Why Obedience Class, Socializing, Meeting Other Dogs Will Increase Reactivity
Most people think their dog needs to "get used" to other dogs/people to stop barking & lunging. But that actually makes it worse! And it takes longer to improve this problem, if it's even possible, because your dog loses trust in you every time you put him in that situation. Unfortunately, talking to him and telling him he's "safe" doesn't work because dogs don't speak English. :(
Changing Your Dog's Fears Requires a Special Recipe
Barkaholics Online Class gives you the exact recipe with guided instruction so that you can enjoy walking your dog.
If Your Dog Is Barking, Lunging, Biting, Snapping & Growling, then You've Missed the 15 Times He's Told You He's Scared.
It took me a long time to understand what fear looks like apart from barking, lunging & growling. This will help you learn quickly!
Now watch the video below to see this in action.
Barkaholics Online Course
Does Fred "want" me to pet him? What would happen if I just grabbed him?
If you're not building your dog confidence account correctly, then the fear, is getting worse. Learn more below.
In the Barkaholics Online Class, we call this process adding deposits in the bank or making withdrawals; it's either one or the other! Dogs generalize and validate their fears when they don't get the right kind of information from you. :(
Want to enjoy walking with your dog?
"Aggression is therefore created in any situation where appeasement behaviour is chronically misunderstood" Dr. K. Shepherd
A common mistake is waiting for your dog to bark, lunge, bite, snap or growl. There are other signals dogs give to let you know they're uncomfortable, but unfortunately, you're not born knowing how to speak dog. But! Now you know that you need to change your dogs emotional response in the green area, not the red!
Change Your Barkaholics Dog Now
Why socializing your dog will make it worse.
Training collars can cause and increase aggression, so that won't work either. Learn the 4-Step-Process that DOES work.
From the America Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior:
"Punishment can suppress aggressive and fearful behavior when used effectively, but it may not change the underlying cause of the behavior. For instance, if the animal behaves aggressively due to fear, then the use of force to stop the fearful reactions will make the animal more fearful while at the same time suppressing or masking the outward signs of fear; (e.g., a threat display/growling). As
a result, if the animal faces a situation where it is extremely fearful, it may suddenly act with heightened aggression and with fewer warning signs. In other words, it may now attack more aggressively or with no warning, making it much more dangerous."
The Reactive Dog Recipe Revealed
Why Obedience class won't help and you dog won't listen to you. Learn the ingredients so that you can help your dog learn to look at his triggers without barking & lunging.
Learn How to Teach Your Dog to Be Calm Around His Triggers
"Aggression is therefore created in any situation where appeasement behaviour is chronically misunderstood"
Dr. K. Shepherd is a Veterinary Behaviorist in Europe. She developed the Ladder of Aggression
The Ladder of Aggression
The Ladder of Aggression is a depiction of the gestures that any dog will give in response to an escalation of perceived stress and threat, from very mild social interaction and pressure, to which blinking and nose licking are appropriate responses, to severe, when overt aggression may well selected. The purpose of such behaviour is to deflect threat and restore harmony and the presence of appeasing and threat-averting behaviour in the domestic dog’s repertoire is essential to avoid the need for potentially damaging aggression. The dog is a social animal for whom successful appeasement behaviour is highly adaptive and it is used continually and routinely in every-day life.
It is most important to realise that these gestures are simply a context and response-dependant sequence which will culminate in threatened or overt aggression, only if all else fails. Contrary to persistent misinformation, the gestures identified are nothing to do with a purported dominant or submissive state relative to companions. In all dogs, inappropriate social responses to appeasement behaviour will result in its devaluing and the necessity, from a dog’s perspective, to move up the ladder. Aggression is therefore created in any situation where appeasement behaviour is chronically misunderstood and not effective in obtaining the socially expected outcome. Dogs may progress to overt aggression within seconds during a single episode if the perceived threat occurs quickly and at close quarters, or learn to dispense with lower rungs on the ladder over time, if repeated efforts to appease are misunderstood and responded to inappropriately.
As a consequence, a so-called ‘unpredictable’ aggressive response, without any obvious preamble, may occur in any context which predicts inescapable threat to the dog, when in reality it was entirely predictable.
(Shepherd, K 2009. BSAVA Manual of Canine and Feline Behaviour, 2nd edition.pages 13 - 16. Editors Debra F. Horwitz and Daniel S. Mills).
