Help Needed! How to change aggressive behavior...

[kristendnae]

I just adopted a 4-year old, Deaf, female English bulldog. She is absolutely wonderful - she is already house trained, she understands quiet a few sign language signals, she adapted easily to sleeping on her own bed (rather than our bed) - our only issue is she is very aggressive with other dogs, of all types - young, old, male, female, large, small, etc.
We do not take her to dog parks, but when we walk her - if I see a dog coming our way, i will turn around or cross the street. Because she is deaf, it makes it a little easier since she isn't distracted by their barking.

She understands "no" when we shake our finger at her, however getting in front of her and getting her eyes/attention on me, when she is worked up over another dog is difficult. Any suggestions?

* She does not bark at them. She has zero issues with people. She did get too close the other day as we were coming down the stairs at our Condo and encountered another dog - the owner was holding him, but Ellie Jumped up twice trying to bite!

Any feedback is greatly appreciated!

Kristen

 

[dolphin]

Hi there, hands down this is the best way to change that kind of behavior http://www.englishbulldognews.com/f...ioral/33985-life-free-training-technique.html

good luck and to EBN!!

 

[2BullyMama]

Thank you for rescuing her!!! I tagged Pati... she has a deaf baby and can give some tips. Also, if you search on here for 'deaf' Pati's videos should come up of her training Shy

 

[kristendnae]

Thank you for rescuing her!!! I tagged Pati... she has a deaf baby and can give some tips. Also, if you search on here for 'deaf' Pati's videos should come up of her training Shy

Thank You so much! I will check those out today! Merry Christmas!

 

[2BullyMama]

Thank You so much! I will check those out today! Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas..... here is one of the liks http://www.englishbulldognews.com/f...ing-26-43-tricks-6-months.html?highlight=deaf

Pati also has a blog, Ithink about all this too --- check her page out http://www.englishbulldognews.com/forums/member.php?u=9105

 

[Pati Robins]

Hi the first of all thank you for adopting a deafie

I got a few questions for you
1) How long ago did you adopt your deafie?
2) did you introduce your own dogs on neutral ground or is she the only dog
3 ) can you give me as much detail on an example situations when she snaps at other dog

To answer your queery
Not many dogs deaf or not do listen when they go into what i like to call crazy mode [emoji4]

Blog post that might help http://www.englishbulldognews.com/forums/entry.php?b=350

But there are few things you can do to possibly stop or help

1) i got few articles here on the blog about general aggression which covers pretty much everything

2) start by teaching her to "check in" its a handy thing as its not only teaching her to pay attention when shes away from you but also before she do something she will look up to you

This took me about a week doing it every single walk, and a couple more to really cement it in training, but it will vary depending on the dog and your consistency. Every walk you do, whether it is a long walk or just a short one, take a big bag of tiny treats with you. You may need to cut down on meal rations during the training period - I could use the same weight of food but take it for training Decide on the interval you would like the check in to be (I used about 20secs) and as you walk every 20secs give the dog a treat. They do not have to do anything for it, not even look, if needs be you put it in their mouth or walk up to them if they are off sniffing - at this stage it is not the dog's responsibility to get the treat, it is yours to give it on time.

Do this consistently for a few walks. You should start to notice that they look at you at around the time the treat is due - if they do, then give a big thumbs p and smile with the treat. If they start to just watch you constantly, give a thumbs up and tell them to walk on. If they are early in looking, you may want to reward them or thumbs up and send on - depends how early they are and how likely they are to look again. Keep going until more or less every 20secs they are looking for that treat.

Do another few walks with them taking responsibility, don't worry if they are a few secs late occasionally but more than this or getting too interested in something else may require a gentle touch to remind them, or gentle lead tug. Once this is consistent, you can start to phase some of the treats out, substituting for a thumbs up, and big smile, a cuddle, a game - anything else that is rewarding for them but not food, but don't eliminate the food altogether.

Ok, teaching a check in. This took me about a week doing it every single walk, and a couple more to really cement it in training, but it will vary depending on the dog and your consistency. Every walk you do, whether it is a long walk or just a short one, take a big bag of tiny treats with you. You may need to cut down on meal rations during the training period - I used to use fish4dogs small bite so I could use the same weight of food but take it for training (small bite is tiny pieces, perfect for training as it is very smelly and a lot cheaper than "treats". Decide on the interval you would like the check in to be (I used about 20secs) and as you walk every 20secs give the dog a treat. They do not have to do anything for it, not even look, if needs be you put it in their mouth or walk up to them if they are off sniffing - at this stage it is not the dog's responsibility to get the treat, it is yours to give it on time.

Do this consistently for a few walks. You should start to notice that they look at you at around the time the treat is due - if they do, then give a big thumbs p and smile with the treat. If they start to just watch you constantly, give a thumbs up and tell them to walk on. If they are early in looking, you may want to reward them or thumbs up and send on - depends how early they are and how likely they are to look again. Keep going until more or less every 20secs they are looking for that treat.

Do another few walks with them taking responsibility, don't worry if they are a few secs late occasionally but more than this or getting too interested in something else may require a gentle touch to remind them, or gentle lead tug. Once this is consistent, you can start to phase some of the treats out, substituting for a thumbs up, and big smile, a cuddle, a game - anything else that is rewarding for them but not food, but don't eliminate the food altogether.

Using a longline, gradually give them more freedom but still expect the check in - use the line to reinforce it if needs be, or back track to a shorter lead if freedom goes to their head! As they gain more distance, you may not want them to return to you, so when they check in you can just thumbs up from a distance an give them a "carry on" signal. Or you can recall them for a reward, or a bit of heelwork to keep them thinking.

Try and use a sendaway signal to distinguish when the dog is free and has to take responsibility for checking in - when they are on a short lead it isn't as necessary, when they are offlead or on longling they need to remember their responsibility. Over time you will need less and less treats, this is the bit where you need to be patient, and it will vary with each dog, but eventually almost all check ins will be rewarded with a smile or thumbs up. Don't forget to teach the recall as well, so if they get too far ahead you can call them back at the check in!! By doing that consistently you can start to teach an appropriate distance for them to wander from you as well.
Try and use a sendaway signal to distinguish when the dog is free and has to take responsibility for checking in - when they are on a short lead it isn't as necessary, when they are offlead or on longling they need to remember their responsibility. Over time you will need less and less treats, this is the bit where you need to be patient, and it will vary with each dog, but eventually almost all check ins will be rewarded with a smile or thumbs up. Don't forget to teach the recall as well, so if they get too far ahead you can call them back at the check in!! By doing that consistently you can start to teach an appropriate distance for them to wander from you as well.

3) teach them to leave - i ised one sign language for any "leave" be it Shy wanted a treat or wanted to play with not so friendly dog (i think i covered that in the blog post on ebn but if i didn't here is the basics)

Make up your own sign that you and your family will easy remember
Once your dog is in sit position Show your girl a treat place it in your palm in front of her but do not let her have it - sign "leave it" just close your palm with the treat inside without moving your hand , and offer a treat using the other hand , now open your palm again and sign leave it - eventually she will understand , progress to toys and other things

4) trigger -locate, find and prevent before anything happen

There are maybe reasons why dogs snap - (covered in my ebn blog post )
What is your role here is to find her trigger and at the beginning try to avoid it before progressing to redirect her attention ( if you want me to explain in the details let me know im here to help)

6) desensitisation ( i cover that in a sec ) xx

 

[Pati Robins]

Ok no 6 ) desensitisation -it works on any problem
In plain English this is a process where we are exposing a dog to very low levels of the problem stimulus. Once the dog becomes accustomed to the low level stimulus, we very slowly increase its intensity. Over time, our dog will learn to tolerate and be calm at even higher levels of the reactive stimulus.
Patience is key because we do not want to raise the stimulus potency too quickly and cause our dogs to lose control. Frequent loss of control (from fear or over-excitement) will not only set back our desensitization work, but also make our dog mistrust us, and become even more reactive.

If you have a patient friend with another dog who can spare some time and help you -it will speed up the process , if not you can still do it by yourself near dog parks etc
1) you need to make sure your dog is calm and relaxed , sit her and let your friend with the dog walk slowly at the distance that your dog CAN see but its comfortable with -and reward your dog GOOD behaviour with a high value treat with a treat - slowly i repeat slowly increase the distance between your dog and your friend dog - basicly your dog will learn to remain calm and her trigger - other dog with now become associated with good stuff

I wrote similar article where desensitisation was used on separation anxiety Day 1053 Separation anxiety-prevention and overcoming it - My ears are just for show...


Sorry its not much but my phone battery is low xx

 

[Davidh]

Good advise above, it take time and patience to get the results you want. Bless you for adopting a bully and giving her a loving home.