USA Dog Behavior Podcast
Are you struggling with a dog that is anxious, fearful, or aggressive? You’re at the right place. In this audio podcast series, Scott Sheaffer will explore insights and strategies to guide dog owners, veterinary practices, and dog trainers in overcoming these issues using scientific and humane methods.
USA Dog Behavior Podcast
Your Dog’s Body Language is Super Important! Treating Your Dog's Fear and Aggression
Could deciphering your dog's subtle body twitches and tail wags be the key to addressing their deepest fears and aggression? This episode looks into the language of your loyal companion, giving you the tools to interpret their silent signals that can prepare you to work on your dog's fears and aggression. You'll learn to navigate their emotional landscape and guide them through recovery at their own pace.
Episode Link(s):
Understanding Dog Body Language
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About Scott Sheaffer
Scott Sheaffer, CCBC-KA, CDBC, CPDT-KA, is a certified dog behavior consultant who has worked with thousands of dog owners and their aggressive dogs. Scott specializes in the assessment and treatment of fear, anxiety, aggression, and phobias in dogs six months and older. For more information about Scott, see USADogBehavior.com.
Disclaimer
If your dog is aggressive toward humans, consult an experienced, certified canine behavior consultant immediately and ensure your dog cannot harm anyone. This podcast is for educational purposes only and does not replace professional guidance. Scott Sheaffer and USA Dog Behavior, LLC, are not liable for outcomes resulting from the advice provided.
Hi, I'm Scott Sheaffer your host.
Scott Sheaffer:This is the second of 12 episodes that take you through the nuts and bolts of addressing the major types of dog fears and aggression. The first four episodes of this series which we've only done one so far deal with dogs who are aggressive or fearful around other dogs or humans outside of your home. In today's episode, we're going to talk about how important it is for you to be able to read your dog's body language when you have a dog like this that gets grumpy around other dogs and humans outside of your home, and how to properly use positive reinforcement when addressing these issues. All of this will be covered today and future episodes we're going to go into much more detail. Stay tuned. Are you struggling with a dog that is anxious or aggressive? You're at the right place because in this podcast series, we educate dog owners, veterinary practices and dog trainers on how to overcome dog fear and aggression using humane methods.
Scott Sheaffer:My name is Scott Sheaffer and it's my mission to help you better understand your dog's behavior. In our first episode in this 12-part series, I talked about the importance of leash control. In this episode, let's start by covering the importance of dog body language, canine body language, whatever you want to call it when doing behavior modification exercises with your dog, in other words, working with your dog to help them overcome their fear and aggression toward unknown dogs and humans to them outside of your home. After we cover this, I'll briefly cover how to use positive reinforcement. I always like to ask my clients this question, especially new clients who is going to determine how fast we conduct behavior modification exercises with your dog? In other words, how fast are we going to move your dog through these exercises, starting at the shallow end of the pool, moving them to the deep end of the pool, as they can learn to tolerate these scary dogs and humans outside of your home, which is why they react the way they do? Yeah, maybe it's a little bit of a trick question, but the answer is, of course you probably already guessed the dog, their dog, is going to tell us how to pace things.
Scott Sheaffer:Just like with humans, individual dogs learn at different rates and it has little to nothing to do with the dog's intelligence or the human's intelligence. For example, if you were trying to conquer your fear of elevators or any other fear you might have, we all have fears when you really want to move at your own pace when you want to have an active dialogue with your counselor who's guiding through this process, letting them know how you're doing and what you're ready to do next. You may not be ready to go to the 50th floor of a building by an elevator at your second session with the counselor, but you might be ready to go to the second floor. Your dog is absolutely no different. The fact is, if you try to move too fast, we can actually make things worse. Really really important and this is the mistake I see people make all of the time with dogs like this how do you dialogue with your dog so that you'll know that they are ready to do something new, to move on to the next step?
Scott Sheaffer:The answer to this question is simple and actually a little challenging at the same time. The simple part is that your dog's body language, how they move, how they look, what they're doing with their body will tell you what they're thinking and how they are doing. This is how dogs communicate with each other and how they also, of course, communicate with us. A lot of people don't realize that the language that dogs know is their dog body language, and they're good at it with one another, and so they're going to attempt to communicate with us in the same way, just like we try to communicate with our dogs with our language English, french, spanish, whatever. That's all we know how to do. We have to learn dog body language. The part that is a little challenging, of course, is for us to learn how to read our dog's body language, but it's not impossible.
Scott Sheaffer:Before I tell you how I'm going to help you learn this very important skill, I want to remind you that, if you're listening to this episode on an audio podcast player, that we now also have these episodes in video on our Grumpy Dogs YouTube channel. Find us on YouTube by searching for Grumpy Dogs channel or going directly to youtubecom com slash at Grumpy Dogs channel. All right, and how are you going to start learning or enhance what you already know about K9 body language? Truth is, virtually 100% of my clients have some working knowledge of dog body language, but we need to take it kind of the next level. Well, to help you do that, I have a free 49-minute video that covers all the basics of K9 body language that you need to get started in learning dog speak. I'll provide a link in the episode description that will take you directly to this free video. Just got to click on it and you'll be playing it for free.
Scott Sheaffer:Please pay extra attention to the parts on stress and fear in K9 body language in that video. Almost without exception, after my clients watch this video, they say something like I had no idea my dog was telling me that all these years, or something like I wish I would have known some of these things Years ago. Some of the stories they tell me actually kind of break my heart because the dog has been screaming to them a message like I'm afraid of that and they thought it was something else, like dominance or something like that, and it wasn't that at all, and so that's very moving and Most people that view it come away learning at least a few things. In my next episode We'll start using some of your new knowledge that she got from the video to gauge when and where to do certain things with your dog. In the exercises I'm going to show you to help with your dog's issues.
Scott Sheaffer:When being triggered by dogs and or humans outside of your home typically when you're leash walking your dog, just like with a person who is working to overcome their fear of elevators that I mentioned earlier we have to look to your dog to let us know how fast to move. I'll show you how this works, starting in the next episode, and we're looking to the dog for his body language to give us the hints that we need. The dog will tell us and it's really cool how this works and these behaviors, by the way, during these exercises are very predictable. Most dogs do the same things that all the other dogs do with these issues. Let me end this episode with a note about positive reinforcement. In addition to playing with distance to help your dog overcome triggers that I'll discuss in our next episode, you'll also use food rewards as well. So we're gonna be looking at the body language and we're gonna be carefully giving the dog Food rewards and, like I said in upcoming episodes, I'll show you how to do all that. The distance part is the desensitization or acclimation part of this treatment for your dog, and by the distance part I mean we're gonna be playing With distance from these triggers humans or dogs that your dog is scared or aggressive toward and I'm gonna show you how to do that. However, pairing with food treats that's the positive reinforcement is the counter conditioning or positive reinforcement part, and what we're gonna be doing is telling your dog hey, we are looking at your body language, we're gonna keep you a certain distance away and we're also gonna be pairing things with food, events with food, so that we can make a new association.
Scott Sheaffer:However, let's talk about giving dogs food treats when doing these exercises. When we give a dog a food treat as a reward during behavior exercises, it's important that we don't stuff the treat in the dog's mouth. Just like people and this is a great example who just got married don't like having a piece of wedding cake stuffed in their mouth during their reception, dogs don't like this kind of thing either. We need to gently hold the treat about an inch in front of the dog's mouth and let them come to it every time. You have to be very relaxed when doing this. Also, if we don't do this, we risk making the dog not like getting treats or even being scared of getting them when we're doing these exercises. So instead of being rewarding, this whole treat thing can become somewhat punishing, which is exactly opposite of what we're looking for. I can't tell you how many times I've heard clients say their dog won't take treats while out on a walk, especially if they see a human or dog. That scares them. When I see how they are delivering the treats, however, I understand why they're kind of just stuffing them in the dog's mouth. In many cases, simply being gentler with the treat gets the dog readily accepting and enjoying them.
Scott Sheaffer:All right, I'd like you to do two things before our next episode. Watch the body language video that I mentioned earlier. I've provided a direct link to this free video in the episode. Notes whether you're on YouTube or a podcast player. Next, practice giving treats to your dog in a more gentle way. Calmly and gently move the food about one inch in front of your dog's mouth and let them come to it. That's it. Today I'm going to start talking about a behavior exercise that you can do with your dog while taking them on their daily walk. Let me close this episode by reminding you that if you'd like to send me a written message or leave a voicemail for me, please go to grumpydogspodcastcom and you'll find a link to leave either one of those. Thanks for listening. Thank you for joining me today. Don't forget to subscribe and share this podcast with other dog lovers. Stay tuned for our next episode, where we'll continue our dive into the world of dog behavior.
