An owner's instinctual response to a dog's aggressive behavior might be to act aggressively toward the dog, but a new study shows that this could actually exacerbate that behavior.
Meghan Herron, lead author and resident at the behavior clinic at the School of Veterinary Medicine's Matthew J. Ryan Veterinary Hospital, surveyed 140 dog owners who sought treatment for their dogs at the clinic. She analyzed the owners' disciplinary methods using different types of reinforcement - the owner's positive, negative or neutral reaction to a dog's behavior.
Negative reinforcement, such as growling, yelling or hitting, tended to cause aggression in a high percentage of dogs. Positive reinforcement or neutral techniques, on the other hand, caused a negligible increase in dogs' aggressive behavior.
At the clinic, "our number one complaint is aggression," Herron said.
When dealing with aggressive dogs, "owners were putting themselves at risk by trying these more confrontational methods," she added.
She said confrontational, negative discipline elicits fear in dogs, which in turn causes aggression.
"Even though owners are intending to change that behavior, they are actually making it worse," she said.
Instead, Herron recommended positive reinforcement to reward dogs for desirable behaviors. Herron particularly recommended teaching "behaviors that are incompatible."
"If there is a barking problem when people ring the doorbell, you can train the dog to pick up a toy [whenever the doorbell is rung]," so the dog cannot bark, she said.
Helen Dickson, an intake coordinator for an animal-rescue program, said she has taken abused dogs to Herron's clinic and she agreed with Herron's findings.
Dogs can "be aggressive towards their owners because [their owners] are abusing them," which causes owners to subsequently abandon the dogs, she said. "Dogs respond much better to positive reinforcement than to correction."
College sophomore Gideon Spitzer, however, said he did not entirely agree with the study. He said he often uses yelling to reprimand his four dogs.
"Yelling works with certain dogs, and is totally ineffective with others because dogs, like humans, have different personalities," he said.
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