Understanding and Preventing Reactivity and Aggression in Your Dog #29
Shaped by Dog with Susan Garrett
DogsThat
4.8 • 679 Ratings
🗓️ 16 September 2020
⏱️ 18 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Visit us at shapedbydog.com
Today’s topic covers the serious issue of reactivity and aggression in dogs. If you have a challenge with your dog, I strongly advise that you seek out the help of a Certified Veterinary Behaviorist who is equipped to deal with these issues in a reinforcement-based program. Seek the help of a qualified professional who will, where needed, use pharmaceutical intervention to help create a different reality for your dog, so your dog does not go through life feeling the need to react.
I’m sharing how what is “different” can lead to reactivity or aggression, and how a lot of aggression is learned. It’s not that there is something wrong with the dog. You can help your dog to catalogue experiences in a way that is appropriate for their well being and yours.
In the episode you'll hear:
• Insights into why aggression can be a learned behavior.
• How you and your dog can have better outcomes.
• What stimulus is, and what’s good, innocuous and not good for your dog.
• Understanding stimuli from your dog’s perspective.
• Why “different” creates a response in your dog.
• How your dog’s curiosity could lead to reactivity.
• What a dog’s cautious curiosity can look like.
• The importance of what happens during and after our dog displaying curiosity for something that is different.
• The two strategies you need for changing a trigger and minimizing the stress of an experience for your dog.
• Why you should believe what your dog is telling you.
• What you can do to help your dog.
Resources:
Podcast Episode 4: T.E.M.P. (Tail, Eyes/Ears, Mouth, Posture)-https://dogsthat.com/podcast/4/
Podcast Episode 27: Do Dogs Need Rules?-https://dogsthat.com/podcast/27/
Podcast Episode 24: Help for the Dog who Chases Chipmunks, Bicycles, and the Neighbor’s Cat-https://dogsthat.com/podcast/24/
Video Blog: Understanding Your Dog’s Triggers-https://susangarrettdogagility.com/2019/01/understanding-your-dogs-triggers/
Video Blog: Dog Body Language, Fear and Aggression-https://susangarrettdogagility.com/2018/06/body-language-fear-and-aggression/
Blog Post: Leash Aggression in Dogs: Are We Trying To Put Out A Fire With Gasoline?-https://susangarrettdogagility.com/2015/11/leash-aggression-in-dogs-are-we-trying-to-put-out-a-fire-with-gasoline/
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey everybody. Welcome to Shape by Dog. I am Susan Garrett. And today we are going to |
| 0:16.0 | tackle the topic of reactivity and aggression in your dogs. |
| 0:21.8 | And I want to preface this by saying, this is a serious, serious issue. |
| 0:27.3 | And if you have a challenge with your dog, I strongly advise that you seek out the help of a certified veterinarian behaviorist, one that is equipped to deal |
| 0:41.7 | with problems like this in a reinforcement-based program and one where needed will use |
| 0:48.1 | pharmaceutical intervention to help create a different reality for your dog so that your dog |
| 0:52.9 | doesn't go through life feeling that they need to react, create a better reality for your dog so that your dog doesn't go through life feeling that they need |
| 0:55.0 | to react, create a better reality through pharmaceutical, better living through pharmaceuticals, |
| 1:00.5 | and then eventually you'll be able to wean off of that. But that kind of strategy will come to you |
| 1:04.7 | from a professional. So today, for the rest of you, I'm going to share how different |
| 1:09.1 | has led to aggression for some dogs |
| 1:12.4 | and how a lot of aggression really is learned. It isn't that there's something wrong with the |
| 1:19.7 | dog. Now, there are some dogs, just like there are some psychopath people that their brain |
| 1:24.6 | just doesn't work quite right. There are a very few dogs, a small |
| 1:28.5 | percentage of dogs who are aggressive or reactive because of a serious problem with their brain. |
| 1:35.1 | But for the rest of those dogs, today I'm going to give you some insight into how it happens |
| 1:41.0 | and I'm going to share with you a couple strategies that you can use to help |
| 1:45.5 | your dog and you have better outcomes. Okay, so let's just, I'm going to talk a little bit of |
| 1:50.9 | science first. The word stimulus. It's, it's a thing. Stimulus is an event or a thing |
| 1:58.9 | that creates a behavioral response in your dog. Your dog has got a checklist |
| 2:04.7 | that rolls through his brain that he doesn't even think about of stimuli that are good, |
| 2:12.4 | that he says, oh yeah, I love that. Yeah. So, it could be treats. It could be activities that he |
... |
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