Trainers and Methods on my Mind

There’s been a lively discussion on Facebook lately that started with someone posting that we, the positive reinforcement proponents, ought to be as positive with people as we are with dogs, and not say anything if we have nothing nice to say. It was an interesting thread and packed with, as it is typically the case in dog circles, polarized opinions. Some feel that if we don’t point out what compulsive and punitive treatment does to dogs, we become collaborators, enablers and facilitators. Others argue that we can accomplish more with educating instead of criticizing, and that we should keep the communication lines open. One person even questioned how credible a positive reinforcement trainer one is if she doesn’t extend those values to humans?

That one rang a bell. It’s true. Not all dog pros, and regardless what philosophy they follow, are pleasant with people. But when positive reinforcement trainers aren’t, there is a bigger contrast between how they treat dogs and how they treat humans, and the lack of people social skills becomes more obvious.

I pride myself in being my very best whenever I am with clients. My mission is that no dog should experience force, pain or intimidation at the hands of humans. I know, a lofty goal, but I am über-passionate about it anyway. Education trumps, and I am as patient, positive and gentle with people and their offspring as I am with their pooch, and don’t lay blame for mistakes they made in the past, because in all likelihood they followed somebody’s advice.

When I encounter colleagues who feel that I might have something to offer, I never hesitate to share what I know. And I do it nicely. I answer emails, return phone calls, meet for coffee and am welcoming when they attend my public speaking events.

That changes when folks try to convince me that dogs can’t be trained without corrections, discomfort and pain. No thank you. I’d be wasting my time, and theirs.

I have no interest in discussing their punitive and coercive ways, and I will also not stay silent. Why? Because I believe that punitive trainers cause, or contribute, to behavioral problems, violate the dog’s sense of emotional safety in his home, and do little to strengthen the relationship between dog and his people.

I am not alone. Scientific studies, published in Applied Animal Behavior Science, showed that aggression is a possible consequence of confrontational methods, both traditional - Koehler style, and hierarchical pack dominance – the stuff Millan does. Let’s have a detailed look:

With choke or prong collar corrections, 6% of dogs became aggressive.

Removing something forcefully from a dog’s mouth 15%; pinning, the alpha roll, 11%; hitting or kicking 12%, and I wonder if the “attention touch” with a foot or hand, the “bonker” with a rolled up towel or newspaper, and the “tap” with the flyswatter is included in that.

Millan’s famous tsst-sound that announces a correction unless the dog gets it together right away, 2% reacted to, and I suppose it might be the same with the warning tone that precedes a shock.

The stare-down was 16%; spray bottle 10%, and I suggest you quiz your dog’s daycare provider about that; yelling “no” 18%. Maybe it’s 18% with the shock collar tone as well, not 2%, or maybe somewhere in the middle.

The forced dominance down, which is when a leashed dog, typically on a choke or prong collar, is forced to lie and remain in that position for a set period of time, made 7% aggressive. The same with grabbing the jowls or scruff, and growling in the dog’s face was 9%.

Here is an interesting tidbit: During a 3-year field study in which a group of feral dogs was observed, the researchers noted that only 2% of hostility was directed against social group members. That indicates that aggression against someone the dog lives with is not normal dog behavior. Believe me that I meet many dogs that lash out against the people they live with; the adult male if the dog is confident enough, but more often aggression is directed toward the female owner, children, or other animals in the family.

Above study gives you a possible, I say probable, explanation. Dogs can become aggressive when confronted with intimidation and pain, and if they can avoid it with aggression, then aggression is powerfully reinforced. And keep in mind that only aggression was studied, not other anxiety expressions like emotional coma, hyperactivity and obsessive behaviors, inhibited learning and avoidance. Also note that you can’t predict the outcome accurately when you begin training.

Jim Ha, Research Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Washington, and one of only a few handful of Ph.D. Certified Applied Animal Behaviorists in the US, states that certain individual dogs of certain breeds develop no anxiety with aversive training, provided it is done by an experienced trainer who applies the right amount of punishment at the right time. Those people, according to Ha, are highly skilled professionals often found in the assistance dog and K9 fields. They select the appropriate dog for their needs, and reject all others, which are the majority; the assistance dog facility Dr. Ha visited rejects about 70% of their already intentionally, for the job, bred puppies.

Is your neighborhood traditional, hierarchical, balanced or shock collar trainer that qualified and skilled? Do you have the right individual dog who can handle aversive training? Are you savvy enough to select the appropriate dog for your needs?

My hunch is: No, No and No. Some trainers are very skilled handlers, but based on my experience, not one rejects a dog, but accepts everyone in his group class or for private training. They accept every dog because they have to make a living. It’s about money.

Ha argues, and most behaviorists agree, that in unskilled hands, which are almost all dog owners, aversive methods are disasters in the making.

One more thing: The highest level of anxiety was observed with dogs that were trained and handled with the punishment/reward combination, which is the way of “balanced” trainers: traditional ones that jumped on the bandwagon of increasingly more popular clicker training. Can’t say that I am surprised. If you needed to be on guard to gauge which of your partner or boss’s side you have to deal with at any given day or moment, you’d be stressed out too.

I am sure there’ll be more studies like these in the future that prove that correcting, intimidating, startling on purpose, and applying force and pain does harm to dogs, and people by extension – the ones the dog lives with and society at large.

Intentionally inflicting discomfort is unpopular with many people. Dog owners rather not punish their canine companion, and I opine that trainers know that, and therefore often don’t lay all the cards on the table for you. They are not always frank about what they do, and what potential fallout it has, and use deflecting euphemisms: vibration collar, balanced approach, following nature’s rules, discipline, leader of the pack, training collar, stimulus, rules and boundaries, attention touch – relaxed or calm even when the dog is visibly stress panting or exhausted.

Trainers go to great lengths to explain the low settings of a shock collar, even let you experience it on your arm, but rarely offer information what the high settings are for. Let me guess: A dog who doesn’t respond like a robot with the low settings.

They circulate YouTube videos of an “aggressive” German shepherd who is “cured” in 5 minutes, or a reactive mastiff miraculously pacified after a short time wearing the company’s own collar. Those clips show the before and after behavior, but not how they got from point A to point B.

Punitive trainers’ websites often don’t reveal the methods they use, or describe them as unique and secret but unbelievably effective, or they speak in tongue most layowners don’t understand, like: using operant conditioning, applying all four quadrants.

Membership with a professional organization might flag their homepage, but they won’t tell you that the association is all-inclusive to begin with, or doesn’t screen their members very thoroughly.

There are clever PR moves to attract clients. Some offer a free in-home consultation, which sounds great but in reality typically means that they diagnose the dog’s issues in 15 minutes or less, and spend the rest of the time promoting a costly training package.

Some trainers guarantee that the dog will be rehabilitated for good. Sounds great too, but being 100% rehabilitated is realistically impossible. Dogs are not programmable computers, but living beings with a nervous system and emotions. Nobody can guarantee their behavior 100%, and nobody can guarantee the behavior of people that interact with the dog. No psychologist or therapist would ever make that claim. That is not how experts behave.

I am sour about all that. It feels like someone’s pissing on my leg and tells me it’s raining. And so I speak up. Not because they get clients and make money – protectionism is something trainers who are openly critical of others are often accused of, but because they are hurting dogs and the average layowner doesn’t know they do.

My loyalty is with dogs and their people, not other trainers. I don’t willy-nilly bash local ones, but when directly asked, I will forward first-hand knowledge I have about that person. Only first-hand stuff I witnessed or heard from my clients, their failures and fallouts.

The famous TV dog wranglers are, voluntarily I should say, in public view several times a week and are, as far as I am concerned, fair game to be criticized like any other public figure. There has to be an equalizer to a show that demonstrates a person walking assertively into even the meanest dog’s home, forcing the even strongest dog into submission, subduing every undesired expression permanently with a few easy corrections, and having a well-mannered dog in the end, even if he has caused trouble for years.

Behaviorists know that what people watch is unrealistic and has side effects, and some high-profile ones say so. And they should. And now a number of positive reinforcement trainers suggest we should keep da gob shut? Under the guise of professional conduct we have doctors, lawyers, soldiers, priests, scout members, police, politicians and so on covering for each other, and we dog trainers should do the same? Not this one.

Of course education, informing people about the power and benefits of positive reinforcement, is the most important aspect in creating welfare; making life better for dogs. And I do a lot of that: Seeing clients, writing blog posts and columns, my book and an another one I am presently working on, radio shows and articles, and giving lectures and seminars. On that note, my spring lecture series is posted on my webpage.

But in itself, without weighing the potential fallout of compulsive methods against it, and pointing out people who made a conscious decision to use them, the public mind believes that one approach, one trainer, is a good as the next one.

Thanks to the above-mentioned study you have verification that that is not the case. You have an idea about the possible risks, percentage-wise, involved with aversive handling.

I admit, sorting out dog professionals is not an easy task. My advice is to ask your groomer, daycare provider and dog walker what they do if: Your dog doesn’t obey right away. Growls. Plays rough.

Check out dog trainers’ websites. You can glance over niceties such as memberships, certification from a private school – even if, no especially if it is from one the TV personality’s academy, and guarantees, but pay more attention to the training philosophy they believe in. It should be very visibly listed on their site. If not, ask. Don’t be intimidated. If you feel intimidated by a person, how you think your dog will feel? Ask. It is your dog; it is your right and responsibility. A trainer and behavior consultant should deliver answers honestly before you hand over hard-earned dollars. Ask, especially if you have a dog who already has issues.

My question would be: “What equipment do you use?” If it is anything that can deliver pain, I’d walk away. If the answer is: “Whatever you use is fine. I will show you how to use it correctly”, I’d walk away.

If your trainer doesn’t want your children present, ask why. A dog is part of the social group he lives with, and observing the dynamics and interactions of all members is important information for me. There might be a valid reason why the professional you selected doesn’t want children to be part of the consultation, but if it is because what he’ll do to the dog would upset the kids – walk away.

Ask: “Which of the four quadrants do you apply?” If they don’t know what you’re talking about, walk away. If the answer is: “All four” or “Whatever works”, walk away. All four likely includes pain, delivered before and/or after a behavior, and whatever works might work for the trainer, but rarely the dog.

A dog professional’s priority should be dogs’ welfare. What you want to hear is: Positive reinforcement/negative punishment combination. You also want to hear that it is up to you to put time and effort into modifying your dog’s behavior, that you might have to make a few changes, and that you probably will have to manage the pooch until new behaviors are established, but that you will get the skills and information, including ongoing support, you need to succeed. Those are the realistic expectations owners can have of a behavior consultant.

Fact is that not everything is fixable, and for sure not right away. In reality, we are not action heroes for dogs as implied on TV. We are normal people who know a lot more about dogs and behavior than you do, and help you with some M and M – manage and modify; help you understand your dog's behaviors and lay out how he can become the best pooch possible.

Here they are: my thoughts – my rant. Accuse me of not being collegial if you like, but I take offense being called unprofessional for speaking up. I am a dog expert and act on behalf of dogs. Yes, I could play it politically correct, and be critical of method and not the person who applies it, but you can’t really separate the two, can you. It is the person who makes a conscious decision to choose one method over the other.

Puppy License

A wee pup, until about 16 weeks of age or so, comes with a license to kill. Well, not exactly, but she does have a natural permit to explore and test behaviors without getting hurt. No socially normal adult dog attacks or injures a pup regardless what she does, and regardless if she belongs to his intimate social group or is a chance encounter on a walk or at the park. Puppy license, though, does not mean that a rude youngster couldn’t receive a lesson in manners from an older pooch.

World-renowned Norwegian dog expert Turid Rugaas - you might recognize the name when you think calming signals - said at a seminar I attended almost 10 years ago that if dogs raise dogs they get it right. Like humans, some are more lenient and others stricter; some don’t correct even if a pup is hanging of their ear or lip, while others have narrowly drawn lines and swiftly reprimand the little brat if she oversteps it, but still won’t correct so harshly that it inhibits learning, stifles curiosity or creates anxiety.

The first who teaches important life lessons is mom-dog. When the brood is about 4 weeks old, when they become more mobile and a pestering mob, she dishes out consequences for obnoxiousness that can range from walking away and temporarily denying a basic need: food, to applying mouth threats and inhibited bites: the corrector’s mouth briefly taking hold of the correctee’s snout. Bruce Fogle says that it is imprinting deference and feels that if those early lessons are missed, the dog can be nearly impossible to train. The muzzle grab can be combined with a rigid body, or preceded by warnings: a hard stare and growls.

So, Cesar Millan is correct that the mother dog is crucial. But that’s where it stops. He is barking a false tune when he advices that we must continue to be a pretend mother dog when the pup joins us. Why? Because humans naturally get it wrong when they get physical. Humans aren’t dogs. They correct at the wrong time, for the wrong reasons, are generally too overbearing and not fast or accurate enough. It takes a certain amount of skill to nose correct an out-of-control dog properly. That’s why Millan pins, I assume, but I argue that that is not a natural correction (more a little later).

Even if a person can pull off a proper muzzle grab correction, it puts the hand provokingly close to a dog’s teeth, and the last thing I want my pup to learn is how to successfully dodge or fight a hand around his mouth. To the contrary, I want her to learn that a hand in and around her snout is always a good thing. That makes it much easier if you have to take something out of it, or if the veterinarian is doing his health check.

Dogs are most balanced when mother’s corrections were less aggressive and the pup extensively groomed afterwards. Humans typically get that wrong as well. They don’t groom, but continue to nag and be upset, or at best ignore the pup and withhold social acceptance for a too long period of time. Granted, Millan, so hyped on what the mother dog does, leaves emotions out of the equation, but still only applies the correction portion, not the extensive making up part that follows in nature.

Plus, how is a puppy ever to understand how we humans function as a species if we crudely, klutzily pretend that we’re a dog.

The warning stare, growls and the muzzle grab are normal canine ways to lecture a pup, juvenile and generally younger, lower ranking dog that is too close, too rude or too wound up. They are meant to teach self-control, teach a pup to tone it down a bit or be space polite. That’s all.

In my opinion, pinning falls outside the “for educational purposes” realm. Yes, some mother dogs pin, but I would question if she was anxious or stimulatory overwhelmed, or if the pup was temperamentally straddling the extreme pole of exuberance, determination and confidence. Pinning is ritualized aggression and signals that the pinner is stressed, frustrated, and needs help; needs a human to referee – the topic of my next post.

In addition to it being aggression, it is also ineffective, even harmful. I met plenty of dogs that were nailed as puppies, by dogs or humans, and despite of it, or possibly because of it, offensively attacked once they reached adolescence.

Another thing that just won’t go away is the belief that grabbing and shaking a puppy’s scruff is how a mother dog punishes her offspring. No, she doesn’t. In nature, she might carry her itty-bitty babies by the scruff, but only when she has to move them, if she needs to find a safer place. It is a nurturing behavior, not a punitive one. In fact, neck grabbing and shaking is how dogs kill smaller animals. Imagine the message you’re sending your pup if you grab her by the scruff, and imagine what it does to her little brain if you shake her head.

When you get your pup, ideally not before she is 8-10 weeks old, she should have experienced appropriate early lessons taught by her mother, and you should continue to provide opportunities for her to meet healthy and socially normal adults. Of course, a puppy also needs to play with littermates, and later on with compatible youngsters, but siblings and same-age friends can’t make up for what elders teach. So you see why it is important to investigate how long your pup was with her natural mother, and how she was treated? A good breeder has that information, the pet store doesn’t - and a lousy breeder doesn’t know and doesn’t care. I recently had a client whose breeder removed mom-dog from her litter when they were 4 weeks old with the explanation, according to my client, that since she can’t nurse anymore what other use does she have.

Your role, when your puppy arrives, is not to morph into another mother dog. People don’t get it right. They don’t heed to the puppy license, unjustly pin or scruff-shake for the slightest infractions or mistakes that are not the pup’s fault. Humans often do stifle curiosity and confidence, and create a dog that is suspicious, skittish and anxious.

I, as a human, stay away from getting physical, but do follow mom-dog’s lead in one aspect: denying a rude pup something she wants. Not food, but social attention and inclusion, another crucially important resource. Dr. Ian Dunbar recommends stepping out of the pup’s playpen with the word “bully”. Even very briefly withholding social attention - the pup should get another chance to play “nicely” right away - has a great impact and will teach an uninhibited one self-control quickly. I love it, and you can do that at home and leave corrections to a wise “grey muzzle”. Hopefully you know one. If you do, trust him in his judgment and execution, even if the puppy yelps. Likely she deserved it. Like Turid Rugaas says, dogs know best, provided they are socially normal.

What If You Are Not Calm-Assertive?

Cesar Millan, National Geographic’s famous dog trainer, is touring major Canadian cities to tell people how to become calm-assertive. I’ll bet that tickets to his events sold out in a flash, cause many people want to know exactly that. I know that, because my inbox is regularly peppered with “Dog Whisperer” lingo, like red zone, submissive, pack leader and yes, often the question: “Can you help me to become calm-assertive”? Canadian owners will be thrilled having the chance to hear the real pop-psych for dogs explain them how. If I’d ever meet Cesar Millan, I have a question of my own. What if you are NOT calm-assertive?

Even though Millan claims that everyone must, and can be calm-assertive, in reality most lay owners fall short. Someone who is by nature hesitant, softhearted, a bit unsure, cautious or sensitive, and whose body language reflected that for all her life, cannot switch suddenly and assume a different persona on a dime, even if she visualizes being some strong-minded celebrity.

And faking it for 10 or 15 years, or however long the dog lives, is just not functional – and counterproductive. Imagine you observing someone you live with acting a certain way all day long, and the moment he addresses you he becomes this mock alpha. Would that confuse you? Maybe make you a tad anxious and suspicious?

Never mind the physical aspect. Just recently I had an inquiry from a couple who were convinced that their 16-week-old pup was striving for pack leadership. They wanted my help to demote him a few pegs, cause the lady of the house was already afraid of him, and hubby not very successful. They described this pup, a giant breed who’ll eventually weigh around 150 pounds, as a born 10 on the alpha scale and wanted me to bring him down to an 8. Aside from the fact that their diagnosis was probably inaccurate, it mystifies me why they thought that would do them any good. A male adult livestock guardian dog with big teeth who’s an 8 is still a huge problem, especially if his people set the stage for, or were feeding, a confrontational relationship.

The average owner failing the corporeal aspect of the calm-assertive mantra is typical.

Corrections look so easy when applied by a professional skilled in applying corrections. Things done by experts always look easy, no matter what the field. Dog training isn’t an exception. If one practices for twenty years, one gets very good at it. A punitive dog trainer with decades of experience manhandling dogs is very proficient. That doesn’t mean that you, your grandpappy, or your 10-year-old can mimic that.

I mean, who can do the left-turn leg-thrust while jogging? How do you pin a struggling Great Dane till he capitulates if you’re 5’5”? Or lift him off the floor on his choker?

Millan, and other experienced handlers look good cause wrangling dogs is what they’ve been doing for many years. They are physically skilled to overcome any dog – and don’t mind getting bitten in the process. Chances are you do mind. In fact, for most people a bite is a deal breaker and gets the dog a one-way trip to the veterinarian.

Life’s reality is not someone blustering about with a straight backbone saying “Ssht”. It is normal for people to periodically be tense, frazzled, tired, or anxious. Dogs live in neighborhoods where they are liked by some and feared by others, and looked at even if you tell someone not to. Dogs live in our midst, and naturally experience the colorful palette of people’s personalities, and that is what they should habituate to.

So, quit stressing out if you can’t pull it off like Millan or the punitive trainer near you. Luckily, and unlike a dog who can neither choose how he is treated, nor can he express anything but what he feels, humans have alternatives.

One could, for example, be calm-cognizant. You all have a cerebral cortex, right? So, use that. Rationalize that people and dogs are individuals and learn at different paces. Learn about behavior, communication, positive reinforcement and reframing, conditioning and counter-conditioning, desensitizing and habituation….

And calm-compassionate. Compassion is a human thing, too. It's seeing the world from someone else’s point of view, and offering refuge and safety if that someone is anxious or frightened. It's releasing pressure with the overwhelmed dog, pushing a little less and progressing at the his comfort level, even if it takes time.

How about calm-confident. Cognizance combined with compassion leads to success and success builds confidence. Automatically, without the person having to pretend anything. Failure destroys confidence, so manage and orchestrate situations that set you and your dog up for success.

Static assertive, strong, and physically skilled humans don’t represent the real world. Dogs live with young and old people; physically and emotionally stronger and weaker ones; people who have good and bad days, and not with a charismatic male whose aptitude is to fearlessly overpower dogs.

Your dog understands that. So be yourself when you interact with him cause that is what you do best. But know how to manage space and control resources, how to teach without errors and how to get voluntary attention, and offer safety, and you will still be the leader in your dog’s eyes, even if you can’t knuckle-bite as effectively as Cesar Millan.

Dogs Correcting Dogs

Follow that thought process with me, will you? Imagine one of your relatives adopted a two-year-old, uncoordinated toddler three times your size who gets a kick out of pulling your hair or ears, and likes nothing more than to use you as a trampoline. The new parents, who never asked if it was okay for them to visit, don’t interfere cause he’s just such an adorable young child. How would you feel? And what would you do?

That was the position a recent client’s dog found himself in when he, a small-medium size adult, was expected to accept, and be nice to, his new canine cousin - a klutzy puppy of a very exuberant and much larger breed.

The older dog was overwhelmed, growled and snapped without prevail, from an increasingly farther distance, was subsequently labeled aggressive and that’s when I was called to help.

Turid Rugaas, the amazing and world-renowned Norwegian behavior expert, said at a seminar I attended, that if dogs raise dogs they get it right. And that is true in a world where dogs are similar in size, not stressed and anxious, not manipulated by people, and where litters always stay together for 10-12 weeks amidst a bunch of older dogs, so that in the end everyone is fluent in doggish; speak the same “language”.

That world exists with feral dogs, the ones not owned by humans.

The dogs we live with in our homes and communities come in all shapes, sizes and backgrounds. Not all have good dog-communication skills and their humans have I different expectations, knowledge and tolerance levels - and dogs raising dogs becomes much more complicated.

I am all for allowing an older dog to correct a puppy or rude juvenile. In fact, in my opinion ideally every puppy socializing class should include a couple of older dogs that mingle during free play to split, or correct a pup that’s out of line. But it takes a special dog who is able to do that right.

For starters, he has to like the puppies and dogs he is with – the ones he cohabitates with in an intimate social group, and the ones he is presented with regularly or occasionally at day care, the training facility or dog park. Being confronted with incompatible dog(s), yet expected to control and educate, creates stress.

If a dog feels overwhelmed by others in his proximity, the intent changes. An appropriate dog-dog correction is meant to teach rude Rover manners. If the corrector is anxious beyond momentary annoyance, the motivation switches from teaching a lesson to wanting to get rid of the dog – in distance or altogether. That’s not something I want my dog to have an opportunity to practice. Every dog has the right to personal space, but that doesn’t mean that I want him to take matters into his own paws. If a dog experiences that he can control his environment successfully with aggression, that is what he will do in the future.

If the perceived opponent doesn’t back off, the corrector is ineffective and that increases frustration. He might turn it up a notch and a fight could ensue.

And some dogs are hard to impress. That boisterous pup mentioned in the beginning of this post accidentally had his tail stepped on, for a few seconds before the person realized why he was squealing. It really must have hurt. Yet, the moment the foot was off the tail he was right back to his bouncy little self. It’d be difficult for a dog to correct a pup who shrugs off pain like that. It’ll be difficult for the owner also to bring about a lasting effect using corrections, and I hope he will opt for positive reinforcement training.

There is more to dogs correcting properly than the popular belief that they’ll work it out just because they belong to the same species. The correcting dog has to know when to correct and with what intensity. A pup corrected too harshly will become fearful and/or aggressive. And if the adult is too lenient he’s as ineffective as an old nag. The corrector has to be able to adjust corrections to each pup and situation. It is a big job and dogs that can do it good, without getting stressed themselves, are not many. If there is one who’s skilled, my advice is to trust him in his judgment and execution, even if the pup he corrects yelps.

Still, always observe both the corrector and correctee. A correction is warranted when the pup or adolescent is space rude, or too aroused and out of control. A correction is successful when the corrected dog backs off and calms down, but is still interested to interact and approaches in a more polite, self-restrained fashion. If the pup fearfully stays away for good, or continues to pester, it is time for the humans to take charge in a way that is in the interest of both dogs. That can mean to leash the obnoxious one, create distance, remove one dog or the other, and create a bonding, cooperative relationship if the dogs are expected to live in the same environment.

Adult dogs can be great helpers, but the responsibility to create a stress-free environment and raise a well-behaved pooch is always the person's. It is false to assume that dogs, just by virtue of being dogs, wish to interfere or even like to be around their own kind. Some have great social skills with other dogs, and some are edgy and intolerant and prefer human companionship.

Dogs often don’t get corrections right, and humans typically mess it up even more. That’s why my advice always is to manage and redirect instead - and to keep an astute eye on dog-dog interactions and interfere when necessary.

Unpredictable Results of Corrections

I got an e-mail the other day from an owner of a reactive, mixed breed, dog. She is not a client, but visited my website a few times and wanted to share some positive feedback, which is great, cause that is what my website is meant to do – change people’s minds and approaches, and offer a few how-to tips.

The person had hired a local trainer to help her with her dog’s reactive outbursts whenever she encountered dogs on the walk, which is a common problem. The trainer’s method was to put a prong collar on the dog and apply a strong correction each time the dog flipped out. I’m not going to say who that trainer is, cause it’s not appropriate to bash a colleague, but it also doesn’t matter because that method is used by many, especially cause it is also the one Seen On TV, and has become very popular again.

As a good owner should, the person who sent the e-mail followed the “expert” advice - and saw her dog’s behavior deteriorate. Now, she is not only afraid of other dogs, but also of her person. The trainer, so the e-mail says, at that point threw in the towel, stating that some dogs are just like that – are happy alone hiding in the basement.

One of the profound differences between forceful correction training, and purely positive reinforcement, is that when you begin correction training, it is impossible to predict the outcome, and with positive reinforcement, you can always, accurately, predict the consequences.

With correction training, the handler suppresses (or tries to) expressions of fear and stress, and coerces obedience. The unanticipated results are:

The dog lashes out and aggresses – against the owner or others - or

Secondary problem behaviors develop, because fear and stress is increased - or

The existing ones intensify, which requires to correct even harder, and things spiral out of control - or

The dog avoids and tries to escape out of fear, for example hides, bucks, pulls - or

The dog becomes neurotic and develops compulsive disorders like obsessive licking or tail chasing and biting.

Some dogs shut down, deflate, and emotionless and mindlessly obey with precision, but other than that do nothing anymore. They are the ones called well behaved, obedience titled and shown as success stories; the ones the public sees. The fallout, dogs that respond in any of the other ways and are euthanized, dumped somewhere or with someone, surrendered to a shelter, or delegated to a lifelong solitary existence in the back yard, the public doesn’t see.

The person who wrote me the e-mail deals with an outcome that is all too common.

I see it dealing with dog owners. I witnessed it at an aggression seminar where a pooch, reactive to dogs but super friendly with people, at the end of two days also reacted to people.

Even the mighty Dog Whisperer is not immune to that. A beagle mix, a case in season one, was terrified of the garden hose and ran away, but tolerated being bathed in the bathtub. After Millan forced him with corrections to deal with the hose, he began to offensively aggress when bathed in the tub. The behavior changed from fleeing from one trigger, to fighting in a general sense, whenever water was involved.

When Positive Reinforcement is applied, the consequences are 100 percent predictable.

Although changing the reactive dog’s mind about a trigger stimulus can take time, and some dogs need to be managed for life, during rehabilitation following things always happen:

The dog becomes increasingly motivated to work with the owner – and

Stress and fear decreases – and

The dog is learning acceptable coping skills – and

The dog is learning to trust the owner, and once that is accomplished, she begins to feel safe at home and in novel situations - and

The dog is eager to learn - and

The relationship improves and as a result the dog’s behavior.

I commend owners that don’t give up and search for a different way after their last trainer deemed the dog incurable; after the trainer failed the dog, then blamed the dog. Such trainers keep us positive reinforcement pros in business – unfortunately, cause I would rather see all dogs treated kindly, even if I’d have to look for another job.

Whenever I do meet a correction trained “fallout”, the first step is to reestablish the relationship with the owner, cause as long as the dog doesn’t trust that her person is a refuge, she will feel alone when in conflict and express that in emotional outbursts.