Category: Common Problems ¤
  Author: Gail Fisher ¤
   Title: Territory Protection, Redirected Aggression ¤
   
Welcome to the wonderful world of clicker training.  Regarding your
aggression problem with your Yorkies, you wrote:

>>My yorkie gets hysterical when a dog walks past our house, he barks
>furiously & there's no stopping him. I've tried clicking to distract him 
>but he's beyond reason.<<<

You're describing territorial protection -- a natural instinct, and one
that
is rewarded.  Your dog looks out the window, sees another dog walking on
his
territory, barks furiously, and guess what?!  The dog walks away.  Success!
Your dog's barking resulted (in his mind) in the successful defense of the
property -- intruder is gone.  So that's what he thinks.  What can you do?

First of all, the clicker is not a distraction -- it's an event marker that
says to the dog "the behavior you are doing *at this precise moment* is
worthy of receiving a reinforcement".  So if you have already used the
clicker for training, and you've used it as an event marker, clicking when
your dog is barking furiously is going to reinforce the behavior (see Terry
Pye's post about the nightmare roommate who trained a dog to bark
incessantly by clicking it <G>).

>>>When I try to pick him up or talk gently to him to calm him down
>he attacks me with snarling, baring teeth & snapping.  Would throwing
>a bonker work for this problem?  Is a bonker simply a rolled up towel
>fastened with rubber bands?<<<

Picking up a dog (or even touching one) who is in such an agitated state
often results in redirected aggression -- the dog turns from the window
where he is furiously aggressing at the intruder, and expends the remaining
agitation energy on whatever touched him.  It sounds as if that is what you
are describing with your Yorkie.  I was in England a few years ago and saw
a
TV program about a veterinarian's actual case histories.  The story that
night was about a sweet, gentle Rottweiler, who had been barking
aggressively at another dog through the window.  One of the young sons in
the family went over to take the dog away from the window, and took her by
her collar.  She spun around and bit him -- and was instantly horrified.
The son described her face as being totaly shocked after the bite.  The
worse part of this story was that, because it was at the height of the
Rottweiler hysteria, and because this was a Rottie, she was put to sleep
for
being unpredictably aggressive.  It wasn't unpredictable at all -- it was
totally predictable (and avoidable)!  (But I digress -- off the soap box,
Gail).

Redirected aggression can be avoided by not touching the dog who is in a
state of agitation.  Call your dog away from the window, and then click
that
behavior (coming).  Do not touch her (or pick her up) at the window while
she is aggressing.  If she won't come to you when you call her, you need to
train that.  Using clicker training, first teach your dog to come, then
increase the distractions, teaching her to come away from distractions,
then
set up a training session by the window.  Have a friend with a dog approach
your house, with instructions that as soon as she/he sees your Yorkie at
the
window to stop and stand still.  Have your Yorkie on leash, and as soon as
she heads to the window, call her.  Use the leash if you need to to get her
to come to you, click and treat.  Repeat this as many times as you need to
until your dog is coming to you without your needing the leash.  Once you
click, it is likely the dog will immediately return to the window, so be
prepared to offer her alternative behaviors, down-stay, come with me into
the kitchen, go get your toy, continue to train, etc.  The message you are
conveying to your dog is that it is fine to bark at an intruder (which
comes
naturally to a Yorkie), but when I call you, come to me and good things
will
happen.

I get the impression that you want to bonk your dog for snarling and
aggressing toward you.  This would not be appropriate at all.  I'm sure you
were not previously aware (before the replies you've already received) that
your stroking and calm talking to your dog is reinforcing the aggression.
The above approach, of calling your dog and reinforcing her for *coming*
will eliminate the need for bonking.  

>>>I have 2 yorkies.  Besides the barking thing from one of them, they 
>have just started fighting each other when they're being walked.
>Especially if another dog is sighted.  Can anyone explain why they've
>just started doing that.  Both of them are neutered and up until this
>leash thing began, they loved each other dearly & they still do -
>except when on leash.<<<

This is another example of redirected aggression -- toward each other.  The
energy that wants to be expended toward the other dog is expended toward
the
closest available being.

The advice and instructions you received for the backing up technique might
work for individually training them to walk calmly.  You must train them
separately to learn to approach other dogs without aggression, and once
they're good on an individual basis, then you can try them together again.
If that doesn't work, let us know.  This behavior may respond very well to
proper use of the bonker -- but as you've been told, bonking is more than
just throwing a rolled up towel.

Good luck,

Gail

Gail Fisher 
The All Dogs Gym
Manchester, NH  03103
(603) 669-4644
gail@alldogsgym.com