Dog to Dog Aggression-Part 2

by Peggy Swager

Dog to Dog Aggression Part 2: Shay’s Story 

Over the years, I have taken on different foster dogs as a training project. I take on these dogs because the dog has issues which prevents the dog from being adopted. Shay was one of those dogs I took on for retraining. She’d had three previous owners, and to the credit of the most recent one, the owner had taken some expensive steps to secure this dog’s reform. Shay was sent to a prison dog-training program. The training at this facility was a combination of treat training and corrective training such as leash corrections. 

When Shay entered the canine companion training program at the prison, one of Shay’s issues was she was that she was very fearful and submissive. The trainer realized he needed to keep this dog’s training more positive, and did get her over her submissive peeing and through basic training.  Shay emerged a more confident dog. 

Not all of the training was positive with Shay. The trainer did uses leash corrections to discourage the dog from pulling. This didn’t teach Shay not to pull on the leash which I discovered when I began to take Shay for walks. At first, Shay heeled alongside of me on a walk. Actually, she walked closer than normal and often leaned on my leg. Often she would actually shut down (stop and not be able to move) when she thought a leash correction might be coming (which it never did). I attributed her slight clinginess to her feeling insecure in a new place. Once Shay became comfortable with me and where she walked, she no longer shut down due to anticipation of a leash correction. Instead, she pulled very intensely. One reason for Shay’s overreaction to a leash correction was that this dog was sensitive when it came to reprimands.

I’d had a lot of experience working with more sensitive dogs and quickly realized that Shay was desperately looking for security. With insecure dogs, it is important to not be negative, even with verbal corrections. In addition, sensitive dogs may not respond well to higher pitched tones such as those used when trying to motivate a dog. I made sure I used a calm and confident tone when interacting with this dog. Shay quickly bonded to me. She was very good about following commands such as sit and lay down. Where I found issues with this dog was her stay. She was too insecure to stay on command. 

Shay’s level of insecurity may have become worst because of her numerous re-homings. Even dogs with a secure nature can become very stressed during the rescue process. Sadly, it isn’t unusual for a dog who is adopted or rescued to develop separation anxiety. 

Shay’s clinginess set this dog up for developing separation anxiety. Shay was displaying what I called a shadow dog syndrome. I knew I had to train to correct that behavior right away. To do that I worked to retrain her stay. I say retrained, because Shay had learned the stay in the prison dog program. She just wasn’t willing to do that with me because she was too insecure to let me out of her sight. 

Here is a link showing the way I trained Shay to stay. This was one of my early videos and the audio is not as great as I’d like. The book I talk about at the end has some dated concepts as it was published in 2008. If you are looking for better training techniques, I’d recommend my book Rescue Your Dog from Fear which has a chapter on leadership training. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3M31s-rlvA

Once Shay was good about doing the stay command, I was able to do the “I’ll be Back Technique” which is on my DVD: “Separation Anxiety, a Weekend Technique.” This helped build Shay’s security when being left alone in the house.

One of the issue Shay’s previous owners had cited was that Shay sometimes got into fights with their German Shepherd. According to the owners, even though Shay lost every battle, she was the dog who started the fight. The fact that Shay getting hurt didn’t stop her from picking a fight with the German Shepherd supports the concept that punishment is not a good way to change unwanted behaviors. 

I soon discovered what the issue was behind the fights. I had another foster at the time named Shilo. When I tried to feed Shay near Shilo, the moment the food was given to Shay, she crouched down and began to growl fiercely. Shay was a food guarder and I suspected that when the German Shepherd in the precious home got close to the food bowl, Shay attacked.  

My first step when approaching this problem with a dog is to see if the dog has food bowl guard issues with me. There are a lot of ways to check this out. The humane society near where I live uses a fake arm with a hand that they use to reach to the bowl and pull it away. If the dog snaps at that fake appendage, the dog handler is not hurt during the assessment. Dogs with food bowl aggression are not put up for adoption. Sadly, the dog ends their journey at the human society. I found Shay would let me take her food bowl away without harm. Her aggression was only towards other dogs. 

Solving this problem ended up not being all that hard. I once heard that when dogs crouch over food and growl, that if you raise the food bowl, this can change the dog’s posture, and for some dogs, can change the possessiveness. This worked for Shay. With the food bowl raised, she quit growling and snarling. The next step was to slowly have Shilo eat closer to Shay. When they would eat close together without Shay guarding her bowl, I began incrementally lowering the level of the food bowl. It is important to note that Shilo didn’t ever go over to Shay’s food bowl to try and share Shay’s meal. That kind of action would have required more training to keep the peace.

So far the retraining of Shay had gone surprisingly well. Shay and Shilo were getting along and seemed to enjoy each other’s company. But then, a new aggression issue cropped up between Shay and Shilo which was initiated by Shay. That problem and its solution is addressed in the next blog. 

Resources
My award nominated DVD: Separation Anxiety, a Weekend Technique, is available to “view for free” during the month of March, 2020.
Here is the link: https://e-trainingfordogs.com/canine-problem-behaviors-peggy-swager-courses/