Post by ShariMurphy on Aug 28, 2014 10:48:46 GMT -5
When you suspect your dog has aggression issues, you often feel scared. The first time you experience your dog's "not so friendly" reaction to another dog, person, animal, or when they snap at you or a family member, you often feel overwhelmed and confused. You think "how did this happen?" Our first reaction is to punish the dog by yelling, screaming, hitting, kicking, choking, dragging, and isolating our dogs.
Many people never pick up on the subtle changes that take place over the course of weeks, months, or years. Humans and dogs are different species, how can we be expected to understand everything they do?
The first time your dog shows signs of anxiety, our initial response is to make light of the situation. The first time our dog hid behind us and cowered from a person, place, or noise. From there, our behavior turns into pity and we end up coddling our fearful dogs until they can no longer function in any situation. Our next response is to force them into situations because we won't tolerate ridiculous behavior on our dog's part. After all, who the heck is afraid of something like a ceiling fan, or car horn? How ridiculous is our dog being? When we force them to "face their fears", our dog reacts unpleasantly. They will either attack the object, or eliminate on themselves. At this point, we get angry and punish.
These are the never ending cycles of HUMAN behavior. These responses are not those of a dog. Now it is time to take a step back, and ask the right questions.
First, start with a Behavior Journal. Log the following:
- the date & time of the first time you witnessed the aggressive or fearful behavior
- the weather
- the location
- how far away before the reaction started
- what was happening at the moment that your dog had the reaction, like was someone petting your dog, were the staring at your dog, were they loud, was it a child?
- Was there loud traffic passing by like a trash truck or fire engine?
- your mental state; were you nervous, hurried, or distracted?
- Was it on your property or off like at a park or friend's house?
- Was this a familiar dog, or a stranger dog?
- Was it a familiar person or a stranger?
- Did you notice any signs of your dog being uncomfortable? Hackles up (hair on back of neck), growling, stiffened up?
- What were you doing at the time of the reaction? Did you choke up on the leash?
- Any other pertinent information, whether you think it is important or not.
When you take time to keep a behavior journal, you can greatly improve your chances of recognizing a pattern of behavior. The training professional will ask you if you notice any patterns of behavior for each of the instances. If you can provide that information, your training professional can form a treatment and training plan specific to you dog's needs and it can make your first appointment much smoother.
Many dogs will react to what we, humans, think are random times. Truth is, there is always a pattern. Dogs are not random creatures. They perform tasks and responses depending on their training, and life experiences. They are seldom random.
A training journal is also the first step in modifying your own behavior. For instance: a training journal can help you identify that your dog reacts to other dogs on leash, ONLY when you choke up on the leash during their initial greeting. You would never have discovered that without your training journal.
Once you discover your patterns, you are one step closer to repairing your dog's behaviors.