I do love discussing this-and anyways was just doing some reading. Now I like wikipedia-it's not always bang on but for the most part you can quickly get answers. I especially love it to look up trade names or drug names for medications quickly.
Anyways was just doing some reading on dog aggression and thought I'd check out wiki
Crio-for all the crummy advice on training out there that makes you cringe (and well, many of us cringe
) I think wiki has done you proud
Dog aggression - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Quote:
Fading dog aggression
The form that treatment for dog aggression takes depends on the underlying cause of the aggression, and an accurate assessment is therefore essential. Most reputable trainers will recommend that a dog has a vet check to screen for medical changes that may be the cause of the dog aggression before attempting any form of behavioural modification.
Dogs that are aggressive from fear can be that way either from genetic predisposition ("weak nerves"), or from a traumatic experience. With these dogs, a programme of gradual desensitisation (DS) and counter-conditioning (CC) is often used in order to reduce the dog's reactivity to the stimulus that triggers the aggression. This can be accomplished through management (minimizing the dog's exposure to situations where he can practice the behavior while working on the training program) food rewards, toy/play rewards and praise as a reward. Ignoring aggressive behaviors is not standard or sound advice when implementing a DS/CC program.
Punishing aggressive behaviors through the use of leash "corrections" or leash "pops" and/or the use of training collars such as choke, prong or shock, is not recommended in cases of fear-based aggression, as these measures run a high risk of increasing the dog's anxiety in those situations. Further, it is difficult to control what the dog will associate the punishment to, as it is often what the dog is looking at the moment it is corrected, so sloppy application of punishment can create a more negative association to the stimulus than before. The final risk with punishment in treating aggression is that it runs the risk of punishing the aggressive display, such as growling, barking, baring teeth, etc., which are all warnings. Punishment decreases behavior, but does not modify it, so the dog may stop exhibiting aggressive displays (designed to increase distance between the dog and the stimulus) and skip straight to aggressive actions, such as biting.
"Dominance" based approaches are highly controversial and more formal study is needed to validate these methods. Further, these approaches carry a greater risk of behavioral fallout, such as the escalation of the aggressive behavior and/or redirected aggression on the owner or other family members.
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So mainly wanted to show this to Crio-and I know a few threads have come about dog aggressive or dog reactive dogs-so it's appliacable
Crio-another dog aggression thread 
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