Leashes are Good

There seems to be a growing trend for people to disregard leash laws and allow their dogs to walk off leash or roam their neighborhoods unattended. Several incidents happened this week which motivated me to write a blog about leash laws.  First, several clients mentioned incidents with off-leash dogs in their neighborhood that could have ended tragically. Second, a friend who lives in West Hollywood forwarded me a notice from the city informing its residents that the City of West Hollywood will be strictly enforcing the Los Angeles County Leash laws due to the growing number of complaints the city has received. The City informed its residents:

In response [to the complaints], the City has asked the Department of Animal Care and Control to strictly enforce the City's ordinances requiring dogs to be kept on a leash in public, including in public parks (the Hart Off-Leash Dog Park exempted).  Animal Control Officers have been deployed throughout the City and have issued a number of citations over the last week. 

Walking your dog without a leash is a violation of Chapter 10.32 of the Los Angeles County Municipal Code, which is enforced in West Hollywood.  Violators will be cited $250 for the first offense, $450 for the second offense, and $850 for the third.

While it may be a sign of pride that your dog can walk off-leash or it may be based on the notion, that the dog is happier off-leash, leash laws serve several very important functions which help protect both the public and the animals living within city limits.

First, leashes help keep the dog within the owner's control.  The leash will prevent your dog from getting into an altercation with another dog.  Even though you think your dog is friendly, the other dog may not be friendly or may be very fearful.  In addition, your dog may not like every dog he/she encounters. Leashes help prevent serious injuries from such encounters.

Second, not every human likes dogs.  There are some people who are very frightened of dogs and being confronted by an off-leash dog (even if friendly), can be traumatic.  In addition, children can be knocked over by a large, enthusiastic dog.  Keeping your dog on leash respects other people's space and possible discomfort towards your pet.

Third, many people are working with reactive and/or leash aggressive dogs.  Running into an off-leash dog can not only trigger an aggressive encounter, but can also set that person's training backwards.  Many of these dogs are fearful and having a predictable environment helps the dog overcome that fear.  Running into off-leash dogs when outside the safety of that dog's home can reinforce aggressive and fearful behavior.  Many of my clients who are working with their reactive dogs have had runs with off-leash dogs and it is unfortunate that these run-ins can have such a negative impact on someone's training program.

Fourth, your dog may not respond to your verbal cues 100% of the time and there is always a possibility that your dog will chase somebody's cat and do harm to that animal.  In a similar vein, your dog may chase another animal into oncoming traffic and run the risk of being hit by a car.

For people who allow their dogs to roam the neighborhood unattended, the same arguments apply.  Your dog may be hit by a car or may wander into someone else's property where there is a territorial resident dog.     Not only are there penalties for free-roaming dogs but there are issues of liability if that dog harms another person or animal or damages someone else's property.

So while many people have idealized notions of walking their dog off-leash, this is not practical or safe for a busy and crowded city like Los Angeles.  There are designated beaches and parks where dogs can safely be off-leash. Soon other cities in Los Angeles County may follow suit and begin to strictly enforce these laws.

A Tale of Two Canines: Leash Aggression and the Power of Pavlov.

Last year I related the story of my young Akita, Kiku, who I was working on to curb her tendency to lunge and bark at other dogs while on a leash and discussed the source of leash aggression/reactivity. Often during our walks we see other people working on the same issue because it is such a common behavior among canines. While the behavior is relatively common, how people address this behavior can be quite different.

On our walks I often run into other owners who have leash aggressive dogs who opt to use more forceful techniques. There is one owner I used to run into fairly regularly who had a choke chain on her dog and she would yell and scream at the dog while yanking on the choke chain. It was a very uncomfortable experience running into these two because you could hear her screaming all the way down the block and the force she would exert on the choke chain would pull the dog of his front feet.  She would also violently yank on the choke chain even when her dog looked in the direction of my dog but did not lunge or bark. I see other owners doing this as well and have even witnessed people hitting their dogs. So, the end result of these aversive techniques is that the dog is effectively punished for just glancing at another dog. Whenever, I see this, I think to myself, what message is the owner sending the dog? See dog, jerk on collar, pain. The dog is associating the presence of other dogs with physical punishment.  This also illustrates the problem of physical punishment; incorrect application and timing.  In this case, the owner was punishing the dog when the dog is actually not doing anything wrong per se leaving the dog confused and walking on eggshells. 

I like to call Kiku "Ms. Control Freak." She likes to know what is going on around her and can be a little intense and vigilant. Trying to make her sit and ignore the dogs around her is just a little too much for her to bear and it makes her more anxious and feel out of control.  She has gone through all kinds of group classes from puppy kindergarten up through intermediate/advanced levels of obedience with few outbursts and enjoys being in class. But it is the non-class setting or unfamiliar areas where she is the most reactive. My favorite technique has been associating the presence of other dogs with a food reward. Like the bell in Pavlov’s dogs, when my dog looks at another dog she gets her favorite treat (boiled chicken or string cheese in her case). This technique of pairing something that the dog finds unpleasant with something that the dog likes (in this case a tasty treat) is called “counter-conditioning.” The goal of this technique is to change the emotional response of the dog towards the object that causes the fearful or aggressive behavior (in this case the dog but it could be the vacuum cleaner or any other object). I eventually turned this routine into a game where she gets a click and treat when she first looks at another dog and then looks back at me.¹ So unlike the owner who punishes their dog for looking towards another dog (probably because the owner fears or anticipates an outburst), I actually encourage it. For my particular dog, being able to see the other dog rather than ignoring the dog is a more comfortable situation for her and I am pairing the presence of other dogs with something the dog likes. 

Kiku, ever vigilant, scanning the horizon.

I recently attended a webinar on leash aggression led by Kathy Sdao (Cujo Meets Pavlov) who is a great clicker trainer and behaviorist. She reminded everyone of a video made by Dr. Sophia Yin demonstrating the effectiveness of counterconditioning. In this video Dr. Yin is working with an aggressive Jack Russell Terrier and the results are very dramatic:
Training Aggression?: counterconditioning a dog to blowing in the face

You can see that the dog initially reacted to being blown in the face by biting and lunging but by the end of the training sessions, he no longer reacts aggressively even with being blown in the face quite forcefully. The same principal applies to leash aggression/reactivity. I would rather have my dog look forward to the appearance of a new dog rather than dread it.

Flash forward several months . . .

I occasionally see the woman with her dog and thankfully she is not yelling at him anymore. However, now she carries a little spray bottle attached to her belt loop. The dog is not lunging but his head is held a little low and he does not have the look of a confident dog. His body language also tells me that he is not relaxed. The behavior is being suppressed through punishment but I am not so sure that this dog enjoys seeing other dogs on walks.  As noted in one of my earlier blogs, using aversive or dominance-based methods to suppress aggression does not address the underlying causes of such behavior. 

My dog is not perfect but she does not have the loud, scary outbursts that she originally had as an adolescent. If we are at a corner and there are multiple dogs walking around, I may ask her to sit and click and treat watching other leashed dogs while she is sitting. Sometimes, she does not pay attention at all and we simply keep moving. But the main difference is that my dog is not walking on eggshells when she sees another dog. Her carriage is more relaxed and confident.  She does not associate other dogs with physical punishment, coercion or pain. When we pass by houses where she knows there is a barking dog, she will often excitedly sit in front of the fence facing me waiting for a click while ignoring the dog. There is one house we pass by quite often and the dog behind the fence will bark once and then lie down and watch our strange little routine every time we pass by. 

So while the end result is that both of these dogs may have outwardly curbed their tendencies to lunge and bark on the leash, the final product is, in my opinion, not equivalent.

The other day I ran into my neighbor from another block with her two goldens on their Gentle Leaders. This owner has worked hard on her dogs’ lunging and aggressive behavior on the leash. Because her dogs are now relatively calm, I have my dog sit at the curb and watch them walk by. As my neighbor sees me working with my dog she waves and pulls her clicker out of her pocket.

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¹    This technique is a version of one of the techniques addressed by Leslie McDevitt in Control Unleashed and Emma Parsons in Click to Calm.

What is a Leash Reactive or Leash Aggressive Dog?

Recently, I started a workshop for leash reactive or leash aggressive dogs and their owners. I have found that many people who have reactive dogs enroll in group classes hoping that the group setting will help their dog grow accustomed to being around other dogs. Mildly reactive dogs usually get used to a class situation after a few weeks but other dogs may find the setting too overwhelming. In other cases, a dog might be reactive to a particular type of dog or in a specific setting that the group class cannot mimic. Usually people who enroll these dogs in class have recently adopted the dog and are often are more interested in helping the dog get used to other dogs than general obedience. So I started the workshops to specifically address this behavior because in the basic group classes the focus is on general obedience and the level of training required for the reactive dog requires a different focus and skill set.

A frequent question I receive is “what is a leash reactive dog”? The term “reactive” is somewhat vague. Although it is a term that is commonly used in the dog training world, the term can have various connotations to your average dog owner. Reactivity in dogs can manifest itself as lunging, jumping, rearing up like a stallion, snarling, growling, barking and overexcitement. A leash-reactive dog is one that is especially reactive while on a leash. Interestingly, many leash reactive or leash aggressive dogs are perfectly fine off-leash and many of them play well in dog parks.

So why are dogs more reactive on leash than off-leash? There are several possibilities. One reason is that the leash prevents dogs from behaving the way they would normally behave when they see another dog. For dogs that are overly excited, the leash prevents them from greeting the dog and they react in frustration which devolves into barking and lunging. For fearful dogs, they may perceive that the “flight” part of the “flight or fight response” is not an option because they are stuck on a leash and feel “trapped.” In some cases, the dog reacts in response to tension on the leash because the owner is pulling back on it in anticipation of the encounter. When the dog feels the tension in connection with seeing other canines, the dog may perceive that there is a threat and become more aggressive. Sometimes if the owner jerks on the leash, it is a simple association between seeing a strange dog and pain (from the tightening of the collar).

This behavior can manifest itself at adolescence. A dog that has been socialized as a puppy can still become reactive. Some adolescent dogs can become feisty and test out certain behaviors. My female akita who is now 2 years old started manifesting this behavior at about a year. She had been through puppy kindergarten, basic obedience, intermediate and advanced obedience classes so she had a lot of socialization and been to the dog park etc. Now, she did witness an attack of my 13 year old akita by a neighbor’s loose shepherd while we were on a walk (the neighbor left the front door open and the dog ran from his property) which probably did not help. After the incident, she whined and became vigilant every time we walked by that house. My old akita was unharmed. The two male dogs rolled around before the owner called his dog away and my old guy dusted himself off and trotted away like nothing happened. My old male is a rescue that I adopted as a previously intact two-year old adult and I have a feeling that he was used to minor scuffles with his male and female Akita housemates. But, my female who was still a puppy at the time was left with quite an impression and she started becoming reactive soon after this incident. Granted, there is a breed predisposition for dog aggression in Akitas and she was a feisty adolescent so it is possible that she would have become somewhat leash reactive despite this incident and reactivity can be common in the guarding breeds. For example, in obedience classes, my akita can sit touching (butt-to-butt) with a classmate, but if she sees a strange dog approaching the outskirts of class, she will start barking in alarm. Small dogs can be reactive too so this behavior is not limited to the large dogs. In fact, several dogs in my workshops have been small or toy breeds.

Regardless of the reason why a dog has become leash reactive, it is important to not overreact to the situation. Yelling, scolding and tightening or jerking on the leash can exacerbate the problem and give your dog the false impression that there is something to be worried about. In the case of my Akita, I started a program where I taught her that good things happen when she sees another dog while on a leash. I have also taught her that there are options to standing her ground and lunging. In fact, whenever we pass by the house where the shepherd lives and we see him by the gate, she gets a treat for looking at the dog and then looking at me. Although this seems like a simple routine, it took weeks of training to get her to this point where she could focus on me and there were intermediate steps involved. Eventually, I put this behavior on cue by uttering the phrase, “there’s your friend,” and clicking and treating when she looks at the dog and then looks at me. She then gets another reward for following me past the gate without reacting (this is the options part of the equation where she learns that retreating is an alternative). I use my happy “let’s go” voice and act like nothing is bothering me. With Akitas, retreat is not something they naturally do so it took a lot of training to teach her to ignore other dogs. Luckily, the shepherd has no problem with my female and just sits by the gate staring at our strange little exercise. Slowly, she has gotten less reactive to dogs while on walks and defaults into turning her back on other dogs and sitting facing me whenever another dog is around.

My dog has doggie playmates and has good social skills once she gets to know a dog but my current goals are for her to be calm around unfamiliar dogs and not lunge at them while on a leash. It is not important for me at this time for her to be buddy-buddy with every dog she meets. My goals are realistic for her current stage in this training process because she is a large, strong, rowdy, adolescent that needs to learn a little self-control while on walks and not react on impulse. Sometimes it is more important to have lots and lots of minor successes (not reacting and ignoring a dog) compared to having a few stupendous interactions (doggie play) followed by a bad interaction. It is important to be aware of what your dog can handle and set your dog up for success.



My "Feisty" Dog


Working with a reactive dog is a slow process that requires patience. Using a positive reinforcement and a reward-based system will reap rewards in the long-run. Contact a dog training professional who uses methods based on positive reinforcement and does not use coercive or punitive methods with reactive dogs.

Los Angeles Dog Trainer
www.pawsitivefeedback.com

Don’t sniff my butt- Reactive Dogs

Reactivity to other dogs is one of the more challenging behaviors to modify in dog training. It can be distressing and unnerving to have a dog that barks or lunges at other dogs. Dog-dog aggression is a common behavior, but how people deal with it can be drastically different.

Some owners fit their dogs with choke collars and try to “correct” reactive behaviors by yelling and/or jerking firmly on the leash. One owner that I encounter on my walks tries to suppress her dog’s reactivity by yelling at the dog (which can be heard a block away, by the way) and jerking on the dog’s choke collar. Several weeks later the dog still has a strong reaction to my dogs, even from across the street and the owner continues to scream in the dog’s face and jerk on the leash. One could imagine the stress this causes to the dog and it is hard to see how this actually changes the dog’s attitude towards other dogs.

Having Akitas and a Shiba Inu, I am all too familiar with owning breeds that have a tendency to be dog aggressive. My 12-year old rescue came to my home highly reactive to other dogs. Eventually, through training and gradual exposure to other dogs, he learned to become less reactive and walk calmly on a leash. My Akita puppy, now going through adolescence, is also being trained to react less to strange dogs. While she is friendly to dogs she knows and the dogs in her obedience classes, she shows anxiety when meeting strange dogs on the street. As part of her training, I am applying counter-conditioning techniques so that my dog will associate the presence of other dogs with positive experiences (play, verbal praise and/or treats). I know from experience that harsh physical corrections will not go very far with these independent, northern breeds. The process of counter-conditioning and desensitization can take time and requires a calm, cool demeanor, but studies have shown that this methodology is safer than dominance-based methods of dog training.

Earlier this year, researchers from the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine found that aggressive dogs were more likely to respond aggressively when the training program involved “confrontational” techniques. Confrontational techniques included training methods such as the “alpha roll,” the “stare down,” grabbing the dog by the jowls, yelling and growling at the dog. The lead author of this article, Meghan Herron, noted, “this study highlights the risk of dominance-based training, which has been made popular by TV, books and punishment-based training advocates,” Herron cautions, “these techniques are fear-eliciting and may lead to owner-directed aggression.” http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/02/090217141540.htm. See also, Meghan E. Herron, Frances S. Shofera and Ilana R. Reisner, Survey of the use and outcome of confrontational and non-confrontational training methods in client-owned dogs showing undesired behaviors, J. Applied Animal Behavior Science, Vol. 117, Pgs. 47-54 (Feb 2009).

In a study released last May, the researchers from the University of Bristol’s Department of Clinical Veterinary Sciences reached similar conclusions. In this study, researchers concluded that there was little empirical evidence of wolf-like dominance hierarchies in dogs. One of the authors of the study noted, “the blanket assumption that every dog is motivated by some innate desire to control people and other dogs is frankly ridiculous. It hugely underestimates the complex communicative and learning abilities of dogs. It also leads to the use of coercive training techniques, which compromise welfare, and actually cause problem behaviours.” See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/05/090521112711.htm. See also, John W. S. Bradshaw, Emily J. Blackwell, Rachel A. Casey, Dominance in domestic dogs—useful construct or bad habit?, Journal of Veterinary Behavior: Clinical Applications and Research, Vol. 4, Issue 3: 135-144 (May 2009).

The conclusions reached by these studies are not unique. In 2008, the American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior (AVSAB) issued a position statement on the Use of Dominance Theory in Behavior Modification of Animals. In this statement, the AVSAB similarly cautioned about risks involved with the application of dominance theory to address behavioral problems. Rather, the AVSAB recommends that veterinarians refer cases to trainers who advocate positive reinforcement, counter-conditioning, desensitization and other science-based methods.
See http://www.avsabonline.org/avsabonline/images/stories/Position_Statements/dominance%20statement.pdf.

The AVSAB also issued a position statement on the use of punishment in dog training. In this document, the AVSAB warns that punishment “should not be used as a first-line approach or early use treatment for behavioral problems.” Examples of punishment include choke collars, pinch/prong collars, electronic/shock collars, jerking on the leash and alpha rolls. The AVSAB cautions that the use of physical punishment or aversive methods can lead to adverse consequences such as owner-directed aggression and increasing fear responses in an already fearful animal. The AVSAB points out that while punishment may suppress the behavior, it does not address the underlying cause of the behavior. See http://www.avsabonline.org/avsabonline/images/stories/Position_Statements/Combined_Punishment_Statements.pdf.

In the case of reactive dogs, physical corrections and/or harsh reprimands do not address the underlying cause of the behavior (i.e. fear, anxiety or aggression towards other dogs). The goal of training should be to address the underlying behavior. If your dog is exhibiting aggressive or reactive behavior towards other dogs, avoid applying physically coercive or punitive methods to subdue your dog. Contact a trainer or veterinary behaviorist to work with you and your dog to modify the dog’s behavior. Choose a person who is experienced and familiar with positive methods of dog training.

Los Angeles Dog Trainer

www.pawsitivefeedback.com

Mitsu hates having her butt sniffed by unfamiliar dogs but she has learned to tolerate dogs being in close proximity.