Why do dogs bite unprovoked?
A dog psychologist gives reasons and explains how to help fearful dogs.
In order to know why the President's dog keeps biting, and learn how to help this type of dog with fearful behaviour, Slate enlisted the help of a dog psychologist Nicholas Dodman. Dodman is a professor emeritus of the Tufts Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, and a co-founder of the Center for Canine Behavior Studies, where he researches how to help aggressive dogs.
According to Dodman, Major Biden is a fear aggression case and might have had some negative interactions with someone—most likely a man, somewhere in the past. So usually it’s men who are the targets of fear aggression cases.
Dodman further explained that if someone with a specific characteristic did something to upset a dog when he or she was very young, the dog will be triggered by that characteristic for the years going forward. He gave examples of fear aggression triggers to include - men with white beards, hats, boots and people with sunglasses, uniform, etc.
Dodman said: “There’s something for Major that we don’t know that triggers him. And in a way, it doesn’t matter what or who the targets are. What does matter is how you work through the treatment.”
How To Treat Fearful Dogs
In order to treat fearful dogs like Major, Dodman recommends the following:
1. Identify the fear aggression triggers
The trigger must be identified and a program of counterconditioning introduced to help the dog approach the feared object. Be it treats, or tennis balls, anything that drives the dog can be used in a positive way to help him approach the fear target.
2. Desensitize dogs to the feared target by using relaxation techniques
Bring a mat out and train your dog to stay relaxed while the fearful target walks by. In this case, Dodman advised Major's handlers to bring out a mat to the White House grounds and train Major to stay relaxed while its fear target walks by.
3. Exercise Your Dog
You also have to give the dog the right amount of exercise. The more exercise the better - exercise generates serotonin, which has a mood stabilizing and antidepressant effect.
4. Introduce low-protein diets
Too much protein can stoke the fire of aggression in dogs. So, introduce a low-protein diet to a fearful dog like Major.
5. Get the dog some sort of harness.
Dodman recommends a harness but not a choke chain. He said something like a head halter will work much better. If you put gentle tension on the leash, it applies pressure to two pressure points that a mommy dog would use on her puppies to get them to calm down. Just pressure, not pain. It’s a long process, though. Joe and Jill probably don’t feel like they have the time.
There's no 100% cure for fearful dogs
Dodman explains that although Major can be cured, the most important thing to understand is that nothing is a 100 percent cure because through genetics and early lack of good experience, the dog has probably developed mistrust of certain types of people. And German shepherds are the No. 1 biting breed in the country, though they tend not to bite hard.
When asked whether Joe or Jill’s stressful jobs or public lifestyle might have had an effect on Major, Dodman said: “An owner’s personality has about a 15 percent incident effect influence on canine behavior. These figures are averages and can only be used to assess odds of a particular personality affecting the dog’s behavior. In some individual cases, a particular personality mix may have little effect at all, whereas in others the effect may be much greater. So you see, it is impossible to say with certainty that Joe or Jill’s personality fed into Major’s behavior. In my view, Major came with issues that were little affected by his new owners’ personality.”
Read full interview here on Slate.
Comments
Post a Comment