Now I sure hope I hit a nerve with that last disgusting sentence.  I even hope it made you mad.  Because that is the same prejudice attitude that just passed the newest breed specific law in Maryland, Tracey v. Solesky http://mdcourts.gov/opinions/coa/2012/53a11.pdf.  To put this new law in a nut shell it states that Pit Bulls are inherently dangerous animals, and owners & landlords are responsible for all damages.  There are several articles already written about this poor decision by:

• Maryland Votes For Animals
• The Whole Dog Journal
• Maryland Injury Law Advisor
• The Baltimore Sun Newspaper
• The Humane Society of the United States

The CDC published a paper (Breeds of dogs involved in fatal human attacks in the United States between 1979 and 1998) and yes, granted there are Pit Bull Dogs on that list, BUT SO ARE OTHER BREEDS!

Now, I want to make one thing VERY clear.  I *strongly* agree that an owner should be liable for ANY damage their dog does to ANY person, pet, or property – regardless of the breed that did the damage.  I also think there should be a ridiculously high fine for such damage.  I mean come on, I see harsher fines for littering!

I personally believe an owner of a dog who is the attacker should be liable for ALL medical / veterinary care & fined at least $5,000 per attackee, per offense.  Maybe then people will think twice about their dog causing anyone or anything harm.  So in other words, I have nothing against Pit Bulls.  I have a big fat problem with ANY dog who is dangerous.  There is no excuse for lazy, or irresponsible ownership.  Sorry, there’s not.  Get a qualified (positive reinforcement) trainer to prevent problems, or involve a behavior consultant & join the ‘midnight walkers club’ (ie: manage when your dog goes outside). I myself owned a Mastiff/Shepard mutt, named Juno who was growling at people since he was four weeks old.  I did extensive training, behavior modification, and behavior management.  And I guarantee you Juno could have done a horrific amount of damage if ever given the chance to attack a person.  If this stupid law was in effect, and lets just say for sh*ts & giggles that I’m an irresponsible owner, and Juno did attack someone (completely hypothetical situation here) – would I get a “free pass” because Juno wasn’t a “Pit Bull?”  What makes that hypothetical dog attack & damages any less significant than any other?

The other issue I take with this ridiculous law is this:  Take a look at the AKC list of breeds, there really is no such thing as a recognized standard for the “Pit Bull.”  So now what?  Any breed with a big head counts?  How does one determine a dog is a Pit Bull?  If I took a dog in for a DNA test, what would distinguish it from: an African Dogo Dog, American Bull Dog, American Staffordshire Terrier, Boxer, Bulldog, Bull Terrier, Bullmastiff, Cane Corso, English Bulldog, French Bulldog, Mastiff, Neapolitan Mastiff, Presa Canario, Staffordshire Bull Terrier, etc.

Someone tell me how we went from loving this breed to blind, bigotry hatred.  Remember Pete from the Little Rascals?  He was a “Pit Bull” type breed…

I just wish if there are going to be laws passed, that they be fair and, oh… I don’t know… make sense.  Contact your Maryland congress person here: http://mlis.state.md.us/

Additional reading for your reactive dog:

	More than 40 exercises in an easy-to-follow training recipe format, including how to desensitize your dog to approaching stranger dogs; have your dog perform canine calming signals, instead of aggressive displays, on cue; use your own body language when under stress as a cue for your dog to remain calm; and many more creative and effective uses of managing behavior through clicker training.	Dogwise Clickertraining.com Amazon.com
	Learn how to turn stress into confidence and distraction into focus using methods that are 110% positive. Leslie McDevitt’s versatile Control Unleashed program is designed to help “dogs with issues” learn how to relax, focus, and work off-leash reliably in either stimulating or stressful situations.	Dogwise Clickertraining.com Amazon.com

Now, I need to clarify that I am a big fan of teaching a dog obedience cues (as well as manners, and life behaviors too).  However, there is a right way to use obedience cues in a training plan.  What I see is a lot of people think obedience training fixes aggression problems.  (UGH!!!)  And usually what happens is they start to kill obedience cues by pairing them with the situation that triggers reactivity.  So, the dog generalizes that “sit” means the adverse stimulus (aka: the “icky thing”) is approaching, and in turn, kills the cue “sit” by changing the emotional response by classical conditioning.  AKA: “sit” = icky thing.  There is a HUGE difference between using sit (or whatever obedience cue you want) to bridge the gap and encourage some sort of interaction with the trigger, and accidentally poisoning the sit cue.   A lot of times I’ll use “target” to get an animal to interact with the environment.  (Target is: touch a body part, usually the animal’s nose or paw, and physically contact an object like your hand or a target stick).  So, if the dog Boo knows target, I could get Boo to target something like a pot holder, under threshold, as he’s approaching a person.  Knowing that target always offers a reinforcement (which could be a treat, or walking away from the person you’re actually trying to approach), connects the icky thing – the person, with the good thing – doing a target.  And thus you can counter condition using a known cue (in this example, “target”).  You could do this same thing with sit.

The two main problems I see are being over threshold and poor timing.  When an animal is over threshold, it doesn’t matter what you have to offer him, it’s just too much to ask for.  Sorry.  That’s just how things work.  And people are no different with their behavior either.  If you are scared of spiders, and I whip out a tarantula, and walk right over to you, I will get to a point where I am just too close for comfort.  I could offer you the moon on a silver platter with a two week cruise with Mr. Right to Perfectville and it still wouldn’t be enough.  Now let’s add on other thresholds like how many spiders, how fast am I approaching you, at what direction(s), for how long, etc.  There are always multiple thresholds in every situation.  And putting a dog who doesn’t care for people in a class setting, with numerous people, for an hour, who are working close to him just isn’t fair, or frankly very logical, and extremely over threshold.

Poor timing is the other major oops I see a lot.  Whenever you’re trying to change something, you want to focus on the consequence of the behavior.  So it’s “icky thing” = sit.  NOT sit = “icky thing.”  And having bad timing can create this very quickly.  Even using the cue “sit” with poor timing can poison it.  Besides that, you want to make sure that sit means something.  Sit has to bring on a desired reinforcement to have any effect.  So, you need to be aware on how to use reinforcers as well.  AKA: sometimes food isn’t always the best thing to use.

To oversimplify this, obedience is a good thing, and you can use cues from obedience in a training plan.  However, teaching obedience doesn’t modify behavior.  And in order to modify behavior you need to understand several things such as timing, reinforcers, and thresholds – plus when and how to apply each of them.  It is a very real possibility to change something you didn’t like before into something you do like now, and vice versa.  Using the science of learning and the art of training can get you there.

1. Have no intention of getting a dog.  Don’t do any research about breed characteristics.  Additional bonus: travel 40% of the year for work or work 10 hour days.

2. Get a puppy, preferably from a pet store to ensure he was probably a puppy mill puppy.  This should guarantee he was pulled away from his litter too young and therefore never learned the critical “share the mom” or bite inhibition.  Additional bonus: get one as a gift.

3. Don’t puppy proof the environment, or if you do – do so half ass.  Additional bonus: don’t check house plants to see if they are toxic to pets.

4. Give puppy complete run of your entire house and don’t supervise.  Additional bonus: have the arrogance to think he should “know better.”

5. Don’t exercise or mentally stimulate your puppy, socialize him, or train him at all.  Additional bonus: think you can socialize puppy “later”

6. Give puppy only one toy to play with such as a tennis ball.  No more.  He should like that.  Period.  Additional bonus: become upset when puppy doesn’t play with it.

7. Punish the puppy by loud vocal corrections like, “NO!” when the puppy blindly directs himself to something to chew for something to do.  Additional bonus: rub his nose in it.

8. Repeat step seven at least several times a week to ingrain in puppy’s brain how horrible an experience it is to give things up. Additional bonus: punish well after the fact when you see something was chewed and don’t prevent puppy from chewing it again.

9. When puppy starts to growl or show any other signs of being uncomfortable with the idea of giving things up, punish harsher to create a “nothing good happens when you give things up” environment.  Additional bonus: don’t give puppy an alternate chew toy, just walk away.

10. Wait until serious aggression sets in before you call a trainer.  Additional bonus: wait until puppy bites someone

This sarcastic simple recipe happens all the time.  And it is a prime example of what not to do! Ask yourself, “will this make my life easier the next time?  Will this make my puppy’s life easier the next time?”  If the answer is no, don’t proceed!   Get professional training before problems develop.

A dog is always a good dog for giving up whatever he has in his possession. It doesn’t matter if it’s his toy or the Tivo remote.

If you catch your dog chewing something he shouldn’t, my favorite trick to keep my cool is to tell him exactly how you feel in a calm, soft, baby voice.  “I hate every hair on your body right now…”  It will make you feel better.  While doing this leave a Hanzel & Gretel treat trail out of the room and shut the door.  Go back for the item when the dog isn’t around.

Next post I’ll talk more about how to train your dog to enjoy giving you what he has.  If you do have a resource guarder, schedule a training lesson or contact someone in your area for professional help.  Don’t wait, remember step ten.