Dog Aggression?

[ragnarok20]

So I adopted this dog a little over a year ago when he was 2.5 yeas old. I knew that when I adopted him that he was poorly socialized around other dogs because his previous owners had a dog that was aggressive towards other dogs. My issue is this: whenever we are on our walks he goes completely apeshit around other dogs depending upon proximity

Comments

[emusician]

My go-to resources have been Grisha Stewart's BAT and Leslie McDevitt's Control Unleashed. I highly recommend you read both of those books. You can purchase them on Amazon.

This lady's channel is just AMAZING. Her name is Emily Larlham, and her channel is KikoPup. This video in particular pertains to the issue you're describing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JY7JrteQBOQ
But I would recommend delving into her channel completely. All of it is likely relevant. :)

I would definitely get in touch with a +R trainer in your area. Someone with the IAABC or CPDT-KA certification is a nice starting point.

In general, I avoid prong collars, especially when working on reactivity/aggression due to fear and/or inexperience. I don't want to accidentally correct a dog for acting out of fear, because that's not helpful. If you're afraid of spiders, and I yell at you to knock it off and get over it, are you less afraid? Nope. So that's probably why the prong isn't working. Similarly, if the dog is over threshold, luring with treats doesn't help either. The trick is to find a safe enough distance (according to your pup) where your dog can see the trigger, but not overly react to it. That's what we call working under threshold, and it makes ALL THE DIFFERENCE.

Hope this helps get you started!

[ragnarok20]

The video seems to deal with fear reactivity. From what I've read I don't think that classic operant conditioning will necessarily work since a) I don't think its a fear response based on the pictures I've seen of dogs in that state and b) his desire to interact with the dog is higher than his desire to get treats which is funny considering how food driven he is. Considering that, I don't think that prong collar I'd detrimental especially since they aren't designed to induce pain and are not capable of the kind of pain that a slip/choke collar would provide.

Furthermore, a regular collar would provide similar problems as a choke collar in that it can become flush with the trachea, damaging it and causing him to gt choked out. An easy leader could cause him to severely damage his neck, and a harness as a primary gives him to much control since it gives him leverage to pull against me (hence why it's only a backup).

I've tried to gain his attention before a trigger response occurs but as I said part of the problem is proximity so even if I do distract him prior he will go apeshit as they get closer.

Further, it's often difficult to consistently remove him from the situation in order to stop the behavior since the assholes around here let their dogs run loose all the time so even when there are situations where I could just turn around, numerous times a week there are stray dogs who follow us no matter which way I turn.

[emusician]

Well, the video shows fear reactivity, but these methods work well for straight up aggression, frustration/impulse control problems and over excitement, as well as all the different forms of fear (including actual fear for survival and not knowing how to handle a situation).

While I agree that prong collars are not on par with the level of pain that a slip/choke chain delivers, I don't believe that they are pain-less. There is a moderate amount of discomfort, and I want to avoid that when starting a behavioral training program. I always recommend a front-clip harness to start. Almost all dogs can be worked using these methods in just a front-clip harness. I don't recommend buckle collars, because they can damage the dog's trachea and lead to more stress enzymes being released that will counteract the work you're doing.

I'm not sure if you're aware, but the goal of positive training in these instances is to change the dog's emotional perspective of X trigger from "bad" to "good." Whatever "bad" is, be it fear or not, we can help bring about a new, "good" association in roughly the same way regardless of why "bad" existed in the first place. We only really want to know how "bad" came about because we don't want to repeat that in future, or it may be a separate entity we can work on aside from triggers. For example, if your dog is frustrated due to over-eagerness to meet another dog, we may help make seeing a dog and walking by them without greeting a good thing; but what will really make a difference is teaching impulse control and providing appropriate outlets for greetings (play dates, daycare, local dogs walks/hikes, etc.) that suit the dog.

Getting his attention prior to seeing the trigger doesn't really help him learn that X trigger results in Y reward. He's already focused on the reward, so he's not thinking so much about the trigger. That's a great form of management (preventing reactivity), but not a great way to modify behavior.

For off-leash pest dogs, I always carry with me Spray Shield citronella spray. Dogs don't like the sound, and tend to give us space just from hearing it, let alone if it actually makes contact and they experience the citronella nastiness.

[bunn]

This is why it would be a good idea to talk to a good positive trainer/behaviourist in person. They can give you tips on this stuff based on what your dog is actually doing, rather than what you are already convinced you are doing right, but appears not to be working for you.

Your description of your dogs behaviour sounds much more like excitement and frustration than aggression to me. If it is that, a class might be a good way of working on behaviour around other dogs that are behaving in a controlled way. But I could be quite wrong as I can't see your dog. Someone who can actually see you and your dog is much better placed to advise on that.

You could try carrying a tug toy, if he insists on playing tug with a chain lead. At least that way he's playing with something harmless.