If you
adjust your attitude and stance to the dog, and
keep your tool box of techniques full, you'll do
fine.
I
recently worked with an adolescent, male Rottie.
When he was off leash he was very dog friendly.
When he was on leash he was a bozo-head. He
was not fearful of other dogs and he was not what
I would call dog aggressive. For dogs that are
fear aggressive or overtly aggressive towards
other dogs I use positive reinforcement to create
a conditioned response to seeing another dog. For
this dog I didn't think that was necessary. I felt
he was just being a bozo-head. A quick pop on the
leash (flat collar) combined with a sharp
"cut it out!" caused him to sit and look
at me with that goofy expression teenaged dogs
often have. The one that says "Geez, sorry,
lost my head for a moment -- you over it
now?"
I am a
strong believer in teaching the proper behavior
using positive methods rather than using force and
compulsion to eliminate undesirable behavior, but
I also believe in tailoring the training to the
dog. This dog already knew that calm behavior when
on leash and around other dogs was rewarding, but
he still had moments when liked to puff up his
chest. For this particular dog, in this particular
circumstance, a combination of knowing what
behavior predicted a reward was combined with
learning what behavior predicted punishment.
I
could have used more or better rewards to get him
to always offer the correct behavior, but I didn't
see the necessity of that. It didn't take beating
him with a 2x4, or jerking him around on a
training collar to get the idea across that
belligerence towards other dogs was not nice. The
punishment he did receive (pop on a flat collar,
verbal "cut that out") was sufficient to
get the message across. Fair, humane, effective.
Not
long after that I was working with a Lab mix that
would have collapsed into a pile of trembling dog
flesh if I had used even the softest of collar
corrections. Withholding of reward was the only
punishment I used with her and she came around
very nicely. Even a stern "no" would
have not been a fair or humane way to communicate
with that dog at that time. She couldn't cope. She
now copes with life, in general, much better than
she did before, but it still takes little more
than eye contact to correct her.
There
might be "one true way" to spiritual
enlightenment, but there is no such road that
leads to one "right" way to train a dog.
|
