Dog Obedience Training Blog

Archives : 2009 : October

Gracie The Pug Princess

October 19th, 2009 by Chet

halloween 2

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If you think you think you can take a better picture of your dog in a Halloween costume, enter our dog halloween costume contest here for a chance to win $500 for the 2009 Best Dog Halloween Photo Contest

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Madd Dog Duke

October 19th, 2009 by Chet

duke holloween

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Fixing Dog Aggression On Leash

October 15th, 2009 by Chet

Fixing a dog’s aggression towards other people or other dogs while on his leash is a problem that many people try to fix the WRONG way.

Most dog owners try to train their dog the way most of us were trained by our parents when we do something bad. We yell, scold or swat our dogs for doing what we think is an inappropriate behavior.

While this is sometimes an effective training technique, you should be aware of what’s REALLY happening when you use negative punishment as a training technique for dog’s who are aggressive towards others on their leash.

What most pet owners aren’t aware of is that when you use punishment you automatically program the brain to ALSO feel a negative emotion. So while you may be able to train a dog to not growl at another dog by beating him, you may have enhanced the negative emotions your dog has for the other dog approaching… in effect, creating dog aggression where it normally shouldn’t exist.

What’s really happening when you punish a dog for acting aggressively while on his leash is to SUPPRESS his outward display of emotions. Or said another way, you eliminate the WARNING signs your dog gives off when he gets upset. This increases the likelihood of so called, Random biting attacks where the person being bit couldn’t tell the dog was upset until it was too late.

This is why I’m a HUGE advocate of what I call Emotion Training, where you reprogram your dog how to feel POSITIVE emotions instead of negative ones.

If you’re interested in learning more about Emotion Training and how it can be used to re-program your dog’s aggression issues towards others in his environment, read my free report titled, Reprogramming the K9 Mind.

Most dog owners don’t even realize it’s possible, or how easy it is to train. And to those skeptics who don’t think you can train a dog’s emotional reactions towards things in his environment I like to share a story from a great dog training book called “Control Unleashed” by Leslie McDevitt.

In her book, Leslie tells a story about how she trained her dog to stop chasing squirrels by turning the act of her dog seeing a squirrel into a cue to turn around and look at her… instead of chasing the squirrel!

Most people would think this is impossible, but she outlines a very common sense approach for how she trained this behavior that is worth picking up a copy of the book to learn.

This training philosophy works off of environmental cues that you can train your dog to recognize. In cases where your dog get’s aggressive on his leash, think about what would happen if you changed the rules on your dog…

What if instead of your dog feeling the urge to get protective of you when on a leash, you started giving him a piece of cheese every time he saw another dog from a distance?

You may not notice a change the first or second time you gave your dog some cheese, but if you consistently tossed your dog a piece of cheese EVERY time he saw another dog for the next month, most dogs start to realize seeing other dogs can be a good thing. Many dogs will even start to get excited about seeing other dogs because they realize it means a piece of food is coming their way.

Of course there are a hundred different ways to apply this method of Emotion Training dog fixing your dog’s aggression while on a leash, and if you’re interested in learning more techniques and strategies for fixing your dog’s leash problems make sure you read my report, Reprogramming the K9 Mind.

Posted at 12:07 pm: 1 comment

How To Fix Dog Aggression with Children

October 15th, 2009 by Chet

If you’re concerned about your dog’s aggression with children, then I want to introduce you to a technique for reducing dog aggression with children that I call, “Toddler Proofing”.

Toddler Proofing is a technique for re-programming a dogs emotional reaction to your child’s touch, or presence, from feelings of aggressiveness to feelings of excitment, or at the very least… tolerance.

I recently did an entire interview on this concept with professional dog trainer, Jeff Tinsley in my “Experts of Hands Off Dog Training” interview series that you have the option of listening to when you order my Hands Off Dog Training program.

In that interview Jeff talks about how he’s used “Toddler Proofing” to get dogs who growl, or nip at children who pull their whiskers & tails, or who climb and jump on your dog, to stop being so upset by your child’s behavior and actually look forward to it in many cases.

The secret behind why Toddler Proofing can be so effective for fixing dog aggression with Children is because it uses a process of giving what I call, “Hi Value Emotional Rewards”, to your dog when your child is doing something irritating to him BEFORE the dog can experience the aggressive emotions.

Here’s how Toddler Proofing works:

Step #1: Make sure you know what your dog loves more then anything in the world. In order for Toddler Proofing to work, you need to have a Hi Value emotional reward. For some dogs this could be food treats like cheese or meat. For other dogs it might be to chase a ball. You’ll be using this reward as a way to interrupt the normal emotional pattern your dog experiences when you child goes to bother him. So make sure to have this reward handy.

Step #2: Start small! Don’t try to get your dog to accept all sorts of behaviors from your child all at once. Instead pick a behavior that only mildly bothers your dog. For this example let’s say that the behavior we want to work on is allowing your dog to tolerate his tail being pulled without growling.

WARNING!!! You should NEVER do anything that puts you or your child at risk of being harmed by your dog. These techniques are for mild cases of aggression. If your dog is dangerous, or you’re afraid of being bitten you should not follow these instructions and should instead consult a professional trainer in your local area to help you with your issues directly. There’s simply too many factors for considering your safety that this article cannot address. So please be careful.

Step #3: Reward your dog while “slightly” bothering him. If you wanted to train your dog to be more accepting of “Tail Pulling” start rewarding your dog with a treat while you lightly grab his tail. When first grabbing his tail don’t pull it, just lightly grasp it. Make sure you reward your dog with a food treat, or other reward at the exact instant you grab his tail.

This FORCES your dog to feel an emotion of excitement for a reward instead of aggression when his tail is being touched, instead of feeling aggression. Done repeatedly this will reprogram your dog to get excited about having his tail touched as more often then not it leads to a reward. In effect, you’re reprogramming his emotional mind!

Step #4: Slowly add more discomfort. When your dog willingly lets you grasp his tail ten times throughout the day without growling or showing signs of aggression, it’s time to increase the discomfort. This needs to be done SLOWLY & CAREFULLY. Don’t push your dog past his comfort zone. Instead, just try grabbing your dogs tail slightly harder, while continuing to reward him with food treats.

If you notice your dog is bothered by this harder grasping of his tail, then BACK OFF, and squeeze lighter.

The goal is to slowly teach your dog that having his tail grabbed is a good thing.

By continuing to reward your dog for having his tail grabbed while receiving a treat, you’ll be able to continue to increase your dog’s tolerance threshold. If done correctly you can increase the tolerance threshold of how much discomfort a dog can feel before acting aggressive substantially. This is why Toddler Proofing is such a wonderful technique for fixing dog aggression with children.

In many cases Toddler Proofing like techniques have been used on working dogs like seeing eye dogs. In these cases the trainers need to train the dogs to tolerate having their tails stepped on or run over by wheel chairs. These handlers need their dogs to not bite their owners who might accidentally cause them pain.

If you’re interested in learning about the many different ways that Toddler Proofing can fix dog aggression with children, then consider my “Expert Interview Series” that’s available as an add on purchase to my Hands Off Dog Training program.

By using Toddler Proofing strategies correctly, you can effective fix dog aggression towards children for whisker & tail pulling, touching of their feet, and all sorts of behaviors that children do to dogs that bother them.

Here’s hoping this helps reduce your dog’s aggression towards your child!

Posted at 11:17 am: 1 comment