Flooding in Dog Training - Darren part 2 (k9-1)

Flooding is a technique in dog training and behavior modification that has a high potential for abuse and misuse. This video shows the flooding being used as part of an aggression rehab plan on a dog named Darren who is 10 years old and has never allowed a man to put his hands on him during the eight years he was at a shelter. We decided to use the technique after careful consideration of what would be the best for Darren's and the trainers' safety and as the better option in our opinion to allowing him to experience longer periods of stress through the weeks of worrying about being touched as compared to one shorter spike of stress with almost instant improvement to his overall quality of life with us. We appreciate constructive criticism and opinions to help us better improve our strategies in our rehab programs with the dogs that have no where else to turn.

Please leave comments, opinions, and suggestions on our corresponding blog post located at:

http://selfhelpdogtraining.com/wordpress/?p=115

Thanks for watching!

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• flood
• k91
• k9-1.com
• behaviour
• behavior
• aggression
• aggressive
• agression
• agressive
• trainer
• canine

[claudiahoyle]

i understand how hard it is to work with shelter dogs and the urgency in it, but flooding has side effects maybe you are not considering, since you can use desensitizing and counterconditioning I do not understand why take the risk. Also if you use desensitization below the treshold the dog won't be all week stressing about the handling session, he will be looking forward, although he does not do any of the two since dogs live in the moment .

[k91dogtraining]

@claudiahoyle The problem was there really was no "below the threshold". We had to walk him, clean the kennel, etc.Just being near us was stressful. Also, counterconditioning and desensitizing was tried before with him for YEARS at the shelter, not only did it not work people still got bit. Normally I would agree with you, but in this case it ended up being the safer thing to do and worked. What you see in the video was the worse thing Darren had to deal with. He is doing GREAT today.

[ThePsittacine]

Can you define what the "it" is that Earl is withholding? I feel that flooding can be used, but rarely and only by pros and only in desparate, time sensitive situations. How do you guys feel about Cesear and what he did (or did not do) for Cotton? Will you also tell your viewers of the side-effects of the flooding "quick fix"?

[k91dogtraining]

@ThePsittacine "It" is affection. We follow specific rules about when it is best to offer it during training. There definitely is side-effects of all "quick fixes" especially making a problem worse if someone misjudges the situation. I have not seen the "Cotton" episode, but I can imagine that not everything was done in the right order for the dog. I write a little about my opinion on Cesar in my asociated blog post found in the video discription.

[ThePsittacine]

So did you only flood for only the starting of the training, and then you transferred to +R? After watching the video I scanned through it and noticed that the dog very much preferred the human that used the +R. The other guy that used the flooding always had to tug on the dog's leash to get him to interact with him.

[k91dogtraining]

@ThePsittacine There was only that one recorded session of flooding so at least one of us could snap a leash on him safely. The guy "Earl" that the dog seems to prefer in the video hasnt been able to get his hands all over Darren yet, but as you can see the patience of withholding it from him is paying off since it seems to make the dog want it more now from him since he now knows how good it can be and Earl has just begun to offer it. Also, Earl is more handsome. Maybe I'm just jealous...

[NinaThePitbull]

i have to be honest with you guys, when i watched the firt 30 minutes I had said " No use putting energy into a dog like this, he needs to be put down. I am not one to try and save/ rehab human aggressive dogs. I thought it was a waste of time, and whatever you would show , i doubt it would be enough improvement. So I quickly fast forwarded to see. Amazing work. I need to change my perspective on the ability for HA dogs to be rehabilitated. I will now watch the video in full as well as others.

[EditorialResponse]

You saved that dog. Congratulations. You are great trainers, great human beings.

[InTheProblemHole]

The process can be accelerated by keeping quiiet during the flooding.

[jimlupi]

@msminnamouse

This dog would be better off euthanized than with people like you>> wow, just wow. for all the emphasis people like you put on treating dogs humanely, you fail to see you have become part of the problem.

[msminnamouse]

Yeah, the flooding worked so well that this dog really started loving the affection you were giving him. I can tell by his tucked tail, crouching to appear small and face licking in appeasement. You don't care whether this dog enjoys being with humans or not, you want a robot that is going to allow petting because you force it to. What shelter would give you people a dog? This dog would be better off euthanized than with people like you.

[bananian]

Even though, you were supposedly flooding it, you still gave it a lot of affection, which is awesome.

[LittleMissAlleyCat]

It said he had no history of being touched my man....what about a woman? X)

[buclweez]

That Was A year Ago ... What Happened To The Other Parts ??? Did He Bite Any 1 ??

[sabumitz]

Re: COTTON- Cotton was NOT cured. He went on to have his teeth lasered down in more desperate attempts to 'fix' him using dominance based training techniques. The description of 'stalking' behavior by CM is silly. Paw raises are commonly used by dogs to indicate uncertainty, fear, appeasement.

[MissyMustang5]

I know this video was uploaded a year ago, but I still see Darren up on your website. Is he still looking for a home? How's he doing? I'd love to see a updated video of this beautiful boy. You guys do amazing work.

[claudiahoyle]

@k91dogtraining OK I understand. I think that since you show a great deal of understanding of what flooding is and you have tried desensitizing before without success than all I can do is congratulate you for the great work. You do understand that my concern is that this video may be missunderstood. Now I realize you have great knowledge of dogs and science of learning which allows you to make the right choices, but other people resort to flooding without understanding what they r doing...