Owner reports that her 2 y o terrier after having been walked while wearing its harness, bite the husband when he attempted to remove the dog's harness.  

Many dogs, and perhaps in particular, terriers, need to be desensitized to physical handling. When a dog is fearful, reactive, worried, concerned, nervous, anxious about someone fussing about its neck and/or about its body, it will attempt to fight back in the only manner it knows. You see, the dog is attempting to communicate with its squirming.

Holding the dog tighter does not usually improve the situation sufficiently because a tight grip on the dog doesn't help it to relax. We can't communicate our wishes to a 2 y o terrier in the way that we would tell a 2 year old child that we're simply putting on its snowsuit. The child, who loves and trusts us, will gradually begin to decrease its objections to the physical handling needed for getting it into the snowsuit.

There are positive steps one may take to help accustom such a dog gradually over time, to gentle handling. After that process, the dog is more at ease with such things, has learned how to trust the owner when the owner wishes to touch it, or when the owner needs to bathe and groom the dog, or apply medication or even a bandage, take the dog to the veterinary clinic, hold and restrain it during various procedures there.

Please ask you husband to read this post. I have the feeling his approach to handling the dog could use some improvement. Perhaps he has not understood about nervous dogs.

Your dog is no where near ready to earn freedoms, in my opinion. Not at all. So let's start with the behaviors we wish to teach.

Qurestion: {description of the biting, snapping}

>with this type of behaviour what would you see as time out for her? <

I wouldn't give Emma a time out for that at all. She doesn't deserve a time out, not at all. She needs to be desensitized to physical handling. Sit down on the floor with her and have a container of tasty soft cheese and/or smooth peanut butter. Dip your finger in, let her lick it off. ><click> [that means, hold the clicker in your other hand away from your body or behind your back, and click it once].

Repeat the dip of cheese, and the click sound. Wait a second or two, repeat again. Do this five or six to ten times. That first session is to condition the dog to the sound of the clicker. The sound <click> is not an event marker for behavior yet. You'd simply be helping her to associate the click sound with eating a good little treat. During later sessions the click sound will begin to predict for her that a treat is coming.

Golly, I wish you would hire a private trainer to assist your efforts in this. It's extremely helpful when dealing with a dog exhibiting fear-aggressive behaviors. But you may also find our Agbeh group FILE folder on this subject: "Fear Aggression" and read the informational posts there. [Or read all of the messages in this section about desensitization.]

Wait 15 or 20 minutes after that first session in which one associates the treat with the click sound, sit down again beside her. Make sweet and loving eye contact. Have your finger all ready to dip into the soft cheese and/or peanut butter and hold the clicker hidden in your other hand. Just hold the clicker under your palm with your thumb. Works for me. Then with the outstretched fingers of that hand, gently touch Emma on her flank or thigh, for example, somewhere away from her neck area. Then <click> and give her a taste of that cheese right away, within 1 second.

You may alternate hands if that's easier. Just try to be calm and accepting of her. Wait till she appears to be calm enough to accept one touch. That's ready. Don't force it. Oh, please don't force it. Be generous with the treat *if* she earns it by accepting one hand touch for half a second. Click/treat. Then touch again, very lightly, click, treat with the tasty cheese again. One more time, and then quit for that session.

Later in the same day, try again. Keep each session very short, only 15 to 30 seconds at most and then end it. You will be able to *get in* several such sessions in just one day.

Let me change focus just a tiny bit now. We're speaking about using positive-reinforcement to teach a dog. By teach, I mean this: Think of a tiny, tiny behavior we want, wait for the dog to voluntarily offer the behavior we would like to reward, called "capturing the behavior," so that we can use the click sound to "mark" that specific behavior and then reward it with the
tasty food treat.

The behavior in this instance is "one human touch on the dog's body." Just one, very briefly. "I touch you once, dog, and then I remove my hand." When we do some work-to-earn teaching like this, we're entering into a contract with the dog. Owner promises to help the dog to succeed step by step by never asking for a behavior which the dog hasn't yet learned, and the dog begins to agree to the contract once it understands the terms: that it will earn a reward for its behavior.

This method works for teaching children, for teaching dogs, horses, ponies, and so on. It's particularly effective for use with animals that form social groups and which accept a leader naturally. It's less effective with cats because they're more independent creatures. Yet Karen Pryor, who is a behavioral biologist, learned that she could teach marine mammals by this method. She didn't use the plastic clicker; she used a whistle which could be heard well under water. The animals enjoy the learning game.

Here's why clicker training/ operant conditioning works. An animal will repeat the behaviors which earn rewards if it finds those rewards to be meaningful. Naturally, learning does require some repetition, so we give several practice sessions at the same level, before we raise our criteria (expectations). Even when we're teaching small children, we aim to help them succeed so our job is to break down complex behaviors into tiny segments for a lesson.

Try not to think: "I have to get this #$%%$# harness on this dog right now. And by golly, this #$%$%$# dog is going to let me put on this #$%$## harness." That's forceful thinking and forceful behavior. I wouldn't try to force water to run uphill either. No need to apply forceful tactics which only cause tensions and anxieties to escalate. We have a much more effective means. We use our brains instead of brawn to reach the desired outcome.

Work-to-earn is an effective idea. Behavior first, then the consequence: a reward. The method works because it applies the Laws of Learning. What does the dog do for its work in this instance? It lets the owner touch it briefly, one time, without objection. The consequence to the dog for that behavior is to receive the tasty reward. What happens if the dog does not permit the owner to touch it? No reward of soft cheese for the dog. Sit back on your heels calmly and just wait calmly. Wait for the silent count to ten or twenty. And then try again, very gently.

There are several additional steps one could take. For instance, a bit later on after a day or so, holding the body harness in one hand and reaching the other hand through the harness with tasty soft cheese on the finger. Then take the harness away again. You'd need a safe place to do this, such as in the bathroom with the door closed. You could *lure* the dog into the bathroom by dropping little pieces of cheddar cheese, or some crumbs of cheese crackers, for instance.

It would be really helpful if you would begin to see that the problem is not insurmountable. Just as soon as we stop complaining or venting and start to apply the principles, we make huge progress with the student dogs.

When you're ready, touch her body near the flank once with your other hand, and give her another fingerdip of soft cheese. Repeat. Set up several such sessions each day. Soon you'll be able to rest your hand on her shoulder for 15 to 20 seconds before removing it.

When the dog permits that, it's a sign that the dog is gaining trust in your physical handling.

> Would you just walk her - or would you let her run free for an hour <

I've probably walk her on lead. And during other times, I'd confine her in an ex-pen.

> How can we use freedom as a reward? <

That's not what the other post was about. Freedom is not a reward for a specific behavior. The treats are. What we meant is that the owner begins to give a trained dog more and greater house privileges, more freedom. In the beginning the dog may be staying in an ex-pen in the house. Gradually the dog who is learning to respond well to the owner is permitted access to one room for 20 minute to a half hour, so long as the dog behaves appropriately. After learning some obedience skills well, and learning to respond to the owner's instructions, the dog will be granted additional house privileges.

> How would I get her to know she had 'earned' freedom? <

Probably after you have built a reliable sit-stay, down-stay, and totally solid recall (she always comes instantly in response to the verbal cue, "Come"), then you may start walking your dog offlead in your own yard. Gradually take her to other locales and then remove the lead so she can run around a large field, for instance, chase a ball, retrieve it for you, and so on.

Try to order Pat Miller's book, "The Power of Positive Dog Training." You will be helped a great deal if you study the recommended books and/or videotapes. We're here to discuss that material with pet owners, but we assume that they're ordering and studying the information.

© 9/16/2002. 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