I went to a consultation on Tuesday. It was a Schnauzer that was highly anxious, demanding, displaying aggression to visitors when arriving at the door, and aggression to other dogs. Trying to dominate every human and dog it came across. This dog was raised with Positive Only training methods. This dog had absolutely no respect for its owners, only for the food it would receive from them, and then being overly anxious and assertive to get at it. This dogs lack of respect was not the owners fault, they thought they were doing the best for their dog as they were following methods they thought were right. They were very concerned that eventually their dog was going to seriously bite someone, and feared having their dog put to sleep.. Hence calling me out. My assessment, yes this dogs behaviour had the potential of becoming very dangerous if it wasnt already. When I walked in the front door the dog launched at me, took hold of my leg very assertively growling and tried to have a bite. They had a friend bring a dog (a Pointer) over to show me his reaction to other dogs, even dogs he knew well. The Schnauzers anxiety levels shot through the roof when the dog arrived, and all he wanted to do was get in and dominate the dog His stress levels went through the roof.. This dog lacked proper discipline, as it had only been raised to respect food, and they were taught to either ignore, redirect or avoid situations that would trigger the dogs extremely high anxiety. And NO I did not recommend an ecollar. I did however recommend using discipline, creating more boundaries, and stop reinforcing all its assertive behaviour with food and affection. I come across more dogs with high anxiety problems due to positive only methods than for any other reason. Most people that enforce this type of training cant seem to get it through their head that every time we reward a dog, give attention, give affection we are reinforcing and strengthening the dogs current state of mind. These owners are very responsible dog owners, and love their dog immensely.. They believed they were doing what was right by their dog. When they realised the methods they had been shown were not working and their dogs behaviour was getting worse, they decided to seek alternative help. I am seeing this type of situation more and more, and it is very concerning to me. All this dog needed was proper discipline, which was lacking due to the methods they were told to use.
Posted on: Wed, 29 Oct 2014 23:09:04 +0000
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