Aggression in Dogs: Real Life Solutions
A complete, self-paced course forgo guardians with detailed lessons on how to find solutions to the most common types of aggression in dogs.
80+ lessons taking you through every aspect of helping dogs with aggression. Includes two full years of access to the course!
Safety, behavior change strategies, determining best options, troubleshooting, case studies, and more. This course covers it all.
Detailed sections on dog to human aggression; dog to dog aggression; resource guarding; and leash reactivity
Bonus resource guides on where to find our recommended equipment as well as supplemental material!
Two full years of access to the course.
“I Work with Dogs Because I Don’t Like People”: People Skills for Positive Outcomes
PART ONE
Are you frustrated with your client’s lack of participation and follow through?
Do you want to increase your effectiveness while communicating with your clients?
Are you unsure how to support clients during tough conversations about euthanasia and grief?
Learn how stress affects the human learner and how you can work towards meeting each client where they are. You will learn about the Zarit Burden Interview (ZBI) caregiver burden survey, which helps to quantify the pet owner’s burden, and be given the survey to start using it with your own clients.
PART TWO
Are you nearing or experiencing compassion fatigue or burnout?
Are you your own worst critic when it comes to making mistakes?
Do you struggle processing your own emotions when dealing with ethical conflict surrounding quality of life and euthanasia?
This session takes a deep dive into your emotions as a pet professional and how to navigate them whether it is the daily grind or a difficult case or situation. You will learn how to identify compassion fatigue, burnout and how to work towards compassion satisfaction. Real-life examples of boundaries that you can set and tools to increase resiliency will be shared.
Feeding the Dog That Bites You: Investigating the Neuroscience of Reinforcement in Aggression Cases
Have you ever wondered why some dogs learn really well with food and some don’t? Or why training with play works great for some dogs but not for others? This webinar explores what’s happening in a dog’s brain when we provide a reinforcer and the differences in the way the brain processes various reinforcers such as food, play, or praise.
Daniel Shaw discusses the challenging cases where certain typical reinforcers may be processed as aversives or conversely why aversive situations may even be processed as reinforcing by some dogs.
Daniel examines how this fits into the picture of counter conditioning or differential reinforcement in aggression cases and help you apply this understanding of neuroscience to refine your choice of reinforcer to make maximum impact in your aggression cases.
The Angry Gut: Links Between Digestive Health and Aggression in Dogs
This webinar looks at the science on how issues within the digestive system may contribute to aggressive tendencies in the dog.
Amber discusses the reasons why gut and associated digestive issues influence behaviour and then looks at how we can recognize imbalances and disease within this body system.
She also focuses on how dog guardians, trainers, and behaviourists can provide information to the vets with the aim of supporting appropriate consideration of digestive health in dogs who have shown aggression.
Don’t miss out on this enlightening session, where we aim to empower you to support your dog’s well-being by considering their digestive health, especially if they’ve shown signs of aggression.
Eating is Essential with Kathy Sdao
During an initial behavior consultation, when my client says “but my dog isn’t food-motivated,” my response is “Not yet.” While various medical conditions may contribute to the creation of a finicky eater, so can unwise – often unintentional — learning experiences.
Addressing these obstacles to efficient training will improve the overall prognosis for all dogs, especially in challenging cases (e.g., dogs with a history of aggressive behaviors). This session will cover:
• Parameters of fluent eating
• Specific situations in which foster the habit of picky eating
• Five common mistakes that teach inappetence — and alternatives that promote healthy eating
Join this engaging webinar to delve deeper into the world of dog behavior and nutrition! Gain valuable insights into enhancing your dog’s eating habits and overall well-being. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to learn from experts and take the first step towards a healthier, happier relationship with your dog!
You Don’t Know Jack! Troubleshooting Complex Cases with Leslie McDevitt, Dr. Chris Pachel, and Michael Shikashio
Have you ever wanted to be a “fly on the wall” and observe a complex aggression case with many difficult variables being worked on in real time? Here’s your opportunity! Join three world-renowned behavior specialists for “You Don’t Know Jack!” This event will feature two different cases of Jack Russell Terriers with a history of aggressive behavior and various medical issues that have impacted their journeys.
Dr. Chris Pachel, Leslie McDevitt, and Michael Shikashio will meet with the guardians of two JRTs, Malus and Stout, and troubleshoot the complexities of both cases. Each case will be thoroughly reviewed by our team of specialists, who will provide their unique perspectivesand recommendations.
By joining us for this enriching webinar, you’ll have the opportunity to immerse yourself in an engaging and enlightening session. Our panel of experts will share their wealth of knowledge and experience, providing you with practical strategies and actionable advicethat you can apply to similar situations in your own life or profession.
In the Blink of an Eye: Responding to Dog Bites – Before, During, and After with John Caponetta
Designed to illuminate the lifecycle of a dog bite incident, this session aims to equip attendees with the critical knowledge and skills needed to navigate the complex dynamics of dog bites, from the subtle precursors hidden in a dog’s body language to the immediate and long-term responses necessary after an incident.
Whether you’re a dog owner, animal welfare advocate, or Pet Professional, this webinar will offer invaluable insights into managing dog bites, ensuring the safety and well-being of both humans and canines.
Attendees will learn proper dog bite first aid techniques for both humans and dogs, they’ll also learn to take control of the scene and prevent further injury. Additionally, this webinar extends beyond immediate responses to cover what happens before, and in the wake of a bite including bite severity assessment, determining impact on adoptability, and considerations for public safety.
Defining Aggression: Views from Biology, Psychology, and the Neurosciences with Dr. Simon Gadbois
This webinar provides an insightful overview of neurosciences and the two main behavioral sciences that concern wild and domestic canids. We will explore different types of aggression, categorizing them based on brain systems or social and ecological functions, and delve into models that have stood the test of time.
The focus will be on descriptive models derived from ethology, and we’ll discuss the extraction of data from social interactions in dogs using a ‘sociogram‘ (a social ethogram), which will be briefly explained. Finally, we will connect aggression to the limbic system: the wild card of aggression.
Ever wondered about the intricacies of canine behavior? Join us for an enlightening webinar with renowned expert Dr. Simon Gadbois, where we delve into the fascinating world of neurosciences and behavioral sciences in wild and domestic canids.
Bites of Biology and Behaviorism with Dr. Tim Lewis and Michael Shikashio
When dealing with cases of canine aggression, it is essential to examine the internal biological factors and external environmental conditions that may contribute to the animal’s behavior. This comprehensive approach to understanding the influences on behavior enhances the likelihood of successful outcomes when addressing problematic behaviors like aggression.
In this insightful session, Eco-biologist Dr. Tim Lewis and Aggression Specialist Mike Shikashio CDBC will explore the “inner and outer” factors affecting aggressive behavior in dogs. Dr. Lewis will provide a biologist’s perspective, while Mike will offer insights from a behaviorist’s standpoint. From examining antecedents to exploring the amygdala, or studying consequences to understanding cortisol levels, this presentation promises a thorough exploration of aggression.
Join us for this engaging and interactive talk, where we will sharpen our observational skills and analyze various instances of aggressive behaviors.
Fearful Felines and Fidos: Defensive Handling Techniques for Fearful Aggressive Dogs and Cats with Tabitha Kucera
Dogs and cats exhibiting aggressive behaviors due to fear and/or pain present several challenges to the veterinary team. These patients can be difficult to evaluate safely and have compromised well-being due to the severe stress they are dealing with.
Thankfully, there are many handling techniques and skills that can be used in these situations. In this 60-minute webinar, followed by a 30-minute Q + A, through case studies and video demonstration, I will be discussing handling techniques and plans to add to your handling toolbox.
– Tabitha Kucera, CCBC, RVT, KPA-CTP
It Must Be Genetic: The Heritability of Aggression with Dr. Jessica Herman
Have you ever heard someone say of a dog, “The aggression showed up so young – it must be genetic,” or “It’s a breed problem – there’s nothing you can do about it?”
Yet we know that behavioral traits, such as aggression, are influenced by both genetics and behavior. How do we measure “heritability,” or the influence of genetics versus the environment? What does it tell us about individuals and populations?
How difficult is it to predict an individual’s behavior based on its breed? What does a breed tell us about the likelihood of an individual being aggressive?
Join Jessica Hekman, DVM, PhD, to talk about these questions and to learn how to address solutions at the population level.
Keep Hope Alive: Aggression Cases With Unexpected Happy Endings with Dr. Karen London
“The predictable patterns of aggression apply to most cases, but each one has the potential to surprise me with a better-than-predicted outcome. I approach each new case with optimism—that’s my basic nature, and it’s my experience that once in a while, a dog improves more than I imagined possible. Every time this happens, it’s an occasion to celebrate because of the good fortune for the people and dogs involved, and because I always learn something new.
After 25 years of working with aggressive dogs, I’ve learned that being optimistic is important. Yes, it’s my job to give realistic assessments of situations, and to help clients safely manage them, but it’s also my job to do all I can to help them improve their dog’s behavior. If they are committed to making the effort, I am never without hope.
The rare cases in which dogs wildly exceed my expectations are my favorite kind of success story, and I look forward to sharing a few such cases of surprise happy endings with you.”
– Karen B. London Ph.D.
Arousal and Aggression with Sarah Kalnajs
When working with an aggressive dog, we must always consider what is happening inside the dog’s mind. What are the base behavioral causes of the problematic behaviors it is exhibiting?
Arousal is a physiological state that prepares a dog for activity, excitement, or aggression. Mediated by the sympathetic nervous system, a dog in a state of arousal experiences an increase in heart rate, blood pressure, and respiration rate, in addition to an influx of hormones, such as adrenaline, noradrenaline, and cortisol.
This aroused state prepares the dog for physical activity, and thus enhances its response to perceived threats arising from a variety of trigger stimuli. In all types of aggression, arousal can play a role in increasing a dog’s emotional response, making them more likely to display aggressive behavior.
In this webinar we will take on the important task of identifying the environmental factors that contribute to arousal and look at prevention strategies for managing these factors so that arousal remains low and does not escalate to aggression.
The Role of Emotion in Aggressive Behavior with Dr. Nicole Lobry de Bruyn
This hour-long webinar, followed by a further 30mins of Q & A, aims to explore and educate dog professionals on the emotional basis for aggression using a Pankseppian model of understanding of the core emotional states.
Dogs, like other mammals, live rich emotional lives, and a deep understanding of the emotion behind a behaviour can assist those trying to help a dog with aggressive responses.
The talk will be packed with interesting and informative video and aim to show an ethical and effective way to decrease aggression and move forward towards a happier and more peaceful individual.
Assessing Canine Posture and Movement with Sarah Keller
Sarah Keller will showcase the basics of assessing canine posture and movement, including what good posture and movement looks like, red flags to watch out for, and how to document concerns.
Knowing what is and isn’t normal can be very beneficial for pet professionals when something deeper might be going on!
The Aggression Constellations With Suzanne Clothier
Working Aggression Cases Virtually With Karishma Warr
The Science of Aggression With Dr. Kristina Spaulding
The Genetics of Aggression With Dr. Jessica Hekman
Learning the Ropes! All Things Leash Handling With Grisha Stewart AND Michael Shikashio!
In punishment-based dog training, the leash is used not just as a restraint, but as a way to inflict pain or startle, and many lessons about dog training include how to handle the leash to get the most force in a precise way. With the rise of positive reinforcement training, the leash was no longer needed to ‘teach’ the dog and lessons on leash handling fell by the wayside. And yet dogs were still walked on leash. Not having guidance on leash handling opened up positive reinforcement trainers to a wide range of unfortunate mistakes, including unintentional pressure, restricted freedom, safety hazards like rope burns and loose dogs, or regressing to leash pops in frustration.
While each of us uses more skills beyond the ones we developed ourselves, Mike is known for his defensive handling techniques and Grisha is known for her BAT leash skills – how to use a long line to create a sense of freedom while still maintaining safety and control. We thought it would be helpful to join up to share our tools in the same webinar, so you can learn when to use which, and why. We are both continually learning, so we also thought it would be a fabulous opportunity to teach each other how we work. Both of us will give an overview of the leash handling skills we teach, and also guide the other through a practical skill. Follow along as you add new skills to your leash handling toolbox!
Toward a New Understanding of C.A.T. with Kellie Snider
Early behavior analysts broke behavior down into a treacherous matrix of four judgements plus extinction. They taught us that negatives and positives, punishers and reinforcers all fit into tidy categories of wholesome goodness and hellacious badness. When the Constructional Aggression Treatment was first presented as Kellie Snider’s MS thesis research in 2006 it was met with both excitement and concern. It was exciting because nearly anything that might improve our ability to help dogs with aggression is exciting. It was concerning because of that dastardly term, negative reinforcement, which is hurriedly herded into the hellacious badness category. Also, the research procedure back then was clunky, and some dogs went over threshold. We found out what we needed to know, but our audience worried. The good news you should know is that many dogs were helped in the course of the research and more than 60 species have been helped since. In this presentation Kellie performs a brief postmortem on the early dissemination of CAT and of the essential relationship between function and construction, even going so far as to explain how CAT should not be distilled down into a negative reinforcement trope. She will discuss the addition of the term “alert” to supplement “threshold”, and will answer questions at the end of the talk. She hopes that you’ll leave this presentation feeling very cozy in the wholesome goodness category, or, perhaps even better, with a whole lot more questions.
Play Way! for Aggression Cases with Dr. Amy Cook
Can you make your dog laugh? Can you interact in play socially without your dog going over the top, or just leaving you for better things? Social play is fun and therapeutic, but doesn’t always come naturally to us! Come learn with Amy how to connect to your dog by playing like a dog! And for dogs for whom life is an over threshold event, therapeutic play is even more important. We all need better tools to help our dogs lighten up, shake off the tension, and learn they’re safe in the world. Play can also help you more accurately assess threshold, help you get emotional change in dogs, and build your own sensitivity to the subtle changes that happen before real discomfort sets in. In this webinar you’ll learn the art of conversation, how to collaboratively negotiate play, to give your dog an equal voice, and to have fun together without going over the top!
This powerfully effective technique is used to help socially shy dogs master the intricacies of feeling comfortable interacting with and being around people. This is a dog-centric technique that is force-free, and one that does not use negative reinforcement. Instead, respect for the dog’s boundaries, arousal and abilities are combined with nuanced observation and engagement of SEEKING to help build the dog’s skills. Using thin slices, Treat-Retreat helps the dog develop skills in comfortable ways that are readily generalized.
Our Dog Bit Our Toddler! HELP! Part Two with Jennifer Shryock and Helen St. Pierre
Dealing with aggression cases that involve children or expectant families can be hard to navigate at times, for even the most savvy dog professionals. In this presentation, we will discuss specific case examples on helping families that have dogs with prior bite histories welcome home baby safely, and families with dogs that had no bite history suddenly dealing with the difficult situation of a child that has been bitten. Learning the right questions to ask, the delicate approaches needed and how to help families juggle time management will all be covered!
We all hate getting this call. A child has been bitten. Now what!?! Jennifer Shryock, B.A., CDBC will share 5 important factors she considers with every bite victim family as she supports the family moving forward.
If your professional role includes counseling pet owners through consideration of available intervention options for behavioral problems, it is inevitable that you will experience a situation in which the option of euthanasia is on the table for one reason or another. This is a complicated subject and it is important that the behavior consultant has a solid grasp on the factors that influence this conversation and its outcome across various circumstances.
Specific discussion topics will include: a discussion of risk assessment and safety, navigating the role of the pet in that specific household, quality of life and welfare considerations, the impact of guilt on caregiver decision making, as well as specific conversation strategies and client support resources.
Aggression cases can seem daunting with so much on the line. How do you know what to prioritize? How do you know which path to take? How do you meet a dog’s needs when they have to be so heavily managed to keep everyone safe?
For us, the answer lies in enrichment. Enrichment – meeting all of an animal’s needs – creates a clear path forward and breaks down a sometimes seemingly impossible case into manageable, doable chunks for you and your client. Join us as we discuss what enrichment is and showcase how to implement it in a systematic way using one of our complex case studies.
Aggression cases often pose unique challenges for behavior consultants due to their gravity and the emotional impact of dog bites on clients. Effective client counseling skills are critical to facilitating behavioral change in aggression cases. Consultants must establish strong, positive helping alliances with their clients while maintaining professional boundaries.
This webinar is designed to assist behavior consultants in understanding the emotional issues unique to dog bite cases, provide tools for enhancing basic counseling skills, and identify ways to set and maintain professional boundaries.
When dogs and cats are not getting along in the home, everyone suffers – especially the cat. Unfortunately, despite the best of intentions, such cases are often not truly addressed, or, are even handled incorrectly.
This webinar will provide behavior consultants with helpful information, strategies, and effective game plans that can help improve the lives of everyone involved.
Aggression and other negative canine behaviors are often assumed to be “behavioral.” In reality, many behaviors may be pain related. Failure to address the pain will continue to lead to additional negative behaviors.
This webinar will assist the trainer/owner in identifying pain, its ramifications on a dog’s movement and behavior, and how to address them.
Livestock Guardian Dog (LGD) numbers in rescue, shelters and sanctuaries are increasing. Euthanasia is often the end result, with the most common reason given, as aggression. With a better understanding of the characteristics and needs of these breeds, we can reduce this dire trend.
As animal handlers, trainers, carers and clinicians we can learn to work safely and successfully with these breeds and offer better education for their owners or prospective owners.
View Our Free Webinars
Looking to learn more about helping dogs with aggression? We have a variety of resources available for FREE on everything from understanding dog aggression to emergency handling!
This webinar will teach you how to streamline your current processes and behavior modification plans.
Using a systematic approach and focusing on the most crucial components of working an aggression case will benefit you and your clients by saving time, effort, and resources.
This webinar discusses the precursors for aggressive behavior and the typical…and not so typical situations that precipitate a dog bite.
Setting realistic goals for clients in aggression cases is crucial for success and avoiding burnout.
This webinar will demonstrate how to use an objective approach by evaluating eighteen key factors to set realistic expectations for clients.
This webinar includes a variety of leash handling techniques including leash locks, leash grips, leash mechanics, leash harnesses, leash muzzles, and emergency leash techniques, as well as a number of equipment setups that can be incorporated into your work in aggression cases to maximize safety.
A comprehensive course providing evidence-based science about all of the essential nutrient needs of the domestic dog offered by the amazing Linda Case M.S. Perfect for dog care professionals and trainers!