Management is Half the Battle
About 50-75% of my clientele at any given time consists of reactive, fearful, or aggressive dogs. As my clients all know (since it's stated in my contract) aggression as well as other serious behavioral issues can be modified and managed but can never be considered cured. What that means, is that for these subsets of dogs, the training program is all about modification and management.
Each dog is different and each dog is going to reach a different level of modification by the end of the training program, but each dog needs to be managed equally until we can be certain that there is no risk of injury to the dog or others.
One common frustration I hear from clients about management is that the dog is so good 99% of the time. When I hear this statement, I always think of a loaded gun analogy. Say a gun can hold 100 bullets but is currently only holding one. Would you be willing to shoot that gun at your dog? Probably not. As much as we don't like to think of our dogs as loaded guns, it's still important to recognize that when serious fallout can result, 1% is too big of a chance.
So, how do we manage these dogs while modification is taking place? Let's think about fearful dogs first. Most dogs with aggression or reactivity are fearful but for the purposes of this post I would like to describe a fearful dog as one who cowers, hides, runs away, avoids, or freezes around specific triggers, whether the trigger is the environment, a dog, or a person. Management for these dogs can be a little easier, because with a purely fearful dog with no signs of aggression, the only injury possible is usually to the dog themselves. (As a side note, any dog can bite, and fear is one of the biggest triggers for bites, so please don't take that statement and assume your dog is not a danger to others). When you're managing a purely fearful dog, you're working on keeping them emotionally safe and in a place that they can learn, as well as avoiding situations where they may learn more fear. What this means to you with a fearful dog is that your dog's world is going to become a little smaller while you're working on modification. If your dog is in a situation where they refuse to take treats, attmpt to run away, roll over or flatten onto the ground, you cannot allow your dog in those situations until modification of those behaviors allow them to cope more successfully. If you fail to manage your dog, you are doing them and yourself a disservice by proving to your dog that they do in fact need to be fearful in these situations.
You may also have to manage by increasing distance from triggers, giving extra command or lure help, or keeping your dog's attention on you when your dog begins to pant, stare with wide eyes or seeing the whites of their eyes, tucking their tail, or pinning their ears back. What about reactive dogs? For the purposes of this dog, a reactive dog, when on leash or off, will lunge, bark, or growl at another dog or person. They might make contact but will not injure. A dog like this does is not necessarily aggressive (will not necessarily injure), but one of the causes for aggression is overarousal. A reactive dog can spill over into displaying aggression if their stress or excitement level gets too high. Therefore, one of the biggest management requirements with a reactive dog is ensuring their energy level doesn't spill into that zone. There are a few ways to manage this. Avoidance is the biggest one; I cannot say that enough. Remember that there are two parts of training a reactive dog, management and modification. We will be modifying the behavior in order to reduce the management requirements, but until the modification has kicked in (and that can take a while) management is absolute key. The more your dog practices their reactivity, the more they believe that reactivity is the best behavior in order to get the most optimal outcome for themselves.
Easier said than done, right? First management tool is your leash. This is huge. If you have a dog that you know will become reactive when off leash, that dog cannot be off leash in any situation where their trigger might exist. This includes on hiking trails, at dog parks, in unfenced yards. This also means your house must be kept secure- make sure your doors are kept shut so your dog cannot leave your house unsupervised. Things can happen very quickly and many reactive dogs have very fast triggers, so when a situation does occur, you will not have time to implement your management. The primary goal of management is that it is proactive not reactive. Use a 6 foot leash, or a 25 foot lightweight rope in an "offleash" situation.
If your dog is reactive on leash, avoid those situations. Learn your dog's trigger distance and cues, and make sure you aren't putting your dog into a place they will become reactive. Now, aggressive dogs. An aggressive dog in this post is a dog who will actually make contact with a trigger, or will injure. Some of this is contextual; a dog can be aggressive but not reactive, reactive but not aggressive, or can be both. A primarily reactive dog can become aggressive when their arousal level becomes too high. Your management for reactive dogs also applies. Your dog cannot be off leash around triggers- not in an unfenced yard, not on a hiking trail, not in your house if you have visitors over. Help them avoid the situation if possible- if people are over, put the dog in a crate, in your fenced backyard, or in a spare room with a locked door. Anything that will help them avoid practicing their current behavior.
When you have a dog with potential aggression, a muzzle may be necessary. Not everybody else is going to manage their dog, unfortunately, nor will they listen when you ask them not to pet your dog. This is a fact of life. Protect yourself, your dog, and the public until modification has been firmly put into place. Muzzle your dog while leashed if need be, or at the vet, or at the park. Muzzle them when a visitor comes to your house. Oakley, pictured above, wears a muzzle because we cannot trust members of the public to avoid touching him. He has never bitten, and we want to make sure he never does. These things are crucial because again, the more your dog displays their inappropriate behavior, the more likely they are to display that behavior in the future. Your dog WILL improve with behavioral modification, but the modification is only half of the training program. If you take the management out of the equation you will only be disappointed by your results.
