Coco's Dilemma

Just a few months ago a referring veterinarian called me on an aggression case that involved an elderly couple - the wife was 78 and the husband was 82 years old - and a young, very energetic two year old Springer spaniel neutered dog that their daughter had given them to keep them company in their country home.

My friend, a veterinarian who is well versed on behavioral issues, explained on the phone that this was a high-risk dominance aggression problem, the dog was not really that aggressive, she explained but the husband was on blood thinning medication and could not afford to continue being wounded from a bite or a scratch. On the other hand, the wife was arthritic and fragile, her ankles and knees were very weak and the dog could knock her down plus the fact that they lived relatively far from the nearest hospital made this a very serious situation indeed.

 Regardless of how bad the dog was, the mold had been cast and according to their physician, he had to go. The veterinarian painfully wanted my involvement just to exhaust all possibilities before euthanizing the animal. I understood and of course, said that I would see them and called them. After a lengthy and emotionally charged conversation with both owners on the phone, it became very clear to me that in spite of the problem, they loved their dog very much and that the welfare of the animal was their foremost concern, they would consider giving him up but not euthanize him. After all, they raised him from a tiny pup and were not blind to their health issues and their doctor’s concerns. Their physician even went as far as contacting the veterinarian, urging her to convince them to relinquish the animal and she in turn called me to help accomplish this task. Yikes! Who is going to take an aggressive dog? How am I going to convince them to let go of this dog that has tremendous significance in their lives? It was a tough situation all around. But nevertheless, we set up an appointment and see what happens.

When I arrived at the client’s home with my normal already conditioned “jitters” that I get when visiting cases involving aggression, I was pleasantly surprised to be exuberantly greeted at the door by a very pretty Springer spaniel. The dog looked like a large pup of about 35 pounds; I could not help but want to touch him, he was definitely a cuddling object. The dog’s name was Coco and he wiggled his way into my arms. He had huge expressive eyes and his head and ears were disproportionately larger than his body, a stimulus configuration that made him look like a baby animal. Ethological research indicates that baby or infant features in young animals act as releasing stimuli or triggers that elicit parental or caring behavior and that is what happened to me. Coco’s behavior also matched his looks: he whined and wiggled, smiling all the time in his exuberance while I petted him, he could not get enough of me and would run back and forth between his owners and myself in pure delight. 

While this was going on, I was observing the owners as well and their kind old faces radiated with love and pride in this most beautiful animal and his antics. Remember that I was there to get the dog out of the house for good, so I put on my professional hat and went to work. The initial interview and observations revealed that Coco was not only a very excitable dog but he also had very little education: he would not listen to basic commands unless they had a treat in hand that he had to see before responding; he would also steal stuff from the counters and table tops and the owners had great difficulty chasing him down. If they managed to corner and catch him, he would show his teeth and if they reached for the item, he would snap at them which made them let go and Coco would run off happily with the item and therefore his threats were reinforced: learned dominance/possessive aggression.

Furthermore, if they wanted to, say, groom him and tried to control him and he did not want to be restricted, he would also snap at their hands and arms in protest, not hard, but hard enough to risk a cut or bruise - the risk that we could not take! These, in a nutshell were the unacceptable things about Coco. Lucky for us, his aggressive behavior was not a well-established pattern where a dominant-aggressive dog bites down hard on the owner and truly attempts to do serious damage. Coco’s aggression was relatively mild but bad enough in this case where it was not affordable. He was also very attached, playful and loving: he kept them active and engaged in care-giving behavior. So what could we do?

Under normal circumstances and by following prescribed procedures, these cases are fixable but it takes energy, some minor risks and agility on the part of the owners- abilities that my clients did not have and therefore, not applicable. Simple adoption was also questionable since behavioral intervention and therapy require a great deal of dedication, attachment and love for the animal and new owners, no matter how caring, are not likely to be sufficiently motivated to save the animal who also does not have enough attachment to them to compensate against the often stressful and unpleasant temporary procedures required by the therapy.

So I presented the couple with this dilemma and as could be predicted, they adamantly rejected euthanasia just like they did with the veterinarian and their physician. They also understood that adoption was only going to prolong the suffering. I could not blame them, as they did not have to explain to me, their nonverbal message was loud and clear: Coco was integral to their lives, he kept them going from day to day, they both said to me that they could not imagine not having Coco around, let alone put him to sleep because of their own disabilities. I understood their conundrum perfectly well and did not like it. So what to do? I could not take the dog, fix it and then hand it back: therapy just does not work that way, I could teach the dog not to bite me since dominance aggression is relative to the nature of a relationship but I could not transfer my relationship with the dog to the owners, their relationship has to shift in vivo.

So, toward the end of my visit I was feeling pretty helpless but also realized that I had to make things work for them and Coco, which meant to go somewhere, think deeply of what I know (and don’t know), contemplate my navel, talk to colleagues, friends, gurunoids, angels, other psychologists, old professors and on and on… I had to come up with answers that would fit the situation. I had to engineer a very passive approach with zero-risk procedures, quite a set of requirements to be sure.

After a few days of dissecting things out in my head, the answers began to trickle in slowly but surely: first of all, since the dog was very energetic and we needed him to slow down a bit in the house and be somewhat tired, we hired a neighbor kid to take Coco out after school for long walks in the woods on a 30 ft. check-cord. We also fed him immediately after coming back tired and hungry, and here, since he was most motivated to get fed, we taught Coco to respond to various commands using both verbal and visual signals, in particular “lay down” and “roll over” - the most submissive positions I can think of for a dog to do. I also taught the owners to pay attention to his facial expressions and reward (reinforce) him with their own smiles, baby talk and petting for those expressions associated with submission like ears down and relaxed, tail relaxed, slack jaw, soft eyes and so on. By combining Ethology, which uses muscle contractions as the basic data to indicate internal emotional states and modern behavioristic psychology, which reinforces goal oriented behaviors, we were teaching the dog to give us submissive signals and therefore change his perspective. Also, in order to maintain control of Coco’s resources and be responsive to us, we only gave him 15 minutes to eat. These passive procedures are very helpful in producing dependency and prosocial submission, the logic being that if the animal is aware of its dependency and has to work for his resources and pay attention, it develops a submissive attitude, which counters the possessive tendencies of dominant animals.

Following the feeding, Coco was again taken out by both owners on a long leash to eliminate and was brought back to be placed in the laundry room with a comfortable bed for at least an hour, just to let him relax and be confined rather than running around the house terrorizing them. As in humans, these relaxation periods induce calmness in the animal as long as they are not too long and we took advantage of it by training and socializing quietly right after the animal was let out. Here, I had the owners wear leather gloves and long sleeve shirts, and they were to play-train him with balls, toys and petting - good exercise for them. If Coco jumped on their arms and hands, the gloves and long sleeves would protect them from injury. We also added a short check-cord at this time so that they could handle him without struggling to reach for the collar while the dog was moving around. This not only gave them control over the dog during times of excitement and emotional arousal but it diminished the chances of them getting hurt; this also taught Coco that they had the power to restrict him as well. Most importantly, aggressive bites in dominance issues as well as in cases of panic-triggered aggression are most often elicited when we reach for the collar and the hand is very close to the head. If the hand stays at a safe distance, which is attainable with the short check-cord, the bite is avoided altogether and one gains control.

If they saw that the dog was getting uptight, they were instructed to put Coco back in the laundry room for a time-out using the check-cord to guide him without need for touching or reaching for him and therefore avoiding aggression. So this procedure circumvented the bite and yet gave us control over the animal.

Eventually, the biting disappeared since the intention to bite was not reinforced by the person fearing and moving away or letting go of the animal or by going in the opposite direction with threats or striking the dog.

Another situation that reinforced the possessive and dominance behavior was when the owners unsuccessfully tried to take small items that he stole from counters and tabletops. So we set Coco up on a self-inflicting punishment program where we put specific items that he liked to steal in the past on tabletops with a small mousetrap underneath. When Coco reached, the trap went off and scared the hell out of him. This was very effective because Coco tried it only twice in different places and both times the trap went off (a stroke of luck). He has not tried to reach for things on tables since the second incident: talking about one-trial learning!

I now check with them every few weeks and I am happy to report that there have been no instances of aggression since we started. Coco quit jumping on them, has not stolen things and only play-bites, which is allowed during play when initiated by the owners wearing gloves and long sleeves. The gloves, in fact, have become cues for this kind of play and roughhousing - all necessary behaviors for the dog’s mental stability - and there has been no defense of food.   

So what was wrong with this dog? Nothing really. Simply, he never learned to be anything other than an unruly pup with no contingencies and by biting at them and taking things from the counters he got their attention and was in fact, in control.  Now Coco is still getting the attention he wants and more since the conflict and fear that was generated by anti-social encounters has been eliminated, our approach has infused a good sense of harmony into their relationship serving as fertile ground for developing an even stronger bond.

Cases like this bring home the fact that the real issue and the focus of therapy is always about the interaction between the players, human and animal. The behaviors of all animals have a range with some being typically more fearful, more aggressive, more reclusive, or more intense than the norm and so it takes unusual ameliorative behaviors on the part of the human to get them within the normal range. In Coco’s case, the dog was within this normal range, it was the people whose behavior was dysfunctional, so just by undoing the “harm” their dysfunction produced and getting them to be functional solved the problem.

Like any human being engaged in work that involves problem solving, I have days when nothing goes right. I feel deflated and question my ability, my knowledge, even my worth and usefulness. Then I reflect on events like Coco’s case: we started with an unhappy dog whose days were numbered, an unhappy veterinarian feeling helpless to aid her clients and a very sad older couple facing the reality of having to give up a pet that they truly loved because of problems no one could solve. In the end, my efforts brought harmony to everyone; I not only used my knowledge, my “science” as it were, but I connected with others in a very deep emotional sense as well. Thinking about this, my perception and feelings shift, the emotional gloom lifts and I get a deep sense of understanding that none of us is infallible and this brings me closer not only to my fellow humans, but to all beings. So I am grateful to Coco and his people for giving me this opportunity to grow.