My favorite dogs, are a little bit murdery, and a whole lot of game. Hell…. Let’s be honest….. My favorite people are too. Call me strange, but….. It’s just how I’m wired.
Anyway….. working with dogs like that can pose a real unique problem.
If they enjoy a brawl, and will die before they stop……..
How do you get them to act less murdery?….
That is the question.
So….. This will get into a bit of science if you let it. Negative Punishment, Differential Reinforcement of Alternate Behaviors, etc…..
But…. I don’t want to go that way. Let’s keep it simple.
STEP 1: Make the game.
Make a full spectrum game, including decelerations, and stops!
And, Take it on the road to make sure it exists everywhere:
Step 2: Teach Active Attention and Temptation Resistance (-P for the nerds out there)
Step 3: Use the game to build a new decision around the trigger (DRA if you’re a geek)
Step 4: Build responsibility (transitioning to DRI)
The last thing to deal with…. The argument that as soon as you remove the toy the dog will go back to the original behavior.
That makes total sense. It’s a “natural” behavior. And…. That means it will return instantly. No?
Here’s the place where you must realize the power of habit!!!
I knew of a dog that had been raised on concrete. All poops were on concrete.
When the dog was rescued…. Would seek out concrete to shit on.
If they couldn’t find concrete…. They would hold it. To the point of being sick.
There is nothing more natural and instinctual than shitting on the woods.
But here this dog is…. looking for concrete. Why?…..
Habit.
Most dogs Aren’t being aggressive per se.
Many are just scared and confused. They get better just from the work.
Some are just fucking bored and unfulfilled. They get better just from the work.
The rest…… It’s just a habit. An unproductive, undesirable habit. Like shitting on concrete. But… It’s what they know.
IF you can block them from the behavior. And use this process to give them a new habit….. You can make them a lot less murdery.
Or….. at the very least, make their murdery tendencies WAAAY more manageable.
If you want to get much deeper into the nuts and bolts of it, there’s my presentation from the IACP conference.
And as always…. My main influence in working with tug is Ivan Balabanov. Check his instructional site out to see where I get my good ideas from!
Now, go train!!!