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Fearful aggression developing

SophieYoung
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SophieYoung Junior Member

SophieYoung

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Hi Adrienne (and everyone) 

My pup Maisy is a koolie x staffy and is almost 2. She is the sweetest, smoochiest dog when she is at home with people she knows. She was a pretty well behaved puppy, she was mostly off leash when out for walks etc. She has always had trouble understanding children but left everyone else alone, however lately she has developed a really intense fear of men.

It began with one or two random incidents of her seeing a man walking alone and running to them, circling them and barking. Her recall is really good and would come back almost straight away. As time has gone on, its almost every man she sees walking alone and its not just off leash anymore. If she is in the car and we are in traffic or stopped at a light, if she makes eye contact with a man on the street or a man is walking strange/wearing accessories/has facial hair/is pretty much doing anything she barks quite aggressively. Same goes for some men while she is on leash and especially when my housemates have men over she hasn’t met before. 
 

Every day she seems to get worse, she isn’t allowed off leash now except at a fenced dog park where she is usually calm. If she ever barks at someone there its usually not aggressive and if I reassure her straight away and use “leave it” she comes right back and ignores them for the rest of the day. 

I want her to feel safe and comfortable every where she goes, and I miss my well behaved pooch. I always have toys and treats for distraction, and every chance I get I work on training her to look at me as we walk past distractions and we practise walking past men without putting her over threshold. 

Sorry for the long message! I just want to make sure there is nothing I am accidentally doing to reinforce the behaviour because it seems unusual for this fear to begin later in life. 

Thank you 😊 

SophieYoung Junior Member

SophieYoung

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Oops, I forgot to add:

Is there a particular way to react/respond when she does run and bark or simply barking (if on leash, at home or in the car)? This is where I am worried I may be reinforcing if I don’t react correctly.

Adrienne Senior Member

Adrienne

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Hello and welcome back!
 
Please see my answers/observations  under your statements in bold. 
 
My pup Maisy is a koolie x staffy and is almost 2. She is the sweetest, smoochiest dog when she is at home with people she knows. She was a pretty well behaved puppy, she was mostly off leash when out for walks etc. She has always had trouble understanding children but left everyone else alone, however lately she has developed a really intense fear of men. 
 
It's wonderful that your dog is very sweet and does so well at home with the people she knows. I am sorry to hear though that she has recently developed this fear of men. 
 
If she was fine with men before, but now she is fearful that makes us wonder if something must have happened that has convinced her that men are not trustworthy. This can be anything as subtle as being intimidated by a certain tone or seeing a man carry something changing his silhouette. Dogs, especially the sensitive/nervous ones, tend to struggle with things that change our shapes and sizes or that make us appear a bit odd. 
 
 
It began with one or two random incidents of her seeing a man walking alone and running to them, circling them and barking. Her recall is really good and would come back almost straight away. As time has gone on, its almost every man she sees walking alone and its not just off leash anymore. If she is in the car and we are in traffic or stopped at a light, if she makes eye contact with a man on the street or a man is walking strange/wearing accessories/has facial hair/is pretty much doing anything she barks quite aggressively. Same goes for some men while she is on leash and especially when my housemates have men over she hasn’t met before. 
 
Koolies are herding dogs and therefore they have a strong ingrained tendency to herd moving things and the circling and barking around could have been herding instinct, but it sounds like there may be some fear components at play since she seems to target more men wearing accessories or having facial hair or men moving in a strange way.  
 
 I always have toys and treats for distraction, and every chance I get I work on training her to look at me as we walk past distractions and we practise walking past men without putting her over threshold. 
 
You are on the right path. Keeping under threshold is very important, so we need to be extra careful about not putting her in situations she's not comfortable with and that allow her to rehearse the problem behavior, considering that the more a dog practices a behavior, the more it puts roots and becomes established. 
 
With dogs as such it's therefore important to use lots of management (no off leash walks, keep her crated in the car, keep distance from men on walks, keep her behind a baby gate or in a separated area when men guests are over). Management is to prevent rehearsal of the problem behavior and to keep everyone safe. It also helps prevent excessive stress hormones from circulating in the body, which will only cause her to be more and more hypervigilant and alert.
 
When not using management, behavior modification using desensitization and counterconditioning should be implemented.  Such methods focus on low-grade exposures and changing the dog's emotions. Here are two articles to familiarize with these methods that work in synergy when used together:
 
 
When these two methods are employed, you want to aim on creating a positive conditioned emotional response upon seeing men:
 
Is there a particular way to react/respond when she does run and bark or simply barking (if on leash, at home or in the car)? This is where I am worried I may be reinforcing if I don’t react correctly.
 
What's important to do is low-grade exposures to prevent her from going over threshold and aiming to create positive associations. Three  things one may do wrong with behavior modification is allowing too intense, too close exposures, going too fast in the process, which only go to confirm in the dog's mind that men are truly scary and allow rehearsal, and the other is us tensing up as well which sensitive dogs can pick up causing them further validation of their fears. So it's important to go slowly and very gradual, stay calm and focus on creating positive associations. 
 
If you are concerned about reinforcing your dog's fear of men when using treats, consider that fear is an emotion and it cannot be reinforced. For a better understanding on this watch Dr. Yin in this video and observe how the growling goes away rather than being reinforced.
 

A good starting place may be  investing some time in "Look at that" exercises. You can start practicing this by having your dog at home watching men walk by a window and teaching her to become responsive to you despite the distraction. The goal is to provide positive associations with men walking while also creating an alternate response to barking (looking at you for a treat). Here is a guide for training this:

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/brain-training/university/look-at-that/

Once you have a solid response, start using the smacking sound in other places where you have some control over the environment, meaning you can do an emergency u-turn or go back inside the home should a man you know that is likely to trigger barking  approaches too closely or too fast. Here is a guide for training an emergency u-turn:

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/emergency-u-turn/

You may find it handy to compile a list of circumstances that have caused your dog to bark at men in the past. Think of each event carefully and jolt down the circumstances that may have led to the barking. Was the man running? Was he wearing a hat? Sunglasses? Carrying tools? Was it evening? Did he have facial hair. Knowing all your dog's triggers can help you understand what may be too much for her too handle and when avoidance is the best approach. 

When in the car:
 
You want to do a similar exercise to as Look at that watching men walk by your window, only that now you'll be working from a parked car. You'll need to have a helper drive as you sit with your dog in the car and create positive associations. Here is a general guide, it's about dogs barking at strangers, but if your dog barks only at men, then focus mostly on that.  
 
When you cannot work on behavior modification your dog should be crated in the car. Placing a blanket on one side to reduce visual stimulation can help, just make sure you have the A/C on to prevent your dog from overheating and make sure to stop and check on her every now and then. 
 
When on walks: 
 
Create setups with some volunteers where you can sit on the porch with your dog and have men walk by as you work on creating positive associations. Setups are helpful because you can control the environment so that you can instruct them how close to walk by and what to do to increase criteria (like if your dog did well watching a man walk by several time, next time try with the same man wearing a hat, but at a farther distance).
 
If you need to go on walks (it's better to hold off walks if they stress her out too much when she encounters men) then you'll need to be extra careful, walking close to home so that you have a "homebase", you can move back to if one trigger is approaching that she's not ready for. An emergency u-turn can help as well too. 
 
If there is a lot of 'background noise' meaning lots of stimuli around and you want to really make a point that men are the predictors of good things (and nothing else), it may help working on open bar/closed bar:
 
When men guests are over: 
 
Here's a behavior modification example of how I worked on a case of a dog reactive towards a man.
 
 
When you cannot work on behavior modification, your dog should be keep in a separate area from the guests to reduce stress, prevent rehearsal and keep everyone safe.
 
While men are in the home and your dog is in a separated area, you can still work on the "hear that "method which aims on creating positive associations with mens' voices or foot steps. You can find it here under the section" Bonus Case Study 3: “Hear That” for Man-Reactive Dogs."
 
 
As tempting as it may to have men feed treats to fearful dogs, this risks encouraging approach/avoidance behaviors. The treat-retreat game may be a better option:
 
These are just a few examples of behavior modification. I feel that when it comes to dogs acting fearful/reactive, it's important enlisting the help of a dog behavior professional. This because behavior modification requires a certain level of experience/skill to effectively gauge the dog's threshold levels, determine when criteria should be raised and when a step back is needed, carefully observing subtle signs of stress/ relaxation and also for a matter of safety considering that fearful dogs can bite when they are stressed. 
 
I hope this helps,

Let me know if you have other questions.

Best,

Adrienne 

Disclaimer: If your dog shows signs of potential aggression (lunging, barking, growling, snapping, biting) for safety, please consult with a dog behavior professional who uses force-free behavior modification techniques for direct in-person guidance. Articles, videos and general info found in the forums or course (or any online source) are not meant to replace in-person training/instruction. By using this course and forum, you are waiving any liability claims or other type of claims related to any dogs' behavior against you or others

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