Comments on Lee Charles Kelley: Is Your Dog Dominant, or Just Feeling Anxious?

The anxiety is there; it's essentially a build-up ...

2009-11-11T05:45:05.727-08:00

The anxiety is there; it's essentially a build-up of internal tension or stress that your dog isn't able to release in a safe, socially appropriate way.

From an evolutionary standpoint, one way that canines have of reducing the stress of living together is through intricate social behaviors. They have to sublimate their aggression in order to get along. They have to get along in order to be able to hunt together. The only time there's any real, lasting friction is during mating season. (Dominance and submission are actually sexual, not social behaviors.)

Meanwhile, think of the pack as a group of electromagnetic +s and -s. The -s balance the charge of the +s, and vice versa. So male and female energy balance each other out, making it easier for a dog with excess energy to feel more balanced around his or her opposite than a dog with the same polarity.

When a dog carrying too much charge meets another dog with the same polarity, there's nowhere for the energy to flow, so it gets released in a more explosive way.

Exercise is always a good thing, but since dogs aren't mental by nature, the idea of giving a dog mental stimulation is a bit off. What's usually meant by that is giving the dog something to do with his energy. I don't know enough about your dog to say anything with absolute certainty, but the pushing exercise would probably help. (Read "An Open Letter to New York Dog Trainers.") And games like tug-of-war, tug/fetch, and push-of-war, would probably help because they release a lot of energy and kind of force the dog to switch polarities while playing.

I hope this helps,

LCK

fascinating. So, why would my male dog most often ...

2009-11-11T01:03:33.225-08:00

fascinating. So, why would my male dog most often get into scuffles with just other males. How does gender play a role in triggering anxious behavior? Also, would a solution for my anxious dog be more exercise and mental stimulation? thanks, great post !

Thanks, Jack. I'm glad you liked it. LCK Changing...

2009-09-17T06:57:33.565-07:00

Thanks, Jack. I'm glad you liked it.

LCK
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dog housebreak I recently came across your blog a...

2009-09-16T23:01:15.004-07:00

dog housebreak

I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my
first comment. I don’t know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I
will keep visiting this blog very often.

One can only hope. The problem is, though, that th...

2009-01-01T09:44:00.000-08:00

One can only hope. The problem is, though, that the entire scientific community backs learning theory. Plus some of the underlying principles are either valid or so close to what's really going on that it's hard for those who are ideologically committed to their techniques to feel the need for something new. And no matter how often we can prove that +R is ineffective at resolving behavioral problems, until enough people feel comfortable with Kevin's energy theory of behavior, a lot of dogs and dog owners will be stuck with self-righteous dog trainers like the one you wasted your money on.

Have you tried pointing any of this stuff out to her? (If you do I would leave out the part about the electronic collar; there's only so much her ideology can tolerate).

LCK

PS: I love that your trainer, the one who finally helped you and Roman, asked that simple question: "Don't you think he's just anxious?"

Maybe he read my article? It's available online at many different websites...

Hi Lee! I finally got around to reading this post ...

2009-01-01T08:53:00.000-08:00

Hi Lee! I finally got around to reading this post and you hit the nail on the head! After working with 4-5 trainers (+R only and others who used a combo of compulsion/treats) and being told my now 5 year old GSD was 'dominant aggressive', 'very dominant dog', 'dominant and insecure' etc. I was left with a lot of management techniques (some worked) for his leash reactivity and told to not go to dog parks. I was a nervous wreck walking this poor dog, that I adopted at 1 year, that I loved and wanted to help and understand.

Nothing helped me release my tension and nervousness when walking Roman until I met my current trainer a year ago. He never talked about dominance he just posed the question, "Don't you think he's just anxious?" He helped me teach Roman better choices in situations that made him anxious and better ways to release his energy (ball, tug, games, etc.)..we do use corrections, too.

Now, my 'dominant aggressive' dog is off leash at dog parks. No longer does he display dominant postures to other dogs...though other dogs display them to him and he just shrugs it off (they must be anxious!). He is not perfect, and we still work on his anxiety on leash around dogs (though now he will look to me, choose not to lunge, but will whine with hackles).

With so much energy being put into the current 'trend' of +R only/operant conditioning/'science' based training methods (and, can you tell me why this method did not work at all for Roman? I went to one of the leaders of this method in the country...she's written books, travels around giving workshops on dog aggression...why couldn't she help us? We were put on a no pull harness, given what looks like a fly mask to put over Roman's eyes, told to work under his threshold to desensitize, etc. and even told that we could give him back to the rescue when it was obvious he was not improving. We always left the trainings with me in tears and Roman stressed with diarrhea!

Will we find, in the future, that this 'science based' method is not all it's proclaimed to be, just like the alpha theory?