confident

From the Frying Pan into the Fire: Adding a Dog When Your Current Dog Has Issues

Let’s say for the sake of argument that you have a human child who is difficult, with a personality disorder that needs professionally addressed. Yet you haven’t had the heart to take that step. Your child is antisocial towards everyone but your own family, and at times, including them. He is disruptive in school, openly hostile and pro-active about avoiding interactions while generally challenging any form of authority. Would you think it a good idea to suddenly decide to adopt another younger child to shower with affection? Would you expect the interactions of the new child and the troubled child to go smoothly?

Strangely, many people do exactly the canine equivalent of this. They are then vastly surprised that they have a problem on their hands. The expectation is that if you have two of the same species in the house, they should automatically get along. Why? All humans don’t get along. It would, of course, be great if that were the case, but humanity has a long way to go before we get to that point.

No one understands more than I do the temptation to add another canine to one’s household. But even I did not reach this point without planning. My last ‘singleton’ dog was adamant about remaining a singleton. I tried but at that stage of my training life, I was not skilled enough to ‘fix’ her. Layla’s behavior nearby other dogs in public was fine. I ‘fixed’ that very easily. She simply did not want to share her personal space with another canine and I grudgingly respected that. She had no other issues. She was a delightful and charming dog, enchanting every human she met. Everyone loved her and she them.

Adding another canine to a household with a dog who not only dislikes other dogs but also most humans, is a huge task to take on. Modifying that behavior won’t happen overnight. There are no magic wands. Consistency and parental boundaries are important. Because of my specialty, I get requests to help with such situations. I believe being truthful is important to achieving success. All family members must be on board in order for quality changes to take place. Realistic expectations are crucial and patience is key.

Teach delivers a correction to Tucker.

Managing the environment and setting each dog up for success is important. I often get asked, “How do I stop so and so from annoying so and so?” Easy, don’t let him do it in the first place. Setting up your household structure so that each dog feels safe and secure is important to success. Safety is high on the hierarchy of needs. Anxiety is off the charts without safety. The humans are in charge of safety. The dogs need structure, guidelines and safety. Reinforcing for appropriate choices and providing an incentive for such, helps to teach impulse control.

My job would be so much easier if simply integrating the dogs was my only requested task. Yet in so many of these cases, the resident dog in question *also* dislikes all human strangers so that has to be addressed before I can even attend to attempt to address the dog/dog situation. I do have to get access to the inside of the house, after all! (Edited to add in 2022: obviously, now I can offer virtual sessions for such and in many cases, that is indeed the better option. But honestly, in many cases that also means that I miss demonstrating some small things that can mean the difference between success and failure.)

In the worst scenarios, the owners have waited until the now larger and more confident dog has gotten fed up with the corrections he or she has endured at the paws of the other dog and has started to fight back. Get help before this point, please! Better yet, address your original dog’s issues FIRST, before you add gasoline to your fire. The amount of work that needs done once the deed is done is more than most people want to deal with. So do yourself a favor and think of what the resident dog needs rather than what you want.

If you lived through such a scenario, feel free to tell us all about it in the spaces below.

Mythbusters, the Dog Training Edition: “Some Breeds Need a Firmer Hand”

Breed specific enthusiasts can have a narrow view on some aspects of their chosen breed. This is not limited to any one breed. I see it among many breed enthusiasts. Everyone wants to believe that their breed is more special than any other breed. So they say things like the above phrase to set their breed apart and in doing so, themselves as well. After all, they can handle this breed so they must be special too.

In truth, all dogs are special. There no need to make any one breed seem tougher than any other breed. To do so invites abuse of that breed in the name of training. This is unnecessary at best. It is a crime at worst.

Behavior is behavior. Modifying a behavior can be done with reward based methods regardless of the breed. Breed only matters in knowing where some behaviors MAY come from and in how to redirect them more effectively. Plenty of breeds were bred for a certain job. But that never guarantees that every member of that breed has that working instinct. It very much depends on the individual parents. But knowing what that job trait may be and how certain behaviors fit into such a trait are important considerations for behavior consultants. That doesn’t however, change the methodology that one should use to modify errant behaviors that are unwelcome. There are plenty of choices on how to implement reward based behavior modification.

No force is needed to handle these two Cane Corsos.

In fact, using punitive methods on strong confident dogs can create a time bomb waiting to go off. At some point, said strong confident dog will get sick of being forced and choose to fight back. Is this the kind of relationship that you want to create with your dogs? I sure don’t. All of my confident dogs have flourished when I finally got a clue about how to inspire them effectively.

Status breeds can often the choice of some people who want to use the perceived status of their dog to elevate how they are viewed by the world at large. Being able to “control” such a “tough” dog makes them tough. So they use methods popularized by a certain TV “trainer” with little education in dog behavior. These old fashioned methods have proven to be detrimental to having a trust based relationship with one’s dog. They also often create more aggression and a defensive state of existing in the dogs in question.

Among the fallacies I have heard are that Pit Bulls have necks so strong that they can’t feel prong collars and their jaws lock so that you have to be forceful with them in order to prevent that. Of course this kind of false information creates an adversarial situation with a breed group that is already in a precarious position in the public eye right now. The truth is that this is one of the breed groups that is the softest with humans. They are often eager to please and take to reward based training very quickly. Thankfully most Pit Bull rescue and advocacy groups operate with modern methods these days, although sadly not all do. Do your research before supporting a Pit Bull rescue and choose the ones who choose to train with their brains. Without that reassurance, you can inadvertently support very old fashioned methods that rely on abuse and call it training.

Dobermans and Rottweilers are two more breeds where you often see a heavy slant towards the old fashioned methods among their fanciers. Progressive owners choose positive rewards-based methods because they work better, without a need for manhandling one’s dog. Merlin introduced me to the Doberman world and fortunately for him, I wound up on the path to reward-based training. I wish I could say the same for most Doberman fans.

Fortunately for Caucasian Ovcharkas, Kenzo’s breed, the original breeder in this country who wrote the book on the breed, was ahead of her time. Reward-based training and even capturing, is mentioned in her book on the breed. Unheard of that decade, this is a boon to the breed. This breed tends to be the picture that shows up on the internet if you google aggressive dogs. Large and powerful, yet perfectly easily trainable with reward based training, once again.

The same is true of all breeds. Behavior is behavior. Expecting to have to be forceful with your chosen breed sets up an adversarial relationship from the start. This causes defensive behavior on the part of the dog and resentful behavior on the part of the human. If you choose to see believe that you have to use a hammer, you will see everything as a nail. Build a relationship, not a battle. If you have a breed perceived as “tough”, feel free share your reward based training path in the spaces below.

Tags: abuse, behavior, breed, Cane Corso, canine, confident, dog, dominance, exercise, fight, force, household, inspire, many, modification, multiple, positive, relationship, rescue, reward, social, training, walk

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