I want to address owners and trainers that believe the owner should bring the dog out and meet on neutral ground. If the owner brings out a scared dog to meet a stranger, you’re putting that dog in a situation that it likely needs to show aggression. This is setting a dog up to fail. When I enter the back yard, the dog is only scared – not scared AND showing aggression. For some dogs, you really only have one chance to make the impression – screw it up and you’re done.
Typically when dog owners contact me, we usually have a good conversation on the phone. I tend to ask alot of questions to try to understand what is causing the dog behaviour. More importantly, it’s a good chance to understand what the owner has been told about the dog, and what they have done to try to overcome. I love talking to dog owners.
I don’t care that a dog is showing aggression or reactivity, I need to understand why it’s happening. Why is this dog so worked up and acting this way – what brought the dog to this stage in its life? Aggression and reactivity are only symptoms – the outcomes of a problem. If you don’t understand the problem, then there is not much chance of fixing it.
I meet dogs one on one whenever possible, and people fail to understand what it is I’m doing. If you have a back yard, put the dog out and I’m going to essentially break into the back yard with the owners permission. It’s a worst case scenario – no? This meeting is all about the dogs choices – what is this dog going to do.
From the moment a dog starts barking in the back yard, that’s the beginning of an important conversation. It’s important to understand an insecure or unsure bark. I’ve met dogs that were all bark, teeth and slobber over the fence, you swear they are trying to eat you. People tend to avoid that, it’s all the dog learns to do – prey on peoples fear and they drive everything away. It reinforces a behaviour, a learned negative reward. However, they learn when someone isn’t afraid in a real hurry and they learn quickly that their bark isn’t going to work.
Depending on the dog, I will open a gate partially and wait for a reaction. Or I just walk in. I’m telling the dog here’s my intention, now show me yours. I’m coming into the back yard, it’s time to choose, show me the real dog. And sure enough, they choose to back down and flee. At that moment, the dog has played every card it had, I know it’s a fearful dog. Some dogs bluff charge from a distance, others will charge and make you step back. Most of these dogs are in such a state that their brain is gone, there isn’t much thought process going on. I’m just being as calm as I can be cause the dog can only stay in that state for so long. They have to calm down, being like that is exhausting, being angry is exhausing – we’ve all felt it. Some dogs need a bitching post cause they are so mentally high strung, bark it out, I’m not taking it personal. But when they finally calm down, they get another choice. To come check me out, have a sniff.
James French is so right when he says “when an animal finds peace in your presence, they will learn to trust you.” It’s called “Trust Technique”, to me fear is simply lack of trust. Humans fear that which we do not trust, and have no reason to follow that which we don’t trust. The dog is the same. Earn a dogs trust, and they will follow you into the fires of hell if you walked in calmly and didn’t make it a big deal.
One owner was so scared of me walking into her back yard, she really thought her dog would attack. Everyone around her told her that the dog was aggressive. It didn’t attack. It shit himself on the deck when I walked in. He was jumping up on the back door and peeing while he’s jumping. This is a big dog, this is heart breaking – it hurts me to see a dog react to me like this. At the end of the assessment, the owners and I are in the back yard with my dog in my lap, and their dog laying beside me and I’m giving loving affection. Many owners are shocked when they see that their dog is not aggressive, it’s scared. But so willing to choose to change in an hour or two. But if all you see is the teeth and slobber over the fence, that’s not the whole story.
Have I been bitten doing this? Yes. But I didn’t run away screaming. Once in a while my brain takes a hike and I put hands where they don’t belong. I got corrected for being disrespectful, for invading a dogs personal space. I did something stupid. Wasn’t the dogs fault.
What is all this trying to accomplish? I need to see the dog in a calm state – because that’s the real dog. The excited dog isn’t thinking, the brain is gone. A dog can’t learn anything in that state of mind – neither can you. You can’t teach anything to any animal in that state of mind.
It’s funny how calm dogs are never an issue. What you want is a calm dog. Calm dogs are never an issue.