Constructional Aggression Treatment

[CliftonPark]

Kellie makes a fairly strong argument in favour of controlling the environment but has also expressed disappointment at how difficult she has found it to achieve, so I would be interested to hear what she has to say about this now. I believe that if you own the DVD you can join her "5th Quadrant" discussion group.

I would be very interested to know what she says too and yes I only just discovered that as I have the DVDs I can join 5th Quadrant and shall do so to learn more.

I caution against the use of distraction techniques except when necessary, and there is a very narrow range of scenarios where they are useful in my work. Either you can control the environment (or consequences) in some small way, or it's completely out of your hands and distractions aren't going to help at all. If you can control the environment even a little, you can reinforce operants. If you can't, then you probably can't distract the dog either. The small margin between those two pages doesn't allow a lot of room for doodling, but if you can avoid a potentially explosive situation by tossing some food around then that is better than losing the plot completely.

Thanks good point.

but I do use proximity of stimuli to reinforce/extinguish behavioural responses. I also use a couple of kilos of meat and enough clicking to be attractive to cicadas and crickets.

laughing aside I shall try and get the visual I have in my mind of bugs dancing at your feet.....you obviously have a wealth of knowledge and experience. Do you run workshops/courses for dog trainers looking to learn more....I don't think you ever stop learning actually.

[Aidan]

Apparently I've given a false impression of myself, probably the name dropping If you saw my dog sometimes you'd think twice about listening to anything I have to say on the topic, but she's given me a lot to think about and more importantly, work on and learn from (good and bad). I am working on putting something together, something of a 'sport' that allows for reactive and aggressive dogs to participate and progress, and for their owners to learn key concepts and hone their skills.

[Aidan]

The process shown did not include upping the anti with the type of decoy dogs used and I wonder if the process could be extended to using decoy dogs that are more bouncy, playful types, dogs that bark (friendly/excited barking) dogs that will teach the target dog to cope with a bit more.

That's very interesting, I might ask Kellie about this because I'm not sure how far she goes these days (we haven't discussed it for a while), it wouldn't be fair of me to comment without knowing what she does once she gets past this point.

OK, I asked Kellie. She said she brings in new dogs and repeats the process.

[Misha]

In my opinion another tool in the bucket. Used by many with some modifications. On a lighter note

Just to add: (I can not resist) When the transition time comes up and the dog is passed to the handler/own

er , a lot of meat for the dog and bucket with water for the owner/handler. Because if the aggression is learned the handler/owner needs to be trained too.

Cheers,

Misha

Edited December 19, 2009 by Misha