Different DA dogs react to different cues, being differently motivated and having differing past experience.

Reacting to a stuffed dog may not give you a false positive, but it could certainly give you a false negative, as can assessing a dog with a real, live dog that isn't within whatever it's trigger group is.

Some only react to certain visual targets e.g breed, colour, some only in certain locations e.g home territory, others only in response to certain behavioural cues e.g staring, rushing up, timidity etc, some react to age e.g disliking puppies, some to olfactory cues such as gender, health etc. Various handler influences can also come into it.

There are also observable and non observable differences in biochemistry from moment to moment and day to day that can affect the outcome.

Some dogs will react aggressively under certain circumstances one day, and not react the next under apparently identical circumstances.

One problem with aggression assessment is combining rigour and consequential reliability of assessment with welfare and safety considerations, and practical limitations.

It is often neither easy nor straight forward to accomplish this, particularly of a full accurate history is not available.

Absolutely! A simple enough solution, you'd think.

When I spoke to the owner 6 months ago I thought she'd agreed to the muzzle, but since then no-one has ever seen one on the dog.

Agreeing with you at the time was the easiest way for her to terminate an uncomfortable conversation. Unfortunately it didn't necessarily reflect any genuine intent on her part

Once that conversation was terminated it was just a hollow promise.

Also even if people genuinely mean it at the time, while shocked, as the shock fades, so does any commitment.


It would also have made sense if the Bark buster trainer had suggested a double lead to e.g a head collar and a flat collar or harness, to make it much less easy for the dog to slip its lead.

Stuffed dogs have their uses.............


................and their limitations.

They can be an indicator in some dogs in some circumstances, but for other dogs a stuffed dog will have no relevance whatsoever.

Some dogs can freak out at a stuffed dog but be fine with real ones.

They do have their advantages though.........

At least they do not eat, poo or want to go out in the rain.

Of course when assessing one has to use what one feels helps. That may include stuffed dogs, and it should include enough knowledge to realise that the dog's reaction may not be the full story .... but that's not to say they are not useful ...

I attended a webinar a few months ago re. the use of stuffed dogs (think it was Wood Green but it may have been Blue Cross, I can't remember now) and they use them, but of course limitations are pointed out.

One cannot always put everything in a single post
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Agree a muzzle for this dog should have been a necessity. I would not be surprised if the BB trainer simply suggested using the chain as punishment and that was it - that is what they usually seem to do

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And that is very true

Have you used stuffies at all, SB? If so how have you found them? Any help?

The webinar I attended was very good and it explained how to introduce the stuffie so that it seemed as lifelike as possible (ie handler has to treat it like areal dog and not carry it in and suddenly put it down ( ) and there is a certain way to approach or let it be approached. There is quite a lot to it as I found out.

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IME the 'aggression' shown to a stuffed dog is different to the aggression (or possible aggression) shown to a real one.

You get a better indication by using a confident stooge dog. I do think there is a limit to the times you can use the same stooge dog and you do have to watch for stress/illness/fedupness etc!

rune

Yes, we had some amazing stooge dogs when I was filming my friend who was running a dog/dog aggression course. The main thing is that the dogs were never stressed at all, I can honestly say. I felt very relaxed watching the dogs work. There was also improvement in most of the dogs on the course.

I've been to other workshops and seen stooges too stressed, which I think is unfair. It can be very difficult, which is why I think people are experimenting with the use of stuffies

When you say the reaction is different, can you describe it more? Do you mean less or more aggressive/physical? I have not seen stuffies used in real life, and have not used any for myself, although I will be getting some having seen some vids and talked to others.

SW was very convinced, from what she said, but with the qualification that the stuffie reaction is not everything obviously. I know she likes Sue S so am not sure if she became more convinced after visiting her in the US. She did say, but I can't remember

She has one stuffie that is very smelly and is covered in dog slobber and all sorts

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Helpful that there are replies that include addtional information then