I just don't agree...

I mentioned in an earlier post that Miss Peaches and I were starting obedience classes. Well, we're in week 2 now, and I'm not at all sure that we're in the right place...

This training program was specifically recommended to me, by a local rescue organization, as one that specialized in pit bulls and "aggressive" breeds. Miss Peaches is still very fearful of new people and situations, and when she is scared, she does a "dart in and nip em" move that is very disconcerting (as you can imagine) to the folks she does it to.

I should point out here that her behavior with me is impeccable. She has never, not once, behaved in any way aggressively towards me. There are friends of mine with whom we go for walks, and she's never looked twice at them. On walks, she's very dog friendly, and if people ignore her and let her do her own introductions, she's fine.

She is, however, exquisitely sensitive to tension, stress, and fear "vibes". I assume that is a leftover survival mechanism she developed early on, and I'm sure it served her well then. If she could pick up the vibe early, she could take appropriate action and avoid getting hurt. The problem is that it's not working for her now.

I've been working on building her confidence in strange situations and with meeting a variety of people, using her muzzle and a lot of positive reinforcement. There are definitely measurable changes in her behavior. She's not as skittish when someone reaches out to her. She's even given a few choice people head rubs or rolled over for some bully-belly-lovin. And as long as everybody is relaxed, everything is fine.

Part of the reason I wanted to go to a class was for socializing purposes, and partly to have the - trained - eye of a trainer on us both to help me make sure I'm doing it right. I've "home-schooled" my other dogs successfully, but I have no experience with this kind of problem.

When we arrived for our first class, driving 20 minutes through a hellacious winter storm to get there, I and the other two people who had battled our way there were told by our instructor (let's call her "D") that she was canceling the class for that night. This was so the other four presumptive attendees (who had not shown up or called) would not miss anything. *Aside - This is my problem, exactly how???*

None of us were pleased. Still, we all returned the following week.

That week, we were all told that we should be wearing prong collars, instead of the regular training collar. Prong collars were handed out, and D showed us how to clasp and unclasp them. No mention was made on how to fit them correctly, nor did she point out the difference between the "dead" and "live" links.

(For those of you who were as ignorant about this as I was , there are two possible connecting rings to hook the leash into. The "live" link gives a much stronger correction than the "dead" link. Also, the collar should fit snugly up behind the ears, not down on the neck like a regular collar. Many trainers recommend that the prongs of the collar be centered on the side of the neck away from you, and not directly across the soft underside of the dog's throat. All of this is information I discovered after the fact, on my own.)

This last lesson, the class was working on "heel". In the class is a Retriever puppy who, like so many Retriever puppies, is goofy, exuberant and apparently afflicted with a significant case of ADD. He was having some trouble staying focused, and the frustrated owner was being instructed to give some pretty severe corrections. The puppy began getting very stressed out, and was definitely not having any fun. As he and his owner passed between us and the wall, she gave him another very strong correction, with a very loud "No!"

At this Peaches, who had been getting more and more tense as this exercise progressed made a lunge at this woman, and for the first time ever, growled at her.

She has never acted like this before, since she has been with me. Never.

Peaches was wearing her muzzle (on the Better Safe Than Sorry Principle) and so no harm done. In fact, the owner didn't even really seem to notice the incident.

But honestly, Peaches acts worse in this class than she does at any other time during the week. Granted, it's a stressful situation for her, and that was partly the point, but still...And then, to add the finishing touch, D is now pushing me to use an e-collar (or electronic shock collar) on her.

Which I totally disagree with.

I am not completely against the use of such a collar. I think they can be very effective for some nuisance behaviors such as barking or chasing cars.

But I simply do not see how using one on a fear-aggressive dog is going to be helpful. The purpose of the e-collar is for the dog to associate the unpleasant shock with the behavior. Since in this case the behavior is triggered by stress and fear, it seems to me that there is a pretty good chance that she will associate the shock with the feared thing that triggered it. Which will be a person or another dog. And I just don't see how that can be a good thing.

My gut instinct tells me that an e-collar is the entirely incorrect approach to take with this dog. I believe there is a real chance of ruining her permanently if using this method backfired. And I'm not prepared to take that chance.

I'm going to do more research on this, and I'll post whatever I find. In the meantime, Peaches and I will give this class another chance, but we'll just keep up with our own program of getting out of the house more.

It'll be good for us both.
[dog training]