Chapter 8: Building Good Behavior
The Constructional Aggression Treatment is not designed to force the bad behavior out of an aggressive dog’s bag of tricks. Usually, when dog owners are asked what they want their aggressive dog to do, they say “I want him to stop being aggressive!” If this is how we approached stopping aggressive behavior, we would have to punish the dog harshly while he was exhibiting aggressive behavior, using such good timing that the dog would know that behaving that way was a bad idea. Effective punishment (or correction) reduces the frequency of the behavior or stops the behavior from happening in the future. This sounds good on the surface, but as I wrote in the chapter on punishment, there are all kinds of problems that come along for the ride.
One of the problems is simple: What is the dog going to do instead of the aggressive behavior? A dog can’t just stop doing everything. If he stops behaving aggressively, he has to do something else instead. Some dogs are taught to just be still, which often makes them more dangerous. Still dogs have been known to suddenly snap—or worse—if you get too close. If we teach them not to growl, they’ll pick something else, such as a lunge. Such as a bite. Such as urinating and cowering under the bed. These aren’t the kinds of solutions most people want for their dogs’ aggression, but there’s plenty of research to demonstrate this kind of behavioral response. I hear stories all the time about how dogs respond to punishment.
I got a phone call from a woman who had called me five months earlier because her dog, Brutus, had behaved aggressively, and she was looking for some help. The first time she called, I talked to her for quite a while and urged her to make an appointment for a private behavior consultation in her home so that our trainer could see what was going on and help the family set up some management and figure out how they were going to move forward because—guess what? The woman had found out she was pregnant the day after her dog bit her. She was convinced the dog had figured out she was pregnant. I was not successful in convincing her that it was unlikely that her pregnancy caused the aggression.
Unfortunately, she did not make an appointment. Instead, she watched all the videos she could find of a TV dog trainer. The methods involved pinning the dog to the floor when he growled, showing him who was the pack leader when he wouldn’t get into his bed by physically forcing him onto his bed and holding him there, or kicking his backside when he refused to go into his crate. Brutus complied when they first started these tactics, sometimes with a growl that got him an extra kick or scolding. But here’s the deal: The dog was a purebred adult male American Bulldog who weighed 90 pounds. He was pure muscle; a powerful dog. When the owner called me the second time, it was because he had bitten her while she was straddling him and teasing him. He’d decided that he’d had enough. His owner said, “We won’t tolerate a dog who will do this.” But what was the dog supposed to do? He had tried to tell them. He had tried to tell them that he was at the end of his rope.
Brutus’s last bite landed on the grandma-to-be, who kept messing with his jowls even after he tried to move away from her and even after he growled at her to emphasize how uncomfortable he was. When she kept messing with him, he finally bit her. Can you blame him? To the poor dog’s credit, he only injured her arm; it could have been much worse.
The crate is a helpful tool that should never be used as punishment.
So the family had an intact (unneutered) American Bulldog who had only been trained with force and who was often as friendly as he could be. He had been expected to put up with unfair, escalating teasing even after he tried to get away, and even after he growled. He had finally bitten at least two people, and now a new baby was only a few weeks away. What a recipe for disaster. The owners asked if I could teach them how to teach the as-yet-unborn baby to be dominant over the dog. Yet they couldn’t manage him as adults. The family fortunately determined that they could not keep the dog because “a dog will understand who is boss in our family; that is not optional.” It’s also not realistic if the dog receives unfair treatment and doesn’t have his needs considered.
There are different kinds of leaders. At one end of the spectrum, you have an uneducated and impulsive boss who isn’t really a leader at all. He or she is just a bully. This person doesn’t give clear information about his or her expectations for the dog’s performance and berates the dog, threatens him if he doesn’t comply, and is generous with punishment. Play is one-sided and may consist of teasing by adults or mistreatment by children who aren’t taught to respect animals. At the other end is a true, benevolent leader who makes it easy for the dog to understand what to do and who looks for opportunities to reward the dog for improvements. Even before the dog knows how to do what this leader wants, the leader starts showing him what parts of it he did almost right, what parts he’s improving on, and how he can get what he needs from his world. This is done by providing reinforcement on every occasion possible. This benevolent leader figures out what the dog values so that he or she can reward the dog in a way that motivates him to cooperate with the training process and the leader.
Which kind of leader do you need to be to help your dog? Obvious, isn’t it? In this process, you are not going to be surprised if the dog can’t read your mind about what to do instead of aggressing. You’re going to get creative about figuring out ways to help him understand. The behaviors you’re going to help your dog learn must work just as well for him as the aggression did in providing distance from things he can’t deal with very well. Ideally, the new behavior will be something he cannot do at the same time as aggressive behavior. For example, a dog who is wiggling and grinning can’t bite very well, so we want to help your dog feel like wiggling and grinning. We’re not going to take away one behavior and then let him figure out other things to do on his own. He might not make the right choices. We’re going to show him how to succeed.
Physical reprimands, such as grabbing the dog by the scruff of his neck, do nothing to improve—and usually worsen—a dog’s behavior.
Your dog has been showing you what he wants as a reward for his aggressive behavior all this time. He wants others to leave him alone or stop what they’re doing. Your aggressive dog already knows how to make other people go away and leave him alone or how to make them knock off the nonsense. Do you think that Brutus’s grandma didn’t back off (finally!) when he bit her? He tried to tell her that he’d had enough when he walked away from her. It didn’t work. He tried to tell her that he was over his limit when he growled. It didn’t work. But when he bit her, she finally got the message. So what did Brutus learn? Walking away doesn’t make people leave me alone. Growling doesn’t work, either. Biting works.
Distance from annoyances, threats, and fearsome things is what the aggressive dog usually wants. In the CAT procedure, we are not going to force a dog go into his crate by kicking him. We’re not going to demand that he endure more than he is already telling us he can endure just because we’re supposed to be the leaders. Instead, we’re going to pay attention to what he’s trying to tell us and help him learn new behaviors that will help him be more successful in his life with humans.
Once you know why your dog is behaving aggressively, you can begin to help him.
How do we do this? The first thing we need to do is figure out what he is trying to accomplish with his aggression. What does he get out of it? Does he bark and growl to get people or dogs to come closer like the Ridgeback mix I described earlier who was frustrated because he never got to play? CAT isn’t the right treatment for that dog. Or does he want people or dogs to go away and keeps behaving aggressively because he knows that it works to make them go away?
What does Brutus want? He wants to get people to get out of his face because so many people have used force with him and ignored his attempts to tell them he was in over his head. He had learned that his initial safe choices of moving away and even growling were not effective deterrents to unwanted physical manipulations of his body. He had learned that he had to bite if he wanted people to knock it off. The owner told me that it seemed as if he didn’t like to be told what to do. It sure sounds that way. It sounds like he was most often expected to do things that were very unpleasant for him. What if they had tried rewarding good behavior and making it easy for him to understand what good behavior was?
If you have used forceful methods with your dog, it doesn’t make you a bad person. Correction-based training has been with us for a long time and doesn’t seem ready to die out in the United States anytime soon, although some other countries are stricter about the treatment of animals. With the Internet full of different handling methods and training techniques, it’s hard to know what’s best. But if you’ve tried certain techniques and your dog has become worse, or he is fine until he’s close enough to bite, or he has shut down and lost his interest in being engaged with the world, let’s start over and try something different. Clean slate.
Positive training is a partnership between owner and dog.
As I’ve mentioned repeatedly so far, our goal is to teach your dog new behaviors that he can do instead of behaving aggressively. How do we do that? The first thing we need to think about is where the aggression takes place. Aggression is situation-specific. There are situations in which it happens and situations in which it doesn’t. Situation is a pretty generic word, so let me illustrate what I mean.
Riley was not aggressive toward me on the sidewalk in front of his house, at the front door, or even in the backyard. Those situations were not problems. But he lunged and barked at me as I was entering the living room. That situation was a problem. So our work had to begin upon entering the living room.
Sabrina was only aggressive toward her female owner’s sister and only at their home but not when her male owner was anywhere in the home or on the property. So, part of the situation was the presence of the owner’s sister at their home. In addition, she was only aggressive if the male owner got in his car and drove away. So her situation also involved the absence of the male owner. Her work had to be done with the sister present in the home and the male owner absent.
Identify the situation(s) in which your dog’s aggression occurs.
There are some dogs who behave aggressively around food, and others who protect the couch or the bed. There are certainly mother dogs who will protect their puppies. You may hear these behaviors referred to as different types of aggression, but really these are the situations in which aggression occurs. If your dog’s aggression never occurs in the park, you do not have to work in the park, although it won’t hurt if you do. If the aggression happens only in your front yard, that is the only place you need to work. Many dogs behave aggressively in more than one situation, so figure out which situation has the most significant impact on your life and start there. You will need to work in multiple situations if your dog behaves aggressively in multiple situations.
Part of the situation is the people who are around when aggression occurs, both the person toward whom your dog behaves aggressively and the person holding his leash or standing nearby. If the dog behaves aggressively toward one specific person, that person will have to be involved in the training. If the dog behaves aggressively toward a category of people, such as men or, even more specifically, men with beards, you’ll start with a bearded guy as your helper and then do the work with other bearded guys, again and again, until your dog gets the idea that the world works the same way no matter what guy it is.
You may find that the human holding the leash can affect whether a dog behaves aggressively. As I mentioned, I was working with a Greyhound who behaved aggressively toward guests in her living room. The wife worked with me, holding the leash, and I acted as the interloper since I was a stranger to the dog. After a while, we had made a lot of progress with me entering the home, and the dog’s aggression was getting much less intense. Then the husband walked through the room. She lost it and began to aggress vigorously, so we had to work a lot more with the husband.
I worked with a small terrier who behaved aggressively to pretty much anyone she didn’t know, but only if her owner wasn’t around. If her owner was holding her leash, she acted fine. This made it quite tricky to leave her with friends or a house sitter when the owner traveled. So we worked with strangers holding her leash and with strangers approaching her while her leash was held by someone other than her owner.
If you’re having trouble figuring out the situations that affect your dog’s aggression, consider these points: Is it in the morning or evening? Is it cold or hot outside? Do you hear any sounds when it is happening? (With sounds, if you can make the sound stop, you may not have to do anything else.) Does it happen when children are playing noisily in the house? (Making this the dog’s crate time away from the kids could be the right management solution.) Is it immediately after you arrive home from work? (Until you do further treatment, can you make homecomings less exciting? Or keep the dog in a different room so he can’t approach the front door until he’s calm?)
You are most likely familiar with using treats to reward behavior you like. In CAT, instead of using treats as rewards, you are going to reinforce the behavior you like by removing something (person or animal) that the dog doesn’t like. To make this as minimally aversive as possible, start working with your dog far enough away from the other person or animal that he doesn’t get very worried. Set up a safe training environment in a space that is significant to the dog’s aggression (in other words, in a place where the aggression often occurs) and then introduce the threatening person or dog. (I’ll talk about how to select these helpers in the coming chapters. These will be helpers we can instruct to behave in certain ways as we create a controlled training environment for the first stages of the work). The goal is to keep the “threat” (a.k.a. the helper) far enough away from the dog that the dog doesn’t get worked up about it. Ideally, we’ll be far enough away that the dog notices the threat but doesn’t respond to it much at all.
For some dogs, the threat is going to have to be a long, long way away. I once coached a trainer through a session in which the dog was in a dog run on a country road and would go berserk if someone walked down that road. The stranger could be as far as 250 feet away! Fortunately, it was possible to work on that road, and the treatment was successful. But some dogs only behave aggressively in the living room yet are insensitive to responses by the helper when he’s halfway around the block. There have been times when I’ve had to talk to clients’ neighbors and ask if we could walk up their driveways to do the work. Sometimes my first session with a family is all about setting up the training environment.
We will talk in greater detail on how to set up training scenarios in a later chapter, but right now let’s walk through a few common situations in which family dogs behave aggressively and how CAT could be used in these situations. As I mentioned, the “type” of aggression your dog exhibits really refers to the situation in which he behaves aggressively. (Note: Do not start the work now. Just read this section and think about how you might arrange your setup.)
Furniture Guarding
A dog named Magpie would often sit on the couch with one of her owners, Jennie, while she watched television. When Jennie’s husband, Amos, would come over to sit down, Magpie would begin to bark fiercely and bare her teeth. While they used to laugh about it, it gradually became a greater concern when Magpie started snapping.
When the family decided to try CAT, they started by having Magpie wear her leash in the house for a few days. Amos approached the couch only close enough that Magpie knew he was there, and when she stopped staring at him or did anything a tiny bit more acceptable than barking, he walked away. Remember, dogs usually don’t offer great behavior right away, so you start out by having the helper walk away when the dog does something a teeny-tiny bit better, even if it’s just stopping for two seconds instead of one between barks.
Amos repeated this several times. Once he could tell that Magpie was not worried about him at that distance, he came a short step closer. When he was ready to watch TV, either he sat in a chair rather than on the couch or Magpie and Jennie moved to the chair. If Magpie barked, stiffened, stared at Amos, or behaved in any way that was not friendly or neutral, Amos waited calmly; as soon as she stopped behaving aggressively and did something neutral or friendly, he walked away. It’s important to understand that he always walked away when Magpie was behaving in desirable ways. He did not walk away when she was behaving aggressively. In addition, he never walked closer to Magpie while she was on the couch if she had just behaved nicely because he knew that would be too much pressure for her, and he didn’t want to mess up all the work he’d been doing.
After working with Magpie for a while like this, Jennie called Magpie off the couch, put her in her crate, and gave her a very delicious dog toy stuffed with a mix of wet and dry dog food so that she could entertain herself for a while as the couple watched TV. Each day, Amos did a few minutes of this work with Magpie until he could sit on the couch with her and his wife.
While they were doing the work, as Amos got close to the couch, at first he had to pretend that he was going to sit down rather than actually sitting down (kind of a fake-out) and then walk away when Magpie didn’t behave aggressively. If he misinterpreted her comfort level, and she did behave aggressively, Jennie held onto the leash so that she couldn’t move close enough to snap. When she did anything that was neutral or friendly, Amos walked away.
Every time Amos walked away, Jennie followed Magpie’s lead. If she asked to be petted, she was petted. If she kept looking at Amos, Jennie just sat and waited. This process was inconvenient for Amos, who was often tired after work and just wanted to relax, but both Jennie and Amos knew that sometimes pet ownership requires some sacrifice, so they did the work until things were comfortable in the family again.
During the same period of time that Amos was doing this work, Jennie worked on teaching Magpie to jump off the couch on cue when Jennie said “Off” (and gave her a treat when she responded correctly) and go into her crate on her own. To teach Magpie to jump off the couch, at first Jennie went to the kitchen and called Magpie to her. When Magpie jumped off the couch, Jennie gave her a very special treat instead of her daily kibble or her usual treats. Jennie chose the kitchen because she knew Magpie was always willing to go into the kitchen because of the possibility of treats or dropped food. The treats that Jennie offered for this training were extra-special (leftover meat from dinner, string cheese, liver treats) because she wanted to be sure that Magpie really liked cooperating. Jennie gave Magpie these special treats during intensive training but not at any other times.
Over time, Jennie could stand next to the couch and cue Magpie to get off the couch for a treat. Eventually, Jennie worked up to saying the cue, having Magpie jump off the couch and get a treat, and allowing her to jump right back up so that it never seemed like a punishment. Jennie repeated this exercise until Magpie knew the drill very well. Over time, Jennie would have Magpie stay on the floor longer and longer until she could wait on the floor while Jennie and Amos sat down on the couch to watch TV.
At this point, Magpie would only jump on the couch when invited by Jennie and Amos. If she was on the floor, either Amos or Jennie would say, “Up!” and give Magpie a treat as soon as she jumped onto the couch. Gradually, Magpie had to wait longer and longer for the cue to jump “up” so that she learned that it wasn’t her decision when to jump up, it was her owners’ decision. Normally, letting dogs get on the furniture is no problem if families enjoy it, but it was a big problem in Magpie’s case because she guarded the seat. For this reason, she doesn’t get to decide when she will join her family on the couch.
Eventually, Magpie learned to wait to be invited onto the couch. Jennie and Amos often cued her to get “off” the couch before Amos sat down, and then to get “up” on the couch only after he was seated and comfortable. Other times, they gave Magpie a food-stuffed dog toy in place of dinner, and she ate it in her crate while her people ate pizza on the couch; they did not want to add to the difficulties Magpie had in behaving properly on the couch.
All of these tools together provided the family with options and comfort while letting the dog understand that life can still be good even when it’s not just Magpie and Jennie on the couch alone. You may have noticed that there were two parts to Maggie’s training: Amos did the CAT procedure, and Jennie worked on teaching her to get off the couch and go into her crate for a treat. Together, these two techniques gave Magpie acceptable ways to behave during couch time.
Guests Visit
When Victor’s dog, Duke, heard the doorbell, he would go berserk, barking and circling. When Victor opened the door, Duke would often stare at the visitor while continuing to bark. The last time someone came to visit, Duke had charged the person; when the guest was turning to run away, Duke had bitten him on the back of the leg. Victor was very concerned about Duke’s behavior and his friends’ safety, so he asked some friends and family if they would be willing to help him work with Duke if he promised to have Duke safely secured and made them dinner. One of the hardest things to do is find helpers willing to work with aggressive or reactive dogs, so it’s always nice to reward them, too!
When Victor found the first person who would do the work, and before they started to work, Victor set up the environment. Before the helper was expected to arrive, Victor put Duke’s leash on and took him for a walk to relieve himself. (It’s hard for a dog to learn when has to go, so it’s always good to take care of business first.) Then, Victor brought Duke back into the house and tethered him to a heavy clip he had installed in a stud in the wall. Duke could see the front door from his safe spot. Because Duke was a very strong dog, Victor decided this would be a safer approach than trying to hold the leash while also instructing his friends on what to do. In the days leading up to doing the work with Duke, Victor clipped Duke in this place for short periods of time at different times of day with a comfortable dog bed and a chew bone or treat-stuffed toy so that he got used to spending time there. If you have a piece of furniture heavy enough that your dog can’t move it, you can opt for tethering him to that. The key is safety.
Victor double-checked that his dog’s leash was secure enough to hold him. Earlier, when he had realized that if Duke wanted to get out of his collar badly enough, he could back out of it, Victor decided to get Duke used to a body harness. He used a clip to attach the leash to both the harness and the collar at the same time to reduce Duke’s risk of getting loose. He had Duke wear this equipment at home and on walks for a while every day when they weren’t doing any training so that Duke wouldn’t associate it with the CAT treatment.
During the time before he was able start CAT with Duke, Victor put a note on his door saying, “Only ring once! Please be patient.” This allowed Victor time to secure Duke in his safe spot with a treat before anyone came inside. Victor knew it was very important to ensure that Duke never bit anyone again, both for the guest’s safety and for Duke’s own safety.
As he prepared to do the procedure, Victor also spent time studying his dog’s body language by doing the observation exercises so that he could work with his dog more effectively. He also studied general body-language information about dogs. (Something that smart animal trainers say is, “Know your species!”) Most of us humans think we know dogs inside and out because we have been around them most of our lives. Unfortunately, we very often attribute human likes, dislikes, and behaviors to them. While many dogs fit in remarkably well with us, they are still dogs, and they need to be understood like dogs. If we “understand” them like something they’re not, we are sure to run into problems.
Victor understood that each dog is an individual who may be aggressive his own way, and he also understood how aggression often presents itself in the canine species in general. He knew that, before he bites, a dog will often freeze, lower his head, look at the body part he is preparing to bite, and lunge forward. He may pull his tongue inside his mouth so he won’t bite it and so his teeth are available to bite with.
Victor had videotaped Duke’s behavior at the door a few times, so he knew that Duke usually turned in circles before freezing and lowering his head as someone came through the door. Victor knew that circling was part of his dog’s chain of aggressive behaviors.
When Victor’s friend Glenda approached the door to help with Duke’s CAT training, Victor went to the door and greeted her as usual. They were great friends and often waved their arms and spoke in excited voices when they saw each other. When they did this, Victor observed that Duke became very agitated. He showed his agitation by drooling, circling, and barking repeatedly from his secured space. Victor realized this wasn’t going to make it easy for Duke to make good choices at the door, so he decided it would be a good idea to make greetings a little less animated. This is similar in concept to starting out very far away. Too close can be too stressful for learning. Too active and loud can also be too stressful for learning. Start where the dog can be successful, and build from there.
By the end of the procedure, the goal was to have guests come in and greet Victor in their normal ways, but Victor knew that wasn’t going to happen for a while. In this case, Glenda went back outside, and Victor greeted her outside with the door closed, with a quieter voice and less animation. He asked Glenda to text him when she arrived next time so he could meet her outside, where they could greet without upsetting Duke, and then they would calmly go into the house together.
Victor asked Glenda to walk away from the house, down the sidewalk leading to the front door, and stop near the street. He left the door open so Duke, from his safely tethered position, could see her. When she turned back to face the house from this farther distance, Duke could see her, but he didn’t bark. They decided that this would be a great place to start the procedure. Victor knew how important it was to avoid the dog’s becoming too worked up.
Victor made sure Duke was secured and then stood inside the door of the house. On Victor’s instruction (they used cell phones), Glenda moved one step toward them. Duke’s ears perked up, and he closed his mouth. Victor told Glenda to stay in place until Duke tried something different. Because Duke was not overly stressed, pretty soon he turned his head away, and Glenda immediately turned and walked away. Because it was hard for Glenda to see what Duke was doing in any detail, Victor instructed her by phone. This was fine for Duke because Victor often talked on the phone. Walking away was a reward for Duke’s turning his head rather than performing more of his series of aggressive behaviors. Before this day, Duke had always gotten the same reward of people turning to move away (quickly!) when he was aggressive, but now, instead, his gentler or neutral behaviors were being rewarded from a very easy distance.
Glenda made a mental note of how close she had come to the door the first time she approached. Many people use some sort of movable marker, like a piece of tape or a stone, to help them remember where they were so they don’t accidentally go too close too soon, which can cause the dog to have an aggressive response. Glenda remembered exactly where she was by noticing a crack in the sidewalk. The next time she approached Duke, she came one small step closer than before. Like the first time, she waited for Duke to offer an alternative to aggression. Victor told Glenda that the goal was for her to walk away when Duke was moving in some way rather than when he was being very still. If being still worked to get Glenda to walk away, Duke would continue being still, and it would become harder for Victor to find any behaviors to work with.
Things went very well for the next several approaches, with Glenda stepping a few inches closer each time. When Glenda got several steps closer, Duke suddenly erupted into an aggressive display that was pretty frightening. The first thing Glenda thought was that all this work had been for nothing. It can be very frustrating when you’ve been working along just fine and there is a sudden eruption of unpleasant behavior from the dog. What happened was simply that the situation had changed in some way. Possibly Glenda was now coming close enough that Duke was more worried and he behaved in his old way. It’s also possible that the light outdoors had changed because the sun went behind a cloud, or any number of other things that changed the situation a little. This does not mean the procedure wasn’t working. All it means is that something changed.
Victor understood, and he explained to Glenda that they would have to help Duke work through these new environmental conditions by doing the same procedure in the new conditions. It also was important to take it easy and try not to overwhelm Duke.
The next time Glenda approached, she didn’t come as close as she had come when Duke behaved aggressively. She repeated her approach at this farther distance several times, watching for Duke to move his body loosely, turn away, sit, lie down, or do any safe, neutral, or friendly behaviors. Once he had done this several times, she and Victor agreed that she was going to come one step closer. She made the step very small. This time, it was a very successful attempt, so they all took a break. Duke got a bathroom break with Victor, followed by some water and playtime outside. After Duke was taken care of, Glenda and Victor sat outside with a nonalcoholic drink to talk over what they’d accomplished. (Drinking alcohol while training aggressive dogs is like drinking and driving. Don’t do it!)
They started the work again after half an hour, repeating some of the steps they had just done and letting Duke have lots of successes. Then they called it a day and scheduled a new session for the following week.
Each week, they repeated the procedure. After several sessions, Glenda approached almost close enough for Duke to touch her, but not quite, so they decided it was time to take the show on the road. Victor took Duke’s leash from its clip. Glenda walked out the front door. Victor and Duke followed Glenda from a very safe distance. Once outside, they walked up and down the sidewalk with several feet between them and Glenda. Every once in a while, when Duke was behaving very well, Glenda turned and walked away from Duke and Victor. Then they continued their walk. Sometimes Glenda walked in front, sometimes she walked beside, and sometimes she walked behind.
As this work continued, Duke became increasingly curious about Glenda. He lengthened his neck and sniffed toward her and took a few steps closer. Glenda did not approach Duke yet. She let him sniff in her direction while Victor maintained control of the leash without pulling it too tight. (Many dogs have learned to behave aggressively when their leashes are pulled tight. Victor kept just enough tension in the leash that he could easily control Duke should Duke lunge.)
They did this several times before they determined that Duke was ready to sniff Glenda’s hand, and Glenda was ready to let him. Duke touched her hand with his nose, licked lightly, and backed up. Glenda walked away and they called it a day again so that the session could end on a positive note.
If Victor and Glenda had been able to do a whole-day session, the procedure may have gone more quickly, but because both of them had full-time jobs and other commitments, it just wasn’t possible. They found that sometimes when they started a new session, they had to back up a little bit in their progress and not expect too much of Duke. Some weeks, he picked up right where they had left off, but other weeks, he seemed to have regressed. They knew they couldn’t expect more of Duke than he was offering freely, so they were conservative in their starting points.
Over several weeks, Duke approached Glenda and allowed her to pet him. Sometimes he would even lie down beside her while Victor and Glenda talked. Victor had a lot of friends, so he managed to encourage several others to do the same thing Glenda had done. Each time, the procedure worked a little better and went a little faster as Duke began to understand that Victor’s friends weren’t threats.
Victor remained vigilant when people were around for the rest of Duke’s life, even after his behavior improved. Often Duke was clipped near his dog bed with a chew toy so that Victor could entertain guests or watch TV with a friend and not be 100-percent focused on Duke. Other times, he crated Duke in a separate room where Duke could relax. Victor never treated this as a punishment for Duke but instead as an opportunity to make having guests over less stressful.
Over time, Duke became much more comfortable about visitors. Victor invited his guests to drop treats near Duke but not overtly engage with him. Victor remained Duke’s advocate and asked that people not lean over him, hug him, or otherwise do anything that might cause Duke to become overwhelmed and perhaps return to his history of biting.
Aggression toward Other Dogs
One common situation in which dogs behave aggressively is when they see strange dogs. Many dogs don’t have much experience with other dogs, so their stress increases in their presence. Sometimes dogs like certain dogs but not others. And sometimes dogs don’t like other dogs for some reason we may never fully understand. If the goal of the dog’s aggressive behavior is to chase the other dog away, we can do the CAT procedure to help him learn how to behave safely in the presence of other dogs.
Lillie’s dog, Beau, would bark viciously when he saw other dogs on leash on their walks. Lillie recruited a friend with a very friendly dog to help her work with Beau. Before their first work session, Lillie ensured that Beau’s leash was secured on his harness and collar and that she felt comfortable holding him back if he should lunge.
Lillie had her friend, John, bring his dog, Belle, to the far corner of the street before she walked out her door with Beau. When Beau reacted aggressively to the sight of Belle, Lillie just casually stood still and waited until Beau produced a neutral or alternative behavior, and she used her cell phone to call John and have him stay where he was while she and Beau walked farther away from them. Several times, she slowed down and asked Beau to turn around with her, and they would walk a few steps toward John and Belle. She never dragged or forced Beau; she simply invited him to go the other way for a few steps. When Beau was far enough away from Belle that he displayed no aggression, Lillie let John know to start walking the opposite way at a moderate pace. Now they were all walking in the same direction, with John and Belle in front. They stayed a block ahead of Beau and Lillie for a while and gradually reduced the distance. Lillie wanted Beau to be able to see Belle as they walked so he wouldn’t find her as threatening.
As the work proceeded, Lillie sped up just slightly and John slowed down just slightly so that the dogs were a little closer to each other. If it got to the point that Beau froze, growled, or otherwise expressed concerns about Belle up there ahead of him, Lillie walked slowly along until he chose a safer behavior.
As long as Beau didn’t try to charge the duo ahead of them, Lillie allowed him to make any of a variety of choices as long as they were safe or neutral. If he turned away, great! Lillie turned away, too, and they walked in the other direction. If he stared, Lillie waited for him to break his stare and either followed Beau away from Belle or just didn’t make Beau walk forward while John and Belle continued to move, increasing the distance between them in that way. Lillie never forced Beau to do anything unless she had to break up a dangerous situation. She let Beau learn that he could make effective choices that weren’t aggressive and that his safe choices would not result in punishment, correction, or pain.
As you can see, this scenario is a little different than the first two, and there are some reasons behind that. For one thing, we still want Beau to know that making good choices is going to pay off in the reward of putting more distance between him and the other dog. While Amos was able to reward Magpie’s better behaviors by walking away from the couch, Magpie had little space to move, so Amos showed her that she could control the environment in ways that were worthwhile to her by choosing nicer behavior. But Amos was the one to go away. When we’re out walking our dogs on the street, we can’t control what other people will do with their dogs. We can’t expect strangers to automatically walk away when our dog is good. They’re far more likely to expect us to punish our dog for his aggressive behavior, even though we know that punishment can easily worsen the behavior.
If Beau decides that he can’t make that other dog go away, so he’ll just go away himself, who are we to argue? Let him! Go with him! Your walk doesn’t have to be linear and always go in the same direction. It should show your dog that aggression is not the only way to get relief from other dogs who make him uncomfortable. Turning the other cheek works, too. If working with a helper and his or her dog, you can reset the situation to show your dog that it works again and again, in this location and that, when it’s dusk and when it’s midday. The advantage of doing some work with a friend and his or her nice dog is that you can set up some situations that you know you’ll need to train, and you can repeat them until your dog gets the idea that it’s all good. That’s very helpful.
You can also set up some more formal training scenarios with your friend and his or her dog, and later with other dogs, that will help the process move along faster. Lillie and Beau will stand in one place while John and Belle approach from a great distance. They will do what Glenda did in the setup with Victor and Duke. They’ll come just a little closer, and then, when Beau is being a very good boy, they will reward him by walking away again. Lillie will let Beau watch them walk away because seeing them walk away is a huge reward. She won’t call, talk to, or distract Beau at that point. If he turns to her, she will talk calmly to him or pet him briefly. Remember, she’s rewarding his safe, friendly, or neutral behavior; she’s not forcing him to do what she wants him to do. John and Belle will gradually inch closer and walk away again and again. If Beau reacts aggressively on one of the approaches, John and Belle wait until he does something safe or neutral before walking away. Belle always gets petting, treats, and reassurance from John throughout the procedure, especially if Beau is growly. But if Beau checks in with Lillie, he also gets petted and reassured. He does not get treats just yet because we want to teach him how to make other dogs go away by being nice. If he likes treats, he can get plenty of treats and petting for doing easy tricks and for lying calmly in his bed or next to Lillie on the couch after the training session. Treats are a great training tool, but right now we want him to see what else the environment can give him.
These are just a few examples of how you might set up a training session for your own dog by recruiting friends and getting creative about how to use the environment in which the aggression usually occurs. If at any point you are confused, take a break and think it through some more. Don’t take risks that could push your dog further than he can tolerate.
