This story on dog aggression from the Gilroy Dispatch is a great little piece on how aggression can be managed with positive reinforcement and clicker training, a topic that's of great interest to us here at KPCT. Emma Parsons, KPCT's Training Director, wrote Click to Calm: Healing the Aggressive Dog and gives Click to Calm seminars around the country. It's nice to see this idea that aggressive dogs don't need to be choked into submission, that there are positive ways to deal with this behavior, spreading in the press.
If a dog demonstrates any type of aggression, it's best to seek the help of a trainer immediately, preferably a behaviorist who specializes in aggression, said Carreiro.
And that's just what Woodbury did. Starting in November 2004, she started taking Wasabi to see Robert-Hamilton. No trainer can promise to cure a dog of aggression, especially if it tends to bite, said Robert-Hamilton, but one can make progress.
Using positive reinforcement and the clicker method - a method of training where a small metal clicker is used to validate a dog's good behavior before it's given a treat - Wasabi has learned that not everyone or everything is scary, and when she does feel threatened, she's learned to allow Woodbury to distract her.
"She can do tricks when she's in a situation that makes her uneasy," Woodbury said. "That kind of builds her confidence. She pays a lot of attention to me versus targeting on a dog or a person. She's never going to be the kind of dog you can let off her leash at the dog park, but she's a lot better."
