Training Aggression? Counter Conditioning

I was "introduced" to Dr Yin just this past weekend. I went to a behaviour seminar and there were some video clips of her work - was well impressed. It's made me rethink my methods in the salon (as the seminar was given by a groomer/behaviourist who understands the commercial side of grooming as well as the needs of the dog - particularly those with behaviour issues. I shall have a watch later :)
 
I can't open it on my phone, but is that the terrier being blown in the face?

She doesn't seem to be very well known in UK, which is a shame because I don't find her as soft as the other "positive" trainers... which is good ;)
 
The vid wouldn't really play properly, and I became a bit frustrated with it, but not before I realised what the lady was trying to do. It was very basic and simple, but flawed. Blowing in the dog's face was an irritant and she was tormenting the animal. The attack was a threat, not a full blown attack which would have resulted in the dog taking a mouthful of flesh. There are many dogs which if she'd done what she did to them, she'd have been very badly injured.

Most dogs will react to having someone blow in their face, and that particular terrier either had a short fuse, or he'd been tormented. Most dogs, as they do with treats, would weigh up the balance of receiving a treat, against nailing someone, and come out in favour of the latter!

By rewarding the dog for accepting an irritant, which is all that the vid achieved, the lady demonstrated that the dogs annoyance could be overcome with bribery. Not that clever, and barely the stuff of instructional videos. The connection between baiting the dog and having it accept what she was doing would have to be gone through, with every single irritant, and individually. Had the link for the dog been, for instance, the word NO, to stop it from attack, then that word should have been sufficient to put a stop to any of the dog's unwanted behaviour.

I agree with you OP, it does fly in the face of giving treats to have a dog be compliant, it was a pointless and I thought embarrassing demonstration of how the woman could make a fool of herself.

Alec.
 
The instinctive reaction of some dogs to the sensation of being blown in the face is aggression. But not all dogs. Relatively passive dogs will simply go away! I use it when I want to get rid of a dog when (for example) I get a wet nose in my face when I stoop down to tie a shoe lace! They very soon learn to associate the cue "Go Away" with certain advantages to moving away!

On the other hand, it evokes the attack reaction in my (working line) German Shepherd. She enjoys attacking (which is controllable in a trained dog) and I have been known to use a small bicycle pump to stimulate this behaviour so I can exercise the dog while watching TV.

I hold the pump on the left hand side of my chair and she jumps over me to get at it. I then quickly transfer it to my right hand and she jumps back! A couple of dozen jumps seem to be enough and I haven't tried to see how many she will do it but she clears me and the chair with ease!

Cruel? I don't think so. And I don't need treats. The command "Leave" switches her to totally disinterested. "Fetch" and she will bring it to my hand.

My impression of the little video is that that woman is going to end up with a very fat dog! And I very much doubt she has conditioned the dog to do anything except ignore a blast from her mouth when the environment (i.e. the trainer seated, blowing into the dog's face, and dishing out treats) is similar. I didn't notice that she introduced a verbal cue either, so I hope she has a pocket full of treats and a hungry dog the next time it is aggressive. Judging by the dog's back, that wouldn't work for long either.

Successful training is all about replacing or modifying one piece of behaviour with another and using inducements that work.

P.S. I was quite interested to see that the dog's initial behaviour, partially masked, was to bite the lead! That makes me wonder if the aggression has been totally eliminated by stuffing it with treats. I think not! The hunting instinct, selectively bred in over centuries, is not so easily suppressed. I wonder if a treat would lure it away from killing a live rat?
 
Once a dog is over threshold no amount of dog treats would suffice to stop whatever it was going to do, as I said in my post, timing is everything, so catching it before it goes over threshold is crucial.

I dont know why anyone would blow in their dogs face either but reading the blurb with the video this dog came in to be pts, the reason the trainer desensitised this dog was to rehome it and to make sure if someone did this in his new home he wouldnt bite. IMO this dog was repeatedly teased by his previous owners.
 
Dobiegirl said:
IMO this dog was repeatedly teased by his previous owners.
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I'd agree with that. Some think play fighting is amusing in a small pup but it is a different thing with an adult that cannot be controlled.

IMO, there is only one safe thing to do...and it isn't what that behaviourist is attempting!
 
would it then work in other aggression scenarios though? or is the dog only conditioned that 'blowing in the face is a good thing' and that would need to be repeated with every possible aggression triggering scenario rather than it creating a 'less aggressive' dog??
 
Terriers have been selectively bred for centuries to kill foxes. Not so much Jack Russells which were bred to bolt the fox unharmed for the hunt. But I've seen Fell/Border-Lakeland types with horrific wounds from the foxes they've tackled because they simply don't give up. I don't think a dog with that sort of mentality could ever be trained out of aggression once they get that idea into their heads.

Who would risk re-homing the dog in the video into a family with a young child? Or one where the dog might come into contact with children? It sounds very harsh, I know, but why waste the time when there are plenty more deserving cases out there? Is there a shortage of dogs looking for a new home? I also think the woman's logic is severely flawed but I bet she charges enormous fees to make up for it!
 
ester said:
would it then work in other aggression scenarios though? or is the dog only conditioned that 'blowing in the face is a good thing' and that would need to be repeated with every possible aggression triggering scenario rather than it creating a 'less aggressive' dog??
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I can't say that I truly understand the logic of this???? There are many different reasons for a dog to show aggression, and scenarios where this might happen, not least if the dog is I'll with a tumour etc. Stopping the dog from being aggressive when you blow in its face doesn't really prove anything, unless you can repeat this training for every other instance when this particular dog shows aggression...
 
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