Described here is a way to help change a dog's emotional response to another dog or dogs. You could use classical conditioning for systematic desensitization and counter conditioning (D/SS), as mentioned so frequently in the Agbeh group.

Many dogs may give aggressive displays toward other dogs who are unfamiliar to them. For their owners, it's helpful to understand that each dog has a critical distance closer than which it will not wish to permit such other dogs.

Think of your dog as being a spot at the center of a large circle. The outer part, the circumference of that circle, is the edge of your dog's personal critical distance. So everything within the circle feels to the dog as if it is his personal space. Now think of drawing another much larger ring a distance outside of the smaller ring perhaps equal to the radius of that circle. That second ring could represent your dog's social distance, the distance from other dogs at which he has no problem.  Try to actually learn your individual dog's comfort distance from another dog unknown to him. That's important information. Keep that mental picture in mind.

Desensitization means to introduce the provocative stimulus at lowered intensity such that the subject does not react. Generally speaking, many trainers try to hasten the process, try to help the dog overcome the problem, by combining desensitization with counter conditioning (D/CC). Counter conditioning means to change the subject's emotional reaction from one of fear or revulsion, anxiety provoking to a response contrary to that, such as pleasurable or at least neutral.

Here's an intervention. To begin, simply prepare a treat bag of very good-tasting but tiny small food treats. For this part, we usually use human food such as slivers of roast beef or roast chicken, bits of cheddar cheese, etc. For a dog about medium to large size, I use stew beef from the grocery store meat department, which I then cut pieces much, much smaller pieces. I place the tiny pieces in Ziploc plastic bag, jkeep in the freezer. The night before, I remove a Baggie from the freezer to the refrigerator until I'm ready to use it.

Then I'd plan to take the dog to a location where we'd have a good chance of seeing another dog, one who was securely confined, and not up close, such as a friend's dog on leash at a public place. I'd select a friend who has a mature, non-reactive dog of the opposite gender. The dog-loving friend and I would arrange ahead of time to meet behind the library or at the softball field.

Here's the interesting part. We'd each have our dogs on leash. We'd be spaced approximately 150 to 200 feet apart. Just as soon as my reactive dog would see the other dog in the distance, that's when I'd begin the free-feeding, using a high rate of delivery, such as one to two tiny pieces per second. I'd continue the hand feeding of one treat at a time so long as the other dog were within view. But I'd permit only a short duration of exposure, such as 5 to 8 seconds for the first time. Then stop feeding, turn myself and dog completely around and walk away with dog in the opposite direction.

Or, another strategy. If that possibility with another dog-owning friend couldn't be worked out, I'd simply take the student dog to a location where I'd find another dog behind a secure chain link fence enclosure.  I'd work with the student dog at sufficient social distance from the fenced dog so as not to be provocative to it.

During this beginning process, I present the provocative stimulus (other dog) in tiny segments, ones that the student dog is able to tolerate without exhibiting aggressive behavior. I stop generally within 8 to ten seconds or so while the student dog is first successful. That's just a tiny little first baby step in this process.

One may also wish to desensitize a dog to the sound of the doorbell, by introducing the sound at greatly lowered volume. For this part, I use a microcassette recorder to record the sound of a typical social greeting at the doorway. Then I have the owner play back the recording at greatly reduced volumn when the dog is otherwise pleasantly engaged, such as while it's eating its dinner.  Owner would be instructed to repeat that for four to five days before increasing the volume just slightly. Within approximately seven days, the volume could be adjusted to the normal sound level, and it should not evoke the dog's arousal.Incidentally, we don't say "We taught the dog not to fear doorbells,"  because we didn't teach the dog anything of the kind. Instead the dog had been classically-conditioned not to fear doorbells. Note the use of passive voice to describe this process.

It did not involve the dog's cognitive/thinking abilities. Instead, the desensitization occurred in the limbic area of the brain, where emotional responses originate. Our aim was to defuse, lower the intensity of that huge emotional response that a dog has when it's triggered by a particular provocative stimulus. 

As we would continue to repeat this process day after day, we'd begin to notice a small change. The small change may be tiny, and it may not occur when seeing other dogs until after 4 or 5 one-minute practice sessions. Then one day, upon first glimpsing another dog in the distance, the student dog may begin to nudge the owner's hand or arm, as if to say, "Hey, Mom. Another dog. Where's my treat?" That's an absolutely beautiful moment. The student dog is beginning to associate that "other dog" - > -  (or predicts) "treats for me."

Another dog may require more time. It may need 15 to 20 short practice sessions before his CER (Conditioned Emotional Response) to the provocative stimulus has really changed.

No longer would the stimulus hold the meaning of something that arouses anxiety or nervousness because the dog had become desensitized to it. Furthermore, if a new association has been formed through the use of feeding the great tasting food morsels, to help elicit the feel good feelings, then the dog may actually begin to happily anticipate the stimulus. That's why we work with the dog on its emotional level to change the response.  In shorthand, that means: if we change the emotions, the behavior will change.

I'd expect the process of desensitization to fearful stimuli such as unknown dogs to take about four weeks time, provided that one has an opportunity to practice once a day. The daily practice need be only for a very few moments for the first two weeks.Then gradually increased in duration over the second two weeks.  

Quincy, Cocker/Cavalier Spaniel Mix

Several factors could impede one's process: (a.) The length of the student dog's prior reward history for aggressive behavior toward other dogs, because aggressing is a self-rewarding behavior; (b.) Whether the student dog seems to rev up from zero to 60 in five seconds, as if triggered into a very serious startle reaction over which it has no control; (c.) Whether the student dog is very quick to recover or very, very slow to recover from a state of aroused aggression; which means does the dog have good bounceback powers?; (d.) Whether the student dog also exhibits other behavior problems such as fear-reaction toward friendly strangers, not just toward dogs, (e.) Whether the student dog is generally very emotional in its relationships at home, such as worrying, fretting if the owner leaves a room for a while, or goes out to do errands, and nervous about guests; (f.) Whether the student dogs also exhibits some conflicts with its owner over small requests during the day and behaves aggressively sometimes toward its owners or others in the family.

What I'm suggesting is that a dog exhbiting aggressive behaviors should be evaluated in person by someone experienced at doing that sort of thing and then offering recommendations for a complete behavior plan. Elsewhere on this site you'll find a listing of professional organizations. See the FACS section. Check there to find sources with membership directories as a way to try to find someone within driving distance to evauate your dog in person.

Please consider these articles to be general information, not something to take the place of a necessary private consultation with a board-certified veterinary behaviorist, with a certified applied animal behaviorist, or with a dog-behavior consultant/trainer.  An individualized plan needs to be developed. Even if the other factors contributing to aggression may be present, desensitization and counter conditioning will be part of any such effort to change a dog's aggressive behavior. It will not be the single method applied. We use adjunct therapies, as well, along with the D&CC effort. .

Now the aggression history, how many months the dog has has had to practice growling, lunging, barking at other dogs, getting itself all worked up into a frazzle will definitely be part of the diagnostic picture. For a dog who is already three years old, I'd guess that he's had plenty of practice at lunging/ barking/snarling at other dogs. Maybe the dog has even experienced many, many leash corrections for that behavior. If so,  then it's very important to start with very low-key stimulus rather than start working him in the presence of a dog-training class with many other dogs. That's why I suggested a pre-arranged, set-up lesson.

For some foster dogs or clients' dogs, sometimes I may work with the first same stimulus dog several times day after day, before I could increase the duration of exposure. That might be the case of some neighbor dogs fence running, but not doing so just for fun; rather because they seem to work themselves up into a bit of a frenzy whenever they spot the other dog.

This process:

• doesn't require much patience, but it does require remaining calm during each practice session.
• does require knowing the sequence. That is: Spot dog in the distance first, then start feeding little treats without 1.5 seconds. Stop feeding if the other dog goes away, or stop feeding if you turn your own dog around to leave.
• does require the ability to increase only one criterion at a time. If we move five feet closer to the provocative stimulus, we do not increase the duration of exposure to other dog during that same session, nor do we introduce distractions at the same time.

Eventually, after some mutual "cookie parties," I call them, when I give treats to both dogs, the student dog and the distraction dog, the emotional responses begin to greatly extinguish.  From then on, progress was extremely rapid, even when introducing that student dog to many other individual dogs in different locations.

But each dog we teach is a unique individual. Some will react only to male dogs. Others are a bit defensive and start to react to any dog in advance, even before they've met. Some only express their intense arousal in certain locations. Keep the luscious food treats prepared and stored in your refrigerator so you'll be ready to have a lesson on this each and every day for a while, a sufficient time to overcome the problem. After that, when the dog is using its full cognitive abiilties, you may use any real life reward instead because you'll be doing operant conditioning  

 A caution to remember. During the initial implementation of this effort, please keep the dog-reactive dog away from other dogs completely. You'll be able to introduce him to other dogs later. Also reserve those specific high value food treats, the really good stuff, the deli-sliced roast beef, or turkey or chicken, for the desensitization and counter conditioning effort.

I hope these ideas help. You'll find more messages on this topic. The details there may give you a greater understanding.  

© September 8, 2004; revised January 2008. Barbara D. Brill, North Chili, NY. All rights reserved. No further reproduction permitted without express written consent. Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it