Training - Dominating Aggressive Dogs - 
By Dee Montgomery

Ruth Reynolds, I believe, is the Educational Coordinator for the BMDCA and its her job to keep people informed about all aspects of Berner behavior and health. I always try and read her posts on BernerL as I find her recommendations to be excellent (based on my experience as a trainer and also having had a very shy Berner who did ultimately earn her C.D.). If anyone is thinking about buying a Berner, she is the one I would contact for an honest answer to most any behavior or health questions you might have! For what its worth (and it may be worth lots of $$ if you have a Berner), she also knows a lot about genetic problems in the Berner.

I will quote from a recent post by Ruth:
"Dominating aggressive dogs sometimes results in potentially unpredictable aggression later. Dogs who learn they will be dominated if a human perceives their intention to be aggressive will sometimes not warn in the conventional ways because they have been conditioned to NOT release warning signs by a dominating trainer."

Ruth (like me) is a strong advocate instead for use of non-confrontational ways of establishing and maintaining leadership and CONSISTENT training from the moment a puppy becomes a part of a family, especially with a large dog like a Berner. She also warns Berner owners to be fully prepared to handle your dog repeatedly testing your control and leadership during his/her adolescence (however long that lasts!). She often refers to "Winston," the same dog I talked about in an earlier training article I wrote for the SENNtinel, as an example of how the inability of an owner to understand and train a dog with dominant tendencies can lead to complete disaster.

There a subtle point here that I still struggle with how to make clear to people. What works in gaining leadership and control of a dog is from day one, and in every single interaction possible after that, the owner has to make sure that he/she behaves as "leader" and does not let a puppy or dog, no matter how cute they are (and that Swissy grin can be VERY hard to resist) assume the leadership role. The owner controls food, space, possessions, sleeping area, who goes first and who leads where ever you go, etc. Additionally, the dog learns that if he/she wants anything, it is the owner who controls whether he/she gets it and the owner has to make sure that the dog does what the owner wants first before giving the dog whatever it is that he/she wants. Another term for this approach when used with an older dog that has assumed too much of a leader role in a family is called "sending the dog to boot camp."

Ruth Reynolds calls this building a dog's "will to serve" and decreasing a dog's "will to power." She maintains further that dogs differ by breed and as individuals in terms of how much of these two "wills" they have; and a hard to handle dominant dog is one that has a high "will to power" (she also calls them "high training maintenance puppies or dogs"); these dogs require careful attention to leadership issues every single moment of every single day of their lives from birth to old age; moreover, if these dogs are not handled and trained properly and consistently, they can turn into an aggressive dog (e.g., Winston); I would definitely say my own Swissy is one of these dogs and so I know firsthand how much work is indeed involved in gaining and keeping control of one; but I also know that it can be done as evidenced by my Swissy's accomplishments in the competitive obedience ring and as a therapy dog and a parade dog (note: she was not trained overnight or in a weekend or two!).

On the other hand, the hardest of all types of dog to work with is one that has a high "will to power" AND a "low will to serve;" I think a good thing about most Swissies (and here breeders need to add their input since I am not a breeder) is that most Swissies also have at least some degree of a "will to serve" and you can build it up by paying close attention to leadership issues and taking the dog to training classes; some breeds (e.g., bulldogs, basset hounds, afghan hounds) can have such a low "will to serve" that you may never get them to the point where you have great control over them no matter how consistent you are with leadership issues or how many training classes you go to.

A last category of dog behavior problems that I haven't seen too often but I have seen is the truly crazy dog whose origin is either genetic and/or from some type of brain/central nervous system trauma that the dog/puppy has experienced. Again, I think breeders will know more about this than I do regarding how often this occurs in Swissies and what causes they have observed. In general, there is no training solution for these dogs' problems.

Also, a critical part of one's interactions with a puppy from day one is that the puppy should NEVER be allowed to put its mouth on a human; I will make a separate post about mouthing and bite inhibition and working with these problems so this does not get too long; I do agree that many of the methods that have been described are good methods and IME experienced breeders and trainers can use them very effectively (I love Ian Dunbar and his books and videos). However, IME as a teacher of puppy kindergarten and beginner obedience classes, first time owners are as likely to turn a mouthing or bite inhibition problem into a real biting problem as they are to eliminate them. Thus, I don't recommend that first time puppy owners try these techniques by themselves but am instead a strong advocate for working on them in a Puppy Kindergarten class; in such a setting an experienced trainer can observe and assess just what the problem is, how bad it is, what are possible causes, and then teach and monitor an appropriate intervention technique; and, then an inexperienced owner can become an experienced owner who for sure has learned the right way to handle the problem!

I think I'll stop here with one note; as a Clinical Psychologist for 20 years now (and as a mother of 2 humans for that same time period!), I have decided to concentrate on dog training! The complications that are involved in human behavior (be it in an individual or group situation) are mind boggling and continue to elude "hard science!" My answer to the question, "how different are we from a pack of dogs" is that we as humans are much more complicated, devious, and hard to figure out. Just observe, and try to explain, the behavior of the HUMANS at any dog show or obedience trial!

Dee Montgomery