Behavior Adjustment Training: BAT for Fear, Frustration, and Aggression in Dogs Paperback – September 1, 2011

My very sweet youngest Lab (who is now two and a half years old) suddenly became fear reactive at the end of last year. For a few months I worked on my own using another technique that helped her, but I wasn't getting the results I wanted. And I refuse to use other "corrective" techniques like prong or shock collars on any of my dogs. Last spring I began to work with a behaviorist who uses BAT and the technique has been very, very helpful for my girl. We use BAT in combination other techniques, primarily the counter-conditioning "Look At That" (LAT). However, BAT is especially helpful for my dog because she is particularly prone to being reactive to "surprises". In these situations, LAT doesn't work well, but BAT is perfect. Admittedly, at first it was very challenging to notice the sometimes subtle nuances in calming behavior so it was helpful to work with the behaviorist so one of us could watch her. However, after a while this became very second-nature to me and to my dog. And it has taught me to be much more attentive to my dog's behavior. She actually now knows the cue "BAT", so if I see her getting aroused and she hasn't made the choice to calm and redirect herself, I can cue her with "Where's your BAT?" and she will immediately offer sniffing, turning away, shaking it off, or yawning (her four favorites). She has made great progress and we will continue to work with BAT. It has really helped her to de-stress and focus, particularly in agility, where she can be surprised by dogs in high energy situations. I highly recommend BAT to anyone who is dealing with reactivity. It is a very frustrating, and sometimes heartbreaking, issue to deal with, but I found great relief through the use of this technique . . . and so has my dog!

I got this book, along with several others, to help with my fear-aggressive and reactive dog. While many of the other books were helpful, I wasn't really making that much progress with her until I read this book, and the changes were AMAZING!The methods in this book are extremely easy to follow, and are accompanied by photos and drawings to help the reader visualize exactly what they are supposed to do, and what to look for in your dog as far as body language goes. It works by rewarding the appropriate responses from your dog by allowing them to get away from the object/person/animal they are reacting to. It's great because it actually re-shapes the way the dog thinks, so they end up adopting this method all on their own, after a deal of repetition. Using this method alone my dog stopped chasing and barking at bicycles completely, and her reactivity towards people has gotten so much better. When we see people coming towards us on walks now, she will break her fixation on them and ask me to turn around so that we can walk away- I don't know of any other training method that teaches a dog to do that!!Of course, it's always great to have lots of different methods in your arsenal, so I do recommend several different training books (Control Unleashed by Leslie McDevitt, Click to Calm by Emma Parsons, Fired Up Frantic and Freaked Out by Laura VanArendonk Baugh are all great) but if you have an aggressive or reactive dog this should be the VERY FIRST book you buy, because it's absolutely invaluable!

Grisha Stewart's book has been SO helpful in helping me calm my rescued dog. Her book is clearly written with easy to follow practice sessions. The illustrations are helpful as well. I wish I had heard about this technique earlier. If you are having any behavior problems with you dog either while on leash or dealing with strangers out on a walk, her advice will help your dog process the stimulus and make life so much easier!

If you have a dog who is actually aggressive and/or overly frightened by other dogs AND you have the time and resources to set up LOTS of "situations" utilizing other people and other people's friendly dogs, then you'll get a lot out of this book. If you do not have lots of friends who own friendly dogs who are willing to meet you in all types of places at all times of day for several weeks or months, then you will not be able to use about 75% of this book. I'm sure the method is effective, BUT, it does require the ability to do lots of "set ups" with other people/dogs. For me, my dog is not aggressive or fearful, he is extremely overeager - what she calls a "frustrated greeter" in this book. There is really only one section in the whole book dealing with this behavior, so if that's what you've got, too, you may not find it worthwhile. I enjoyed reading it and learning her philosophy and her methods, so I liked it, but I did not love it.

I bought this book under advice from a trainer and several other dog owners after we adopted a beautiful dog from our local shelter - unfortunately she exhibits some aggression towards other dogs/animals and I was looking for advice on how to prevent it from getting worse, and maybe even reduce it. This book was highly recommended as a great resource.While there is some excellent advise on how to work with aggressiveness in dogs and adjust that behavior in this book, it is not really meant for a beginner in clicker training (which I am). In fact, the basics of clicker training arent even discussed until way back in the first appendix on page 135!The author gets a bit wordy with the technicalities of the methods, and how/why some dogs react the way they do, which is great information, but there isnt much on the BASICS of the clicker training used to redirect/reshape the dog's thinking/behavior, which is what I was looking for initially.I do hope to put some of the advice given in this book to good use later on, but for a beginner, this is not the best book. For someone reasonable well versed in clicker training, yes, it is a great resource.

Lots of good information

Un gran libro para un guía canino, para mí de las mejores autoras. Lo malo que está en ingles y requiere más tiempo y atención para leerlo, pero por el resto bien todo.

I have a people reactive rescue dog, whose finer body language signals have been ignored so that he had to get very explicit with humans so that they understand him. So far I have done a lot of desensitizing with him already. With that I only got so far. Now I am working with a trainer to go the last mile using BAT. So far we haven't done a lot of sessions but, I must say that the stress level for the dog is very low, so that he is generally comfortable with what is going on. I have also learned to watch my dog's body language in a lot more detail and to read his finer signals. He is now relearning that humans do pay attention to his finer and more appropriate body language. He is even enjoying the training as he is gaining more confidence. We still have a way to go, but I believe that we will get there in the end. One side effect is the trust that is developing between you and your dog - your dog will trust you to manage his exposure to his triggers and know that you will keep him safe and below threshold so that he does not need to show inappropriate behaviour - and you learn to trust your dog to make better choices more frequently.The book also helps you to plan your walks better so that you do not walk into trigger situations. This does affect your daily walks as you need to be more careful,but the walks are more enjoyable because you do not run into negative situations. So less stress for you and your dog.The book is very well written and a good guide for owners as well as trainers. All in all - a great book and a must for all those who want to work with their reactive dogs.Thank you Grisha!

Hélas non traduit, si vous lisez un peu l'anglais tout de même n'hésitez pas et lisez ce livre car il vous aidera tout en douceur pour votre chien.Dire qu'on entend encore dans certains clubs canins les conseils "musclés" pour éduquer un chiot ou un chien.... Effarant lorsqu'on a lu des livres d'éducation positive.Un livre à avoir dans sa bibliothèque

This book aims to help dog owners and trainers cope with fearful or reactive behaviour by allowing the dog to find an alternative, non-threatening behaviour that brings about the same result i.e. avoidance of the scary situation. By allowing the dogs to sense that they are communicating positively with their handlers and able to have some control over scenarios that spook them, the dog actually starts to lose its fear and gain in confidence.I bought this book because I have a staffie cross rescue who suddenly started to react by unprovoked growling and lunging at any dog in our street, and sometimes just to sudden movement (people, cars etc). The problem seemed to stem from her experience of other dogs (on leads or in gardens) regularly barking at her. While she used to just give a little growl or whine back in response, she now growled first. Also she would not display this behaviour in front of our regular dog walker/trainer so he could not easily evaluate what she was up to.After reading this book, I do several things differently. I use a soft harness instead of a neck collar. I walk different routes regularly to avoid always going past flashpoint areas, keeping a careful eye out for approaching dogs. I explain to other dog owners what I am doing. I haven't yet found a reliable replacement behaviour (my dog can go from calm to over threshold in about a nanosecond), but using the Let's Go! command, I am able to walk my dog away from other dogs, or past them in a wide parallel path. My dog is now much less reactive and more responsive to my directions and I have got some very positive comments from other dog owners. I hope to see even better results as I continue with using advice in this book.The book is packed with lots of commonsense advice about how to deal with barking/aggression/fear in the home and outside. The emphasis is on safety for people and dogs and on very positive, kind training methods. There is a lot of detailed training instruction and a section for trainers delving deeper into behaviour study.