There was a dog that was very aggressive towards humans. The owners enrolled the dog in a board and train program, but it didn’t work out as hoped for.
This medium-sized dog (about the size of a Labrador Retriever) was a rescue. Evaluation: suspicious of strangers; would violently bite strangers if given the chance in public and needed close supervision in the home with guests that the dog already knew; the dog had a hard time recognizing the owners depending upon what they wore, especially if it involved wearing heavy clothing or a hat, and had to be restrained until the clothing was removed. This dog also exhibited hypervigilant patrolling of the territory and watchfulness of other people and animals; spinning in circles when upset; low food motivation; and low prey drive for toys.
The owners decided to enroll the dog in a board and train program. The basics of most of these programs is to a.) teach the dog to lay down on a Place on command; b.) walk on a leash without pulling or lunging; and c.) sometimes a tune up on the basic commands of Come, Heel, Sit and Down. The program lasted 3 weeks and included several owner visits to get the owners and dog familiar with the trained commands. Most of these programs involve selling the owner an electric collar, including this program. These programs are typically expensive.
When the dog returned home, the dog would go to a Place on command, was better in not pulling on a leash. Other than that, the dog still had to be put away when guests were in the home, was not safe with strangers in public, and the owners still had to be careful what they wore around the dog.
The problem with this approach in training is that it never did change how the dog was perceiving what was and wasn’t a threat. Because of that, regardless of how much they tried to suppress these reactions, it didn’t change the dog in the way the owners hoped for. Suppression is one of the last resort methods for these types of dogs but is often oversold to the public. The suppression work can make the dog even worse since the dog remains bothered by the threat, many dogs intensify with feeling trapped in a situation and with pain stimulation, most applications lay heavily into negative reinforcement, and the suppression work compounds the situation.
It is possible that such a dog can be made more controllable with a trainer in a bite suit. However, transferring that to a novice dog owner is fraught with potential problems, including the owner not maintaining the bite control training, thinking they need to implement emotional payback for the dog’s undesired reactions, frustration with their dog’s persistent negative mood states, and ignoring memory deficits that remain which might continue to cause the dog to not process familiar social situations in the same manner as a dog that didn’t suffer from this condition. Furthermore, application of behavioral medicine has sometimes demonstrated some, but not consistent, positive results. In some cases, the drugs mask the emotional state of the dog, and in some cases, the dogs break out of that state in an explosive and dangerous manner.
Based upon my evaluation, this dog suffered from PTSD. The lack of interest in food and prey, contributed to this diagnosis, including what appeared to be anhedonia in the form of limited enjoyment of the owner’s affectionate and happy mood states. My guess: something bad, some series of traumas perceived as life threatening, had happened to this dog with the previous owner(s), creating disordered processing of normal social cues that became resistant to extinction, learning or conditioning. Somehow the dog was made to be this way; we won’t know if it was purposeful or because of a bad situation living on the streets. The PTSD was the root problem for this dog, and no number of suppressive techniques would fix this kind of situation, so the typical board and train approach failed. The dog was still dangerous and needed to be closely supervised and handled thoughtfully to live out any kind of somewhat happy life. Desensitization work doesn’t work in these situations, and suppressive training usually doesn’t work. The general procedures for behavior modification for aggression typically end in failure. A well-managed quiet life is the best outcome for these types of dogs.