Reddit mentions of The Official Ahimsa Dog Training Manual: A Practical, Force-Free Guide to Problem Solving and Manners

Frustrating, seems my comment just disappeared.

He's telling you he is uncomfortable. This is behavior to be encouraged - if you punish that next time he won't tell you, until he can't take it anymore and then he'll bite. Kiss on the face is threatening to many dogs, so there is that.

> Is it because his "#2" position in the pack is threatened by her?

No. Dogs don't have such a concept of hierarchy. They concern themself with which dog (NOT human) gets first dibs on the scrap of food on the floor, and the spot on the bed (which is often not the same dog - it carries no prestige nor title.)

He is uncomfortable in some way. If it's a sudden change you can ask a vet for a medical work up to make sure it's not pain or anything, but most likely he's warning you that he feels like his space is invaded.

You can work on this by respecting the growls, and looking for more subtle signs - calming signals and respecting those too. You can also pair touching with treats to change his emotional association.

Also I highly recommend The Ahimsa Dog Training Manual for getting started with non-dominance based techniques with a mind towards preventing aggression. If you make that switch and you still have issues I would look into a behaviorist. There are also more resources on the sidebar of /r/dogtraining.

I had a rescued shepherd that had major dog aggression issues. She wanted to grab other dogs by the neck. She was also leash reactive. Lovely with people, though.

Biggest piece of advice is don't push the new dog into too many new situations after adopting. Give them at least a month to just get to know your house, your backyard, your schedule. Then expose them to other dogs and people through a structured environment like an obedience class. I could have avoided a lot of problems if I didn't have the attitude of "Oh, I'll train her myself, I don't need a class, I know how to socialize a dog." It's not really about that, so much as they need gradual exposure around people and other dogs behaving predictably, which you cannot get at a public park or other venue. As an added bonus, this method works whether the dog has a great temperament or a bad temperament.

I highly reccomend The Ahimsa Dog Training Manual. Grish is great with reactive dogs and her methods work well with stressed dogs who will not take treats or toys. I couldn't rehab my shepherd well at first because as soon as I took her outside, she would start spitting out treats and she never did play with toys.

She turned out to be a wonderful dog. I could take her hiking on leash, I trialed her in Rally and she won blue ribbons, she was very good in the home and with house guests. If I had focused on her strengths instead of trying to force her to like other dogs, we would have had a much better relationship.

Awesome, thanks! I'm going to try this for sure!

In the meantime, if I'm not particularly doing this 'exercise' but going for regular walks, how should I react to the triggers?
Because I am going to encounter joggers or kids while doing a regular walk on a short leash. Yesterday I tried to stay calm and assertive myself and before she started barking I tried to divert her attention to a treat and moving a bit away from the trigger, but to no avail. I know I should avoid giving the treat AFTER she barks at all costs, because then I'm basically telling her I love it when she barks at the triggers lol...

I wish I posted here first before buying the Cesar Millan book lol... Oh well, it was only €10.
I found this one in the sidebar instead: https://www.amazon.com/The-Official-Ahimsa-Training-Manual/dp/1478176415/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1360963013&sr=8-1&keywords=ahimsa+dog+training+manual
Anyone has any experience with this one?

I'm very interested in dog psychology to be honest.

The most common way, at least in my experience (please chime in with other ways/paths that you've taken) is exposure and mentoring.

Exposure is just work with as many dogs as you possible can. For me, I worked at a dog daycare/boarding/training/grooming place as a dog handler (officially Animal Care Technician but whatever.) I thought I knew a lot about dogs before going in. My close family had had several growing up, I'd helped raise for service puppy organizations, etc. I did not. I did not know nearly enough about dogs in general. There's nothing like being in a playroom with 30 dogs every day to rapidly teach you about dog body language, communication, habits, warning signs, the works. I worked there for a couple years and I was constantly learning. The biggest hurdle in getting to be a dog trainer is just exposure to lots and lots of different dogs, different breeds, different temperaments, different learning styles, different stimulus, different everything.

Next usually comes mentoring with an experienced trainer. I lucked out in that the trainer who started working at the daycare facility about year after I did was awesome. Totally positive and we clicked. We became really good friends fast. I officially mentored with her for just over a year. I happened to be in the right place at the right time, and I can't really speak on more arduous methods of finding a mentor.

Read. Find groups like this one and find their recommended literature. Training is important both in theory and practice. My first books were Fired Up, Frantic, and Freaked Out, Ahimsa, and When Pigs Fly and they were the beginning of my positive-only approach as well as my drive to become a trainer. But there are tons and tons of books to really dive into.

Check out the sidebar for info on APDT, and look into getting your CPDT-KA. The training industry isn't really regulated, but this is kind of The Certification.

As far as career, both myself and my training mentor left that facility. We started our own training business together. She works that full time, though her SO has a nice cushy job to fall back on in times of famine, so the two of them do alright. While I might do alright working it fulltime, I am crazy stupid anxious about being totally on commission. I have another full time job (night shift manufacturing. Cog-in-a-machine type work, but it isn't mentally taxing leaving me mostly focused mentally on training. Also benefits are awesome.)

While starting your own business isn't common or uncommon, there's other routes too. You can work in a big box store (think petsmart, petco, etc) as a trainer. Though you'll see on this sub we kind of have a hesitant view on them. It's either hit or miss. You end up with an awesome trainer who is working there on the path to bigger and better things, or.... you don't. You could work at a facility like the dog daycare place I worked. From my experience pay is meh but not terrible. The biggest problem was ideology differences and goal differences (what's best for the dog vs what's best for the business.) Though I tend to have a negative bias about it so take that with a grain of salt. You could work at a training facility that brings together a bunch of trainers. You could work at a humane society. There's a lot of options, some commission, some hourly, some a mix. It all kind of depends on your experience, your connections, and honestly, your luck.

This... kind of rambles on a bit, but feel free to ask away! A lot of my career came just from being in the right place at the right time so I realize that's not much help, but I can try.

Okay so, I have tons of dog books to recommend. Obviously it isn't an apples to apples translation for horses, but they will help you get a solid understanding of clicker theory, and a lot of the exercises could be applied to horses, with some creative tweaking. You can usually find some inexpensive used options on Amazon that may make it more practical to buy these books, since with the exception of the Karen Pryor book they only cover dogs. If you have questions or want more recommendations let me know!

When Pigs Fly!: Training Success with Impossible Dogs https://www.amazon.com/dp/1929242441/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_41JXBbXWEPN78 This is a good basics of training books that will give you a solid introduction to actually applying clicker training.

Reaching the Animal Mind: Clicker Training and What It Teaches Us About All Animals https://www.amazon.com/dp/0743297776/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_J4JXBb9X374P5 This will get you really in the weeds on the theory and development of clicker training, plus a lot of examples of how Karen has used the methods. It is very readable, not dry and overly academic. I found it light on giving you step by step application instructions for a variety of situations though.

The Official Ahimsa Dog Training Manual: A Practical, Force-Free Guide to Problem Solving and Manners https://www.amazon.com/dp/1478176415/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_G6KXBb7XTZPB3 this one is another really good basics book. The author has another book called Behavior Adjustment Training that uses positive methods to deal with hyper-reactive and problem behavior. It might be a good one just so you can see some of the creative ways that they use positive training to overcome things like food aggression, fear of strangers, etc.