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Introduction to The Procedure: Shaping Away Aggression
By Lorna Hunt
Dogs do what works. In other words, when they figure out that something they're doing has a pleasant consequence, they'll do that thing again; when Pickles the Poodle notices that the best way to get her pet human to give her a piece of the hot dog off of the grill is by prancing on her hind feet; that's what she does without fail at every Bar-b-Q. Aragon the Great Dane/Mastiff mix has figured out that all he has to do to get his humans to open the backdoor and let him into the kitchen is to dig at the back door with all his might; the whole family bounds across the house yelling “STOP IT” and they always open the door. And so it is with the aggression that we see dogs displaying; they're barking, growling, lunging and snapping because they have learned that it has some kind of desirable consequence. For most dogs that desirable consequence is that it makes something they find unpleasant go away and usually pretty darn fast at that.
Researchers at the University of North Texas, Kellie Snider and her mentor, Dr Jesus Rosales-Ruiz have designed a procedure to very specifically take advantage of how badly dogs want unpleasant things to go away. Kellie and Jesus figure that since dogs do what works to get what they WANT, then the best possible reward for a dog who is presented with something she wishes would go away, is to make it go away! However, the dog must do something in exchange, something that is not barking and growling, some thing that looks a whole lot more like friendliness. So, instead of twirling on her hind legs for a hot dog, or scratching at the door to be let in, the aggressive dog is going to figure out from this procedure that to keep her cool is what works best to get the bad thing to go away.
Training Sessions with Your Dog
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Figure Out Where the Fuss Happens
First we'll set up camp in the circumstances where your dog is likely to be aggressive, whether it's at the park, or in your backyard, or standing next to his favorite human, or being approached by a person in uniform. Then we'll figure out how close we have to be to you and your dog to make your dog do the barking and growling and/or tensing up behaviors. Once we figure out where things begin to get under his skin, then we'll know where and how we want to start working. That place is a good distance farther away than the place where he actually shows upset behavior. We'll probably draw a line there or throw down a marker so we don't forget were it is.
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Establishing what Works
We're going start our session with a negotiation. I'm going to offer your dog something he wants (maybe it's "will ya back off, lady!" or "get thee gone, mongrel!") in exchange for something that I want ("settle down there buckaroo"). Thus, we (please take "we" to mean me, or my assistant or a nice non-aggressive dog and assistant) will approach the start line. We will wait there at the line until your dog gives us a behavior that we like. Please note that your dog may very well not show any aggression when we stand at the line. That is fine. That is perfect actually. We will still be looking for certain behaviors that we can shape into friendliness, initially something like a head turn, a yawn, a sniff or just plain a few seconds of just hanging out without doing anything in particular. As soon as your dog does one of those things we will reward (aka reinforce) your dog by giving him what he wants: we'll turn and walk away. Then we'll repeat: go to the line, wait for that behavior that we like. It won't take very long at all until your dog understands exactly what the trade is, what works to make the bad stuff back off, and will start doing it on purpose ("hmm...if I bark, nothing happens, that lady just stands there. BUT, interestingly enough it seems that if I turn my head away from that lady, she walks away and leaves me in peace. Maybe I'll try that again. well that is just outrageous, it worked!").
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Moving forward
Now that your dog has figured out what works, we're going to give her plenty of chances to practice it; we're going to slowly get closer and closer to you and your dog. The session might look something like this:
We take our position at the line. Your dog barks for a while. Then your dog turns her head away from us. We reward her by walking away. We give her 15 seconds of the reward (being away) then we walk back to the line. She barks again. She turns her head. We walk away. 15 seconds later we walk up to a foot or two before the line. She doesn't bark this time, just turns her head. We walk away. 15 seconds go by and when we approach the line she once again doesn't bark, just turns her head again. We walk away. After she is quiet a few more times we move the line slightly forward. We repeat until your dog no longer displays aggression, which bring us to:
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The goal
The goal is friendliness in the situation where she was once aggressive. We’re shaping toward the once-scary person or animal getting right up close to your dog without a bite, fight or fuss. Which brings us to:
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Sticking With The Session
Ideally, we'll meet the goal in one work session. As a matter of fact, the most effective way to use this procedure is if we can stick with it, hang in there for that first or second session until we're right up close to the dog and there's no the aggressive behavior. If we can do that, Jesus and Kellie have discovered that subsequent sessions will go much, much faster. Which means that an end to the aggressive behavior is much, much closer.
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The "WHEW!" Factor (K. Snider) OR Why Does This Method Work?
Your dog learns that performing a peaceful behavior will make the bad thing go away, right? Well, when it turns out that each time he performs the peaceful behavior the consequence is that he gets what he wants ("WHEW"), that starts to feel pretty good. Eventually, that good feeling becomes closely linked with, even synonymous you could say, with the thing that he originally wanted desperately to go away. He develops a new association, a new feeling about that thing makes him begin to look forward to what he once found unpleasant!
Written by Lorna Hunt for The5thQuadrant discussion group
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