Fixing Dog Aggression On Leash
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.
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