Leash Aggression

Leash aggression is fairly common in IG's. Much of it stems from being "trapped" on the leash, unable to get away from approaching danger. Because of the feeling of being trapped, many dogs will preemptively strike out by barking and snapping. Many of these same dogs are perfectly friendly when off leash, or show no other signs of aggression.

Recently, Lifeline IG Rescue sent me to a Brenda Aloff seminar for reactive dogs. I was very lucky to have the ability to attend this two day seminar, as it has really helped me with my reactive dog Peyton. Hopefully I can convey the information so that it will help you as well! She has written several books and has videos that illustrate many of her techniques, if you want to research this topic more.

Another great resource for dog behavior issues is Patricia McConnell. She writes booklets about all sorts of behavior issues. Her book that deals specifically with leash aggression is Feisty Fido and is written in plain English :D. It's short and easy to read and understand.

The basic principal that both Brenda Aloff and Patricia McConnell work from is to instill a replacement behavior for the undesired behavior. In our case:

Undesired behavior = lunging, barking, snapping at approaching dog while on leash

Desired (replacement) behavior = look at you (eye contact), and watch you until the threat is gone

So, we want to teach our dog that every time they see another dog, they are to watch you. As Brenda says, "The answer to every question is look at me." Dogs, according to both Brenda and Patricia, do best with one or two solutions that apply to every situation, as opposed to different responses at certain times. Our ultimate goal is to replace the barking dog with a dog who looks at you when you encounter other dogs on your walks.

But I know what you're thinking, "Great, but what can I do until my dog has fully learned to look at me when they see another dog?" Brenda has some really great solutions to that question. She says that your first goal is to "prevent rehearsal", but given a failure or inability to do that, you always fall back on the "emergency hold". I'll get into both of those in more detail.

Prevent Rehearsal

This basically means that you want to keep your dog from practicing the barking/lunging behavior. You employ techniques that distract the dog, soothe the dog, etc; anything to keep the dog from rehearsing the bad behavior. Brenda suggests that if the behavior is never rehearsed, it is eventually forgotten. And lucky for us, the flip side is also true: the behavior that is rehearsed becomes the first response to a situation. (We use this in our favor to instill the desired behaviors.)

Emergency Hold

The emergency hold is ALWAYS your backup for an uncontrollable situation. It works if you are caught off guard, the level of intensity is too high to convince your dog to look at you, etc. To get to the emergency hold, you take your dog's collar with both hands and guide the dog to sit/stand in front of you, facing you, and kind of hold his head between your legs. This forces the dog to face you, and then you can rub his cheeks with your thumbs.

Human Behaviors

There are a few steps we need to take to get ready to fix the leash aggression.

No more walking on the extendo-leash. Sorry :-( But you don't have good control over your dog when they're wandering every which way they please. Get a standard 6-foot leash.

No more letting your dog pull to the end of the leash and run back and forth trying to get ahead of you. Keep most of the leash in your hand, giving the dog a few inches so they're not choking, but basically they have to stay at your side or slightly behind you. This gives you control of your dog in advance. If the dog can lunge 6 feet towards a threat before you have control, you have already allowed rehearsal and lost valuable time in getting your dog's attention back to you. (When you're on a walk, the dog's job is to walk, not to sniff, wander around, urine mark, etc. Potty walking is different: the goal is pottying.)

Pay attention! This is the one I have the toughest time with :D When I'm walking, I tend to zone out, get in a rhythm, and then BOOM a dog is in front of me and Peyton is already upset. Pay attention to your dog, learn what his warning signals are. Peyton's are: tail goes up, ears go forward, eyes bug out a bit, and the big one: he turns BRIGHT PINK! I'm serious, bright pink under his short white fur. Spotting these signs is key because the next step is barking/lunging. (And the goal is to prevent rehearsal, so we distract the dog as soon as we see warning signs.) Keep your eyes up for other dogs walking or running loose, and start your behavior work early. In other words, don't wait until your dog is freaking out.

Please don't yank your leash when your dog is lunging barking any more. It basically teaches them that other dogs = pressure on my neck. We don't want any negative consequences associated with other dogs being in the vicinity (it makes the other dogs scarier). We don't want our dog thinking that other dogs being around means that bad things will happen.

Baseline Training and Behavior

We have some pre-work to do before our dogs magically look at us every time they see another dog. We are going to practice practice practice in low-stress situations, preferably not around other dogs.

Eye Contact
This is the behavior we want to instill, so practice eye contact with your dog. Give a treat/praise when your dog looks at you. Build up to them looking at you for a long time, like 30 seconds. Watch them as you walk, and give treat/praise when they look up at you. You can even practice this while on the couch watching TV ;-P

The Back-Away
I learned this at Brenda Aloff's seminar. The basic gist of it is that you back up a few steps as your dog positions in front of you, facing you. This is a nice easy way to get your dog facing you and looking towards you. It is very handy when a threat is in front of you because you turn your dogs body and focus away from the threat. To teach the back away, start by walking 2 steps forward, pausing, rocking back, and then take a step back. At first, you may have to manipulate your dog's body into following you by taking him by the collar and guiding him with you, or physically moving his back end into place. But as you practice, the dog will learn that the pause/rock means you're about to back up and will learn to come with you. This is also the first part of the emergency hold sequence. Practice this over and over, and then back away periodically on your daily walk, so your dog is used to it occurring anytime, anywhere.

The progression of the back away is that you end up at: holding your dog's collar, stroking their cheeks, forcing them to look at you and not at the threat, and calmly, soothingly telling them good boy/girl. (Remember, no excited voices because that elevates the energy and you want them calm.)

Practice practice practice! Walking every day gives you plenty of opportunity to practice the back away, eye contact, and the emergency hold. So walk with treats and your dog as the main focus.

I will be adding pictures and videos in the very near future, so stay tuned!