Management vs Training

I often get asked the question, when my dog is lunging or growling at another dog on a walk - what should I do? My answer is usually the same - get outta there, go home, and call a trainer.

Whenever a dog is in an aroused state of mind, its very difficult to train him or do any proper behavioral correction. A lunging, snarling dog at the end of a leash is not going to be susceptible to any type of behavioral correction that will cure his problem.

Many people will try snapping the leash, grabbing their dog, or even pinning their dog when they get leash reactions like this. None of these things train your dog not to react in that way. Why? Because the behavior is usually being driven by emotion, and you can't punish away emotion.

Imagine I took you up to the top of your home and dangled you off the roof. You are in a huge panic because you feel your life might be in danger. What if I then pull out a gun, point it at you, and demand that you stop panicking and being afraid. Will that work? What will your emotion state be after that happens? If I then take you up to the roof and dangle you off without the gun - will your fear of heights be gone?

This is very similar in dog training. A dog that is being punished via leash corrections, pinning or even shouting isn't having his emotions changed, and thus the behavior will likely not change - or even worse - it might change to something else.

Many dogs that are punished for growling will stop growling - however instead they next time go straight to biting without the warning growl. A leash reactive dog punished in this way, while his behavior may change, could never be trusted off leash as his emotions would still be the same, and out of fear or aggression he may attack.

All proper behavior corrections in dogs take place "sub-threshold". That means when I correct behavior - I never actually want to see the negative behavior again. If your dog growls at other dogs, I want to work with him so that I never see him growl again. This means I always keep him at a level just below his 'threshold' of growling. As we work through behavior modification, we move the dog closer and closer to thing he had the problem with - other dogs etc, all while keeping him under his reactive threshold. The general goal is to usually show and teach the dog other acceptable behaviors he can display, or to relax his fear and show him there is no reason to be afraid.

Using the roof example - a professional therapist would gradually expose you to higher and higher surfaces, ensuring you were OK with one height before moving higher. A professional human therapist would not pull you up to a roof and hold a gun to your head - however in dog training this type of thing seems to happen all the time (Think choke collars and shock collars).

Dogs can learn when they are afraid - but usually not the things we want! Fear is a huge teacher for dogs, but the lesson is usually to 1) Avoid the thing of fear or 2) use aggression to make it go away - neither of which is usually a desirable outcome.

Trying to train when your dog is afraid or in a frenzy just doesn't work.

If you find your dog is reactive on leash, call a (good)trainer and don't keep trying to micromanage the situations - you'll likely make it worse and certainly won't make it better.