"AGGRESSIVE BEHAVIOR IN DOGS: A COMPREHENSIVE TECHNICAL MANUAL FOR
PROFESSIONALS should be in every dog professional's collection: it
provides a comprehensive, technical manual on assessing the
behavior and behavior change programs for dogs. From
undersocialization and single-subject designs used in the
experimental analysis of behaviors to behavior change programming,
this packs in bibliographies for reference, assessment sheets, and
everything the professional trainer needs to assess and handle dogs
aggression. Few other surveys contain the technical, in-depth
assessment of this guide." -- James A. Cox "Midwest Book
Review"
"This book is different because it is written specifically for the
professional training consultant, rather than for owners, or
veterinarians. James O'Heare, CABC, is the President of Cynology
College, Director of the International Institute for Applied
Companion Animal Behavior and owner of DogPsych Publishing. He has
written several books and has been working in the field since the
early 1990s. Mr. O'Heare states in the preface, ..". this book is
comprehensive and technical, written to provide a solid
introduction to systematically working aggression cases from a
behavioral paradigm called the Dog Aggression Workbook." I found
the book to be primarily written from an empathetic point of view
in regard to the position of the dog behavior consultant. The
author clearly understands the complexities and problems inherent
in working with families whose dogs are suffering from aggression
issues. For example, in Chapter 1, the author spends several
paragraphs discussing Bradley's assertions in her book, Dogs Bite,
but Balloons and Slippers are More Dangerous (2005) that "dogs
almost never kill people, and they don't actually bite very often,
and when they do, we're seldom injured, and when we are, it's
seldom serious" and he then states that, "if a client's dog is
displaying aggressive behavior, this is a different population from
the average dog population and the probability of harm will be much
higher the potential for trouble has already been realized." The
author defines aggression as "acts performed by living things
towards other living things, excluding accidental or benevolently
intended harm I refer to attacks, attempted attacks or threats to
attack." (p.63). He goes on to explain in greater detail various
definitions of aggression, and why they might occur. From this
point Mr. O'Heare proceeds to produce a lengthy and detailed
discussion of working with aggressive behavior in dogs, including
chapters on ethical considerations for consultants; liabilities;
understanding breed tendencies regarding aggression; biological
explanations for aggression; pharmacological intervention; various
tools; as well as several training set-ups for the treatment of
various issues, such as resource-guarding and dog-dog aggression.
There is an interesting well-made discussion of the "Doctrine of
Least Aversive Intervention" outlining the care one must take if
choosing to use any aversive techniques in the treatment of
aggression, and *why* one must be so careful. As with any book of
this length, which covers so many topics, I found areas in which
some aspects were perhaps somewhat simplified, such as in the
information regarding inherent breed tendencies: some of the breeds
are described fairly specifically while others are just glanced
upon. However, the book is not intended to be a handbook on breed
characteristics, so interested readers could of course do research
to gain more information if necessary. The area discussing
pharmacological use is also a bit "short," but since this is not a
veterinary manual, nor one written for veterinarians, perhaps that
is appropriate. At the end of each chapter the author includes a
"Summing Up" portion, which sums up the main points of the
preceding chapter as well as Suggested Reading, which is very
helpful in keeping track of the main points as the book moves
along. There are several diagrams and some drawings in the book
which are also helpful particularly the illustrations of
Affiliative Signals (p. 81), which clearly demonstrate the
behaviors being discussed in each section. The diagrams throughout
the book are well done, though it may have benefited to have more
illustrations in various places, or perhaps some photographs as
well. In the appendices the author includes a very interesting
graph of the Canadian Hospitals Injury Reporting and Prevention
Program as well as a Sample Functional Assessment Interview which
readers can use as a model if they don't already have an assessment
questionnaire of their own. Mr. O'Heare does make it clear that he
prefers clicker training, perhaps this could have been mentioned in
the title in some way for those who are searching for this
preference (or not). In general I found the book to be very
readable and clearly arranged. The author covers the important
aspects of working with families who have aggression issues with
their dogs. I would recommend this book for those professionals who
are considering working with aggression as well as for those
currently working with those issues as an adjunct to their basic
knowledge." -- Valerie Pollard "APDT Chronicle of the Dog"
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