August 9th, 2010
Two words – Ignorant Woman.
I looked the episode up on Youtube.com because I received a ton of emails regarding her comments. It has two parts.
Two more words – Don’t watch.
Why anyone would waste a minute of their life watching this drivel, and it is drivel, like lower your I.Q. if you watch the show drivel, escapes me.
She talks about “locking jaws” and how they are dangerous, she is obviously ignorant, and needs some education. The comment that instantly told me she is a retard was when she was talking to the defendant
and he said his son had four Pit Bulls and he kept one. She responded, “one too many.”
Again, I don’t watch this drivel and I would encourage everyone who does watch this show, to stop watching it. It’s pointless. Right up there with Maury and Springer.
One lady forwarded me a link if you want to write a letter to the network.
Click here to submit your opinion to Judge
Judy
Until Next Time,
Jason Mann
The Most Complete Pit Bull Site Online
Categories: Pit Bull Blog |
Tags: judge judy, Pit Bulls | No Comments
August 2nd, 2010
Fear can be a pain the butt to deal with. I have a female Pit Bull that is fearful of all sorts of situations. We have been working for years on her fear and frankly there are times where I think about just saying, “Forget it, stay home.” Sometimes I do let her off the hook but most of the time we deal with her fear issues.
With that said, the way we deal with it is making her comfortable around the things that make her nervous. I discourage you from trying to force your dog to deal with it. Forcing your dog to face their fears can have serious side effects, side effects that you don’t want to happen.
When you force your dog to deal with a fear you are using a principle called, flooding. Imagine you’re terrified of heights. In an effort to help you deal with your fear I stand on the edge of a cliff and say, “Hey, come here, it’s fine. Check this out! It’s awesome!” You respond by saying, “Nope. I’m good, thanks.”
Not satisfied I walk over and grab your arm and pull you towards the edge of the cliff. How are you going to react? You’re doing to pull away. You might even punch me or something because your fear is skyrocketing. This is an example flooding.
This is not the most productive way to deal with fear issues whether it is your fear of heights or your dogs fear of kids or dogs or men.
So how do you deal with fear issues in a productive way? Using a process called, Counter Conditioning you can help your dog learn that scary things are not so scary after all by gradually introducing them to the scary thing and making a pleasant association with it.
Let’s go back to the edge of the cliff. Instead of me pulling you towards the edge I encourage you to come two steps closer. You take two steps and I praise you for your bravery. We leave.
The next day we come back and I stand on the edge and encourage you to come 2 more steps closer. You take those two more steps. Wow! You’re so brave man! Awesome! We leave.
This continues for a few days until you are standing next to me. While it takes a bit longer you’re coming to the edge of the cliff on your terms. It is under your control. No fear, no worries, you feel safe and you are empowered by your new found bravery. You are eager to get around new heights and areas that you would never have gone to before. While it may take time for you to get used to new heights, you’re more willing to give it a try than you were before. Over time your fear of heights is almost none existent.
Let’s switch to your Pit Bull Terrier. Say she is scared of men. Whenever a man comes around she barks and lunges at them. Your first step would be to offer her some yummy food treats. If she doesn’t take them you know she is sincerely afraid and worried. If she was not worked up she would take the food. This is your first sign that you need to do something else.
So instead of trying to force her to like guys you move her away, offering her food at each new distance, eventually she takes it, say at 20 feet. This is where you need to work.
Imagine you’re out for a walk and you see a man coming down the sidewalk. You could switch sides of the street, pull out the treats, and start feeding your dog. The man passes. You cross back over to the side of the street you were originally on and continue walking.
This works even better if the person walking will hang out for a moment or two until your dog relaxes. When she relaxes you move on with your walk.
Over time you can bring her closer and closer to men. Feeding her to encourage her to redirect to the food and ignore the man.
Eventually this would lead to a man walking up, talking to you but ignoring her the entire time you are talking, as you talk you would be feeding her. Short conversation, man walks off, you continue on.
Using counter conditioning works. It helps your dog face things that freak them out on their terms. You are not forcing them to come to the edge of the cliff but they will eventually get there if you relax and let them become comfortable around whatever it is that is scaring them.
If they act up at any stage of the process you need to take a few steps back to the last successful distance you were working them at.
Not only is this more effective than flooding but it is safer.
Fears that you can counter condition include but are not limited to:
1. Vacuums.
2. People.
3. Other dogs.
4. Cars.
5. Bikes.
6. Skateboards.
7. Loud noises.
8. Thunder.
You can pretty much counter condition any fear related issue. You simply need to understand the principles involved and have the patience needed in order to let your dog come to terms with the scary thing before moving them closer.
Counter conditioning works with aggression issues as well. If you have a dog aggressive Pit Bull Terrier and we were working together our goal would not for your dog to become best pals with all the dogs they encounter but instead to be comfortable enough not to act out when other dogs come around.
Taking the time to counter condition your dogs response to fearful things is worth it. Don’t be fooled into thinking you can “be the alpha” or “be the pack leader” and force your dog to “submit.” This is nonsense and it can have long term side effects.
Until Next Time!
Jason Mann
The Most Complete Pit Bull Site Online
Categories: Pit Bull Blog |
Tags: behavior, fear issues, Pit Bulls, training | No Comments
August 2nd, 2010
I was reading a Pit Bull related web site today called, The Proper Pit Bull and on their training page they explain what their views on training Pit Bull Terriers. It’s a good read and you should head over and read it once you’re done reading this.
Anyway, their view on training interested me because it is a view a lot of people take when training their Pit Bull Terriers. That is, punishment is bad and you shouldn’t use it because Pit Bulls are easily trained using positive reinforcement. Now let me regress here for a moment.
In my book, The Pit Bull Training Handbook I say something along the same lines. There is no need for harsh punishment based training because Pit Bulls (or dogs for that matter) do respond better to positive training methods, or what is often called, reward based training.
However, that does not mean you do not punish your dog. Actually you will punish your dog throughout the training process. It is impossible not to punish your dog during obedience and behavior training. Let me explain …
There are two forms of punishment in dog training. Positive and negative. Positive punishment means that you add an aversive. A simple example would be using a training collar like a prong collar and jerking the leash when your dog does something wrong.
While this example is clear there are many other forms of positive punishment used in dog training and I would bet you have used one or more already. Yelling at your dog is positive punishment, squirting them with water is positive punishment, and shaking a rattle can is positive punishment.
Positive punishment can have a place in a well thought out training plan but only if you use the punishment sparingly and it is aversive enough to create behavior changes. With that said there is often a easier way to punish your dog.
Negative punishment is a “softer” form of punishment for people. Read that again. Notice I didn’t say it is a softer form of punishment for your Pit Bull. Negative punishment can be just as harsh to your dog as positive punishment. Your dog dictates what is punishment not you.
Because we like to feel good we think that negative punishment is better than positive punishment because we are not “hurting” the dog. I am not saying positive punishment is great and you should have a blast punishing your dog. My point is, your dog might find that 45 second time out just as punishing, maybe more punishing, as you giving a leash jerk with a training collar.
Case in point, my two female Pit Bull Terriers have different views of punishment. If I take Angel’s ball from her and withhold it she becomes very frustrated and upset. Even to the point of shutting down and walking off. However, I can, at the same time, give her a leash jerk and she doesn’t lose her motivation. Of course if I were abusive and punished her for no reason that would have a different affect on her.
Honey on the other hand could care less if I withhold a toy or food. However, if I raise my voice, even just a little, she clearly shows signs of stress and avoidance.
In both cases they have taught me what to use. If I really want to punish Angel for not doing something correctly I simply withhold her ball. If Honey is about ready to attack Duke, an English Mastiff living with me, I can raise my voice and she will stop in her tracks.
I prefer negative punishment because it is hard to make bad associations with things. Let me explain …
Imagine you have a Pit Bull that is a leash puller (not hard to imagine for most of us) and you want her to stop pulling on the leash. You go out and you buy a prong collar. You fit the collar on the dog and take off walking. You read that if you turn the other way when she starts to pull the collar will pinch her and make her stop pulling, so that is what you do, you take off walking and she runs to the end of the leash. You turn and she is pinched by the collar.
Shocked and confused by this sudden pain she turns and runs to you. “What Happened!?” You say to her.
After 15-20 repetitions she is not pulling as much and you are thinking, “wow, this prong collar was a great idea!”
Continuing with our scenario …
Now that she is not pulling so much you decide to take her somewhere different. You start walking in a busy park. She is walking nicely and you’re proud of her. Praising her for being such an awesome dog. About 100 yards ahead there is a group of small children playing on a swing set. They are swinging and having a good time.
You and your dog start to walk past the kids and as you do your dog starts to run to the end of the leash so again you turn and walk the other way. She receives a pinch and comes back to you. You praise her, “good girl! You’re so smart!”
Fast forward two days. Once again you are walking down the street with your dog. A group of small kids are walking down the other side of the street with their parents. Suddenly your dog stops. She cowers down, tries to find refuge behind you. You are at a loss. “What? Why are so scared?”
A possible outcome when using positive punishment is that you can create superstitious behavior. Superstitious behaviors are created when your dog associates the punishment not with what you were trying to punish them for (in this case leash pulling) but with something else in the environment, in this case that ended up being small children.
Do you see where this could cause you a serious long term problem?
Negative punishments on the other hand do not have this side effect. While they can be aversive to the dog they are not likely to create superstitious behaviors.
If you ran the same scenario above but instead of using a prong collar you used a regular collar and every time she started to get to the end of the leash you stopped and waited for her to come back to you before you moved your dog would not associate anything bad with the group of kids swinging on the swing set.
This is the reason I encourage Pit Bull owners to use negative punishment instead of positive punishment because even highly skilled trainers have problems with superstitious behaviors popping up during the training process.
Whatever you decide, be thoughtful of what you are doing. Understand what it is your using and why you are using it before applying it in your training. If you are unsure of something, look it up. Find out the definition, understand it’s purpose thoroughly. Do not just crack your dog with a leash pop or squirt them in the face because Jane Q trainer says to.
Until Next Time!
Jason Mann
The Most Complete Pit Bull Site Online
Author – The Pit Bull Training Handbook
Categories: Pit Bull Blog |
Tags: clicker training, Pit Bulls, punishment, training | No Comments
July 14th, 2010
I receive this question a lot. People that have cats and Pit Bulls living together sometimes find that two species simply do not play well together. Their Pit Bull(s) chase the cat, the cat is clawing the dog, the situation starts out as a “game” then escalates into predator vs. prey.
There are many ways to stop a Pit Bull from chasing a cat. My number on suggestion is …
Counter condition the dog.
Counter conditioning involves pairing the Cat with something else (for example food), so that the Cat comes to signal food.
For example, a dog is chasing the cat or stalking the cat or roughing up the cat. When the Cat comes into the room the dog is repeatedly fed his favorite food. The goal is to replace the dog’s desire to chase with the pleasure elicited by the food. Counter-conditioning must be done gradually, however; if the process is rushed, the favorite food may take on the excited chasing behavior instead.
During the process you need to work your dog in low levels of drive. What that means is, do not allow your dog to get all worked up and crazy for the cat. The moment a cat enters the room, feed, feed, feed, feed, feed, and gain your dogs motivation and attention.
As you do this you will not say anything. You could use the dogs name but there is no reason to use a cue at this stage because all you are trying to do is teach your dog that the cat means food is available.
Before you run off and try this let me give you some advice.
Hire a professional dog trainer to help you. This is not something you can do in a day, or two, or twelve. It will take a long time for the dog to really get this. They might start showing signs of learning right off the bat but don’t be fooled. They are not fully reliable.
I would also restrict the dogs movement and the cats movement when you are not there. Put the Cat in another room, put the dog in a crate or in another room. Do not allow them to roam freely together.
First, something could happen and you are not there to stop it. Second, all the training you will be doing will be erased if the dog successfully chases the cat just once.
Did I mention you should hire a professional trainer/behavior consultant?
Remember that this problem is not unique. It is not unsolvable, it is something that can take a while to work with so be ready for that.
Happy Training!
Jason Mann
The Most Complete Pit Bull Website Online
Categories: Pit Bull Blog |
Tags: cats, chasing, Pit Bulls, prey drive, training | No Comments
