessible. Redirected aggression generally arises out of another form of aggression. For example, two family dogs may attack each other when they can’t get to a dog outside their fence or a dog may attack another dog if his owner has just punished him.
Idiopathic aggression is severe aggressive behavior that appears to be unprovoked, and is unpredictable and uncontrolled. It could be a result of a medical condition or be connected with dominance aggression.
Play aggression is oftenseen in puppies and young dogs and there is no intent to do harm. Although, grabbing,
nipping and biting may result in injury to people or damage to clothing. Play aggression has many of the same behaviors seen in predatory behavior such as stalking, chasing,
pouncing, shaking, and biting. However, the goal of predatory behavior is to obtain food. Play behavior may be a combination of one or more of the above types of aggression.
Why do some dogs become aggressive?
The causes of aggression are poorly understood but it is known that genetic predispositions, hormones, biological influences such as age, sex, reproductive status (intact vs. spayed/neutered), and overall health affect aggressive behavior. Genetic
predispositions may lead some dogs to have a low bite threshold and a high tolerance for pain. Some dogs may have had unpleasant or inadequate experiences as puppies or later
in life. A dog learns what works to make unpleasant things go away. Barking at the delivery person makes him go away; growling at the stranger who is reaching to pet him
makes the stranger back off. Aggression can increase when it works for the dog.
What to do
Your first responsibility is to protect people and other dogs from an aggressive dog. Keep an aggressive dog separated from others or muzzle him when he must be aroundothers. Consult your veterinarian. The aggressive behavior could have medical causes. In some cases, medications prescribed by your veterinarian may be helpful. You may be able to manage aggression problems by changing the environment or your dog’s
activities. For example, if your dog is aggressive around his food, feeding him away from others will prevent the aggression. Management doesn’t resolve aggression problems.
Behavior modification can be helpful in many cases, but it must be done carefully or it can make the problem worse. You will probably need the help of an experienced,qualified behavior consultant to help you work with the problem. Not all aggression problems can be managed or resolved. In severe cases or cases where others cannot be protected, euthanasia of the dog should be considered. Contact your Sit Means Sit Trainer so that we can help your dog to overcome this problem.
What not to do
Don’t ignore threatening or aggressive behavior. Aggression problems rarely get better on their own. Aggressive dogs can be dangerous. Don’t punish aggressive behavior, unless it is part of a behavior modification plan directed by a qualified behavior
consultant. Punishment usually makes aggression worse. Aggressive behavior is not due to a lack of obedience training. Obedience training by itself will not help.
(As written by Animal Behavior Associates, Inc)
Many of us have our dog’s best interest at heart and sometimes even put more thought into what we serve our dog as opposed to what we put into our own bodies. The problem arises in trying to find the right food for our dog. How do we read the ingredients? What items should we look for to have or avoid? What do we know about this company other than it has a cute commericial or colorful bag?. These are all good questions, but we need to understand them so that we can do right by our dog.
The Whole Dog Journal has had some very interesting articles regarding these questions and I encourage people to subscribe to their service (www.whole-dog-journal.com). Below is some of the information that they are passing along to aid us in selecting dog food.
Look for foods that contain a lot of high-quality animal protiens.
Ingredients are listed by weight, so ideally a food will have one or two animal proteins (meat, poultry, fish) in the first few ingredients. Understand that whole meat (chicken, beef, lamb, etc) contains a lot of water weight. If a food list starts out with chicken (rather than chicken meal), and there is no other animal protein listed until 5th or 6th on the list, the food does not actually contain a lot of animal protein. Look for chicken or another meat with a meal in the second or third spot.
Reject any food containing meat by-products or poultry by-products.
There is a much wider range of quality in the by-products available for pet food manufacturing than there is for whole meats.
Reject foods containing fat or protein not identified by species.
“Animal fat” is a euphemism for low quality, low-priced mix of fats of uncertain origin. “Meat meal” could be practically be anything.
Look for whole grains and vegetables.
Too many grains or vegetables on the upper side of the ingredient list lessens the quality of the food.
Eliminate all foods with artificial colors, flavors, or preservatives.
A healthy product full of top-quality ingredients shouldn’t need non-nutritive additives to make it look or taste better.
Eliminate all foods with added sweetners.
Dogs like people, enjoy sweet foods. Like people they can develop a taste for these nutritionally empty calories.
“The proof is in the pudding. If your dog does not thrive on the food, with a glossy coat, itch-free skin, bright eyes, clear ears, and a happy, alert demeanor, it doesn’t matter if we like it or not-switch!” Always make your vet a partner in your choices, but read that label and ask questions about the food your vet recommends. Some dogs need to be on a specific diet.
Try Holistic Pet Cuisine at www.HolisticPetCuisine.Net
Few things cause more distress in a dog and its owner than Separation Anxiety. The dog can become destructive, vocalizes loudly, soils in the house and is some cases will even defecate on the owners bed. The behavior may not be as bad as this. The dog may only pant, or pace alot. All is not lost- properly diagnosing and treating the problem is your first step.
First we have to determine if the behavior is from Separation Anxiety or Boredom. Separation Anxiety while used as a “catch all” to label many problems has two keys elements. The first is separation from the owner and the second is Anxiety or fear. The following are some clues that the dog has separation anxiety and not something else. First, the type of behavior initiates when the dog perceives that he is about to be left alone. Second, the pet has formed a “hyperattachment” to the owner. This is evident when the dog follows you from room to room and/or constantly needs to be held. Thirdly, the destructive behavior is mostly directed to barriers such as doors or windows. Most likely the location the pet last saw its owner as it wants to be near him. Vocalization during this period of anxiety is usually high pitched and in repeated yips. This type of vocalization is akin to a young puppies distress call. Lastly, the behavior occurs within the first 30 minutes.
There is a treatment for this behavior, but it may take a great deal of time and patience.
Discourage Hyperattachment
You must resist the temptation to continually pet a dog with this condition, especially when the dog initiates the contact. Those dog owners that continually dote on their dog for little to no reason, may need to re-evaluate their relationship with their dog.
Keep the dog from laying in close proximity to you. Keep barriers up between you and the dog. This forces the dog to settle down away from you and you should then calmly praise the dog when he does settle down away from you. Start a process of moving the dog further and further away from you if he sleeps in bed with you.
No one person in the house (in homes with multiple people) should be the sole provider of food, attention, walks etc. Break up these activities between different people.
Encourage the dog to play by himself by using special toys like a Kong that is filled with a food reward.
Relaxation During Separation
Attempt to create a more positive environment for the dog while you are out. Provide a special toy (i.e. nylabone soaked in broth) that the dog gets as you leave, but you take back when you come back. Check into obtaining a D.A.P (dog appeasement phermone) that is a plug-in scent releasing device. This is an engineered scent made to imitate the scent given by a mother to tell her puppies that everything is okay. Also, leave on a TV or radio. This will not fool the dog into believing that someone is home. This is meant to recreate the environment that we relax in, it would be like a conditioned cue. We relax here, so you should also.
Desensitization To Separation
We usually have certain rituals we do that indicate to the dog that something is about to happen. Pick up a leash and the dogs knows that he is about to go for a walk. With this in mind we need to desensitize the dog to our leaving. At random times, go through the ritual you do before you leave the house. We want the dog to say to himself “this used to mean that mommy/daddy is going out, but I guess not anymore” Before you leave, start to ignore the dog so that when you leave it is not dramatic. Simply say “See you soon” and leave. Start to actually leave the house, but only remain away for a few moments to begin with. Slowly lengthen the time you are outside. When you return, ignore the dog for a few minutes before turning your attention to him. Another exercise to try is to walk around the house and shut the door of various rooms behind you if the dog follows. Work the timing of this separation from the dog as above. Teach the dog a “place” command and have him stay there for longer and longer periods of time.
Important Points
Never make your return home something the dog dreds. If you come home and the dog destroyed the house, greet the dog warmly anyway. If someone must be blamed- blame yourself. The dog will not understand it if you yell at him for the mess. He will only learn to dred you coming home.
Consider crate training your dog. Crates should not be seen by the dog as punishment, but a safe haven to go to.
Consider having the dog checked for any medical issues.
Separation anxiety may have started due to moving to a new home, the loss of a loved one through death, divorce, or going away to school to name a few examples. Separation Anxiety may also be the result of early separation from the mother (bitch) or deprivation of attachment early in life (dogs that came from shelters, pets stores)
Train your dog with these methods even if he does not currently display Separation Anxiety. The reason is that the dog may not have yet been exposed to your being away. Allow the dog to be prepared for that vacation, unplanned hospital stay etc.
Still need help?, contact your local Sit Means Sit trainer and we will help you and your dog recover from this problem.
Recently, I adopted a puppy from Animal Services, in Miami, and was looking forward to our new life together. Riley brought all the joys I expected…plus a few minor issues…I wasn’t. At three months I enrolled him in Puppy Training, learning some basic training, playing alot, and getting bigger and stronger. We graduated, but we still had some bigger and stronger issues, like nipping/biting, wild running, barking and chewing…plus pulling hard on the leash. He was in control! I knew we needed more training and Fast!
Looking in the internet for Dog Trainers, I came across Sit Means Sit and found a location on Palm Beach, Florida with Dog Trainer, Robert Burnell. I liked what I read, so I called to learn more about remote dog training collar. Bob drove to Miami with his dog for a demonstration…I couldn’t believe what I saw and signed up on the spot!
It has been terrific working with Bob in understanding how to change Riley’s behavior. He is truly a different dog now and a real pleasure to own and enjoy. Bob traveled many miles bewteen Palm Beach and Miami to help me and Riley, and I hope soon to travel to his new group classes.
I have referred a friend to Bob…and can say…you’ll be happy you called him. I really now have “The Life With Riley”! Thanks Bob…
Edith
SitMeansSit.com