Content warning: This blog includes brief discussions of aggressive behavior toward humans.

When I was a young intern during my undergrad years, my cubicle neighbor and I joked about “the walls between us.” Even though they didn’t go all the way to the ceiling, they were high and thick enough to cause deeply silly misunderstandings when we’d try to talk, or enough of an obstacle that when we’d toss things over they’d go rogue and bonk somebody on the head or end up in their coffee. I think about that sometimes as I’m attempting to hurl a pizza crust over the modified x-pen that blocks off my living room and it ends up on the floor just out of reach of my dog Petey, and I have to go hand it to him instead. 

Over on the podcast, Emily and Allie discussed training aggressive dogs this week. In proper Pet Harmony fashion, they started by defining their terms. “Aggressive dog” is not a particularly accurate label, and is not favored by our fearless leaders. It is, however, a commonly used label in the field. So let’s start off here by defining our terms so we’re all on the same page.

•  Aggression: Relying on fight over flight in periods of high stress. The “fight” here includes behaviors such as growling, barking, snarling, lunging, muzzle punching, snapping, or biting. These behaviors are meant to make others move away (aka distance-increasing behaviors). They are observable actions that a dog uses based on their underlying emotions or inner experiences, which cannot be observed, obviously. 
• Management: Arranging the environment, to the extent it is possible, for the safety and comfort of all individuals sharing the space. In pet homes, management refers mostly to setting up an animal’s environment to prevent the rehearsal of unwanted behaviors. 
• Protected contact: Using management strategies to limit the amount of physical contact it is possible for pets to have with other individuals (humans or non humans). Physical barriers such as gates, crates, and doors, or fences are the most common implements used for protected contact. 
• Free contact: No barriers or other strategies for preventing contact. Pets are free to interact with others.
• Semi/partial-protected contact: The pet can still make physical contact with humans within a certain radius or while wearing protective gear. Leashes and muzzles are the most common implements used for semi- or partial-protected contact.  

I consider myself, among other things, to be Petey the Wondermutt’s Stimulus Curator (meaning when possible I carefully choose what he is exposed to). Living with a dog who fits the definition of aggressive, it is a job I take very seriously, and protected contact through management is a big part of our enrichment plan. 

 

Why use management?

Humans use management strategies all the time, even if we don’t think of it that way. If you try not to go grocery shopping when you’re hungry, you’re managing your environment to prevent the rehearsal of unwanted behaviors: coming home with a half-eaten pack of oreos and a dusting of crumbs in your car from hollering at fellow drivers with a mouth full of dry cookies while you were hangry, for example. We also use semi-protected contact when we do things like blocking our shared calendars, closing the office door, and putting in noise cancelling earbuds when we want to let other humans know they do not have access to us. Changing the environment to change behavior. Simple, right? 

 

Observe with your senses, not your stories

Observations and outcomes guide our enrichment plans, and because safety and security are aspects of enrichment, they also guide our management plans. As Allie writes in this blog, some strategies for management and protected contact can be lifelong endeavors based on your observations, outcomes, and assessment of and/or aversion to risk. 

I’m not willing, for example, to risk a bite to my parents (or anyone, for that matter). I have a learning history of Petey using aggressive behaviors when people approach us–both toward the approaching human and myself. This includes an unfortunate incident where he jumped high enough to snap in another human’s face while they were standing fully upright. One of a number of incidents seared into my brain that fuel my own risk aversion. 

I have observed that when he can see and hear someone coming into our home, he barks, growls, lunges, and paces around. When my parents visit, if I want him to be comfortable, which can be observed as settling and resting, I can simply put him upstairs in his room with a long-term calming project with some kind of sound masking (music, brown noise, box fan, or a combination). He has access to multiple surfaces of different temperatures and textures where he can rest and not worry about the people in our house.

Am I sad that my parents will never be able to meet my sweet, handsome boy in the flesh? Yes. I am very close to my parents. My mom’s own love of animals had a huge impact on the way I interact with the various beings I choose to share my life with. When I see her snuggled up with the beautiful goober that is my brother’s dog, I do wish she could love and appreciate Petey the same way. That she could experience the warm perfection of his velvety ears, or feel his heavy noggin perched on her leg, or hear him gently snoring next to her on the couch.

But it is more important that both Petey and my mom feel safe in my home, and for that reason, their brief interactions will only ever happen with a barrier between them. As Emily and Allie mention on the podcast, when working with aggression, sometimes free contact is never our goal. 

 

 

As I mention in this blog, the people close to me appreciate Petey in different ways. My mom has a Petey sticker on the helmet she wears when she scoots around on her electric scooter, and Peter and his cousin Skittles trade places on the lock and home screen of her phone frequently. 

 

Risk and reward

What if I told you that we DO have guests stay in our house sometimes? It’s true! 

Allie has a saying when she talks about using protected contact as part of a behavior change plan. “Move at the pace of the least comfortable individual.”

There are a couple of humans savvy enough to have gazed upon the elusive staffy-muppet cryptid that is Peter in real life, and his Auntie Jordan is one of them. A behavior professional herself, we are both comfortable with her ability to watch Petey’s body language and modify her own. When she visits, Petey still stays in his area behind a double gate, but I will set her up in the living room behind an x-pen and let Petey come downstairs to go outside. He can see her sitting in the living room, and she can look at how cute he is out of the corner of her eye. She also has to walk past his room to get to the room she stays in. I set up the Treat ‘n Train (a remote treat dispenser) in his room and place the remote on a hook in the hall. When she needs to venture upstairs, she’ll either boop the Treat ‘n Train or toss some treats into his room on her way by. 

It’s a big deal for me to have someone I trust enough to let him out while they are in view.  If you will remember, Petey has a history of redirecting his aggressive behaviors toward whoever is closest to him, which is often me. So the least comfortable individual in my house is often…me.  

 

Safety, security, and protected contact

I mentioned that Petey struggles with unknown humans moving toward us when he is on leash, but he also struggles inside our home with movement in and around his personal bubble, and will use the aggressive behaviors I listed earlier to communicate how he’s feeling. Because we live in a 100+ year old home, there are many narrow spaces that make for some tricky grumble and growl zones. Moving around in our house can be pretty complicated when we are all home, so the management setups we use, along with the training we’ve done with Pete, allow us to de-escalate tension around the house. They also add a layer of predictability into the life of a dog who thinks humans moving around are sus. 

Here are a few ways we use management and protected contact strategies in our household to help everyone feel and stay safe:

1. Order of operations – We’ve figured out if we move in and out of spaces in a predictable order, Petey is less likely to struggle. If we can’t be predictable in our movements, Petey is behind a gate.
2. The trash tent phenomenon – It is not uncommon for dogs who have issues with people in their space to also have body handling and resource guarding issues, and that is the case with Petey. When we first started working with our wonderful VB, she suggested that Petey have a space for chewing high value items. We got a pop-up x-pen that was meant for small dogs, and started using that as a tent for him to chew in. Today, we use it mostly for giving him things to shred, hence the trash tent moniker. We have developed skills around cueing Petey into a number of safe spaces to work on long term calming projects or chewing. 
3. Moving and grooving – We have an arsenal of cues that help us move and station Petey away from us so that we can also move and avoid conflict. This includes cueing him into safe spaces, such as behind the gate in the living room. This is where our Treat ‘n Train is generally stationed. It allows us to boop snacks to him and stations him at the far end of the living room.
4. Say what you mean – We also have cues to let Petey know what is about to happen in predictable ways. For example, when I put him in the car I say “clip” before I clip him into the car, then “zip” when I zip up the side of the seat protector. 
5. Roger that – Anyone who is in the house has to know where Petey is at all times. After Big Man had surgery to repair a torn bicep tendon, we got some walkie-talkies so we could quickly check in (complete with CB slang). We usually just text or call each other, or use predictable cues aimed at the humans in the house, like hollering “coming down!” before we descend the stairs with Petey. 
6. Well would ya look at that  – There is a cutout in the wall between our kitchen and living room. We often use this “drive through window” to play look at that while one of us moves around. If I’m moving around, Big Man will stand in the kitchen and cue “where’s Tiff?,” let him look, and hand him a treat when he looks back. We often play this as Big Man leaves out the front door, which is a place where Petey has had many big feelings.
7. Party time, excellent  – Petey is muzzle trained (aka his party hat), and wears a harness with a handle on it. Gear + predictable cues + cooperative care training + meds join forces when we visit the vet and have a well-established routine of stationing Petey with his shoulder pinned to the wall (with my leg), and me holding his harness handle and feeding him while the fabulous Dr. Quinn stealthily delivers the sedation injection.

If all of this sounds like a lot of work; it is. But Petey didn’t choose to struggle the way he does any more than I chose to have migraines or asthma or my own struggles with anxiety. We are responsible for a complex, sentient being with an unknown background, and we love and care for him the very best way we can while keeping everyone safe. And “the walls between us” don’t stop us from having fun.

 

Now What?

Predictability and management are useful strategies for any pet, not just aggressive dogs! Can you think of some situations where your pet struggles with being startled or upset? Is there a way you can set up the environment differently? If not, can you add a predictable cue that might help them feel better? For example, if your dog growls when you walk past them in the hall, try bowling some treats or a toy (something they’ll get up and go after) into the closest room. Say something like “coming through!” Practiced enough, “coming through!” could be a cue for your dog to get up and move and feel better about you coming through the hall.

Could you use some help tweaking your management plan? We’re here for you! Sometimes it takes some extra support to figure out what will work. It certainly has taken a village for us. 💖