Grisha Stewart’s new book is an impressive piece of work, and I highly recommend it to trainers, behaviorists and dog owners who are ready to dive into the deep end to help their dog. Behavior Adjustment Training 2.0 (BAT 2.0) is a comprehensive and detailed approach to working with “fear, frustration, and aggression in dogs”. No matter what one’s field, I always am impressed by people who continually re-evaluate their perspectives and advice, and I love that BAT 2.0 resulted from Grisha sitting back and asking what worked about BAT 1.0, and what could be better.
If you don’t know the original concept behind BAT, here’s a primer: BAT is Grisha’s term for the use of Operant Conditioning to change a problematic behavior, emphasizing what Behavior Analysts call “Functional Reinforcers.” (I’m going to use a dog who is reactive to unfamiliar dogs as an example in order to keep things clear.) In other words, what does a dog want who is barking and growling at an approaching dog? Of course we can only guess, but it seems to be true in most cases it’s to increase the distance between the dog and the other dog. (But yes, sometimes because the dog wants to get closer but is frustrated because it can’t.) Like most good, positive programs to treat reactivity, BAT 1.0 advocated carefully observing a dog to find his or her “threshold,” or the intensity of a trigger stimulus required to elicit the first signs of a dog’s response. Then one sets up situations in which the dog is brought close enough to its threshold to notice the trigger, but not so close that the dog becomes over aroused. In other words, ideally the dog in question would notice another dog, but not stiffen, growl or bark.
At that point, the handler either asks the dog to do something appropriate, like “Watch Me”, or waits for the dog to behave in a way that we consider to be more appropriate, like relaxing his mouth, turning his head away, sniffing the ground… any behavior that appears (to both people and other dogs) to be polite rather than aggressive or assertively defensive. My booklet on treating reactive dogs, Feisty Fido, suggests beginning by asking the dog to turn his head to your cue, but then quickly waiting for the dog to offer the behavior himself (which I called an “Autowatch”). As soon as he does, he gets reinforced. Initially I used food as the only reinforcement, but quickly found that playing tug or fetch was a much better way to condition a dog that an approaching stranger meant only good things would happen. This method worked very well for hundreds of my client’s dogs as well as my own Willie, who began as life as a eight-week old puppy terrified by even a glimpse of another dog.
However, it was Grisha’s functional analysis perspective that got me thinking that what dogs really want is to increase the distance between themselves and another dog. That’s when I realized that I hadn’t just reinforced dogs with treats or play for appropriate behavior, but that every time I worked with a reactive dog I took a step or two backwards before offering the food or play object. Once I realized that, I emphasized the backward movement, to give the dog two reinforcements. Who knows which was more salient in the dog’s mind? But if it works, perhaps it’s not that important.
The difference between Feisty Fido and BAT 1.0 was/is in the action of the handler. Do you begin by adding in a cue, (Watch Me!) which you drop out as soon as possible, or stay silent, and let the dog choose the behavior? I would argue there are strengths and weaknesses to both, and I’ve always taken Terry Ryan’s sage advice about having as big a tool box as you can so that you can be flexible.
I’ve provided that background because it felt necessary to explain BAT 2.0, which has two basic steps. The first one reflects the biggest change: Rather than slowly managing the dog to get closer and closer to the trigger (but never too far), one sets up situations in which a dog is much farther under threshold and then let’s the dog decide how to proceed. In other words, the dog has a lot more autonomy than in earlier versions. As long as the dog isn’t walking straight toward the trigger, or doing anything inappropriate, then the dog is allowed to move away, sniff the ground, or move closer as long as under threshold. Another way of looking at this is that the dog gets to decide its own reinforcement for appropriate behavior, and the handler basically gets out of the way. Step Two, titled “Mark and Move,” is for situations in which allowing a dog to make it’s own choice isn’t going to work out–the other dog is too close for example–and one marks the best behavior you can expect, moves away and then reinforces.
I love the idea of giving dogs more autonomy, both on theoretical and practical grounds. After all, we all know that the lack of autonomy is the most probable cause of “leash reactivity,” when dogs bark and charge toward other dogs on leash, but not when free. I talked to Grisha last week about BAT 2.0, and asked if she agreed that Step One of BAT 2.0 was a way of replicating the life that dogs used to have (and still do in some areas) in which they had more freedom than they are now. She agreed, but of course, we often can’t let dogs learn how to handle meeting others without the constraint of a leash, which is why the chapter on leash skills is so important.
I began the detailed “Leash Skills” chapter by stress whining and licking my paws. Picture me decoding the drawings (insert hand into leash loop, wrap leash back against palm of hand, wrap leash back the other way….) with my head turned far to the side and my eyes focused on the page, like a nervous dog exhibiting whale eye. I seem to have the three-dimensional motor skills of a flatfish, which is why I asked Grisha how important it was to master the skills described in the 17-page long Leash Skills chapter. “It’s 80% of BAT 2.0,” she said. Oh, okay. Back I went, and once I took a breath I realized how simple it all really was (“simple” doesn’t mean “not important”). Basically, the chapter is about using the leash as an emergency back up while avoiding interfering with your dog’s freedom as much as possible. Don’t let it intimidate you, it’s well worth it. There’s also a leash skill video here if you’d like visual aids.
There’s lots more to like in this book: Including details throughout the book on “reading” your dog’s visual cues for signs of comfort or discomfort, illustrated stress scales and “reactivity charts,” a chapter for professionals on using BAT 2.0 with clients, and a chapter on puppies. However, this is a 278 page book. As such, it’s appropriate for any trainer who wants to add to his or her repertoire, but not for many of our clients. I did have clients who would have soaked this book up like the desert sand absorbs rain, but most of my clients would have been overwhelmed. It is also true that following BAT 2.0 to the letter is going to take more time and commitment from one’s client than some other methods, but I think of it like painting a house–it’s the preparation that takes the time, not the painting, right?
Remember that I’ve used “reactivity to unfamiliar dogs” as an example, but these methods are appropriate for dogs who are afraid of strangers, children, cars or anything else that sets them off. Other resources to consider are Leslie McDevitt’s Control Unleashed, Emma Parson’s Teaching the Reactive Dog Class, The Cautious Canine by yours truly along with my DVD, Treating Dog-Dog Reactivity (hosted by Grisha, thanks for that!), and an audio telecourse through Animal Behavior Associates titled Rehabilitating the Canine Contender. I’ve also written other related articles in this blog, including “Dog-Dog Reactivity- A Treatment Summary”. There are so many resources out there, I have mentioned just a few. What about you? If you have you owned or worked with reactive dogs, what are your favorite resources?
MEANWHILE, back on the farm: Maggie and I spent all of Saturday at a Sheep Management Workshop at Nippersink Hall, given by Gordon Watt. Very much worth it, I came home inspired to spend more time checking my sheep’s teeth and reviewing their nutrition. It’s true that my flock is small, and easy to keep in top condition, but that doesn’t mean I can’t learn more about improving what we’re doing. Right now the breeding ewes and lambs get a supplement of corn, oats, and a protein “kibble” containing a cocciastat, but I haven’t checked how much milk they are giving lately, nor their teeth for that matter. The lambs do seem to be gaining very well, but one can always do better. My primary concern right now is poor Solo, who had a little limp in a back leg last night, but wouldn’t put her hoof down this morning. I’ll keep her inside with a friend for a few days in hopes she heals up, otherwise I’ll call in the vet.
Here’s a flawed photo from the workshop, but I still love the back lighting and that it reminds me how Gordon’s dog Storm was so exceptionally calm and collected while working in close contact with Blackface ewes and their lambs. What a testament to great training and the right set of genes:
Breeding birds are busy all over the farm, including in and on the farmhouse. There are wrens nesting in a vent between the downstairs bath and the great outdoors, and every morning they greet the day well before 5 AM with their musical warbles. For years when I turned on the bathroom fan I’d hear a multitude of high pitched squeaks and image the babies’ tiny feathers blown to the side by the breeze, miniature Snoopy’s in their fighter planes pursuing the Red Baron. Then the fan stopped working, but I didn’t have the heart to take away such a great nesting site for the wrens. They come back every year and raise two or three sets of fledglings. On another side of the house a House Finch has already raised a brood on top of the porch light, a Robin is nesting in the Bridal Veil bush in the back, and a Barn Swallow pair who couldn’t find available housing in the barn (4-5 nests are active there now) has nested over a light fixture in the garage. There appear to be a total of four nestlings, who are always, always hungry. I’d show you the pile of poop that we have to clean up under the nest every few days, but I thought you’d enjoy seeing the babies a bit more:
Along with the birds, we’ve got flowers busting out all over. Hidden behind these blooms is a massive cement cover to our old, abandoned well, which I promised Jim I’d hide with some judicious plantings so we wouldn’t have to figure out how to fill in the massive well cavity to avoid something falling in. It took four years, but between the roses, the creeping oregano (I know, I’ll be sorry) and day lilies, I think my work is done.
Bruce says
Trisha, thank you for reviewing BAT 2.0 and posting such lovely pictures. Our backyard birds are done breeding for now but rabbits are breeding like, well, you know. Walking the dogs from house to car can be a great adventure.
Anyway, the Behavior I would most like to Adjust belongs to our 7-year old Sammy, who has become a social butterfly outdoors but barks furiously whenever our college-aged son emerges from his lair in the basement. Unfortunately the Sammy latches onto habits and routines as her bulwark against an uncertain world, and this behavior has so far resisted adjustment.
Son and Sammy started poorly, but he is now doing everything he can to win her over. The Sammy will take treats from him, let him scratch her under the chin, etc. The Sammy will even approach closer when our son stops petting her, but as soon as he starts to move away she resumes barking furiously. It has even gotten to the point where the Sammy is reluctant to get out of the car after our evening walk, if she suspects her nemesis may be about.
The Sammy is highly food-motivated, and we have managed to convince her that strangers coming to the house is a good thing (strangers = treats, yay!). Sadly, our son did not listen to excellent parental advice when the Sammy first entered our lives (perhaps a first in human history?), so now we are in problem-solving mode.
The Sammy has made great progress in the year or so she has been with us. In her previous home, her baseline behavior was to hide under the bed and bark at any and all strange noises. She now spends most of her time hanging out with us or playing with our other dogs rather than hiding under the bed. She also delights in walks and trips to the dog park, solicits attention from strangers outdoors, recalls with joy and enthusiasm, etc.
I am open to suggestions, if anyone cares to offer. I don’t mind slow progress with a fearful dog, but we seem to be going backwards.
LisaW says
Bruce, I have had a somewhat similar situation with Olive and certain people. First, Sammy’s mind needs to be changed so she sees your son like Switzerland — neutral. Then there is detente to be negotiated, and then there may be a treat involved, but that is far, far away in the distant future.
Sammy needs to know that you have her back; when she knows that then she will look to you to guide the next steps or choices. There are many, many good resources available. I hope this is okay with you all, Suzanne Clothier’s “Arousal, Anxiety and Fear” dvd is a very good overview with some great tips for how we (the humans) can adjust our expectations and actions.
One other idea — emerging from the basement may be a big trigger, maybe your son could not all of a sudden appear from the dark; maybe he could come from the light with you and he speaking in an upbeat but very calm tone before anyone sees him come out of nowhere. Think about how scary that might be to all of a sudden be confronted with a something coming toward you speaking loudly assumingly out of nowhere. (It reminds me of the first time our beloved, bomb-proof dog saw a cat come in through a cat-door, The look on her face said, “Cats can walk through walls, oh no, I’m doomed.”) Try to think about what it looks like from Sammy’s point of view.
In this case, indifference is not an insult, it’s a starting point to a new relationship.
Hope this helps.
kelly keeney says
Patricia thank you so much for speaking to a broader audience of a technique that I have found to be so effective. First for my own dog at the end of his life when we were forced to live in a new situation and he was reactive to condominium life. Secondly for myself as I began to transition my training fully to non-coercive training… and now the many many clients who have seen transformation.. lasting changes in their dogs relationship to the world.. THANK YOU
Melissa says
My vallhund, Erik, has been a journey in managing and retraining reactivity that has been great for me. He has always had some difficulties with arousal regulation. He is extremely alert and his arousal shoots up very easily and comes back down very slowly and with much displacement behaviour from Erik. Erik needs help with this. It is just who he is. Erik is also crazy smart and unlike many reactive dogs, he is very aware of everything going on around him and how his behaviour affects it all even when highly aroused. In some ways that has made things easier, but it is a double-edged sword. It has also resulted in some frustrating and unusual training problems (charging running children because it results in a recall and reward, attacking the other dog because it results in a recall and some human engagement and ultimately treats…).
I started reading Control Unleashed when he was about 7 months old, and it has been extremely useful. Leslie McDevitt has also been tremendously useful when she was participating on her CU Yahoo group. Erik is a tricky and complicated dog, and Leslie always understood the quirks I was describing and had excellent advice for how to handle them. The Look At That game from CU is in my foundation behaviours handout that goes to most of my clients. I consider it a foundation behaviour, now. My new pup learned it before she learned her name!
I also became aware of BAT not long after I started learning the ins and outs of Control Unleashed. I felt the two approaches were quite compatible, and switched between the two depending on the situation I found myself in and what Erik seemed to need at the time. I love the way Grisha communicates. She describes things using phrases that I use, and analogies that match my favoured analogies.
I have become a bit of a reactive dogs specialist (I call them volatile dogs, because, every animal ‘reacts’ unless they are dead). Erik has tried and tested all of my approaches, and found all the flaws in my training. It’s what he’s good at. I run classes for volatile dogs, because they are so complex and interesting and I love a challenge. I love figuring out what they want and how we can give it to them in a way that works for everything and edges them towards improved emotional responses. I use some CU and some BAT in my classes, along with some other adaptations depending on what the dogs in the class need.
Patrick Rocha says
Hi Dr. Patricia McConnell
Personally I am a big fan of your Autowatch technique and I use it a lot with clients. I also have Leslie McDevitt Book and DVD, and I add some of those exercises in some training protocols. Last week I bought Emma Parson’s DVD “Teaching the Reactive Dog Class”, but I didn’t have saw it at the moment 😛
Regarding BAT, my point of view about BAT 1.0, was not positive. I had bought the Book and The DVD but I was not convinced about the technique.
Now, after reading this article I’m sure that I will buy BAT 2.0 and probably my opinion about BAT will change 😉
Thank’s for being such a great influence
Sylvia Currie says
What a nice, thorough review of BAT 2.0! The section on leash skills cracked me up. 🙂 BAT has worked wonders for one of my dogs especially — the one who needs to gather as much information as possible. Much to my surprise, information was ALL he needed, he just didn’t know how to gather it without rushing toward the trigger. Now that I see how easy it is to assist my dog, I wonder if in the past I was annoying him by being too involved. It’s kind of a less is more approach, but still requires skill and understanding. A fascinating process!
Kat says
BAT and variations on it have been the cornerstone of our efforts to rehabilitate Finna. I’ll be reading 2.0 as soon as my copy gets here. I’ve read everything on your list and more trying to figure out my psycho bitch from hell. What she really needs is remedial socialization but no one really writes about that so I’ve been creating my own curriculum from all the resources I can find. One of the books I especially like, that wasn’t on your list, is Fired Up, Frantic and Freaked Out: Training Crazy Dogs from Over-the-top to Under Control by Laura VanArendonk Baugh Here’s a link to the review I wrote. http://rangerandhiskat.blogspot.com/2013/04/ranger-recommends-fired-up-frantic-and.html I picked up the book because it so perfectly captured life with Finna that the title made me laugh and it turned out to be one of the best books I found. Engaging writing and a lovely way of making sense of all the bits and pieces I’d picked up from other sources.
Interestingly, these days Finna is far more sane on leash than off. Leash reactivity is a steadily decreasing problem. On the other side of our solid wood 6′ tall privacy fence is a reactive Great Dane. Finna and the Dane would like nothing better than to kill one another. I try not to have Finna outside when the Dane is also out but sometimes she’s out when the neighbors let the Dane out. On our side of the fence there is an overgrown laurel hedge which makes it very difficult to capture Finna when she’s lost her mind because the Dane is out. As soon as we can capture Finna and put the slip lead on her she settles down and is able to walk away to a point where she can think again. I want her to be able to make good choices even when the Dane is out and sometimes she can but more often still it’s a case of putting the leash on her which gives her more sense of security or something and her brains re-engage. Over time we’ve gotten her other off leash in the yard reactivity issues under control and we keep working on this one.
Melissa McCue-McGrath says
It’s going on my book list. BAT has helped a lot of our dogs at our training club ,and we have used a lot of Grisha’s techniques to great effect!
Thanks for sharing!
-M3
Andy says
I’ve heard mixed things about BAT 2.0 so I was reluctant to explore it, but this review will keep it on my radar. I will say that BAT and RP exercises have really informed how I work with high-arousal, undersocialized dogs as a handler, and I really like how Melissa puts it – “I love figuring out what they want and how we can give it to them in a way that works for everything and edges them towards improved emotional responses”. This is especially fun when working with dogs who have lived awhile as strays, because their repertoire is simultaneously socially limited and very, very rich. Assessing their sense experience and accommodating it on-leash, all while including yourself in the action, can be really exhilarating, especially if you’re willing to run for awhile.
Melissa, tell Erik that he is the best and Cecil gets it, too. Cecil’s fear and apprehension is real, as is his understanding that this is all a game of some kind, and that winning is a tricky business. He keeps his dad busy.
Katrien Lismont says
Thank you for that clear view on BAT. I am happy to have known and have been using it since the first seminar on BAT and practice BAT in my training centre every day. It is such an effective way to retrain dogs into a peaceful behavior. And it works fast when all other homework (pain management, daily stressors and management have been put in place). Thank you also for describing the leash skills: easy to use but not easy to explain how important they are in the process.
Also I like it that you stress how important it is to have a well filled box of several tools. Because each client team is indvidual.
BAT rocks!
Clair says
Thank you Patricia, what a great blog about a wonderful technique BAT 2.0. I’ve been using this method for the past fews years with my reactive to human and dogs rescued German Shepherd. He has now passed but he left a much happier soul due to putting this in place and using such simple but very effective ways to assist your dog to make better choices. Providing plenty of space(each dog has their own relaxed distance) along with reading your dog’s body language, keeping it fluid along with natural occuring reinforcers are just a few contributions to this wonderful approach.
The “survival techniques’ has to be one of the things everyone should have under their belt. You never know what you’re going to be faced with charging at you or around a corner! I love the drawings and the analogy’s plus the dvd’s are great too!?
I think Grisha’s hardwork and commitment to BAT 2.0 is refreshing and my dogs are so beneficial. If they could they’d give her a big kiss. I think BAT increases the strength of our relationship and makes the owner read their dogs so much better. Building the skills of the owner in all areas of the dogs life.
I personally ask my dog boarding clients that say their dogs can be a little snappy to get this book because if anything it plants the seed of space and choice.
Thanks Grisha Stewart
Vicki in Michigan says
Since no one else has mentioned this, it must not work very often. But just in case — what about the presence of another dog who is not reactive to … whatever?
I had a calm adult female dog, Sophie, and added a one-yr-old failed-prospective-show-dog (who had clearly spent a lot of time with dogs, but not so much with people), Buzz. Both were Pembroke corgis.
I first found out that Buzz was afraid of things with wheels when we three were on a walk in the neighborhood, and he was suddenly — bang — at the far end of his leash, in the road, trying to evade a bicycle which was parked in a driveway.
We discovered he was also afraid of wagons, tricycles, and … boys……………… (Hmmm……)
Buzz watched Sophie for clues as to how to behave (all the time, not just on walks). Sophie was not afraid of any of that stuff. I started carrying treats on our walks.
Sophie and I would walk up to a parked bike/wagon/whatever, with no kids around, and I would give her a treat. Buzz would be hanging back at the end of his flexi-leash, so 15 or so feet away. I would offer him a treat, he would decline to approach, and Sophie would get his treat.
He did not think it was ok for someone else to get his treat, and quickly decided he would come close enough to get his treat.
After some weeks, Sophie was eating her treat off the wagon, or the back of the tricycle, and then Buzz did, too.
We did the same thing for boys, separately from wheeled things. (He was not afraid of toddlers, and not afraid of teenage or older male humans…………)
There were nice boys (who had dogs) in our neighborhood. I explained to the boys that Buzz was afraid of boys, and told them that I hoped that meeting nice boys, over and over, would help him not be afraid. They petted Sophie, and gave her treats, and offered treats to him, and gave those treats to Sophie when he declined to approach. As with the wheels, he watched Sophie not be afraid AND get *his* treat………..
I am sure that Sophie’s calm and totally NOT reactive presence made it vastly easier for Buzz to overcome his apprehension. After some months, he was fine, and you’d never have known he used to be afraid of wheels and boys.
Our situation was maybe ideal for this — he was VERY comfortable with dogs, she was established and not bothered at all by anything that bothered him. He was only one, so not socially mature, and perhaps even more willing to follow the direction of a family-member dog.
I don’t know. But this method worked really well in our situation.
Jen says
Thank you for your review! I am a HUGE fan of your books, and Fiesty Fido was my first resource for working with my first reactive dog When my local trainer (who had referred me to your book) decided to work through the CBATI certification process, she invited me & my second fearful/reactive dog to be her client for the BAT 2.0 training. Several huge advantages I discovered through the long line leash skills was (1) my fearful dog’s confidence grew when given the opportunity to make his own decisions without my micromanaging interference – it’s a skill I now use any time we are in a new situation where he is a little worried & he understands he is in control of his choices, (2) I started learning to read his very subtle body language cues that I was completely oblivious to, (3) as I grew more in tune with his subtle cues, he started trusting me more, and (4) I was completely clueless as to just how far was far enough to be not just under threshold for him but actually comfortable. The distance he would choose to put between himself & the trigger was often 4 t0 6 times what I might have thought would be plenty far. The leash skills part of this program alone is a powerful technique I now highly recommend for building a trusting working relationship between dog & human.
Trisha says
To Bruce: Ah, my sympathies. Always harder with a family member, right? (For so many reasons.) It’s touch without knowing more, but my first thought is to ask if you’ve asked your son to accompany you on walks? Nothing seems to relax a dog more than to be out investigating an environment, and if your son was part of that I suspect it might go a long way toward helping him become, at least, “Switzerland.” (Love that, LisaW!). I also would add in conditioning Sammy to other people emerging from the basement–although Sammy is probably thrilled when you do, it won’t hurt to add in extra fun and treats as you emerge, along with anyone else that Sammy is comfortable with (be SURE that’s the case, don’t guess here or you could make things worse.) Once Sammy is more comfortable with your son outside, you could end up with hm following behind you (very close) on the stairs. But I would save that for the last step. Also, I’d stop having your son feed Sammy treats and cut out the petting. If you barks as he leaves, it’s almost as though she’s built up a stockpile of nerves that explode when he walks away. Son could possibly toss treats, but stay several feet away from Sammy at all times. Again, hard to say much without coming to visit, but I’d manage things so that Sammy and son can’t meet where the stairs enter the first floor (Sammy on leash?), have son go on walks beside you, eventually handing the leash back and forth when/if Sammy is on leash. Of course, lots of this depends on how willing/able son is to help? Paws crossed…
Trisha says
Thanks for the all the comments so far, so glad to hear that the review was helpful. One thing I didn’t have time to discuss in the article itself was how “what goes around comes around.” So much of what is in BAT 2.0, BAT 1.0, Feisty Fido, and the works of many others is similar, it just changes slightly in perspective and how it’s labeled. All the methods that don’t use force and intimidation focus on 1) being able to read the dog and understand when it is uncomfortable and 2) reinforcing the dog for behavior that we consider appropriate, which involves understanding when the dog it at or beyond its ‘threshold’. What differs is the details, which sometimes are critically important, and other times not so much, depending on the dog. I’m fascinated by the circle of advice over time, from decades ago (“just let the dogs work it out”.. which may have been problematic and resulted in a fight, but also often meant people got out of the dogs’ way), to lots of control (whether focused on classical conditioning or operant conditioning, whether to put a behavior on cue or not, etc.) to less control and more autonomy for the dog. Fascinating to watch the cycles go around. Most importantly, all of these methods are respectful of the dog, emphasize careful observations of the dog and avoid force and intimidation. Surely that’s the most important part, yes?
Shirley says
Absolutely a good read of Grisha’s and Pat’s write up. I gained valuable knowledge from reading books written by awesome & wonderful trainers. Having read & having a better understanding of why dogs do what they do, it has made me a better handler. I must say BAT is a breakthrough in my helping my baby’s reactivity with her biggest trigger after understanding the real meaning of distance. Having a loose leash is crucial in dog handling. This is something I do not know until I read up the awesome books I could land my hands on. My handling skills and understanding of my furkid has since made me a better mom & handler. Our walks are happier n much more enjoyable. Thank u so much!
rita says
Do you think dogs walking along bark a challenge to dogs that are home, inviting a fight? It sounds like I have no dog experience at all but that’s not true. Admittedly I’ve had friendly dogs and one ‘ready to engage’ dog, if the other was going to do anything he didn’t like. In the five months that I’ve had my current 9 year old dog, we’ve been attacked twice already. All this friendly dogs, ready to engage dog and the current fight magnet dog have been in the same neighbourhood. This last dog is a big black lab. The friendly dogs were collies and the ready to engage dog was a border collie. I’ve also had several people who we were walking past say, as they keep their lunging dog close, “My dog doesn’t like big black dogs.” I’ve heard people don’t adopt black dogs, and certainly not big black ones. Do you think this antipathy towards big black dogs transmits to their dogs and results in agressiveness? I just can’t tell if it’s my dog making this happen or other peoples dogs instigating it. It’s a bit of a chicken and egg situation. My dog and I now walk with sharp eyes, watching for loose dogs coming for us. It’s not fun. When we walk by a calm dog, mine just looks and keeps walking. If the other dog barks, mine will let it go for 10 seconds or so and then barks and lunges. I try to anticipate when I know it’s going to be a barkfest, and say, to my dog, “No, walk on, no.” This is to keep his attention on us. This works if the other dog barks some but not too much. My dog is big and strong. I am 65, strong enough to hold him but if my footing got lost, it could go badly. When we’ve been attacked, my dog gets over the other dog from behind, makes to bite the back of his neck, which causes the other dog to submit. Mind you, I pull him off, to make sure it doesn’t escalate. These were both loose, unsupervised dogs. No one has gotten hurt except me (a rope burn on 2 fingers of my non-leash hand), but I don’t think this story will end here. Do you have any thoughts or advice?
Nadia says
Tricia,
Thanks for this thoughtful review. I was wondering if you (or your readers) had thoughts on methods/approaches that are particularly useful for working on dog reactivity in crowded, urban environments.
I live in a very busy neighborhood in New York City with lots of dogs, people, noise ect. It is simply not possible to use the long leash techniques that Grisha describes on a busy New York sidewalk (or at least I haven’t figured out how), but ideally that is where we would want to put BAT to work as it’s where my dog encounters his triggers (other dogs while he is on leash).
We’ll often trail dogs so that my dog can gather more information (he really likes this) and from across the street (or even from the other side of a parked car) he is very good at playing “Look at that” and marking and moving on. But after more than a year of working, we still can’t walk past another dog on the same sidewalk without a huge reaction and he is still too over threshold to offer alternative behaviors as some trainers have suggested that I ask for (sitting, heeling, tricks for treats, find it).
Any advice?
Bianca Schmid says
Hi Trisha
I am still learning about and trying to understand BAT 2.0 but am also aware that many trainers find the method rather controversial, even the 2.0 version, since several aspects of it can be seen as -R. Personally, I find the lack of a food reward, or the very infrequent use of food, rather disappointing.
There seems to be so much more evidence of classical conditioning and counter-conditioning working very well, I see not as much potential in BAT since there is nothing which helps the dog make positive associations with the source of their reactivity.
Gerry says
While BAT is often very useful and effective, everything has its limits. For about three months the trainer applied BAT to a dog who was highly aggressive with other dogs, the only result being that she became somewhat worse. Neither that trainer, nor most other references, ever speak of the limitations on BAT, and without knowing something’s limitations you cannot truly know it. With a more appropriate protocol, more was accomplished in only one week. After 4 weeks, the dog was adopted and reports were fine months later. With other dogs, the trainer had more success with BAT, but never came to understand the difference.
On using BAT my primary complaint is it’s crude threshold test, which may dramatically slow the progress for many, while taking others over their learning threshold. While the actual meaning of your visual interpretations may vary greatly between dogs (and people), reaction and recovery are things that can be measured in distance and time, with their changes linked to learning, and both are directly determined by the dog.
The leash walking video was a bit curious when they introduced “mime pulling”, as that’s part of an old technique that focuses on training the dog to respond to your body language, instead of the leash. Yes, of course the leash is just a safety, and at times a gentle signal. When I’m walking four dogs, it tells three of them that the forth has just stopped to pee.
Cathy says
Vicki, a vet behaviorist whom I consulted years ago highly recommended a mentor dog for my dog-reactive fellow. Fortunately, my friend’s golden fit the bill because my dog loved him, and I saw similar things to those you described with your dogs. While out for a walk with both dogs, my dog could stand quietly as the golden visited with a little dog behind a fence. My guy did not try to visit but displayed very appropriate behavior while his mentor visited.
Trisha, I very much appreciated your blog. I have read and used all of the books you mentioned and gained something from all of them. I really like the idea of the long leash that Grisha recommends. (I loved your description of the leash-handling section!) I am re-reading Leslie McDevitt’s CU puppy book and Brends Aloff’s puppy book as I have a new BC pup arriving soon. I want her to have a better start than I gave my reactive boy. Because of people like you and the others who have done so much positive work regarding reactivity, I know worlds more now about how to prevent problems and handle them better if they do arise.
Bruce says
Trisha – Excellent suggestions, thank you so much! Having our son stop giving the Sammy treats and petting is a key insight from afar, and one that I completely missed.
We have done a few walks with son and Sammy but need to do more. We used the walk method to get the Sammy used to a teenager who occasionally walks the dogs for us. It has taken nearly a year . . .
I have started doing conditioning when I come up from the basement (Sammy barks once or twice, followed by “Hey, it’s you!”), unless I am carrying a scary laundry basket (“Run away!”). Adding treats is an excellent suggestion, and hey, we have salmon skin in the fridge . . .
Having our son toss treats on the floor could work, but we would need to isolate the other dogs first. Any food on the floor belongs to the Pug, and the other dogs NEVER challenge that.
LisaW – Thank you, too, for your suggestions! Indifference / Switzerland would be an excellent outcome, especially when Mrs. B is on a work teleconference in the living room. This is also hard on our son – he loves dogs, and the Sammy is the first to resist his charms.
Re dog reacting to cat door: A visiting Bichon literally jumped back every time our dogs went through the dog door. “Holy smokes, that dog just ran through a wall!” We tried to convince the Bichon that it possessed the ability to run through walls, but no success.
Trisha says
Mentor dogs can be a wonderful addition in some cases, thanks for adding in the suggestion. I’ve found it to be highly variable: Some dogs do indeed key in on the responses of other dogs and become more comfortable. But do pay attention to whether that translates to when the nervous dog is alone, it doesn’t always. Be very careful too that the mentor dog truly is solid as a rock, I’ve seen some dogs who seemed fine key off of the nervous dog, and well, now there were 2 nervous dogs instead of one.
Gerry says
On the topic of mentor dogs, I’ve seen many trainers who attempt to use a calm and non-reactive dog, but with only very limited success. I now have several dogs who are skilled and trained to work with a variety of behavior issues. They don’t wait for a dog to try and emulate them, but instead they teach, especially social skills, including resource guarding issues.
As for when the nervous dog is alone, that depends on the issue. For those nervous when meeting new dogs, after they first learn social skills, they are then slowly introduced to several dozen very social dogs, gaining more skills and confidence. Then, they finally meet both scared dogs and those with poor manners, to learn how to handle those situations.
Patrick Rocha says
Hi
I just saw Emma Parson DVD “Teaching the Reactive Dog Class” and I am really disapointed about the same 😛
In one exercise she presumes to explain and demonstrate LAT from Leslie McDevitt, but in reality what I saw was your “Autowatch” exercise and not “LAT” 😛
gail lilly says
How does BAT cohabit with obedience training? Heeling etc. is not an autonomous or free choice unless it has been reinforced sufficiently but, would it then constitute or be called a free choice behavior? Trying to square giving the dog more autonomy with good citizenship, obedience etc. and am a bit confused. Obviously there are behaviors that must be taught via operant conditioning: recall for one, but how does one integrate choice into the mix without sacrificing behaviors needed to insure safety and security? Letting the dog provide the cues when fear is the focus certainly makes sense. If allowing for free choice is situational, is that at all confusing to the dog?? Perhaps I just don’t understand the concept?
Ron Bevacqua says
Hi Bianca Shmid,
Your comments about BAT is spot on! Tawzerdog has a great DVD seminar with Pat Miller called Real Solutions to Canine Behavior Problems. What you will discover is that Pat Miller is a HUGE fan of using classical conditioning and counter- conditioning methods vs. BAT. If you decided to buy it , it will be money well spent.
I have been using her methods with my clients and their dogs . For me, it is the only way to fly!
Trisha says
Can’t say much, am at sheepdog clinic, but… I repeat my comment that every great trainer needs a lot of tools in their toolbox, and I’ve never seen any one method that worked for every set of dog and owner.
Trisha says
Expanding in my earlier comment: I think it’s important to keep in mind that “X’s method” and “Y’s method” have a lot more in common than not. In actuality, no one has invented anything new here–all the methods that we talk about are versions of operant and classical conditioning that have been understood for decades. Different people use methods that vary in the details, but we’re all really doing variations of the same dance. But those details can work for one dog, and not for another. I would never advocate one method as the one and only way to treat reactivity, including the methods that I use the most often. Thus, if X’s method doesn’t work for you, it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a flawed method, just that, well, it didn’t work for you. But it might work beautifully for another dog. That’s why I stress the “big toolbox” concept (which isn’t new either, Terry Ryan has talked about this for decades, and I learned it from her). The only trainers and methods I don’t learn something from are those that use intimidation and force. No, I do learn something, about how I don’t want to train a dog. But again, the methods we’re talking about here share more than not, and all are valuable for people who want a solid repertoire for different types of dogs and owners. Agree?
Kat says
The one size fits all people always amuse me. I’ve watched Ranger successfully mentor lots of dogs over the years but just because most dogs are willing to take their cues from him doesn’t mean they all are. In fact my psycho bitch from hell, Ranger’s (adopted) sister, Finna doesn’t take her cues from him at all. On our late night walks there are a few houses that have started barking at us. At least, I’m pretty sure from Finna’s perspective it is the house that’s doing it and not the small unseen dog inside the house. Ranger treats this behavior with the contempt it deserves, ignoring it and walking on by. Rather than learning to ignore it the way Ranger does Finna wants to charge the house and teach it some manners preferably with her teeth. We’re working on it but the fact that it isn’t always the same dogs or as Finna sees it houses, makes it really hard to set her up for success or to keep her far enough under threshold for her to still be able to think. We’ll be walking along and suddenly there’s a fury of barking at us. The two houses where it’s most likely to happen she’s actually beginning to get the idea that turning to me rather than charging the house results in treats, moving further away, and generally a better outcome than what happens when she charges the house which is hitting the end of the leash and being jerked up short. Unfortunately, we haven’t generalized the behavior and most of the ‘barking houses’ happen unpredictably. All of which is a long winded way of saying mentor dogs (or any other technique for that matter) are great for dogs who respond to mentoring. Unfortunately, some dogs don’t which is why that big toolbox is so important. One size never fits all.
Nic1 says
Totally agree about the toolbox concept. It empowers us as handlers to be able to dip in and out of the toolbox as and when we need to because after all, each dog and each person is completely unique.
BAT is not classical counter-conditioning as I understand as you are not pairing two stimuli? However, there is classical conditioning in every training technique– good and bad.
What I love about BAT is that it is a very subtle and gradual desensitization protocol based on empowerment of the animal being trained – the dog has almost complete control over the process. The control exercised by the handler is only in the form of making changes to help reduce any obvious stress and ensure safety within the environment. I’m all for exercising autonomy where appropriate because there is heaps of evidence in kids that creating an environment that allows them to fail and recover where they feel safe builds resilience and confidence.
There was some criticism of BAT 1.0 from Karen Overall, aligning it to R-, which was very quickly and effectively refuted by Grisha. I am not sure if Karen Overall amended her critique, but my own thoughts were that this technique actually goes beyond mere operant and classical conditioning because traditional CC/DS can easily be done incorrectly. How do you know if your dog is not over threshold even when she may be still taking food? Is the competing reinforcer influencing any of the behaviour in the environment? With BAT it really relies on developing a two way communication system between you and the dog building trust in the process. It really helped me develop my skills in reading my dog’s body language too down to an ‘ear twitch’ level. I say ear twitch, because I ended up reinforcing ear twitches with my own girl whilst helping her gain confidence around other dogs using BAT. Even certain lip licks in certain situations spoke volumes. Not to say that people can’t develop these essential skills without using BAT but it certainly helped me and my reactive girl (who now is not so reactive) BOTH gain confidence with each other in new environments. I love it and it is so nice to use too. Nothing stressful about it and seem to be a very organic process. Grisha has done so well here.
Gayla says
Ron,
Don’t get me wrong, I love Pat Miller’s work and it was worth the money. But if I recall correctly, Pat’s comments about BAT in that particular DVD were, (paraphrasing) “I haven’t read it yet, but CC is the method that works for me.”
Personally, I think CC’ing with food works best when the dog is still ‘trying to make up his mind’ how he feels about X. It’s a lot longer road if he has already made up his mind and you’re trying to change it. And again, YES to the bigger the tool box, the better!
Hugo Porter says
I love the BAT tagline: “safety, fun and freedom”. For animals, the latter is the most important dominator. Sorry for the long comment but the issue of “freedom” is not being discussed enough, whereas “behaviour” is discussed too much. The name animal implies autonomy and autonomy implies that animals are sentient (as the Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness confirms). Autonomy means experiencing, understanding and deciding. Is this process disrupted due to physical or mental restrictions, you will find a broken animal.
Dogs need more than just protection, guidance, love, virtual stimulation and food. They need to feel free, autonomous so that they can make sense of their environment on their own, then make their own decisions. Unless we foster this process first and foremost, they will never feel our trust in their own abilities because we will not feel it either.
We know that dog brains have the same brain areas as we do and recent MRI scan show that they use the same areas as we humans do for learning, understanding, communicating and for making decisions. Their brains are smaller than ours, but as Darwin had already claimed, essentially the same. What do we do with so much scientific confirmation regarding the mental potential of animals?
How do millions of stray dogs, cats, pigeons and rats survive every day in cities without pilling up as roadkill? It’s because they have understood the concept of human traffic on their own (which includes watching others in their natural and authentic habitat, not virtually simulating or stimulating things with the indirect goal of real learning).
In the wild, survival is even more tricky and has even more rules than in cities. Based on observation and science, we know that dogs have the ability to figure out modern human life rules perfectly if we allow them to and don’t hinder them with our outdated concept. My own dog hasn’t worn a leach in over 8 years and we live in the center of a large city with lots of traffic and other dogs.
Learned “behaviour” uses only a small (ancient) portion of the brain and is not related to learning and understanding. You want to be able to program your microwave to “function” as desired, but you don’t want to condition an animal the same way. It’s like using a super-sentient-$500bn-AI-computer as a simple bottle-opener. It can work but one misses the whole point.
The time has come to drop and forget the term “behaviour” when it comes to dogs. Let’s concentrate on their understanding and self-sufficiency first. Behaviour should be a positive externality, not a foundation to work with. Seeing “bad behaviour” rather than “lack of understanding” dilutes all of our efforts and our experience of life itself.
In the wild, a wolf mother and father care only indirectly about proper behaviour and obedience. A wolf mother does not dominate or condition her pups with treats. What she and life in general does is reward understanding with more freedom. There is no other way to raise pups, as they are supposed to outlive the mother and become self-sufficient, raising their own pups one day. Eureka moments have been observed in cow brains and that is what we are all after. Similarly, most human children don’t learn words based on threats or treats but based on the power and freedom this understanding gives them (being able to change the world around you).
It’s time that we acknowledge dogs not only can think on their own, but have evolved to do so. Again, let’s drop the name “behaviour” for their sake.
Conditioning dogs to do things that don’t make sense will eventually break him or her. No matter how much he feels loved and protected, unless things make sense, there is no happiness. Imagine being offered a job that pays you millions but none of the tasks make sense. For 8 hours each day, you have to do stuff that is random at best and faulty logic at worst. You might feel loved and protected but you will feel miserable very soon nevertheless and you will be nervous, guaranteed.
For example, what’s the point to doing “sit” in a virtual environment like a room or garden? No other animal gets treats for doing sit, no stray cat, no feral rat, no pigeon and no squirrel. What is the point for the dog of doing this? There is none. We come up with reasons why it is good for us humans but we don’t bother explaining it to the dog.
We humans claim that being able to do sit will calm the dog in stressful situations. This is raw self-delusion in practise. What we mean is that it would calm us humans if the dog did sit in case of a trigger. We human would then feel as if we can control the situation somewhat and that might calm us down. Having learned sit for treats provides the dog with some “impulse control” but not with the one you desire. You want for your dog to understand why impulse control is beneficial for him, not just to be able to control him or herself (this alone never works for long).
Chances are that the dog is fearful in the first place because of things like “sit” that don’t make sense. Now, instead of merely ignoring an approaching and threatening trigger dog, we humans stop, acknowledging that there is something special about the situation, and ask for a “sit” behaviour”. Wow wow wow. It’s a total miracle that some dogs are not crazy in spite of all this.
In the wild, the only reason why you stop, stare or react due to another animal for more than a few seconds is if you want to attack or are afraid of an attack. Why on earth do humans stop when they meet another dog during the developmental stages of pups? Does socialisation mean that other animals and humans are nothing special, something to stay calm about, or does it mean that we feel some form of anxiety due to the specialness of it all?
Most pups are thought to get anxious on purpose e.g. “sit” when you meet another dog. Doing nothing seems not possible for us humans and if we do something, we tend to enforce exactly those “behaviours” we claim to dislike?
This vicious cycle can be easily broken by concentrating on body communication (NOT language) and by avoiding the term “behaviour” from your thought and speech patterns and replacing it with understanding.
There are no behaviour problems. There is only lack of understanding. And understanding without freedom to learn is an oxymoron. Initially I thought that wolf mothers teach mainly “impulse control”, but “impulse control” without the understanding that it has beneficial consequences in the long-run is useless. Wolf mothers expose their pups to natural life-cycles where it makes sense to control your impulses for later benefits. E.g. if you start running too early after prey, it will have time to run away. Controlling your short-term impulses calmly helps you achieve your goals faster. The same is true when it comes to dog education. Controlling behaviour is the opposite of all this, despite the fact that it can virtually simulate some of the, well, behaviour in virtually controlled environments (treats are present even if not used).
What I love about BAT is that:
1) understanding seems the goal and not behaviour, despite the misleading name
2) more freedom and autonomy is the reward, not treats or threats. longer leash = more options other than “attack”. no leash = only viable long term solution and gaol in one for every dog (and every animal)
What I believe the authors of BAT are practising themselves as I can see from the videos but which does not get mentioned enough is body communication (not language):
3) communication = body first, body language, looks, sounds and hands come second. What your body does is more than half of all communication. It’s so obvious that we miss and ignore this fact and pay too much attentions to what the face, eyes, the mouth or the hands do etc. Body communication is like our face, so close that we cannot see it without a mirror. Do we stand still, stop, move closer or away means almost everything to a dog, the rest only serves as confirmation.
We don’t need more “tools” for our “toolboxes”. We need to learn the basics first. I know many dog people who know the usual calming signals but don’t have a clue what it means to suddenly stop walking. They know what a yawn means in dogs but don’t know what it means to face a trigger for more than two seconds. This fact is more spooky than the fact that there are only two schools of thought our there: threat or treat.
In one of the BAT videos, a trigger in the form of a strange human was approaching a fearful dog. The human handler, Grisha, ignored that person, not looking up for even one second and even turning her back. This “ignoring” of a non-threatening trigger is so key and I am surprised it does not get more discussion. No other form of communication can achieve as much and we don’t spell it out for people with problem dogs.
Understanding what it means to face a certain direction, to stand still, to stop, to move away or closer is fundamental and I don’t know of a single chapter in a single book about all this.
Most people with problem dogs communicate the opposite by acknowledging and confirming the trigger e.g. looking at the trigger (at least for too long) or even stopping or worse, tightening the leash or asking for “sit”. Although this can have some short-term results due to distraction, teaching that there is nothing to worry about is only indirectly fostered. Indirect communication is a fine indulgence in with calm and confident dogs but not advisable with young or problem dogs.
If the message cannot (yet) be “you can figure this out on your own” than the message should be “there is nothing”. Most dogs can figure out fear triggers themselves given enough (authentic yet controlled) freedom. We should not work against it with conflicting communication. We cannot communicate “this is nothing special” by acting “special”. And yet, like Sisyphus we keep trying to break this oxymoron with an ever expanding toolbox that misses the point without some universal basics.
If we live with or meet a young or problem dog, the foundation should be “there is nothing” and only based on that foundation do we try even more (aka more freedom for the dog to work it out him/herself”). Often dogs have more freedom as pups and are put on tighter leashes as they grow older. The opposite should be true.
Virtual guidance, simulation and stimulation should be reduced to a minimum. Maybe these things make sense if you were locked up in a spaceship but real life is build to teach on its own and to be stimulating enough given enough freedom.
Hugo Porter says
PS: I apologise again for my long previous and new comment. I should have made clear that I am not against re-conditioning in certain cases. Is a dog already badly conditioned and damaged due to bad or lack of education or some other trauma, re-conditioning is important. There is no life if she is a danger to herself or others.
The funny thing about re-conditioning is that it is simple but rarely applied properly. If a dog is life-threatening, a treat will do no good.
A dangerous problem dog should never get food for free at home but ONLY in presence of her trigger and only if she controls her impulses. The reason this is rarely applied is because most dogs get most calories for free at home. They hence don’t take food seriously or link it to future survival, they hence don’t take the trigger situation seriously or link it to future survival.
In the wild, anti-social animals are often expelled from packs and herds and cannot survive on their own. Humans, for example lock up their own kind in case of an attempted attack, we don’t wait for actual pain to occur.
If re-conditioning is applied it has to be done right and authentic. The animal is a real danger to herself and others and has to feel this reality herself. In nature, the main threat is hunger, not attacks. One cannot provide a problem dog with free food all day and then hope that a treat will reverse his trigger reactivity. This approach is intellectually insulting to nature’s laws and not fair to the dog.
The problem dog has to choose between controlling her deep trauma (which means staying alive and getting food) or following her programmed impulses (which eventually means starvation). Unless this survival instinct is triggered, no treat in the world will compete with trauma triggers effectively.
Until the trauma or problem disappears completely, no food, it’s that simple. If this regime is followed, most problem dogs are cured (re-conditioned) within 2 weeks and show major improvements within days.
There is no magic but powerful survival behind it all. “If you don’t behave you don’t get paid at all” is clearer communication than “if you stop harassing coworkers you get a chewing gum”.
Does a dog rather keep attacking than to eat after a few days (wolves and dogs can go on for up to 2 weeks without too much health risk), chances are that the animal is too broken. In this case the most humane thing is to euthanise the animal and to give another caged, less broken surplus animal a chance (we have an overpopulation crisis). It’s sad that some humans don’t have a problem breeding and buying dogs, causing the overpopulation, while breaking the animals with their one-dimensional ideas about their natures.
Most humans cannot not feed dogs. They are ok with going to dog school for months but they cannot not feed a dog for a day or two. Even if it’s only way for re-conditioning to truly work and for them to get their lives back. What does this tell us about ourselves. We don’t want equal and authentic relationships, we want to provide and be the provider at all costs. Not for the animal’s sake but for ours. Hmm.
Food rewards should only be applied on problem dogs, not on healthy dogs (they break the mental abilities of healthy dogs and the quality of our relationships). An exception can be impulse control training surrounding food in young pups, but that’s different than using food as an education tool, it is not. Freedom and autonomy foster education and understanding, not food.
Trisha says
Hugo, no time to answer today, but will in the next few days. Look forward to addressing some of your statements…
Trisha says
Hugo: This is a great line, love it: “Understanding what it means to face a certain direction, to stand still, to stop, to move away or closer is fundamental and I don’t know of a single chapter in a single book about all this.” These behaviors are indeed mentioned in many a book (standing still, looking away, moving away–mine, and Turid Rugaas’s come to mind off the top of my head), but your point is well taken that these behaviors have communicative value. However, I do feel the need to mention that the techniques you dismiss have helped thousands and thousands of dogs. People have sung praises to these techniques described & used by many trainers, Grisha included in BAT 1.0, because they do work on many dogs. I agree that we all need to refine, re-invent, re-consider, that’s my personal and professional mantra, but that doesn’t mean that things are quite as black and white as you describe.
Bethany says
I have never completely understood BAT because I do wonder why you want the dog to do something like look at you while under threshold. I have always trained the “look at thar” game where while under threshold I click/treat for looking at the stimulus. I allow the dog to set the pace. Once the dog learns the game they build value for the stimulus. They look at the stimulus and then back at me as if to say, see that? Very quickly the dog chooses to get closer and closer to the stimulus. If it’s inaminate I will even click sniffing and nose touching the stimulus.
My new border collie Fate was frightened badly by a child running into my fenced yard screaming and chasing him the day after picking him up from the breeders. So we started playing “look at that.” He loves kids again now but still thinks they move weird (they do). And he is improving steadily with people/animals etc racing towards him.
But with BAT I would reward him for looking at me instead of the stimulus right? How does that help him become comfortable? I would think rewarding the dog for looking at the stimulus under threshold would be more effective. Would love an explanation as I’m clearly missing something!
Daniela Pelgrim says
I have found two main problems with BAT 2.0. One, the main one, is that many dogs get stressed out without any guidance or interaction from their owner. Being asked to just “go where they want” and ignore the owner is foreign to a good many, particularly the anxious ones, and usually not the goal of training, where you’d like the dog to keep an ear out for your movements and possible cues, even if off leash and deep in the woods, or particularly there. With owners asked to not give any clues on where the dog should go or what they should do, some just freeze. If the owner behaves that way only when there is a trigger around, the dog soon gets more nervous when perceiving the trigger.
The other type of dog that struggles with BAT 2.0 is the “hyperactive” one.
The one that just can’t stop to smell the roses. They either race towards the trigger or through the bushes, but “slow stops” just aren’t on their agenda. There is no such thing as “stop and think”.
I know the BAT 2.0 answer is to “enrich the environment” but that is much easier said than done.
For both of these, a more structured approach may cause a lot less stress and a lot more progress.
That said, for some BAT 2.0 works a treat and can almost seem like magic.
Nadia says
Bethany – my understanding of BAT is that you reward them for disengaging. So that could be a look at you or some other calming signal like a lip lick, yawn, sniffing the ground, shake, or just breaking their gaze on the trigger. So the pattern is – notice the trigger, gather information, and as soon as the dog disengages, offer the reward (praise, distance, and/or treat).
Hugo Porter says
Hi Trisha,
Sorry, my comments where all long as I didn’t have much time a few weeks back. They were not my finest posts in terms of clarity of communication.
I actually like what I saw in BAT 2.0, I only disagree with the name “behaviour” for the reasons outlined above. It’s about understanding and never about behaviour. I like the providing freedom part the most, I don’t trust humans to actually work with triggers and reenforcement, they just don’t know what they are doing. Providing freedom however is an absolut essential foundation and BAT 2.0 excels at communicating this.
Second, I dig all of your books and you are one of the few authors I dare to recommend to new dog companions.
I just wanted to make the point that our focus on “behaviour” rather than understanding always backfires and that we don’t need new tools if we keep ignoring basic foundations anyway.
It’s not about finding new ways to reach dog owners or dogs, it’s about making sure they follow what we all know are fundamental basics. I meant a chapter on how most dog owners ignore the advice given to them. I know that there are chapters about the “evil of stopping when encountering another dog” but I don’t know enough chapters that point out that almost nobody follows this advice.
I know of the benefits of re-conditioning with food but nobody writes about the fact that almost nobody does it right. Most people use “treats” while still feeding at home and thereby damage the mental development of dogs.
Again, I dig BAT 2.0 – only find the name counter-productive. I know that there are many chapters on basics, I don’t find many that point out how wrong we all apply them. We do stop, we do feed at home while reconditioning.
We don’t need new tools, we just need to be more observant and honest with ourselves? We have to stop the cycle where puppies get more freedom than adult dogs. We have to stop the cycle were we hinder their brain development with virtual behaviour training like “sit” commands. We have to stop the cycle where we ourselves get excited when we meet a new dog while walking ours. Too often we want our puppies to please us with fun play and we don’t realize how we ourselves hype everything up into out of control. If we are anxious (the bad side of excited) around other dogs and other humans, so will our dogs.