Dog Training – How To Cure Leash Aggression In Dogs And Make Dogs Less Aggressive
rushon very common behavior problem and
there’s two parts to this because least
regression is a word that kind of gets
thrown around and it’s not always
aggression so I break this down into two
parts one is we two aggression the
second part is what I call leash
reactivity and they’re different now
the first I’m going to cover is leash
aggression right now what I want to tell
you is if you haven’t already please
watch the video on fear because a lot of
the stuff that I’m about to go over with
leash aggression is in the fear video
and these two things go together so be
sure to watch the fear video for another
another idea and me explain this in a
different way so leech aggression
I say that because that is what leash
aggression stems from you have your dog
on a leash and something scares them now
when dogs are scared they do one of two
things the first thing they try to do is
run away they want to get out of that
situation and they can’t get out of that
situation they have no other choice but
to become aggressive and aggression
generally leads to biting all right
leash regression well our dog is on the
leash so when they get scared when they
are afraid they can’t get away it’s
physically impossible and this is how we
SH aggression becomes you know be such a
problem we have to address the
underlying fear why is the dog afraid
what is the dog afraid of on the leash
okay now we should question leash
reactivity they’re two they’re separate
leash aggression is that the dog is
fearful so he is responding aggressively
to try to say stay away don’t come any
closer
that’s what the barking the biting it
he’s saying if you get closer I’m going
to hurt you because you’re scaring it
you’re leaving me no
choice leisure activity is the opposite
leisure activity is the dog is so
excited to see somebody – so excite to
see another dog they can’t control it so
they bark they howl they pull on the
leash so they’re separate I’m going to
cover leash reactivity second alright so
if that sounds more like your doctor can
skip forward in the video to that part
but for leash aggression this is your
dog will hurt somebody will hurt
something if it continues to get close
while they’re on the leash okay so with
leash aggression what we want to do is
basically take that fear and whatever it
is that is causing our dog to be so
afraid they are coming aggressive want
to turn turn that fear into a positive
all right we want to make our dog see
that hey this thing that you just
scaring you and is making you want to
attack it it’s really not so bad and we
have to do this very slowly okay now
before we get into actually the exercise
to solve leash aggression the first
thing that we need to take a look at is
already quipment okay because if you’re
using certain tools you can actually be
making the problem worse that prong
collars or choke to chains for example a
big metal collars okay
these are one of the leading reasons why
dogs develop leash aggression so often
I’ll work with a client the first
question I ask is well can I see what
you walk them on and out comes the big
huge problem collar
well here’s what happens with prong
collars I got this nice big metal collar
on our dog and we’re walking her dog
down the street and all of sudden your
dog starts to pull and what happens okay
he gets chucked pain prompt collars hurt
it’s pain they is oh he gets pain and
then he loosens up and then he continues
to walk interest to full again and
because there’s pain he stops fully then
he walks again there’s pain he stops
bullying he’s not learning he’s not
being trained not to pull he’s not
choosing a place being forced you
that prone collar off try to walk I’m on
a regular collar he will be pulling you
down the street because he’s not being
taught anything he’s just being forced
all right so how does that cause
aggression well let’s say that every day
you take your dog on the prong collar to
pick up your kids from school and what
happens tons of kids running around and
every time your dog goes to pull because
he’s excited he sees children and what
happens when he sees children ouch
pain and he pulled again cuz he’s
excited but there’s children around ah
pain and pretty soon what starts to
happen if he starts to associate the hey
when I see children they hurt me every
time I see children I get hurt so I
better become aggressive I have to keep
those children away because if they get
close to me I’m going to get choked I’m
gonna get hurt so if you have a prom
call I’m using the choke chain if you’re
using anything that causes harm that
causes physical pain like that we want
to immediately get rid of that and
instead you want to get a harness all
right
harness makes it a lot easier to control
your dog check the products link I have
a link for a frontal Township harness
harnesses where the leash hooks on the
back are not recommended because it
actually allows your dog to pull more it
makes it easier for your dog to pull
it’s gonna give you less control
harnesses where at least Shooks on the
chest here and it goes behind their back
when the dog goes to pull it turns up
sideways so it doesn’t allow them to
pull especially you people with big dogs
get a front of attached harness right
and if you’re using any kind of collar
that causes pain we want to immediately
get rid of that a lot of time just
removing that and switching to the
harness makes the world’s difference and
the mixed are so trained so much simpler
okay so we’re talking about actual
aggression here fear based leash
aggression the dog is going to hurt
somebody it’s going to hurt something if
they get close enough to it
because they are afraid or nothing gets
close enough to that okay so we’re going
to have our dog on the harness we’re
going to work on turning that fear into
a positive how do we actually go about
doing this well you’ll probably notice
that most dogs or your dog whatever it
is that that he’s aggressive with he’s
not aggressive with everything on me
generally there are triggers your dog is
aggressive when he sees a cat the most
common theme that is that dogs get
aggressive when they see another dog
okay
or people skateboards bikes dogs are
super common one so what we want to do
is we want to slowly introduce our dog
to whatever expose them to whatever is
making them react aggressively we want
to keep them under the threshold where
they start to react and we want to
constantly reward them there so what
you’re going to need first is we’re
going to get some very high quality
treats and I’m not talking about dog
treats I mean human food food that’s
good enough for us to eat chicken hot
dogs cheese very high quality food and
the only time our dogs are going to get
this food is when we’re working on leash
aggression when we’re working on
addressing their fear remember I said I
want to turn the fear into a positive
food is the highest highest reward there
is for dogs so we’re going to we’re
going to take advantage of that nothing
is more important to a dog than eating
and surviving and foodist
is what they need so we’re going to take
food and these are tiny pieces okay if
you take a hot dog you’re going to cut
it down in half and then you’re going to
cut those two houses in half that’s how
tiny pieces you are that you’re either
making it’s not about you know the size
of the treat your dogs getting it’s
about the fact that he’s getting a treat
and the fact is getting repetitions in
multiple treats okay so this is what
we’re going to we’re going to do first
we’re going to get very high quality
treats the second
I’m going to do is we’re going to try to
expose our dog to whatever is making
them aggressive a very common thing that
I work with people with is their dogs
have dog aggression so what do we do we
go to the dog park
this will be the dog park over here and
the inside the fence lots of dogs
running around and what we’re going to
do with our dog that has leash
aggression is we’re going to start out
all the way over here 100 feet away
because over here where you know we are
with our dog that’s that’s with her
little little dog there alright when our
dog is a hundred feet away from the dog
park he’s able to look at dogs and
remain under the threshold he doesn’t
react right he still is calm that is the
spot you need to find he is calm at 100
feet away if we were to get any closer
he’s going to react so we find that spot
at a hundred feet away we are going to
do is we’re just going to stand there
and while our dog was called every time
he sees another dog
we’re going to give him the treat and
this is while he’s calm he’s under that
threshold he’s not reacting he looks
over he sees a dog treat good boy
goes overseas a dog treats a good boy so
overseas a dog he’s called treat good
plan and we do that over and over and
over 30 to 40 times and after 30 or 40
times we leave we go we get in a car and
we leave go and that’s it that’s all we
did for the day and the next day we come
back and do the same thing where should
we start off at 100 feet and we let the
dogs the our dog look at the dogs in the
dog park and every time they look good
why Street folks is right good point
killer treat and I’d like to use the dog
park like this because at least all the
perks I’ve been to are fenced in so you
know those dogs aren’t going to come
right up here
how kind of offense gives you a safety
barrier it’s important because after
about a week or you know two weeks
whatever way however you going to be the
judge of your dog’s pace then what
you’re going to do is you’re going to
move up so now instead of being at a
hundred feet now you’re at ninety feet
with your dog okay
and now you do the same thing at 90 feet
your dog looks over he’s called treat
look over calm treat and do this for a
week and then the next week you move up
to eighty feet then to seventy feet of
it each week you move up or whatever the
time is that it takes the more the
longer that the leash aggression has
been occurring the longer it’s going to
take to fix but what we’re doing here is
we’re teaching the dog that whatever it
is that you have that fear UPS remember
the leash aggression is generally an
underlying fear it’s not so scary in
fact it’s a good thing the key though is
down here we can we have we can only
reward the dog when they are behaving
and if we let the dog react and go over
that threshold over they become
aggressive then we’re moving too fast
and not only moving too fast we’re
undoing all the work we’ve just done
okay so it’s very important that we stay
over there and you go slow you cannot
force leash aggression you have to go
slow you have to it’s your again you’re
dealing with a fearful dog essentially
so trying to force them to get over
something it won’t work when you try to
force them you’re going to get you’re
going to get a fight you’re going to get
your dog to bite somebody which we don’t
want so this is leash aggression right
and it was an underlying fear condition
we want to very slowly get the dog used
to sing that hey whatever it is that you
think is so scary and that’s what you
want to tap and keep away is really not
that scary okay so this is how we work
with actual leash aggression now we
should Gretchen is not as common as
leash reactivity people call me and I
will meet their dogs
I’ll meet the park and they’ll say is
aggressive dog and he’s horrible on the
leash and but but but they go into adult
park with him and in other dogs approach
him and once the dogs get up to him he’s
fine well I don’t call that leash
aggression I called a leash reactivity
and their different reactivity okay the
reactivity is the dog is so over excited
he can’t control himself but once he
gets up to a dog it’s up to person he
actually is okay
he stops barking he stops lunging he
just wants to say hi he’s so excited
though so much energy he can’t control
it so what we do for a dog got has leash
reactivity is kind of a fun game I call
it the crazy walk and here’s how it
works okay the crazy walk is similar to
the dog park
scenario so we have the dog park over
here okay
our little parks here with all the dogs
and our dog is very friendly and wants
to get over there very badly so we get
out of the car and we start walking
towards the dog park and we start
walking towards the dog park our dog
sees a dog and what happens he starts
pulling and gets excited barking lunging
so we are very calm we don’t say
anything there’s no bad dog
there’s no jerking on the leash we
simply turn around and we walk the
opposite direction and we walk the
opposite direction until the dog is
quiet
the second the dog is quiet we turn back
and we head towards the dog park and we
get a little closer this time and now
our getting closer and now the dog
starts
react again in Shutts pulling and
lunging and barking he’s so excited and
what do we do we stay completely calm
but second he starts reacting up we’re
going back this way the second is quiet
okay now we go back towards the park
you Volks can get up we are we’re almost
there
and then finally we get to the dog park
so this is kind of the crazy walk okay
we’re going back and forth back and
forth back and forth
but what we’re teaching the dog is that
when you’re quiet you go forward and
when you bark or are obnoxious and
create the game you go back okay it’s
it’s a crazy walk but it works where we
don’t need treats for this because the
dogs reward is simply getting what he
wants he wants to go to the dog park he
wants to play he wants to go say hi now
I use the vehicle with the dog park you
can do his crazy walk with anything my
dog loves to meet people on walks
particularly when somebody he knows and
will be a block away and he recognizes
them he will start to to why you just he
won’t bark or pull but he want mmm and I
don’t let that happen
because I it’s for for the breed of dog
ran out I have a Rottweiler
it’s very easy for that to get
misconstrued by somebody else as oh he’s
barking at me growling so I just don’t
take any chances I like to just teach
him be quiet when you’re approaching
people plus it just makes other people
nervous to have a dog a large dog making
sounds is walking towards them so I have
a crazy walk with that he starts to
whine we turn around we walk away the
setting is quiet we go back and then
once he gets into the person he’s happy
and wants to say hi to them okay but the
crazy walk the key to this is you have
to be quick all right
what you haven’t already you need to
watch the video on the two
and rule as to why is this so important
okay the second that your dog is quiet
you go for the second he starts whining
and being obnoxious you go backwards
when he’s quiet he gets what he wants we
go neat treats his reward is simply
getting to go say hi
getting to see whoever he wants when he
barks is obnoxious he goes away from
when he wants right he is learning your
dog is going to be choosing the behavior
he’s choosing to be quiet he’s choosing
to have self-control and that’s what we
want that’s why we don’t put him on a
shock collar or on a prom collar just
force him to do what we want because
he’s not learning anything he’s not
making decisions that way this way he
actually has to make a decision to
remain calm and not you know be
obnoxious and crazy so this is for a
leash reactivity okay to two things here
the leash aggression for dogs to
actually have fear-based aggression
remember to watch the fear-based video
because we treat them very very similar
for a leash reactivity though most dogs
this this is actually what when people
say they have leash aggression issues
this is actually what it really is I
would say probably seven out of ten dogs
but I see when someone calls me says my
dog has leash aggression it’s absolutely
Cherie opportunity the other three dogs
are absolutely aggressive because
there’s some sort of fear there okay so
analyze what the situation is for your
dog remember about the equipment all
right for anything
if you’re using a phone caller or shop
call or chill chat immediately get rid
of that we get them onto a harness or
just regular flat collar and then
accordingly whether it’s your speech
aggression or leisure activity follow
these steps to solve it puppy biting is
a perfectly normal behavior and if your
puppy’s not biting you you have a
problem now it’s a normal behavior but
it’s not
