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Old March 13th, 2009, 08:26 AM
BenMax BenMax is offline
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Join Date: May 2008
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Bailey_ View Post
Maui: Absolutley. I agree with this, especially desensitization. I very much believe that changing something negative into something positive for the dog is incredibly important, and yet with that said; in MY vocabulary - that IS correcting the behavior.
Correcting bad behavior does not have to be accomplished in a negative light, which I'm getting the impression that some here believe the term is used to imply.
When I am viewed with a dog displaying (lets say insecure aggression) I'm going to innterupt the behavior shown before it escalates into a dangerous situation. Watching the dogs body language allows me to anticipate it's actions before it carrys through with something. Dogs are constantly uttering warnings, like you said. Their brain signals sends their body into various poses which tell us so much.
By innteruption, I will step into the dog, occasionally making vocal sounds to get the dogs attention back on me. The goal is to keep the dogs brain from being unable to stay focused on whatever stimuli will trigger it's actions; to keep the mind and body calm. You do not need treats or constant rewards to accomplish that, or keep the dogs focus on you.
A dog does not naturally WANT to be in control of situations. And theres a difference between a dog being naturally more dominant than others, and being the leader of a pack (feeling the need to lead, or control). A dog that feels it needs to remain in control of the situation all the time, is completley stressed out - high energy - rarely calm or at peace - constantly buzzing. Aggression many times comes from this place as well; when the owners have lacked leadership and control, failing to understand what the dog is really telling them.

For those of you that treat train, could I hear some experiences of you successfully training a red-zone aggression from a dog? I'm honestly quite curious and would like to know how you carry out your methods.
Thank you Bailey for this. You have expressed perfectly and I could not have said this better.

With all the red zone dogs that I have received I could never ever get them to respond to treats/toys...never. I absolutely had to check them in order to get them to focus on me and once they did I would touch under their chin - that was their reward...and they knew I was pleased with their reaction - that was enough for them. Also, I would like to say that this is ALWAYS work in progress with red zone dogs. One can never be 100% comfortable - you must always be aler and always read the dogs body, signals and to feel the dog through the leash. Being an owner of one for 11 years, I could never say the old "I know my dog 100%" as no one does even with dogs that do not exhibit certain undesired behaviour - heck we don't even know ourselves 100% so how can you know an animal?

The importance of this thread is the comparison between two different behaviouralist or trainers. One does work with red zone dogs or dogs that are more difficult and the other deals more with people and dogs that he deems as 'salvageable' however will quickly discard those that he feels are not. Personally, I would want someone like Caeser to mentor me as he truly has insight and does not easily through in the towl as the other. We may not like or agree with all his methods but surely he does provide some ideas. I have had incredible success with one of his methods for insecure dogs. It has worked for me every single time and I am very pleased.