MP K9 All Breed Dog Training ©
$99
Training a dog to be aggressive isn’t half as hard as training one NOT to be aggressive.
If you bought a big or aggressive breed of dog for protection it does no good if he/she can’t be near you, around people when it’s time to protect you.
Reward and Correction - the Main Ingredients of Dog Training
I do a lot of training at pet superstores around town. The staffs are wonderful and always accommodating. The other day I was at a store with a client, working her 90 lbs German Shepherd. We were there trying to break down its aggression towards other dogs. After what seemed to be over 100 strong corrections we removed the dog from the store.
The next week I was back at the store with the dog and this time just me. One of the employees commented that there were some people that observed us the week before and didn’t like the way that we were handling the dog. I explained that the corrections used on that dog were stronger than usual because that was not an ordinary dog. The things that the people never knew was that this particular dog had been kicked out of that very same pet store’s training program for being over-aggressive. What people did not know was that the corrections on this dog were escalated because the dog showed aggression towards the owner during this training session.
I publicly apologize to anyone who was there and offended by what they saw. Unfortunately I might be this dog’s last chance to become a harmonious part of our human society as a family pet. This client called me because she wants to be able to take the dog to the park and to places like the pet superstore. Even though we got the dog to socialize properly at a park we needed to go to the pet superstore and train in that environment. Needless to say the dog did poorly that day. On the subsequent return without the owner the dog did better with only a few moderate corrections. However after an extended period he returned to its agitated and aggressive state. I have three more sessions with the dog and each will be spent at pet superstores. I feel this lady’s pain.
The same day that I worked that German Shepherd I also worked a Chihuahua with which I used only food reward. It would be ludicrous and business suicide for me to handle each dog the same. But more importantly it would be cruel and inhumane. Most of the problems that occur in dog handling and training are based in these two misconceptions. First: Dogs and people are basically the same. Second: That all dogs are alike and therefore should be handled the same. The fact is that dogs are nothing like people yet are as diverse as people within their species. Just because animals have intelligence and the ability to reason, it does NOT mean that they are like people. They don’t settle their differences with talk and reason. They settle their differences with teeth and aggression. Winner takes all.
Each dog should be looked at individually when we approach the task of handling and training. Reward should always be the first step in training, be it food reward or high praise. Corrections should only be introduced if reward doesn’t change behavior or keep the dogs attention. Escalation in the strength of a correction should only be done if the present strength is not changing the dog’s behavior. You cannot train an over-aggressive dog with reward alone. If you try then you’ll be rewarding the act of aggression. And in defense of my poor client who is working so hard to get her dog under control; if training her dog was that easy, then the pet superstore would not have dismissed her from its obedience class and referred her to me.
“I bought her to be a lap and purse dog but all she did was growl at me and my mom. Greg taught me that it was not in her personality to be held all the time. She’s happier being treated like a K9 instead of a poodle.”
Actual Client