Aggression Research Study

We do not ask your name or information for this survey, it is strictly for research purposes.  Included in this survey are questions from the Volhard Drive Test, one of the legendary experts in dog behavior. Please feel free to share this with your friends and family. The more surveys we receive, the more acurate the research.
We ask that you fill out the following questions to the best of your knowledge, and send them to our research email:
thepacktrack@gmail.com

Aggression Research Survey

What breed of dog do you own?

What age did they start showing aggression?

What age & where did you acquire your dog?

What age were they taken away from mom?

What is their current age?

Was your dog very mouthy as a pup? (biting hands, legs)

Has their bite gotten harder?

How have you tried to correct the mouthing?

Has your dog been to obedience classes? At what age?

Does your dog pull or lunge on walks?

What is the target of his/her aggression?

Does you’re dog snap, bark at you when corrected?

Please answer the following on a scale of 0-10
(10 being all the time, 5 being sometimes, 0 being never)

When you are walking, do they sniff the ground or air?

Get excited by moving objects, such as bikes or squirrels?

Stalk cats, other dogs, or things in the grass?

When excited; bark in a short, high-pitched voice?

Pounce on his toys?

Shake and “kill” his toys?

Steal food or garbage?

Like to carry things in his mouth?

Eat in a hurry?

Like to dig and/or bury things?

Get along with other dogs?

Get along with people?
Bark when left alone?

Solicit petting, or like to snuggle with you?

Like to be groomed?

Seek eye contact with you?

Follow you around like a shadow?

Play a lot with other dogs?

Jump up to greet people?

Show reproductive behaviors, such as mounting other dogs?

Stand his ground or show curiosity in strange objects or sounds?

Like to play tug-of-war games to win?

Bark or growl in a deep tone of voice?

Guard his territory?

Guard his food or toys?

Dislike being petted?

Guard his owner(s)?

Dislike being groomed or petted?

Like to fight other dogs?

Get picked on by older dogs when he was a young dog?

Run away from new situations?

Hide behind you when he feels he can’t cope?

Act fearfully in unfamiliar situations?

Tremble or whine when unsure?

Cower or turn upside down when reprimanded?

Act reluctant to come close to you when called?

Have difficulty standing still when groomed?

Cower or cringe when a stranger bends over him?

Urinate during greeting behavior?

Tend to bite when cornered?

And finally,

What type of training tool do you use now or have you used for walking?
& at what age did you start using these different tools? (Please give age for each tool used.)

1. Prong/Pinch Collar

2. Slip Collar

3. Martingale

4. Gentle Leader or head halter type

5. Easy Walk Harness or no pull harness type

6. Regular Harness

7. Regular Flat Collar

Thank you for taking our survey!

Training by Tara
www.trainingbytara.com
512-402-4229
for appointments:
myheart4k9s@aol.com

Learning your dog’s body language: Targeting

Targeting

 

  Many people misread their dog’s body language; I see it on a daily basis.  I have clients that come to me because their dog is “friendly” one second and biting the next.  The problem here in most cases, is that we are reading their body language incorrectly.  My clients see a wagging tail and think their dogs are happy and playful, I see a whole different scenario. 

  In an attempt to explain their body language, I have posted some photos of what you need to look out for.  I will explain in detail, the body language you are seeing in the following pictures as well as what you are not seeing.

  The first set of pictures here are an example of targeting from a rescue we rehabilitated and adopted out.

 

Picture 1. Relaxed Targeting:

  Here his body is relaxed; notice his top line is slightly curved down.  He does not display any tightness in his body at all and if you were to touch him, he would be very “soft”, meaning he would move into your touch and you could move him easily with almost no force.  His legs are not braced or squared off; meaning they are relaxed with the toes pointing out.  He is also not “puffing up” or putting his chest out.  You could move him by simply touching him. His ears are relaxed but slightly forward, not forced forward.

 Another sign that he is relaxed is that he is panting.  If he were stressed and panting, his tongue would be wide at the end and hanging long.  Notice his tail is level to his body; at the time of this picture, it had been wagging in a sweeping motion.  The tail can tell you a lot about your dogs’ mood.  A level or low sweeping tail is a happy tail! A rapidly wagging tail is a nervous dog and just the tip of the tail wagging means something is about to happen! Here his head is not tilted downward and he is almost carefree in his look.  This is a typical stance of a dog that is showing interest in something.   

 

 

Picture 2. Extreme Targeting:

  Now here, notice how tight his body looks!  His top line has gone from relaxed to straight. His body is so tense you would really have to try hard to move him and if you touched him, he would feel very “hard”; meaning his muscles are tightened.  His legs are now braced and squared off.  Notice how his front legs are together and facing forward, and his back legs are almost straight and no longer bent at the knee.  He is now leaning into his front end and “puffing up”.  His mouth is now closed and his head is tilted down. I call this the angry professor look!  You all know what I mean. You’re in class and you are talking, you look up and there is the professor looking over his glasses at you. This is a clear example of a hard target, his head is pointing down and he is looking straight down his nose. His ears are now forced forward.  Many people have a hard time telling the difference between ears that are forced forward and relaxed forward.  Look closely at the two pictures.  In picture one, they almost look like they are facing outward.  Here they are pushed forward all the way. In this picture, his tail is tightly held up and not wagging.  If the picture had been taken from the front, you would notice slight forehead wrinkles.  In some dogs, these wrinkles are very pronounced during a target. 

 Picture two is a typical stance prior to lunge. This dog happened to be extremely dog-dog aggressive. Two seconds after this stance, he had an explosive reaction towards the dog on the other side of the fence.

  Some dogs will also raise the hair on their back.  This is very important to pay attention to.  If your dog’s hair only stands up on their neck and shoulders, this is a threatening manner.  If, however, their hair is raised all the way down their back, this is a fearful manner.

  I have had people insist their dog is “mean” when they are approached by another dog.  They tell me their hair stands up and they bare their teeth or snap at the other dog.  When I ask them where the hair stands up on the dog, they generally tell me from nose to tail. I then ask how the other dog approached.  The normal answer is the other dog rushed in and greeted face to face.  Their dog was not being “mean” but acting out of defense fight drive.  They were fearful of the rude approach and tried to protect themselves. 

  Dogs have different drives that they act on.  In defense, they have fight or flight.  If your dog is on leash and they are fearful of another dog, they cannot go into defense flight and run away.  This means if they feel unprotected by their owner, they will resort to defense fight to protect themselves. Correcting a dog that is fearful and soft, can be a big mistake and usually advances the aggression.

  If your having trouble with dog-dog aggression, please contact a behaviorist. Make sure they understand body language, the level of different drives, and how to change drives in your dog.  Every dog is different, but they all share the same drives.  Understanding their body language and which drive is higher in your dog, will help make rehabilitation more effective.   

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Tara, Brandie, Amanda & the “Pack”

Really, please think twice before prong collar use!

OK I know I am beating this topic to death, but just this week I have had 4 cases of aggression that have developed after prong collar use.
Four in a week is too many.  I know people call it “power steering” of dog training but please think about your dogs personality before using it.
Dogs have different “drives”, and if their defense fight drive is the highest of the main 4 (defense fight, defense flight, prey, and pack) you are at risk for an aggressive dog later on.
If a trainer or friend recommends using a prong, please make sure you know how high their defense fight drive is before using it.
Two of the cases this week, the dogs had no aggression prior to use of the prong. Both had taken a class and the instructor recommended a prong to make walking easier. Both after a few months started to get mouthy with their owners and with time started biting harder to the point of leaving bruises or wounds, and correcting the owners when corrected for bad behaviors.  Both of these dogs had a good foundation and the owners tried to hire other trainers to help them get through the aggression that developed later.  But their defense fight was high and they never stopped using the prong collars.  I have trained dogs with a very high defense fight drive without a prong and they have not shown more aggression in the years that pass.  It is possible to train a dog to walk calmly on leash without a prong collar, but you must understand the different drives in a dog.
  The other two cases showed nervousness and fear, around other dogs in a basic class and again the instructors recommended prong collars to “control” their walks.  They were not aggressive towards other dogs but had equal defense fight and flight drives. This caused them to become more aggressive as the months went on, to a point where they are now lunging at other dogs, and redirecting their aggression on their owners.  Everytime they “backed up” from a dog or situation they were afraid of, they were biten by the collar.  Naturally they put the two together and started to go into their defense fight drive when frightened.
In all of the above cases, proper understanding of drives and leash training in a different technique could have stopped the loss of bite inhibition and redirected aggression.  If the instructor you are using solely prefers prongs, I would recommend researching another class.  Again please do some research on how high your dogs drives are before considering the use of a prong.  Make sure the instructor understands the different drives in dogs before you rely on the “wonder tool” of the training business.  It will make your life  easier and your dog much happier.

 Tara, Brandie, Amanda & the “pack”