Q&A with ‘The Paw Man’ (258) – No Saying No Anne Scott Hi. I’ve got a 1 year old French Bull Dog. She’s been fine with other dogs until now. She’s getting nasty around dogs. Is it the breed or am I mothering her too much? Paw Man Hi Anne, It’s definitely not the breed although all the Bull breeds are statistically more likely to have dog-to-dog aggression problems. That does not mean that you can’t stop it from happening. You have not given me a lot of information in your question so I can only give you a very generic answer. The most important factor in this behavior is the technique that you are currently using to discipline your dog. The mere fact that this behavior is emerging tells me that whatever method you are currently using is not the correct one. Another important factor is the equipment that your dog is wearing when you walk your dog and meet other dogs. If your dog is wearing some kind of harness then you cannot effectively deliver a correction to extinguish an unwanted behavior. Other factors that may worsen the situation are whether or not you pick your dog up to avoid or de-escalate these confrontations. You imply that you ‘mother’ this dog which typically translates to being way too soft and affectionate. Being way too soft and affectionate to a dog makes it near impossible for the dog to understand what you are doing when you try to tell it off. More often than not the dog will interpret anything ‘soft’ as praise….. so from your perspective you are delivering the message of ‘No!’ but the dog’s perception is more like ‘Yes! Good dog!’ When we apply a negative to a dog (an aversive) it is ONLY an aversive if the dog perceives it as an aversive…… it really is irrelevant what the owner perceives that it is if the dog does not perceive it as a negative.
Posted on: Wed, 10 Jul 2013 01:22:53 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015