Your Dog s Evaluation Result: Human Aggression

Size: px

Start display at page:

Download "Your Dog s Evaluation Result: Human Aggression"

Sheila McCarthy
5 years ago
Views:

1 Your Dog s Evaluation Result: Human Aggression

2 about Your results Based on your answers from the questionnaire in conjunction with what we learned during your evaluation, we have determined that your dog has moderate to severe aggression towards people. It s important to realize that no dog is born feeling this way, nor do they want to feel this way toward humans. We can definitely help your dog, but to what degree is hard to determine until we start working with your dog. At the very least, proper management can alleviate a magnitude of stress for both owner and dog. the information in this guide Will: c Help you understand where this aggression comes from c Teach you how to help your dog work through it c Show you some options for correcting this behavior 1. The Dog Wizard

3 Why Fear and aggression go Hand in Hand Fact: most aggression in dogs roots from fear, not hate or protection. How can a dog act aggressive toward something while simultaneously fearing it? The pairing of these actions and emotions don t make a lot of sense to many dog owners. The most common aggressive actions of a dog are threatening body language, growling, intense eye contact, curled lips and bared teeth, which are direct types of communication. When a dog exhibits these behaviors, he s saying Please give me some space. I feel uncomfortable! When a human observes these signals, but doesn t understand or obey them, the dog has no choice but to communicate in a more extreme way, like snapping or biting. By this point, just about any human would get the message. 2. The Dog Wizard

When a dog is consistently pressed to the point where he s snarling and snapping before he s left alone, he is conditioned to go to this behavior first when imposed on.

4 When a dog is consistently pressed to the point where he s snarling and snapping before he s left alone, he is conditioned to go to this behavior first when imposed on. In the dog s mind, there s no point in displaying the lowlevel growls and eye contact anymore because those behaviors have been proven to be ineffective. Not only abused dogs have this sort of negative behavior pattern. A human may have completely innocent intentions while trying to approach a dog, yet ignore the dog s signal that it s uncomfortable. The person knows they re not teasing or hurting the dog, they reason, and therefore they keep interacting with the dog. Subsequently, the dog becomes more aggressive to protect itself. Potential Causes of aggressive Behavior You may or may not be able to pin point exactly why your dog acts aggressive toward humans. Some dogs have specific experiences that have shaped their opinion, some not. Below are some potential causes: LACK OF EXPERIENCE. Just like for some people, social interaction can make a dog uncomfortable. 3. The Dog Wizard

5 Again, just like people, this kind of discomfort almost always stems from not developing good social skills earlier in life. This lack of experience can mean that even harmless social communication from a human can be misinterpreted as threatening. This often happens when a dog owner has lived a relatively isolated lifestyle, or rarely exposes his or her dog to new people. Unfamiliar people are totally unrecognizable to the dog, and therefore scary. It would be like if an alien or monster appeared in front of you: you wouldn t be friendly or curious, but most likely terrified! *see image on pg. 3 HUMANS NOT LISTENING. That s right, humans not listening. Humans are often just as guilty of not listening to dogs as dogs are to humans. This happens a lot with socially insecure dogs who are giving every single they know to request space and be left alone (as we described in earlier in the document). Fact: a stranger telling an aggressively acting dog that they will not hurt them is about as helpful as saying your ABC s. Just as unhelpful is an owner telling their aggressively acting dog, that this is our friend, he won t hurt you. But strangers and owners tell dogs this all the time (with tons of intense eye contact to boot). Instead, if strangers and owners would respect the dog s insecurities and allow them to dictate the pace of the relationships combined with structure, it will go a lot smoother. To be fair, humans have the best intentions; they mostly do this because they are not going to hurt the dog, so maybe this good experience will cure the dog of being aggressive and that he can trust people. Instead, it does the opposite. It forces the dog to defend himself quickly with more extreme aggressive actions since he has been taught that people do not listen to his requests for space. And when acting aggressive works, and people back away problem solved (for the dog). 4. The Dog Wizard

To protect itself, the dog is now aggressive toward all children. HIGH CONFIDENCE BUT LOW STRUCTURE AT HOME.

6 A TRAUMATIC EVENT OR SERIES OF EVENTS. Specific negative experiences that the dog generalizes to a broader spectrum. Example: Some kids (probably with their own fear aggression issues) throw rocks at the dog, which teaches the dog small humans throw rocks and hurt me. To protect itself, the dog is now aggressive toward all children. HIGH CONFIDENCE BUT LOW STRUCTURE AT HOME. A dog that is raised without structure is forced to become its own pack leader and create its own and very rarely is this self-made structure beneficial. The dog might behave aggressive even at unwarranted times because its rules do not match those of the person it s interacting with. This is like a kid growing up on the streets who must fend for himself at every turn: this sort of child is at a huge social disadvantage and has been taught to expect bad things from the unknown. COUNTER-PRODUCTIVE CONDITIONING. Some pups are born with less confidence at birth, but regardless, no dog is confident and carefree 100% of the time. It s what we do in the times of nervousness and anxiety that shape our dog s behavior. For example, a dog may show very early signs of human fear early in life as a misinterpreted signal, or sometimes from nothing at all. As a reaction, her owner strokes her and comforts her to calm her down. When the owner responds to bad behavior with comforting, it s communicating, Good dog, be nervous and bark a lot, I ll give you love and affection when you do. 5. The Dog Wizard

7 Key information about Fear and aggression c Generally, fear-based aggression is not a result of a single incident or encounter. It was more likely a series of similar events (or longterm lack of training) that burned a certain memory into your dog s mind repeatedly over time. Remember, what appears to be playful or harmless to a human can be misconstrued by an insecure dog, planting the seeds of aggressive behavior. c Even though your dog might seem like it s acting out of anger or hate, this is a huge mischaracterization. Words like anger and hate imply a conscious decision on the dog s part and make the dog out to be the aggressor, when in reality the dog is the one feeling aggressed upon. c Oftentimes, we may not be able to pinpoint exactly where and how a dog picked up its aggressive tendencies. Sadly, this is especially common for abandoned and rescue dogs. However, this doesn t mean we can t successfully treat the behavior. 6. The Dog Wizard

resolving Behavior vs. Harmfully suppressing it Suppression of a behavior isn t changing your dog s mind about being aggressive, it s only changing its actions.

8 resolving Behavior vs. Harmfully suppressing it Suppression of a behavior isn t changing your dog s mind about being aggressive, it s only changing its actions. While the dog may stop barking, snarling or acting aggressive, the anxiety and fear carries on psychologically in your dog. For example, owners often want to stop their dog from growling at strangers. When the dog growls, the owner (or even some trainers) may try to correct the dog with a leash correction, ecollar, swat on the butt, or anything else to stop the behavior. When the growling stops, people incorrectly assume progress is being made. But the real issue remains: the dog is still uncomfortable, and it s only a matter of time before the aggressiveness explodes to the surface again, worse than ever. Resolving a behavior, on the other hand, means a dog has truly changed its perception of people. The fear and anxiety have been erased. The negative behaviors no longer surface because the biases behind them are gone. A dog with a resolved negative behavior acts and thinks like a dog who never had problems in the first place. The result is a happier dog that can go with you more places, be trusted in more situations, and function more predictably around all types of people and animals. 7. The Dog Wizard

Your Dog s Future: treated vs. untreated Behavior If left untreated: c Aggressive tendencies will not improve and stand to get worse over time. Your dog may become more of a burden than a buddy.

9 Your Dog s Future: treated vs. untreated Behavior If left untreated: c Aggressive tendencies will not improve and stand to get worse over time. Your dog may become more of a burden than a buddy. You may already be wrestling with this issue. c Dog ownership could become a stressful, anxietyinducing ordeal as you become increasingly restricted in what you can do with your dog. c If your dog bites or injures another person, you are 100% liable for medical bills and legal damages. Insurance companies, lawyers and animal control will be contacting you. There is a high likelihood you ll lose your dog forever. However, if the aggressive tendencies are corrected now: c You ll be able to clearly understand what situations your dog can handle. c You ll obtain clarity and a clear understanding of your dog, allowing for the constant worry about the what if to be gone. c You ll enjoy walking your dog without worrying about what might be coming around the corner, and if a person in approaching you, you ll know exactly how to handle the situation. 8. The Dog Wizard

What You Can Do to Help Your Dog Our research shows there are 3 components that ALL have to be addressed in order

Add structure to provide clarity and make him feel secure. 3.

Most training programs will stress the confidence element (#1 above) but often fail to incorporate structure or

10 What You Can Do to Help Your Dog Our research shows there are 3 components that ALL have to be addressed in order to make your dog more sociable and happy: 1. Boost your dog s confidence in a healthy way. 2. Add structure to provide clarity and make him feel secure. 3. Change his negative opinions of strangers into positive ones. Most training programs will stress the confidence element (#1 above) but often fail to incorporate structure or work on changing the negative opinions. Our programs focus on all three simultaneously, which is why we have an unbelievable satisfaction rate among graduates. And we re often the second or third trainer some dog owners have tried! 9. The Dog Wizard

11 CliEnt testimonials: Brian W. We rescued our 1 year old Chihuahua-mix Sasha from the animal shelter in December. In the first week we began to see concerning behavior with her. Sasha would constantly bark and snap at all visitors, human and canine. She was quite aggressive towards food and our other two dogs. She whined in her crate all night long and would constantly try to attack our cats. Overall, it quickly became clear to my wife and I that Sasha had significant behavioral issues, and we felt that something more than a one hour per week training program was needed to help her. When my wife suggested The Dog Wizard, I was skeptical. First, I worried that if she was trained by someone else while we weren t there Sasha would learn to obey them and not us. Second, it seemed very expensive for dog training based on the results we ve seen from other training programs. Boy, was I wrong. It just goes to show that you get what you pay for. After The Dog Wizard did an evaluation, they determined that Sasha lacked confidence and her behavior was due to being afraid. We chose the Boarding Program for Sasha. Sasha was at The Dog Wizard for two weeks, during which her trainer sent updates, frequent photos, videos, Facebook updates, and phone calls of her progress. She is a wonderful trainer. She clearly explained and demonstrated Sasha s new commands and was extremely patient in answering our questions, visiting our home a few times after the formal training had ended. She even took Sasha into her own home for a period during her training due to a snowstorm that shut the city down. This was above and beyond what we had expected. She clearly loves what she does and handled Sasha as if she were her own, which was very comforting. When she returned home from the two week training program, Sasha s behavior did a 180. Her reaction to people is completely different now. She shows excitement toward new people with a happy rear-end wiggle, rather than a bark and a snarl. Sasha listens and responds to my wife and I, sitting quiet and still while the cats walk by or eat their food. Learning the commands has given her confidence so she is not instantly scared of everything and everyone anymore. We cannot thank The Dog Wizard enough for the help they provided to us and Sasha. 10. The Dog Wizard

12 Kerri K. We just finished the 8 week private training program and we couldn t be happier with how everything went. Our 5 year old heeler mix, Jack, was displaying anxious behaviors and aggression towards new house visitors. Our trainer taught us how best to work with Jack, so he gets the mental and physical exercise he needs to be less anxious and more content. We also learned how to properly handle the situation when we have house guests. All the training and advice he provided worked great for us! Jack is a different dog now and more importantly we are much better dog owners. The Dog Wizard was very great to work with. They truly understands dogs and was really professional and helpful throughout the entire process. We would highly recommend this company for anyone looking for excellent dog training! nicole a. The Dog Wizard worked their magic with our fear-aggressive pup. Now that he has such strong basic commands, we can easily help him manage stressful situations. The Dog Wizard not only trained our dog, they educated us. We were very reluctant to use the e-collar as part of Tiger s training protocol, but they patiently explained why and how they would use it and put us at ease that they wouldn t be violently shocking our dog when he misbehaved. They also answered the many questions we had about their Boarding Training program. Our trainer communicated with us frequently and has kept in touch since Tiger returned home. We are so thankful that we have a dog that can be a real part of our family now thanks to his skilled trainers. taylor H. Our baby Jackson is an Australian Shepherd a little over 2 yrs old. When he was 6 months we started noticing he was very fearful of other people and sounds and it eventually turned in to aggression, so bad to where he ended up biting my future mother in law when she came over to our house. We had no idea how to handle him anymore, so we just kept him home and did not have visitors. The Dog Wizard was our last resort, Jackson went to their 18 day little camp and I swear he is a changed dog. We are so pleased with everyone there and how they told us exactly what to do when he came home. We have done all that they said and just had my parents staying with us for the weekend. They both said he is a changed dog. He did not bark, lunge, whine, or anything when they came in, he listened to us and you can just tell that he is almost at peace and his quality of life is so much better. Before he was always on edge and working to protect us and now he takes direction and loves being told what to do. I m so happy we chose the dog wizard. 11. The Dog Wizard

Your Dog s Evaluation Result: Separation Anxiety

Your Dog s Evaluation Result: Separation Anxiety about Your results We understand this is a very hard issue to live with both for the dog and owner. Destruction caused by anxiety can be costly and stressful,