Working on emotions, not just timing, when correcting dog fights
Sunny Luthra introduced a shift in the OhMyDog method: instead of relying only on the old 10 to 15 second correction window, trainers should first read how intense a dog's emotion is, especially in fights, heat-cycle aggression, or fear, since emotion drives the behaviour and the dog links corrections to the feeling itself, not just to the trigger. He explained that tethering a reactive dog and physically stepping away mimics how a pack withdraws from unacceptable emotion, which is why isolating a dog can work even when done for the wrong reasons. Members brought real cases including a fight between Brownie and another dog, Wolfy's chewing and guest reactivity, an Indie's sleep-startle biting, chewing from boredom versus separation anxiety, and the effect of training two dogs separately, and each was reframed through this emotion-first lens. The call closed with a short discussion on the limits of episodic memory in dogs and the concept of a canine trance state.
11 chapters · 11 member questions · aggression, behavioural, psychology, associative memory