DOGS BARK
Most of the millions of dogs in the UK have developed a natural
bond with their owners.
With training they become dependable best friends.
Oh, what a good girl!
But when things go wrong it's usually because dog
and owner have got their wires crossed.
Oi!
Kendal Shepherd is one of the UK's leading dog behaviourists,
whose work has rewritten the textbook for handling dangerous dogs
When we see aggression as a behaviour problem, there is something
gone fundamentally wrong in the communication between that dog
and its owner.
Kendal is going to show us
three simple rules that are going to help you train your dangerous dog.
We're going to say, "Sit." Good.
These rules are universal
and designed to help dogs that won't behave...
..no matter what their size.
SCREAMING
Stop! I have three children. This is Freddie, he's my youngest.
He's very boisterous.
And on top of having a boisterous baby I've got two Staffies.
They're lovely family dogs.
But as soon as we go out, Blue is like a completely different dog.
If I walk with the buggy, literally, he attacks the buggy.
He will actually bite the seat of the buggy where the baby is. Blue!
The first time he bit me he jumped up several times trying to
get in my face but I pushed him away.
Hence the reason he got my arm.
Still got a lump on it and swollen.
I am frightened. He has scratched them before when he's jumped up.
And it's just a case, if he was to bite one of them
how he's bit me, he would break their arm.
Ah!
You know, I need it fixed because this is literally a last resort.
I'd think he needs to be rehomed.
Jade is at a crossroads with Blue.
So she's asked Kendal to see
if she can help with the strange buggy-biting behaviour.
It may surprise people how often we give the maximum
amount of attention to behaviours that
actually we don't like, such as jumping up
at the door, which is commonly rewarded by people saying, "Hello,"
petting the dog or, of course, someone getting angry with the dog.
So we are accidentally reinforcing behaviours that actually
become a behaviour problem.
Jade's attempts to stop Blue biting the buggy has made
the problem worse. Blue!
Blue, stop it! Hang on. We need to think now.
What we mustn't do, we're not going to react to anything he does.
We've got to make this not a big deal, you see?
Cos I think the way it's escalated has been made a deal. Yeah. OK.
He starts to get excited, we're just going to stop and ask him
to do something else. Yeah?
What we really should try to do is actually teach an appropriate
alternative behaviour such as, for example, to sit.
Sit.
Lovely. Good boy.
You're got to get a bit of confidence in being able to
show him what to do. Yeah. Yeah?
It's going well.
And after just ten minutes Kendal is confident enough to try it
with Freddie in the buggy.
Blue. Good boy. That's lovely. What's this? OK.
Just ask him to sit. Sit.
Sit. I'm feeling a lot more positive, to be fair.
I feel like I have learned a quite a bit, to be fair, and I feel
when it comes to the buggy I think we've turned a bit of a corner.
Now that I know...
..how to kind of control him... That's lovely.
Very good. Sit. Well done. Good sit.
After four years living with a family, Will, a bull mastiff
cross, was taken to the dog home when he started becoming aggressive.
After two years here, no-one is prepared to take the risk
and give him a new home.
He can be a dog, I'm told,
who can be difficult to read, which can increase
the potential for danger if a dog doesn't give a lot of warning signs.
He's described as being very distrustful of humans.
He may actually attempt to bite.
I've brought with me
my normal head collar which is essential for controlling the head
of a large dog and, of course, the essential ingredient which is food.
But not just to feed the dog with it, but actually use
it in a rather more sophisticated way to engage the dog's brain.
WILL BARKS
Only the people working here at his kennels are prepared to
take him outside his cage for a walk.
So it's time for Kendal to work her magic.
Sit.
Sit. What are you going to do? Good.
Well done. You decided for yourself. Good.
Sit. Sit.
Rewarding good behaviour with food and turning away from bad
Kendal is using Will's natural obedience to make him think.
We're taking the brain from just the reacting to me as a stranger
state but we're moving it into a brain which is actually thinking.
And obedience commands,
known commands are great emotional stabilizers.
So when he was sitting for me and when he was giving me paw,
he was not just being obedient but he was in a much better emotional
state than he is when he's behind bars barking and lunging
and jumping up.
Kendal has shown that Will can learn to keep his aggressive
behaviour in check.
Hopefully it will convince someone to give him a home.
Meet Romeo, a two-year-old Chihuahua.
ROMEO BARKS AND GROWLS
I bought him from a young couple.
And I suppose I noticed the problem the next day.
He actually did bite my hand quite badly
and he did draw blood on my thumb and that's when I thought, "Whoops."
Friends are really frightened to come round the house.
If they do come round they'll have to run up the stairs
and avoid the dog
so he doesn't bite their ankles. Come on. Come on.
Come on. Good boy.
'My biggest fear is that he's going to bite a child.
'Because children see a cute, sweet little Chihuahua and they think,
'"Oh, that's lovely."
'And they go to grab him.'
And I have questioned parents before that if it was a rottweiler would
they allow their children to run up and put their hands around its neck?
And it's no different for a Chihuahua, to be honest.
It's still going to bite.
Hello. Hello.
That's not very loving, Romeo, is it?
Hello little chappy.
Kendal's first instinct is to try to direct Romeo's attention.
Sit. Good.
It looks like Romeo is going to need more than
food to keep his mouth shut.
And so Kendal has a plan for some tough love.
What I'd actually like to see, what will he do
if you both move away from here now?
While he's barking at me or the guys here... Right.
..I'd like to see what he does when you simply move away from him.
Just see what he does. I want to see what he does.
OK. Is he allowed upstairs? Yes.
He's just standing still. He's considering what to do.
This is probably the first time you've walked away from him
while he's been barking and behaving aggressively?
Yeah. And he's really thinking about consequences.
He's thinking, "Well, what did I do?"
Now he's just having a little lie down.
OK? So you can come back to him now and say, "Good lie down."
What a good lie down, Romeo.
OK? Now he's a happy boy. OK?
So we didn't use food there as the reward. OK.
You moved away as if, "We don't like that kind of behaviour, Romeo."
OK. I'm moving away.
I'm not going to be here like the cavalry behind you. OK?
And then you came back to him when he decided to behave
in an appropriate way. It's just like saying,
"Sorry, you can't have your lollypop unless you do your homework."
Yeah. It's as simple as that.
You walk away, you deprive him of your attention.
And that is an extremely effective punishment.
When you arrived this afternoon I didn't think he'd be sat
I the same room as you all nice and calm. I think he's done really well.
Haven't you, Romi?
Looking forward to taking it forward and having a nice, calm dog.
By following these simple rules you should see a noticeable
change in your dog's behaviour.
And hopefully with some consistent training from their owners,
our three dogs won't be dangerous for much longer.