Dog Aggressive for Toenail Trim | drsophiayin.com

[thatoneguy2]

I don't think i'm being clear. I want to see an aggressive dog become a social dog, from start to finnish, using counter conditioning. Or in the case of the dog in this video, I want to see him get his nails cut without a reaction and without treats. I don't care if its at a hospital or someone's home. I just want to see it done. How am I supposed to trust that counter-conditioning actually worked in this instance if I don't get to see it for myself.

[sophiekliu]

@thatoneguy2: I believe that Dr. Yin shows examples w/o food in her Low-Stress Handling Book/DVD for nail trims. For another example (different behavior but same counter-conditioning protocol), she has one posted on her website: drsophiayin (dot) com >Resources>Videos> "Training Aggression?" w/ Homer the Jack Russell Terrier

I think the assumption here is that owners will rarely counter-condition their dogs at home, so, in a hospital setting, this is the safest/lowest-stress method.

[thatoneguy2]

@sophiekliu I understand the process of counter-conditioning, but the end result should be that fear and aggression have been removed so treats are no longer required to clip the nails. I want to see that part.

[sophiekliu]

@thatoneguy2: First, the food is being used to counter-condition the dog to the nail trimmers. The food is necessary in the beginning because we have to change his underlying emotion. So, instead of "nail trimmers = fear/anxiety", we're trying to teach him that "nail trimmers = food/happy/relaxed". Once the association between food (and happy/relaxed state) and nail trims has been established, the treats can be tapered off or be presented at random times (variable ratio of rewards).

[thatoneguy2]

Where is the part where you do this without treats?

[BuffaloDogTraining]

Great work. It's nice to see how fast you were able to accomplish this.

[bcelliot]

the person holding the dog has him dangerosly close to her FACE!!!

[Abercrunk]

if my dog behaved like that, id throw it in the oven and cook it for dinner... dominance

[sassyNot4u]

A greenie is not nearly enough of a lure to keep your dog's attention. Use REALLY great people food or much tastier dog treats. There is plenty of human food that is safe for dogs...go raid the fridge. :) And WarriorAngel - why in the heck would you pay $200 EACH class for a trainer that can't control your dog? If he was disrtuptive it was because you and the trainer didn't control him. Find a new trainer....sounds like you need one. :(

[dababydawl]

If a dog sees you as a petfood vending machine, he's not using common sense, because humans are not supposed to provide happiness thru treats everytime they need to start the grooming. That's unreal! We choose to give him a treat in order to avoid a negative state of mind, but the dog gets addicted to stimuli.

I think without discrediting the technique she uses, that this doesn't work with really agressive dogs. Even if u wave a KFC bucket.

[sheilablessed1304]

I didn't like this video... I LOVE IT!!! It's really helpful! :D

[SuperBark1]

Yes. Needs lots of good treats that they can eat continuously but that you hold in a way to control their head. I'm using Natural balance here and holding it a little so the dog has to chew at it. Must also stay below the level that causes her to act like she "notices" what you're doing. For more instruction you can see ch. 18 for free in the low stress handling book at the lowtresshandling web site.

[ShivaWings]

I tried something similar to this before watching this video with my puppy. My sister and I sat him in her lap and she held a greenie in front of him, but he still would vigorously pull against us. Maybe I'll try it with little treats and see how that goes.

[MeaghanEdwards]

I'm going to try this with my old girl. She doesn't get aggressive usually, but does "freeze" and I'm going to work on making nailtrimming a more positive thing :)

[WarriorAngelWings]

I don't really like treat training. My dog went to a very well known K-9 class that cost me 200$ each class which there were 3 classes, he passed but never got asked back as he was very disruptive in class. We learned treat in training my dog got possessive, as well as disrespectful and aggressive and his trust for me flew out the window.

[jayzcc83]

ok i'm subscribing



[wernlyn]

can you do for cleaning a gsd's ears too?

[Hidframe]

Wow...that was amazing!

[annakpokamarok]

I'm a little confused about why someone would put their FACE right next to the dogs TEETH when they're reacting like that. What's the stop the dog from twisting around and grabbing an eye or ear? Absolutely nothing.

[kuwaizair]

that only is good if they know how to get stuff from your hand in a gentle fasion

[SuperBark1]

Actually, the more experienced you are the better able you are to adapt to different dogs. For dogs that are rough taking treats, you can pinch the treat between your thumb and palm of you hand and present a flat hand. Or you can used peanut butter or squeeze cheese spread thin on a kong toy or big ladle, or spoon (sturdy enough so do won't eat the spoon!). You can also squeeze cheese out of a can or place canned food in a camping tube. Those are just a few options though.

[FaeryHayz]

This is amazing!

[Leosrme]

Fabulous demonstration of postiive re-inforcement Sophie. I met you at the APDT conference and was much impressed.

[wesnews13]

Strickly speaking the recommendation of treat first then clipping is "backward conditioning" and NOT considered effective for counter-condtioning. The video really just demonstrates a way to keep the dog occupied with the potential they will become habituated...a better method touch foot(very lightly) first THEN treat...ie trace or delay conditioning in behavioral term.

[SuperBark1]

Actually, this dog does know what you're in the same way a person fearful of spiders would know a spider was being presented even if they were busy visualizing happy things. With classical counterconditioning, the goal is to change the animals emotional state so that you can safely present the stimulus without causing them to be fearful. With humans they tell the person to think happy thoughts and THEN they present the scary thing. We can't tell dogs to think happy so we use food.

[SuperBark1]

The ultimate way we know it works is because once we do this, we can easily go to quite rough handling followed by a treat without having to start at the beginning. And other times we can go directly from the method shown above to not needing treats at all.

it's always good to actually test a method before you "can" it based on a theoretical argument. I have a more detailed explanation on my blog at drsophiayin

[InDogsWeTrust11]

@SuperBark1 Love how you take the time to answer questions and comment on your videos Dr. Yin! I show them to all my clients at my dog training school.... much appreciated by all of us!! :D

[lvv0612]

Great video !!!!  :D

[GrahamThompson99]

I love the way you do not get bitten! By contrast Cesar Millan gets bitten repeatedly in this sort of situation. No wonder so many welfare organisations around the world (25 in total) posted a warning to the public that copying Cesar Millan could pose a danger of getting bitten. Worth a read at dog welfare campaign via google.

[dianne0123]

How would you handle this if there is only the one person. It would be a bit harder if you were on your own.

[SuperBark1]

I would try it several different ways: One way is that I would work up to the part where I can handle the feet pretty vigorously while giving treats and also present the nail trimmers and let him lick treats off them (so he wags tail when he sees the nail trimmers). Then I would switch to operant counterconditioing and feel feet and it he's good, the say "yes" and follow with a treat. (assuming I've trained him yes = a treat). Then I'd train systematically add the clippers in as with the video.

[kuwaizair]

@SuperBark1 i tried peanut butter, my dog threw up some time after eating it

[SuperBark1]

It's good that you tried something rather than just giving up when it didn't immediately work for you the first way you tried. Training is an art and science and requires many nuances in technique. Generally I avoid foods that I know the animal is sensitive too. And I avoid overfeeding. smearing the PB thin works well to conserve and to have better control of the feeding process. But it's easy to avoid PB and use one of the other techniques I suggested above. Plus there are many more.

[InDogsWeTrust11]

I love how you take the time to answer peoples questions Dr. Yin! Thanks for some great videos! :D

[ByeByeBelly]

my jack russel chihuahua is even more aggressive than that. you couldnt possibly trim one nail. she just goes apeshit and throws her entire body around and you cant hold on.

[SuperBark1]

This dog would have been worse if we had continued trying to hold him down. That's why we stopped the force restraint when we did. Goal of counterconditioning and desensitization (DS/CC) is to always stay below the level that causes dog to go into fight/flight mode as this primes them to be more reactive to even less tolerant. When you stay below the reaction level, you can change behavior quickly. Many vet hospitals are doing this now and seeing a huge difference and happier pets.

[ByeByeBelly]

I've tried it a little bit, like tapping the clippers on her feet and stuff like that. But she always ends up biting me as soon as I go to close the clippers

[SuperBark1]

goal is to stay on one step long enough so that you've changed her expectation and underlying emotional state. The worse her experiences, the longer you'll need to stay on the given step. eg. even multiple sessions for several days until she trusts you. Then if she's good at 1 step but not the next, that means you skipped some steps. e.g. may need to practice squeezing toenails or letting her hear sound of clippers/or clippers around toenail but no clipping. Timing must also be right.

[SuperBark1]

You may also need someone to help coach you as it's easy to do little things slightly off when you have a dog that really hates the procedure--that will slow down improvement, especially timing, and how you support the dog.Vet hospitals are now using low stress handling textbook more and doing behavior modification sessions with client pets. You may want to ask your vet/vets if they are doing this and can help you.

[modianos]

awesome video! thanks :)

[FringeBackcomb]

Lovely dog.

[goldfishnut]

Thank you!! This is exactly the video I needed! My pup is very tolerant to us touching her all over but HATES the clippers. I'm so happy I found this video I could cry

[SuperBark1]

Natural balance food roll. The trick is to only do what he will allow you to do when using the treats you have. Most common mistake people make is accidentally flooding instead of desensitizing. e.g. that is presenting the stimulus too high--high enough to make the dog ignore the treat. If you stay below the level that will make the dog respond, you can do the training fast. In this case, if we had just given treats and tried to clip nails, it would not have worked!!

[sff809]

what kind of treats are you using? my dog loves treats, but hates being clipped so much, he will ignore the treat to try to get away. he is also much larger than this dog.