Four incredibly wonderful Peaceable Paws dogs from days past... left to right: Missy, Dubhy, Lucy, Bonnie 3 CHALLENGING AGGRESSION CASES – PHEW!!! AND - AGGRESSION ACADEMY THIS WEEK… I am up to my neck in our Aggression Academy this week (more about that next week), so this one is going to be shorter than normal – but I wanted to share with you my three very challenging behavior cases from last week. Three Challenging Cases These were all breeds of dogs and levels of aggression I don’t see often – a Shiba Inu with fear-related aggression, a Catahoula/Dane mix with generalized anxiety and fear-related aggression, and two German Shepherd siblings with stress-related intra-family aggression. Yes, aggression is cause by stress, and “fear-related” is the most common presentation of aggressive behavior. Eric, the 3-Year-Old Catahoula/Dane mix Eric came first, on Thursday. He was panting, pacing and whining throughout the 2-hour session and Mary, his human, said he is stressed and panting most of the time at home. He already takes Trazadone for nail trims at the veterinary clinic where Mary works, and is on Purina Calming Care. Clearly something more was called for in the medication department, and we agreed that she would talk to her vet ASAP about a long-acting anti-anxiety medication. Reconcile (fluoxetine) is most commonly used for anxiety in dogs, but I don’t name specific medications to clients, as I am not a veterinarian and that would be playing outside my lane. You can make your local veterinarians very unhappy if your client goes to them and says “my trainer says I need xyz medication” and you may also be opening yourself up for legal trouble! Eric I helped Mary understand why using aversives such as the spray bottle is counterproductive, and she easily agreed to stop. There are studies that confirm that the use of aversives can contribute to an increase in aggressive behavior, and I shared this link with her: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/02/090217141540.htm   Other than that, we practiced and agreed to keep working on several of my standard protocols: 1.     Counter conditioning and desensitization (CC&D) for strangers and children 2.     Operant behaviors (which also contain CC&D elements): Treat and Retreat, Feet and Find It, Walk Away, Touch 3.     CC&D for nail trimming https://www.whole-dog-journal.com/care/a-counter-conditioning-protocol-for-nail-trimming/ 4.     UPenn Relaxation Protocol 5.     Nose Games 6.     Meal Scatter in Yard It was a lot, but as a very committed dog caretaker and animal care professional I am optimistic that she will commit to our program and I gave Eric a prognosis of “Good.” Marcus, the 4-year-old neutered male Shiba Inu First off, I loved this family: Mom, Dad and three boys – the two older boys were on a break from college and came to the session, the younger son was still in school. They admitted in their behavior history form that they were a first-time dog family and realized they had made tons of mistakes, starting with purchasing Marcus from a puppy mill broker Marcus (Lancaster Puppies – check them out: https://www.lancasterpuppies.com/ ), following with purchasing a breed that isn’t necessarily the easiest for a fist-time dog family. They had kept a detailed log of his aggression incidents since beginning of April. How many clients do that before they come to you? And as we talked, I realized that the older son had already done a ton of research on canine aggression and body language and educated the rest of the family – Ronnie would nod every time I said something that he had discovered in his research. Marcus had started out being defensively aggressive to visitors to the home, and guarding resources – his first growl toward a human occurred when he was 6 months old. In recent months he has started biting family members as well, and now would sometimes bite in response to foot movements, and simply the voice of the middle son. So far Vicki, the Mom, had been the only one he hadn’t bitten and the one he was most comfortable with. (That changed when he bit Vicki Saturday evening following our Friday consult.) When asked on the history form about the number and severity of bites, they had written, “too may to count,” with at least 12 that caused bruising, at least 12 that had broken skin, and two that had required a trip to the doctor/stitches. He also had random, rare, occasional seizures (several months apart) for which he was not at this time receiving treatment. He was already on Reconcile since October for his anxiety. Some family members felt it had helped, others did not. They had, sadly, also worked with trainers who used aversives, including prong and shock collars, one of whom had taken Marcus for a 3-week board and train. After the board and train, as the family tried to implement the trainer’s advice to be more “controlling” with Marcus, the dog began biting family members. No surprise there. For Marcus, we would implement: 1.     A discussion with the veterinarian about additional anti-anxiety medication(s) – with a phone consult with a veterinary behaviorist if necessary 2.     CC&D at least 1 time per week with visitors to the home 3.     CC&D or possibly using a remote treat dispenser for foot movements 4.     CC&D to the middle son’s voice 5.     I Come in Peace for resource guarding And, of course, lots of management. Kipper and Jive – 2-year-old male German Shepherd siblings, one male, one intact Bred by owners Jane and Andy, Kipper and Jive were both stressed in the training center, although Kipper was definitely more stressed. Major concern the humans presented was resource guarding for attention, also recently for food, but it was clear that the challenges went far beyond that. Kipper The topic of “Littermate Syndrome” of course came up early in the session – a term that I am not fond of. We see the same behavior issues with puppies acquired from separate litters who are raised together – so it is more about hyper-bonding and relationship issues between the puppies, regardless of whether they are littermates or not. If you do raise two puppies together they need to spend a lot of time apart form each other doing good things with their humans so they have opportunity to build Jive relationships with their humans as well as to avoid separation anxiety between the dogs. Jive was clearly the more assertive of the two dogs in this pair, and much of Kipper’s stress and growling was defensive – trying to protect himself from Jive by warning him to stay away. Again sadly, prior to coming to me, Jane and Andy had worked with two different aversive trainers who used prong and shock collars, which likely increased the negative association between the dogs. Quote from Jane, “Had another trainer who used ‘forceful’ corrections and made them worse.” Several challenges here: Jane and Andy disagreed about important concepts, including medication and neutering. Hence Kipper (Jane’s dog) was neutered and Jive (Andy’s dog) was not. And Jane was very willing to explore medications for Kipper, while Andy was adamantly opposed to using them with Jive. Another significant challenge – while Kipper was stressed in Jive’s presence, both dogs were stressed when separated from each other, so there was not easy management solution. Here's what we agreed on for these two: 1.     Medication: Talk with vet ASAP about anti-anxiety medication for Kingsley (and preferably for Jive as well, but not holding my breath); delighted that vet is behaviorally knowledgeable – that makes this much simpler for all - terrific! Let me know what vet says/does. Share this report with her. 2.     One dog in house, other returning into home (a strong trigger): CC&D as discussed, at least 2 times/week, 20 minutes or more (more is fine/better!); both dogs on leashes – each dog gets a treat each time he looks at the other dog. Stay far enough apart that they are not growling. 3.     Manage: To the extent possible, keep dogs separated, especially when one or both are clearly very stressed. 4.     Journal: Keep a detailed journal of work with the dogs and any incidents of tension – (details – when, where, what was going on, what happened) – send to me for at least the next three weeks – preferably longer. Because of the challenges with these two I requested more detail and more frequent check-ins than normal, to see where we can go from here. Prognosis for this one is guarded due to the multiple challenges, including husband’s refusal to consider medication for Jive. We shall see… Aggression Academy Tease Seven dogs and humans are here this week for Aggression Academy. More on this next blog… Here are photos for a tease: Bella Ashoka Autumn Huntley Horatio Roderick Peaceable Paws KC (Kelpie Chaos) Coming Soon at Peaceable Paws A week “off” with just two client consults next week, both dogs with reactive behaviors  – one a German Shepherd, the other a Border Collie/Pit/German Shepherd/Golden Retriever (gotta love those DNA tests!) The week after that is our Instructor Academy – and yes, of course you will hear about that one too. Warm Woofs, Pat Miller, CBCC-KA, CPDT-KA www.peaceablepaws.com ; info@peaceablepaws.com ; 301-582-9420

A good year for foxes at Peaceable Paws!!! THE SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME!!! Shaping workshops are always great fun, and this one was no exception! We started with six dogs and handlers and one auditor – but one dog went home early because he found the environment too stressful. The remaining five pairs explored lots of new behaviors and had a ton of fun. What is Shaping? “Shaping” means breaking a behavior down into small pieces and starting with the first bits, reinforcing successive approximations (steps) until you have built the whole behavior. It is a great way to teach complex behaviors as well as simple ones. It works best if you actually sit down and write out your whole shaping plan before you begin, so you know what small behaviors you are looking to reinforce. If you’ve never tried it – and if you’re not using it in your training programs, I strongly suggest you give it a try! There are several different shaping techniques: FREE SHAPING The purpose of Free Shaping is to develop a large repertoire of behaviors that your dog will then be able to offer when you’re shaping a specific behavior. It involves simply marking and treating your dog for any behaviors and is often done as Karen Pryor’s “101 Things to Do With a Box.” The one rule is that you can only reinforce three times in a row for offering the same behavior – then you wait for a different behavior. (If they come back to that behavior later you can reinforce it again.) It’s important to remember - any behavior can be something as small as glancing toward the box, leaning toward the box, taking one small step in the direction of the box… And sniffing one corner is a different behavior than sniffing another corner or sniffing the middle. We also use it for “101 Things to Do With a Prop,” – same idea, but using a variety of props instead of boxes. Remember that you do this without a behavior goal in mind – you are not trying to get the dog to jump in the box or push the toy grocery cart. At least not until you have established a large repertoire of behaviors with your dog. Then you can start shaping a specific behavior. LURE/PROMPT (DIRECTED) SHAPING Lure Shaping involves using a lure or prompt to help the dog understand what you are asking her to do. We use this a lot in our group classes. It can help you accomplish your goal more quickly – for example, lure-shaping your dog to lie down by putting a treat in front of her nose, gradually moving it toward the floor, and clicking and treating as she gradually moves lower and lower until she is all the way down. You certainly could do this using Pure Shaping (see below), and we would probably end up with a lot of frustrated dogs and humans if we tried to do Pure Shaping in our basic training classes, with people who may not yet have a lot of the training skills needed to be successful with shaping. PURE SHAPING With Pure Shaping, you have a specific behavior goal in mind, and you don’t do any luring or prompting. There are some trainers who insist dogs learn behaviors much better through Pure Shaping, and that this is the only legitimate way to train. Our friend Bob Bailey of Chicken Camp fame (and much more) says “Rubbish.” He agrees that shaping is a great training option, and that animals can learn behaviors just as well using other methods, including luring. ( https://drbobbailey.com/) Pure Shaping does encourage a dog to offer behaviors rather than waiting for you to show or help her with luring, so it certainly does have some advantages, but it is by no means the only useful game in town. Karen Pryor’s 10 Modern Principles of Shaping It is helpful for your shaping success to know and follow Karen Pryor’s 10 Modern Principles of Shaping: 1. Be prepared before you start. Be ready to click/treat immediately when the training session begins. When shaping a new behavior, be ready to capture the very first tiny inclination the animal gives you toward your goal behavior. This is especially true when working with a prop such as a target stick or a mat on the ground. 2. Ensure success at each step. Break behavior down into small enough pieces that the learner always has a realistic chance to earn a reinforcer. 3. Train one criterion at a time. Shaping for two criteria or aspects of a behavior simultaneously can be very confusing. One click should not mean two different criteria. 4. Relax criteria when something changes. When introducing a new criterion or aspect of the skill, temporarily relax the old criteria for previously mastered skills. 5. If one door closes, find another. If a particular shaping procedure is not progressing, try another way. 6. Keep training sessions continuous. The animal should be continuously engaged in the learning process throughout the session. He should be working the entire time, except for the moment he’s consuming/enjoying his reinforcer. This also means keeping a high rate of reinforcement. 7. Go back to kindergarten, if necessary. If a behavior deteriorates, quickly revisit the last successful approximation or two so that the animal can easily earn reinforcers. 8. Keep your attention on your learner. Interrupting a training session gratuitously by taking a phone call, chatting, or doing something else that can wait often cause learners to lose momentum and get frustrated by the lack of information. If you need to take a break, give the animal a “goodbye present,” such as a small handful of treats. 9. Stay ahead of your learner. Be prepared to “skip ahead” in your shaping plan if your learner makes a sudden leap. 10. Quit while you’re ahead. End each session with something the learner finds reinforcing. If possible, end a session on a strong behavioral response, but, at any rate, try to end with your learner still eager to go on. The Workshop We started Saturday morning with six dog-human teams and one auditor: Lucy and Gordie, Laura and Winnie, Joann and Scarlett, Terri and Maya, Lacey and Teddy, and Linda and Eve, with Natalie auditing. Gordie had to leave Saturday morning – he was a client’s dog that Lucy had been working with and it turned out the workshop environment was too stressful for him – so Lucy just helped coach for the rest of the weekend. The weekend of fun included: ·        Free Shaping, first with boxes, then with props – and eventually a selected behavior with the prop ·        Shaping body parts (a head turn, a paw movement…) ·        Shaping a paw touch to make an Easy Button talk, or a light button to turn on and off ·        Shaping either Reverse or Go Around ·        Shaping a behavior of the trainer’s choice Here's what the whole weekend looked like: And here are some of the results: Maya doing 101 Things to Do With a Box. Gordie doing 101 Things to Do With a Box. Winnie doing 101 Things to do With Winnie the Pooh. Eve doing 101 Things to do with a baby cradle. Shaping Maya to push a grocery cart after doing 101 Things with it. 20250525_092828.mp4 20250525_103448.mp4 20250525_103323.mp4 20250525_095101.mp4 20250525_112659.mp4 20250525_092735.mp4 THE BEAUTIFUL WORLD AT PEACEABLE PAWS AND PASTURES Flowers, wildlife and a hike with the Kelpies... the beautiful world around us always puts a smile on my face…     Coming Soon at Peaceable Paws I cannot believe it is June already - hope you are planning a great summer! Several interesting private clients coming up this week: a Catahoula mix with stranger reactivity/aggression; a Shiba Inu with aggressive behaviors – biting family members as well as strangers; intra-family aggression with 2-year-old German Shepherd littermates. And then… our Aggression Academy starts June 9th. Lots going on – as always! Warm Woofs, Pat Miller, CBCC-KA, CPDT-KA www.peaceablepaws.com ; info@peaceablepaws.com ; 301-582-9420

2 DOGS WITH FEAR-RELATED AGGRESSION/REACTIVITY   Lab/Beagle/Pit Mix and a Mini Dachshund I’m sure I’ve said it here before, but I’ll say it again – these are not “aggressive dogs,” – they are dogs with aggressive behaviors. Aggression is one of my practice specialties, so I see a lot of clients whose dogs have some degree of aggressive behavior. Every single one of them is a lovely dog much of the time or their humans would probably not be exploring and investing in options to help their dogs have a better quality of life. Not an "aggressive" dog - just a dog with reactive behaviors. If I label a dog “aggressive” I’m saying that’s pretty much the whole dog, or at least a dog who is aggressive most of the time. I do expert witness work, and I recently testified in a case with a Caucasian Shepherd who was kept in the backyard 95% of the time, didn’t interact with humans other than his own family, and nearly ripped the throat out of a workman who went into the back yard when he was working on their furnace. The owners hadn’t put the dog away and hadn’t warned the workman not to go into the yard. They are lucky he wasn’t killed by the dog! Now that’s a dog I might call “aggressive.” But that’s a whole different rabbit hole. Let’s talk about my two very nice client dogs with aggressive behaviors. Susie Meet the Dogs Susie is a 1.5-year-old spayed female Lab/Beagle Pit mix (we are guessing). Her humans adopted her four months ago from a Maryland shelter, where she arrived in December of 2024 as a stray. So no information about her past history – but at least she wasn’t at the shelter very long. When walking on leash Susie barks and lunges at passersby and has nipped ankles a couple of times. She barks with high arousal at squirrels and birds outside her windows multiple times a day, and chases her home cats. Phew! Johnny Johnny is an almost-2-year-old neutered male Miniature Dachshund, purchased from a show breeder – not a puppy mill. Johnny has been shy from the time they acquired him at the age of 10 weeks, and has become increasingly anxious and reactive around people, both when they are visiting the house and when his humans are out walking him on leash. Like Susie, he barks and lunges if strangers get too close and has nipped ankles a couple of times. They first became concerned about his behavior when he was about a year old. The intensity of his barking, lunging and ankle nipping has increased in the past year. Sadly, one would think a show breeder would have known the importance of early socialization and good breeding for temperament, but apparently not in Johnny’s case… Fear-Related Aggression and Reactivity Four important things to know about fear-related aggression and reactivity: One – My favorite Dr. Karen Overall definition of “reactive”: She defines it as “An abnormal level of arousal in response to a normal stimulus.” Perfect! It doesn’t necessarily mean aggression – but it can. In both Susie's and Johnny’s cases, their fear was moving them toward defensive-aggressive reactivity Two – It is a very common behavior pattern for a shy/fearful puppy to just shut down when they are very young. People feel sorry for them – “Oh, poor scared baby!” and they pick them up to comfort them, not realizing they are making it worse. The puppy thinks, “I’m going to die!” and, helpless to do anything about it, just shuts down. As the pup begins to mature and gain a little confidence, one day she growls as the person bends to pet her or pick her up. Wisely, the person backs up. Guess what – the growl was just reinforced! (Negative reinforcement – the dog’s behavior makes a bad thing go away.) The puppy’s brain thinks, “Hey, that worked – I’m going to do that again!” And because behaviors that are reinforced are likely to increase, next time she growls sooner and louder, and the growl eventually turns into a bark, a lunge, and finally a nip. And then – worst case scenario, an actual bite. Our sweet, shy little puppy has learned that the best defense is a good offense. Three – It is also very common for fearful dogs to nip at ankles or calves as scary people walk away from them, as if they are saying, “And I said stay away!” My take on this is that they are not brave enough to make that editorial comment when the person is facing them, but they are bold enough to say it to the person’s back. Four – A fearful dog’s first behavioral choice is usually to move away from the scary stimulus. When they are on leash they know they can’t move away. Hence fearful dogs are much more likely to bark, lunge, nip and/or bite when they are trapped by the leash and can’t escape. Fortunately, Susie and Johnny’s humans were seeking help before their dogs’ behaviors escalated to actual bites. The fact that both were beginning to nip ankles as people walked away from them is what motivated them to seek help. Protocols Since the two dogs’ behaviors were very similar, it’s not surprising that their protocols and commitments also were very similar – with the addition of the cats and windows for Susie, and the harness for Johnny. Classical counterconditioning and desensitization work to change the dog’s association with and emotional response to stimuli. Operant protocols, properly taught so the dog gets very happy when asked to do them, can bring the dog’s focus back to her human, and can also serve to move the emotional brain from worried to happy. (Oh yes, operant and classical conditioning are happening together all the time…) I usually use the CC&D as our primary protocol, with the operant behaviors as an adjunct to assist when needed. Plus - operant behaviors often give visible results more quickly than the CC&D, which gives the humans success, reinforces their work and makes it more likely that they will keep working with their dogs.<G> And of course, management – always a critically important piece of a successful behavior modification program. By the way, both families were very pleased to hear that they don’t need to take their dogs for leash-walks unless and until we have successfully modified their leash-reactive behaviors. Both dogs could be well-exercised in their own yards, and dogs who have adequate exercise and enrichment at home don’t really ever have to go for walks. (Just ask my farm dogs!) People need to know that they don't necessarily have to take their dogs for leash-walks to be good dog caretakers! Commitments 1.     People (Both dogs): Counterconditioning and Desensitization (CC&D), 15 minutes or more per session – Susie’s people committed to 4 times a week, Johnny’s to 3 times a week. Also – do Treat and Retreat any time a willing person is available. 2.     Windows (Susie only): Cover windows with adhesive film to manage – peel back film to do CC&D with squirrels and birds at least 4 times a week 15 minutes or more. (Susie only) 3.     Cats (Susie only): Continue to manage by keeping separated; do CC&D at least 4 times a week, 15 minutes or more. https://www.whole-dog-journal.com/care/peacekeeping-among-cats-and-dogs/ 4.     Harness (Johnny only): CC&D 10-15 minutes several times a day when the harness is not actually put on. Operant – teach Johnny to voluntarily put his head though the harness opening – a few minutes several times a day. 5.     Operant Behaviors (Both dogs): 5 to 10 minutes or more, 5 times a week – a variety of these, making sure each one is done at least 2-3 times a week – Find It/Search, Nose Games, Walk Away, Touch, Pattern Games (especially 1-2-3). I am happily optimistic about both of these dogs. Their humans seem very committed to helping their dogs become more comfortable in their worlds, appear capable of managing their environments so the dogs don’t have lots of opportunities to practice the behaviors, and both dogs responded very well to the protocols when we practiced them in our sessions. Both families were also interested in continuing to work with us in private sessions and in classes when appropriate. AGONISTIC BEHAVIORS “Agonistic” refers to any social behavior related to conflict. The term has broader meaning than aggression because it includes threats, displays, retreats, placation, deference, and conciliation. In fact, the purpose of most agonistic behaviors is to avoid actual conflict – a very healthy thing in a social species. While many people see a dog’s agonistic signals as a bad thing, behaviorally-knowledgeable humans understand that a hard stare, a growl, a snarl, an air snap, even a bite where teeth touch but don’t break skin are a dog’s desperate attempts to not actually bite. The dog is saying “you are making me very uncomfortable and I really don't want to bite you... please stop!” Rather than punishing a dog for her agonistic behaviors, it’s important to identify what is causing her discomfort, remove the stressor, and if appropriate, do behavior modification to convince her that the stressor is actually a good thing. https://www.whole-dog-journal.com/behavior/dog-growling-is-a-good-thing/ YOUR DOG IS TALKING TO YOU ALL THE TIME Kai This week our 11-year-old Kelpie, Kai, reminded me how good our dogs really are at communicating, if we just remember to listen. We were in the barn aisle, across from the feed room. There’s a five-foot tall wall between the feed room and the barn aisle. I was standing by the table with the radio, and Kai was at my feet, looking at me purposefully. He often does this when he wants me to give him a treat, so I wasn’t paying too much attention. Then I realized he was glancing up toward the table and back at me. Clearly, he was telling me something. This is usually what he does when there’s a toy or treat he can’t reach – often because it went under a stall door. But he was looking up – not at a stall door. I looked on the table. Nothing. I looked under the radio. Nothing. I brushed all the dust off the table to show him – nothing. He kept looking up, and back at me. Then I realized he was looking up past the table. And there, hanging on the feed room wall, was a piece of horse hoof from a recent trim. We do give our dogs horse hooves as chewies, and he was clearly telling me there was one up there that he wanted. So of course I gave it to him. Your dog is talking to you all the time. Remember to listen with your eyes… Coming Soon at Peaceable Paws No private consults for me this week – but our Shaping Workshop is this coming weekend – YAY! Shaping is one of my favorite things – after Cognition, of course… looking forward to a fun weekend with some terrific humans and dogs!! Warm Woofs, Pat Miller, CBCC-KA, CPDT-KA www.peaceablepaws.com ; info@peaceablepaws.com ; 301-582-9420