Monthly Archives: April 2012

04/10/12

Dog-Dog Aggression (Dunbar)

This post is part of the series in response to Dunbar’s 2012 Australian seminars. See index.

Dog-dog aggression is harder to prevent that dog-human aggression, but luckily it’s more ‘livable’.  That is, a dog that hates people is hard to live with.  A dog that hates other dogs will probably be perfectly fine and happy living at home with minimal or no walks (and arguably, most dogs live like this anyway).  For this reason, Dunbar believes that socialisation of a puppy to dogs is less important that socialisation to people.  In the period from 9-12 weeks, dog-dog socialisation is not a priority.

In an off-leash puppy class at 3 months, most dog-dog issues are easily ‘fixed’.  If dogs are struggling with dog interactions in a couple of weeks, they can go to extra classes with a younger group of puppies (i.e. a scared puppy can learn to be confident around younger, small puppies) or with older puppies (i.e. a ‘bully puppy’ will soon be put in his place by older, larger puppies).  That is, a large facility running numerous puppy classes of different ages, can probably find the ‘right’ group of puppies (or young adult dogs) for a nervous or confident puppy to interact with, in order to teach that puppy appropriate interactions.

 

Two border collie puppies playing.

It’s important for puppies to socialise with other dogs and puppies to learn appropriate interactions from an early age.

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04/7/12

Fearful Dogs (Dunbar)

This post is part of the series in response to Dunbar’s 2012 Australian seminars. See index.

In the seminar, Dunbar asked us what we were afraid of. People called out common fears like spiders, enclosed spaces, and speaking in public (along was the less common fear of “tree roots”), and from these suggestions Dunbar presented a scenario:

Imagine you are going to take an elevator that is damp and smelly, and made of tree roots, and full of spiders. It’s going to take you to the highest floor of the building, where you will deliver a public address – naked. And then base jump.

Now, if your fear is not spiders or tree roots, incorporate your own fears into the story. I am terrified of bees, and imagining getting into a lift of bees is a terrible idea to me.

And then consider: Fearful dogs are living with this very real fear, everyday. It’s not fair when we accept dog fears as “Oh, he’s scared of men” and “Yeah, she doesn’t like visitors”. It is not fair to ‘let it be’, for dogs to experience these very real fears on a daily basis. Instead, a dog’s fears should demands fixing. The solution is normally classical conditioning.

 

Rottweiler being hugged.

Hugging dogs is a bite risk, so dogs should be desensitised to the sensation. Photo © Ruthless Photos.

Treating Fear Issues

Treating fear issues in dogs is much the same as prevention protocols – That is: A bunch of classical conditioning. However, for an adult dog, it takes more time and is more dangerous. Dunbar believes we spend too much time trying to diagnose ‘why’ with aggressive dogs, but the majority of aggression problems are fear based. For that reason, he suggests the same treatment protocol and that we should ditch trying to figure out ‘why’.

Food is crucial when treating aggression. Normally, aggressive dogs do not find being patted or spoken to rewarding (especially if people are the source of their fear!), so classically conditioning with food is, what Dunbar called, “the only way”.

For Dunbar, treating a fearful dog involved giving them a bunch of food for interacting with people, and for tolerating their body to be touch (desensitisation).

Dogs often bite when they are touched on their collar, ears, mouth, feet, anus, when given a hug, or given a ‘kissy face’ (staring a dog in the eyes while holding their cheeks in your hands). For safety reasons, dogs should be desensitized to these interactions in order to reduce the likelihood of bites. This goes for all dogs, not just those that are fearful.

 

Further reading: McGreevy on Classical Conditioning

04/3/12

The Importance of Bite Inhibition

This post is part of the series in response to Dunbar’s 2012 Australian seminars. See index.

Imagine you are at the dentist and he slips with his little scratchy-hook tool, and stabs your gum a little bit.  You respond by biting down on the dentist’s finger and punching him in the face.

Or you’re asleep in your bed and you partner wakes you as she hops in.  This terrifies you, so you grab your gun from under the mattress, and shoot her.

 

Red Dobermann puppy chewing person's foot.

Puppies need to be guided to learn to not use the full force of their bite as an adult dog. Photo © Ruthless Photos.

Ian Dunbar used similar human-aggressive examples in his seminar to make a point: Dog-human aggression is never okay.  Just like humans don’t (shouldn’t) hurt people that accidentally hurt them, and don’t hurt people that scare them, dogs shouldn’t hurt people in response to pain or fear.

There are simply no excuses for a dog to be human aggressive – it is never appropriate and never acceptable, regardless of the context.

First, appropriate socialisation should aim to build a confident puppy that is never fearful enough to bite as an adult dog.  Second, a puppy should be taught how to inhibit (i.e. make less forceful) their bite so that, if for some reason they are motivated to bite in their life, the bite is less severe.

Dunbar didn’t go into much detail about teaching bite inhibition at the seminar, but basically the process involves teaching the puppy to bite less forcefully and then teaching the puppy to bite less frequently (and eventually learn that they are not allowed to put their teeth on people).  Alongside this, you add a cue that means ‘let go’.  (It seems that the Dunbar seminar Crystal, at Reactive Champion, attended did talk about teaching bite inhibition in more detail.)

Furthermore, puppies that attend the Dunbar-style puppy classes, with offleash play, mean that they learn how to appropriately control their bite when interacting with other dogs.

The plan is that, after teaching bite inhibition to a puppy, the adult dog will be more likely to bite in an inhibited way.  That is, the depth and seriousness of the bite will be less severe.  A puppy that is well socialised, but does not have bite inhibition, makes for a dangerous dog.

 

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04/2/12

Dog Breeders: Don’t Produce Lemon Puppies

This post is part of the series in response to Dunbar’s 2012 Australian seminars. See index.

Dunbar is big on socialisation, and thinks that breeders should put a lot of effort and attention to socialising their puppies.  While breeders will select the best genetic combination, socialisation and training will seek to fix any deficiencies in the genetic package.  He thinks many breeders are ‘not doing their job’ and are producing ‘lemon’ puppies.  Good breeders, through socialisation, produce puppies that like being handled and like all people.

Pregnant border terrier with red ball.

Clover: Pregnant but active.

Puppy buyers need to know that all breeders are not created equal, even if producing pedigree dogs.  A pedigree is not a socialisation history, and (to Dunbar) a socialisation history is more important than their pedigree.

Breeders are responsible for training puppies until they are 8 weeks old.  They should be selling well-socialised, housetrained, and chew-toy trained puppies.  (And if they are, they can charge twice as much for one – Dunbar’s motivator to breeders!)  By 8 weeks, the critical period is half over! So breeders really need to be doing something.

A puppy that is exhibiting fearful behaviour at 8 weeks or earlier is problematic.  At 8 weeks, a puppy should run up to all people – men, women, and children. Continue reading →