I just saw this and watched. As a trainer I cannot thank you enough for this video!!! I will share it with clients to assist me in helping them have a better understanding of how a dog communicates so that I can help them and their dog:)
"anyone has a question on aggression or biting send them to this post... and we are going to stop commenting on them because that's not why we're here".I'm confused but a great informative video all the same
I like your way to train your dogs, it's simply free from punishment and that's awesome, because you really creates a strong relationship, making dogs feel free emotionally.
Dear Susan thank you for spreading knowledge on such important topic!! If I might, I think it would be useful for pet owners to grow some awareness that when a dog shows freezing/side staring, this is already an escalted signal... ideally we should learn to see signs of discomfort when the dog is more subtle, like looking away, creating distance (even if just with body weight shift), yawning, licking intentions and so on. So much escalation could be avoided if we would learn early on to recognize those signales - and not wait till the dog freezes or growls or worse! I'd love to hear your view on this...
This was super helpful!!! This definitely confirmed what I already thought about my dog's behaviour. She is really good at not biting unless she wants to play, but she never bites to injure. Nor does she snap or growl. The only problem we have is her barking at guests. Best we can tell by reading her body language, it's likely she wants attention and someone to play with her.
Great content! I subbed. I agree with Susan's theory 100%. But on a practical point, which is whether one can apply correction when a dog is displaying an emotional reaction, I have different opinion. For example, suppose you have an fear aggressive dog, that doesn't tolerate strange people in close proximity, or will lunge/bark when the stranger moves their arms suddenly. Here the emotional basis for the dog's aggression is fear. What the dog fears is that the stranger will harm him; what he wants is space, and by displaying aggression, the dog hopes to drive the strange people away from him. One method of treating this behavior issue (and the underlying emotional issue of fearing strangers, which, actually is normal and logic for all animals), is to gradually desensitize the dog, via counter conditioning. As a result, the dog gradually learns that a stranger actually means no harm. We can achieve this without positive punishment, or without correcting the reactivity. The second method is that you inhibit (sometimes interrupt) the dog's reactivity by applying an correction, when a stranger approaches the dog to within a certain distance. Yes, in the beginning, the dog is punished for his normal and logical reactive aggression. But after a few corrections, the dog will be inhibited from reacting, and can subsequently experience and learn that the approaching stranger 1) doesn't mean harm, 2) he didn't get punished in the presence of a stranger. My experience is that during this type of training, you'll see from the time to time, the dog will appear to have withheld and accumulated tension to react, and will release that built-up energy through a brief episode of barking/lunging. Afterwards, he will seem to go back to a more relaxed state. It's important not to correct this periodic release of tension. Through training you'll see a less frequent release of tension type of aggression. As Susan says, one should allow certain corrective behaviors from dogs - allowing the dog to correct you (in a milder way though) at times gives them confidence. In fact these two methods are not mutually exclusive; but they can be integrated into different stages of training fear aggression, in my opinion. Another important point for method 2 is that one should try to maximize the dog's chance of making the right decisions during an encounter with a stranger, during training. My way of training is that through off leash training, and allow dog to choose to engage or disengage interaction, so they are not forced to resort to violence b/c they see there is no way out. This is very often used by many trainers when they are teaching a fear aggressive dog to socialize with a stable pack of dogs - which is called supervised, free interaction. The corrections (through E collar) are there actually to help the dog to regulate, temper down, their surge of adrenaline during the initial stages of this type training.
What does an e collar feel like when you use it on yourself? Do they feel different on your neck, your wrist, ankle? Never used one, curious. Know people given ECT and they have become traumatised as well as probably brain damaged.
Hi , very interesting video. My dog used to bark at everything ( cars, people, dogs, birds) while on walks. I hired a pro behaviorist who thaught me how to change the emotional response of the dog who was scared of everything. It was working But just a little bit. After one month. I bought a bottle of water and said "no" three times before spraying her. I only had to use the bottle twice. Now I let my dog bark twice than say okay/no. And the dog stop. She gets rewards if no barks at all. My dog is close to be 9months old now and she does a lot of protection. If another dog approach me she snaps at the dog or get into a fight. She has been nicknamed "killer" at the dog park where we used to go without problems. The behaviorist principle would be to give treats when dog approach but it makes her even more nuts if I have treats on me. I am confused about what to do.
Hi, from what you write your dog is or was in puberty when she showed this "protective" behaviour which I think in a dog that age it is rather insecurity than protectiveness. Insecurity or fear is more problematic since it tends to grow stronger in time. If you punish a fearful dog by spraying or if you get angry at her barking, you will actually increase the stress for the dog and trigger potentially serious aggression. We have had a very similar case, a stupid dog trainer tried to suppress the "aggressive" behaviour of a 9 month old dog from my kennel - with the result that eventually it "suddenly" bit a child "out of the blue". This is what happens if you suppress emotional responses like Susan showed in the video above. About the barking at everything: One of my dogs tends to bark at other dogs or unknown things. Initially we told her "no", but the behaviour got worse. Then we started acting very happy and excited every time she barked and telling her "good girl!" - and the barking stopped! It was really funny the way she looked at us, clearly very surprised, and then relaxed. So I think what was happening was this: She judged the situation to be scary and barked, and our negative response to her barking actually confirmed her judgement and triggered more barking. She did not connect the "no" we gave her with her barking, but with the other dogs or people we met: Because we scolded her, we confirmed her idea that they were dangerous. Now we tell her "yes", I've seen the dog, great!" and we play a game of tug and everything is okay. That said, I would strongly recommend continuing with a qualified positive reinforcement based training under guidance with your dog! :-)
I always wonder, why do u never see trainer's like this work with actual agreesive dogs who are lunging, biting, staring etc. I see trainers who use corrections work with actual dogs all the time on video but I never see the ones who say dog agreesion can be fixed by just rewarding them. Just lots of lectures. Are there any videos of people working with legitimate aggressive dogs who will go after other dogs and people kn video actually seeing their methods work?
Very clear distinction between training and behaviour modification, and very well presented. Thank you.
Susan, you are the best! You are my biggest role model in the world of dog training. Thank you for all you do!!!!
I just saw this and watched. As a trainer I cannot thank you enough for this video!!! I will share it with clients to assist me in helping them have a better understanding of how a dog communicates so that I can help them and their dog:)
"anyone has a question on aggression or biting send them to this post... and we are going to stop commenting on them because that's not why we're here".I'm confused but a great informative video all the same
wow i knew a lot of these items 'individually' but the way you have 'packaged it' connected all kinds of DOTS for me. Thank you.
You are the best. Thank you for giving me a new way to be with my dogs!!
I like your way to train your dogs, it's simply free from punishment and that's awesome, because you really creates a strong relationship, making dogs feel free emotionally.
Dear Susan thank you for spreading knowledge on such important topic!! If I might, I think it would be useful for pet owners to grow some awareness that when a dog shows freezing/side staring, this is already an escalted signal... ideally we should learn to see signs of discomfort when the dog is more subtle, like looking away, creating distance (even if just with body weight shift), yawning, licking intentions and so on. So much escalation could be avoided if we would learn early on to recognize those signales - and not wait till the dog freezes or growls or worse! I'd love to hear your view on this...
This is brilliant and perfectly logical with your explanations. Thankyou Susan.
Your fantastic. Makes me rethink.
Thank you very much! The timing of this couldn't have come at a better time.
This was super helpful!!! This definitely confirmed what I already thought about my dog's behaviour. She is really good at not biting unless she wants to play, but she never bites to injure. Nor does she snap or growl. The only problem we have is her barking at guests. Best we can tell by reading her body language, it's likely she wants attention and someone to play with her.
Great ideas, would these apply with people.?
Great content! I subbed.
I agree with Susan's theory 100%. But on a practical point, which is whether one can apply correction when a dog is displaying an emotional reaction, I have different opinion.
For example, suppose you have an fear aggressive dog, that doesn't tolerate strange people in close proximity, or will lunge/bark when the stranger moves their arms suddenly.
Here the emotional basis for the dog's aggression is fear. What the dog fears is that the stranger will harm him; what he wants is space, and by displaying aggression, the dog hopes to drive the strange people away from him.
One method of treating this behavior issue (and the underlying emotional issue of fearing strangers, which, actually is normal and logic for all animals), is to gradually desensitize the dog, via counter conditioning. As a result, the dog gradually learns that a stranger actually means no harm. We can achieve this without positive punishment, or without correcting the reactivity.
The second method is that you inhibit (sometimes interrupt) the dog's reactivity by applying an correction, when a stranger approaches the dog to within a certain distance. Yes, in the beginning, the dog is punished for his normal and logical reactive aggression. But after a few corrections, the dog will be inhibited from reacting, and can subsequently experience and learn that the approaching stranger 1) doesn't mean harm, 2) he didn't get punished in the presence of a stranger. My experience is that during this type of training, you'll see from the time to time, the dog will appear to have withheld and accumulated tension to react, and will release that built-up energy through a brief episode of barking/lunging. Afterwards, he will seem to go back to a more relaxed state. It's important not to correct this periodic release of tension. Through training you'll see a less frequent release of tension type of aggression. As Susan says, one should allow certain corrective behaviors from dogs - allowing the dog to correct you (in a milder way though) at times gives them confidence.
In fact these two methods are not mutually exclusive; but they can be integrated into different stages of training fear aggression, in my opinion. Another important point for method 2 is that one should try to maximize the dog's chance of making the right decisions during an encounter with a stranger, during training. My way of training is that through off leash training, and allow dog to choose to engage or disengage interaction, so they are not forced to resort to violence b/c they see there is no way out. This is very often used by many trainers when they are teaching a fear aggressive dog to socialize with a stable pack of dogs - which is called supervised, free interaction. The corrections (through E collar) are there actually to help the dog to regulate, temper down, their surge of adrenaline during the initial stages of this type training.
What does an e collar feel like when you use it on yourself? Do they feel different on your neck, your wrist, ankle? Never used one, curious. Know people given ECT and they have become traumatised as well as probably brain damaged.
That grandma
Hi , very interesting video. My dog used to bark at everything ( cars, people, dogs, birds) while on walks. I hired a pro behaviorist who thaught me how to change the emotional response of the dog who was scared of everything. It was working But just a little bit. After one month. I bought a bottle of water and said "no" three times before spraying her. I only had to use the bottle twice. Now I let my dog bark twice than say okay/no. And the dog stop. She gets rewards if no barks at all.
My dog is close to be 9months old now and she does a lot of protection. If another dog approach me she snaps at the dog or get into a fight. She has been nicknamed "killer" at the dog park where we used to go without problems. The behaviorist principle would be to give treats when dog approach but it makes her even more nuts if I have treats on me. I am confused about what to do.
Hi, from what you write your dog is or was in puberty when she showed this "protective" behaviour which I think in a dog that age it is rather insecurity than protectiveness. Insecurity or fear is more problematic since it tends to grow stronger in time. If you punish a fearful dog by spraying or if you get angry at her barking, you will actually increase the stress for the dog and trigger potentially serious aggression. We have had a very similar case, a stupid dog trainer tried to suppress the "aggressive" behaviour of a 9 month old dog from my kennel - with the result that eventually it "suddenly" bit a child "out of the blue". This is what happens if you suppress emotional responses like Susan showed in the video above. About the barking at everything: One of my dogs tends to bark at other dogs or unknown things. Initially we told her "no", but the behaviour got worse. Then we started acting very happy and excited every time she barked and telling her "good girl!" - and the barking stopped! It was really funny the way she looked at us, clearly very surprised, and then relaxed. So I think what was happening was this: She judged the situation to be scary and barked, and our negative response to her barking actually confirmed her judgement and triggered more barking. She did not connect the "no" we gave her with her barking, but with the other dogs or people we met: Because we scolded her, we confirmed her idea that they were dangerous. Now we tell her "yes", I've seen the dog, great!" and we play a game of tug and everything is okay. That said, I would strongly recommend continuing with a qualified positive reinforcement based training under guidance with your dog! :-)
@@Somniavero I love the example you've given (your dog not the one from the kennel - that's tragic)
Come to my house and help 😭😭😭😭
I always wonder, why do u never see trainer's like this work with actual agreesive dogs who are lunging, biting, staring etc. I see trainers who use corrections work with actual dogs all the time on video but I never see the ones who say dog agreesion can be fixed by just rewarding them. Just lots of lectures. Are there any videos of people working with legitimate aggressive dogs who will go after other dogs and people kn video actually seeing their methods work?