Crittering and Dog to Dog Aggression

The technique outlined below works well to stop a dog from chasing unwanted game, commonly known as crittering and for stopping dog to dog aggression. If you're using it for the second purpose, just substitute a non-reactive dog that your dog is aggressive towards for the prey animal. Where the references are made to chasing game, prey, or prey animal, just substitute the appropriate language for a dog to dog aggression problem

As with all the other techniques the stimulation level that's used for this is the dog's working level, that is, where he first perceives the stimulation. If you haven't read that article please do so before trying this protocol. Fitting the Collar to the Dog. I'd suggest that you don't try this with an Ecollar that has less than 15 levels of stim.

Many people use a leave-it command when they see their dog start to chase game. The problem with this is that many chases begin out of sight of the handler. If the handler doesn't see the chase start, he can't give the dog the command to stop. By the time the handler realizes that his dog is chasing game, the dog may be out of earshot and won't hear the leave-it command or the recall.

I use a form of behavior modification so that the dog doesn't even start the chase. He sees the prey animal, realizes that chasing it is uncomfortable and just goes back to work. Often no one, except the dog, even knows that a prey animal was present.

Keep in mind that crittering is the main reason that Ecollars were invented, to stop dogs from chasing game. The old way of doing it was to wait for the dog to start the chase and then blast him off it with the highest level that the Ecollar had on its dial. (Early Ecollars didn't have different levels. They weren't adjustable. They just had one, very high, level.) But this often resulted in problems; the dogs wouldn't range out anymore or they'd power through the pain that was being inflicted and didn't stop the chase. This method allows you to introduce the animal at a low level of distraction so that it's easy to use low level stimulation to stop the problem.

There are three components to a chase of an animal. The first and probably the least distracting, is the scent of the animal. The dog only knows this if it has chased before and has made the association between the chase and the scent of the animal. The second component is the sight of the prey animal and the third is the chase itself.

If a dog has had a successful chase, that is, he has caught and killed a prey animal that he's chased; it may be very difficult to break the dog of chasing that animal. I'd suggest that if your dog fits into this category you use the scent of the animal first in the behavior modification scheme. Since this is relatively rare, I'll cover it last.

Some dogs will generalize from one prey animal to the next but some will need to be trained on the specific prey animal that they prefer. Some will generalize based on the size of the animal, for example, a dog proofed off a cat may generalize to skunks, squirrels and other game in that size range but will still chase deer or elk.

First let's discuss the dog that has had a few chases but hasn't as yet made a kill while doing so. If you've done the recall work properly, you can call him away from the animal if he sees it or even if he is actively chasing it.

But we want the dog to do the work himself, not in obedience to a command, for reasons stated earlier.

To do this you'll need a cooperative prey animal. Some are easier to get than others. Elk and moose are obviously fairly difficult to get but there are ways around that. A cat works well and they are fairly easy to get. You can't use the cat that lives with the dog; it has to be one that he'll want to chase. (Unless your dog wants to chase that cat.) You can sometimes borrow one from a neighbor. For a cat I recommend that you use a leash and a harness unless you know that he'll walk well in just a collar.

The Materials

A six foot leash,
A flat buckle collar.
The prey animal and
A harness or collar and leash for that animal.

If your problem is deer, fairly common with SAR workers, I'd suggest that you try using a cat first. Some dogs will generalize to other animals and you might be able to get off easy. Even if the cat doesn't work for your dog, it will give you experience in using the protocol so that the next time it will come easier and faster. If the cat doesn't work for your dog you might try using a small horse. If that still doesn't work, try doing an Internet search for "deer farm." There are lots of farms around the country that raise deer for market. Many of them will have a "pettable deer" you may be able to rent for the purpose of this training. Usually his owner will want to be the "wrangler" for this work.

If you're using a relatively wild animal such as a deer, you'll want to confine him somehow. Either with some kind of a rope and harness or in an area so that he can't run off and so that he'll be confined to a narrow area. More than likely the farm owner will have some suitable facility for this, a small pen or such. The idea is to structure the training so only the sight of the prey animal is involved. If he starts to run the dog will be too distracted for this method.

A Warning

The essence of this training is that it's done in a very controlled environment. You control the distance between your dog and the prey animal. Both animals are on leash so their movements can be controlled. If you try and do it with either animal loose, you can't control their movement. This means that the dog's distraction level will change constantly as they move about. This makes it impossible to use the dog's working level of stim, where he first perceives it, because the dog's distraction level will be bouncing up and down.

By carefully controlling the distance between the prey animal and the dog and keeping the prey animal moving the same way throughout the training you keep the dog's distraction level at a constant level. You can reduce it by moving away from the prey animal or raise it by moving towards it. This allows you to keep the stim at the dog's working level so that you can concentrate on his body movement.

If you can't control the movement of the prey animal you can't control the distraction level of the dog and therefore you can't use the stim in a structured manner. It becomes a hit and miss situation. You may get some degree of success but you may not. And you could make the problem worse.

Some dogs may find that a cat that is facing them is more "interesting" than a cat that is facing sideways. If you're doing this for dog to dog aggression, a dog that is facing your dog is definitely more threatening than one that is turned sideways.

Some people have tried to do this with wild animals in uncontrolled situations, such as encountering a deer in the woods. Commonly deer freeze when they first spot a threat. As the threat approaches they hold their position until they decide that the threat is too close and then they bolt. It's impossible to change the stim level fast enough to keep up with this.

If you decide to vary from the protocol by modifying the instructions or trying this with loose animals you're on your own.

The Process

Imagine yourself on a football field. You're going to need an assistant who will walk the cat (or other prey animal) back and forth on the other 0 - yard line. You and your dog, wearing a buckle collar and his Ecollar will go to the other 0 - yard line, 100 yards away. (Actually you can probably start on the 70 or 80 yard line but this will give extra insurance for those highly driven prey dogs.)

It's important that your assistant keep the cat moving. A cat that's holding still may not be of much interest to your dog. Keeping him moving at the same pace and at the same distance provides a constant distraction to your dog and makes the training go easier. If the cat stops and starts the distraction level changes and the training is harder.

You're going to hook a 6' leash up to the D-ring on the dog's buckle collar and lead the dog back and forth across the field at your own 0-yard line, 100 yards from the cat. Don't give any commands just direct the dog gently with the leash. You don't want the dog focused on you and if you give him any commands that will probably happen. If the dog doesn't see the cat by himself, have your assistant make some small noise, a whistle perhaps, to draw the dog's attention to him and the cat. More than likely at this distance your dog will not show any interest in the cat. That's perfectly all right.

You're going to walk from sideline to sideline of the imaginary football field with the dog. Keep the speed of your walking fairly slow. You want your dog to have plenty of time to get bored and look around so he notices the cat in his environment. If you walk quickly, as when doing obedience, the dog will focus on you instead of noticing the cat at the other end of the field. Have your assistant make the noise a couple of times to draw the dog's attention. Don't have him call the dog's name, just draw the dog's attention.

If the dog shows no interest in the cat, next time you get to one of the sidelines, walk diagonally across the field; such that when you get to the other sideline you're at your 10-yard line, 90 yards from the cat. That is, you've moved ten yards closer to the cat. Walk back and forth a couple of times at that distance. Have your assistant make a noise to draw the dog's attention if he doesn't notice the cat, just as before.

If you make two passes at the 90-yard distance and the dog doesn't show any interest in the cat, close in another ten yards, just as before. Walk from the sideline diagonally across the field so that when you get to the other sideline, you wind up ten yards closer, at a distance of 80 yards from the cat.

At some point, as you get closer to the cat the dog will notice him. He'll give the cat the stare that always precedes a chase. (Often this stare only lasts for an instant, particularly if the cat is very close to the dog). He's sizing up the cat, wondering how much fun the chase will be, how fast he'll have to run, how long the chase will last, and other doggie thoughts. When you see the stare you're going to press the button on the Ecollar and walk backwards directly away from the cat, pulling the dog DIRECTLY away from the cat. You want to pull the dog directly away from the direction that he wants to go. You should be able to draw a straight line from the cat to the dog's head that the leash should lie directly on. Generally you're pulling the dog back towards your own 0-yard line, but the angle may be off slightly. Make sure that you walk backwards: keeping the distance between you and the dog a constant, rather than just pulling him away from the cat! If you just pull him towards you, you're reinforcing or teaching the recall, not teaching him not to critter. This may seem like it's a small point but it's VERY important.

As soon as he takes a few steps away from the cat in response to the leash pressure and looks away from the cat, release the button. No animal likes to walk backwards for more than a few steps. They step on things that are uncomfortable and/or trip over objects that they don't see. And so he'll turn his head to see where he's being pulled.

Walk back and forth a few times at that same distance. If the dog gives the cat the stare again, repeat as above. It's very important that you walk backwards to move the dog, rather than pulling him towards you. Again, as he goes with the leash pressure and looks away from the cat, release the button.

Get closer to the cat as described above, by moving diagonally across the field. This turns up the distraction level very gently and slowly, allowing you to control it.

As you get closer the dog will again give the cat the stare. Repeat as often as is necessary.

The leash should always be slack for this until you're actually pulling the dog away from the cat. You'll probably have to coax the dog to get him to walk, but don't give him any commands. This is between the dog and the cat; you have no part in this confrontation.

What you're after is getting the dog to think that giving the cat the stare brings discomfort. If your timing and leash manipulation with this is good you'll probably have to give the dog 5-7 stimulations as you close on the cat. With most dogs I've been able to get them to walk within 2' - 3' of the cat on the first time doing this. Some dogs have been able to step over the cat and ignore him after one session of this.

With some dogs it may take several sessions to get him to see the cat, and then ignore him for the rest of the session, without it taking any more stimulations to get this. Usually, three to four sessions spaced one day apart and then one more session a week later will give perfect results. Your dog will stop chasing the prey animal that you used in the training BY HIMSELF, without any command from you. He won't be afraid of the game; he'll look at it and then go back to work. He won't avoid the area or the game animal.

If you're using this for dog to dog aggression, the degrees of success will vary depending on the reason for the aggression. If it's out of fear, you'll probably find that the dog ignores the other dog that is was previously afraid of. Some dogs will lose so much fear that they'll PLAY with the other dog, but that degree of success is rare. If the aggression came out of being a bully, your dog will probably stop that behavior.

A lot of how successful this is depends on the dog's history in chasing prey animals or being aggressive. If he's had success it just takes more repetitions. It WILL work.

By the way it's just about impossible to do this in an unstructured environment. Here's what happens if you do. The prey animal is so close that the dog's drive (or level of distraction, if you prefer) spikes at a very high level. He goes from 0 to 60 in a heartbeat.

In the very structured environment that I describe above, the dogs drive level is kept very low. It's at the point where the dog just notices the prey animal. Usually the distance between the dog and the prey animal is 50 yards or better. In an unstructured environment the distance between them is often only a couple of feet.

Now he's at such a high level of distraction that he won't even feel his working level of stim. To get him to feel it (the latest Ecollars from Dogtra are marked on the dial 0-100) you'll have to go to a 50 or maybe even higher, depending on the dog, how close the prey animal is, how driven he is to chase them, etc.

As soon as he turns his head away from the prey animal, perhaps in response to your pulling, perhaps because he's given up on catching THAT animal, his distraction level will drop off very quickly. BUT you're still stimming at a 50 and now that's WAAAAY too high for his level of distraction. Suddenly he's getting a lot of pain and so he runs to you for protection. Naturally you turn off the stim and you may have just created a monster. One that will run to you quite often when he's confused and gets a stim. This will come back to haunt you later, I can almost guarantee it.

The crittering protocol must be done under the controlled situation that is described here. Anything else MAY work. But it may also give you a dog that learns to power through any stim. It may also give you a dog that refuses to leave your side for more than a few feet. I'd suggest that you avoid trying to shortcut this process.

Here's some video that was sent to me by someone who used my crittering protocol. One of these dogs used to be aggressive towards the other. Can you tell which dog was the formerly aggressive one? Astute viewers will notice the two dogs fence fighting in the background. That's quite a distraction for an aggressive dog. You'll notice that neither dog even looks in their direction. The aggression is gone.

I can't guarantee that you'll have such great results as this owner did, in fact results this good are extraordinary. You might only get a dog that tolerates others; but he won't romp and play with them as this dog does. That's still better than trying to kill them.

 

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© 2007 Lou Castle