Aggressive Dog Training

I’m asked this question by novice dog trainers several times a week. My short answer is no. Shocking, I know, but not discouraging, trust me. Let me explain why I feel beginner dog trainers should not take aggression cases, just not yet.

 Beginner dog trainers must accomplish critical foundation skills first!

What Does Beginner Dog Trainer Mean?

To me, a beginner dog trainer means he’s recently graduated from a dog training school or university, or currently mentoring with an experienced dog trainer. He has learned foundation skills, such as learning theory and how to apply it to everyday circumstances. After graduating, he is now learning how to practice foundation exercises with many different dogs and people, as they are all different.

Focusing on Foundation Behaviors

Foundation behaviors focus on teaching people how to apply basic learning theory to shape polite canine behaviors. That sentence was a mouthful, but this is what beginner dog trainers must accomplish first before accepting aggression cases.  Let me drill down further.

The truth of the matter is clients enroll in classes or hire you because you will “fix” their dog issues. Take that in for a moment, that’s a lot of pressure. Now, ball that pressure up with different dog and human learning styles — yikes! Take all that pressure even further. Dog trainers must be able to offer another way of thinking or different solutions quickly for a particular behavior. That’s plenty of pressure without topping it off with dog aggression.

There’s Plenty of Time, Later, for Aggression Cases

For some reason, dealing with aggression cases is “sexy.” Dog trainers wear it as a badge of honor. Trust me, it’s not sexy when you’re over your head in a difficult situation.

There will be plenty of time later. Right now, focus on different types of adult learning styles, such as visual, auditory and kinesthetic learning, which are part of the larger picture. Then focus on the next layer, which is teaching adults to use logic and reasoning even if this means saying the same thing different ways. It’s also important to interpret human body language.

Does your client really understand what you just said? Interpret his body language:

• Is he just looking at you or his feet?
• Nodding or eyes are glazed over?
• Is he stepping back from you or standing still?
• Is he smiling or rolling his eyes?
• Is he participating or shrinking back?

Most importantly, is he able to demo what you just explained to him? That is the true answer! If not, he didn’t understand so it’s vital to rephrase without sounding condescending. Yes, this takes skill and finesse so practice and practice some more. 🙂

Now learn to successfully identify, interpret body language and change thinking patterns for naysayers (“My dog CAN NOT do that”), cynical thinkers (“Treats don’t work”), non-participants (“It’s okay, we’ll just sit here”), chronic interrupters (Blurting out “But, what if…..”) and show offs (“I volunteer to demo again!”).

Then, you have the dogs. Each dog learns differently so learn how to demo different ways to shape, capture and lure a down behavior with different dogs (short, long, pulling, shut down, tall, scared). And if a demo dog moves away from you, it’s okay. Return the dog back to his owner. You’re not expected to have a magic wand so all dogs love you. 🙂 What about pulling dogs? What tips do you have for Larry the Labrador that insists on pulling Grandma around? But Grandma has tried all that, now what?

So now you’re exhausted just reading this. Trust me, there is plenty of time for aggression cases. And if you think all the above is hard, increase this difficulty by 10x and now you have a true taste of  an aggression case. With aggression cases,  you have emotion, frustration and denial. That’s just on the human side.  The poor dog is depending on you to help.

Take your time to learn and implement foundation exercises. It’s worth it!