Fear ...
is the root of ...
aggression.
CAT started out as an acronym for Constructional Aggression Training, but is now referred to using the more positive term Constructional Approach Training, since it is used with fearful animals (dogs, cats and horses, in particular) with the understanding that fear underlies aggression.
This new method for treating aggression in animals was developed by Jesús Rosales-Ruiz, PhD and Kellie Snider, MS. They found that the existing 'classical' methods of treating fear and aggression, such as counter-conditioning and desensitization were not completely effective at extinguishing fear and aggression, because animals whose behavior had been modified using those techniques sometimes could suddenly snap, reverting to their original fearful / aggressive states.
Let's say you have a dog who is afraid of men and prone to attack from fear. Using desensitization and counter-conditioning, you would slowly introduce a man, at a very far distance from the dog, asking the man to ignore the dog completely at first. At the same time you would ask the dog to do something, perhaps 'sit', offering a food reward and praise. Slowly, over time, you would have the man move closer and closer to the dog using approach and retreat to avoid overwhelming the dog. By slowly bringing the man closer, you are using desensitization. Asking for an alternate behavior, in this case 'sit', is counter-conditioning. [See article where Cesar Millan stopped Jillian Michaels' dog's fear-based behavior by "implementing incompatible behavior".]
The problem, however, is that the dog may still feel fear which we don't see, and one day when a different man approaches in a different way, the old anxiety may reappear causing the dog to 'freak out' and attack.
The idea of CAT is to teach the animal he has a choice in how to respond - he can freak out or he can be calm. So often when an animal reacts to fear, something worse happens which amplifies the fear the animal associates with the scary thing. Let's say a horse is afraid of a flapping tarp. He runs away crashing through a fence and injures himself. Now the flapping tarp is twice as scary!
The goal of CAT is to teach the animal that when he reacts with calmness, the scary thing goes away. He learns that it is his own emotional control that provokes the scary thing to leave his presence.
Dolores Arste of Zen Clicker Horsemanship explains more about CAT.
We construct new behaviors for the animal to deal with a situation that has in the past created fear and agression. In order to do that, the animal has to find that previous behavior no longer works.
Showing fear or acting aggressively doesn't make the scary thing leave, is that right?
Right, CAT sees emotions as operant (meaning the emotions produce an effect). Fear and aggression are seen as behaviors maintained not by the trigger but by what happens next. Does the subject get what he wants? In fear and aggressive behavior the animal wants more distance from the aversive person, place or thing.
So, using the example of the dog who is afraid of men. In traditional approach and retreat, the man retreats at the first sign that the animal appears uncomfortable. In CAT the man will only retreat when the dog changes his attitude, is that right?
Yes. In CAT we want the enviornment to tell the animal that what he is doing will cause what he wants to happen to happen. The aversive will leave only when the behavior is acceptable in tiny increments.
How do you determine the animal's threshold or sub-threshold?
Very carefully. We must become superior observers. Old horseman told us to be aware of what happens before what happens happens. But, they never told us how. In a horse who is aggressive, we may look at the first time the animal notices us. This is long before a charge or the head coming up which are more dramatic and easily observed reactions. In dogs it is long before the lunging, growling or barking.
Why is CAT empowering for fearful animals?
Because with CAT, the animal is in control. Control of a situation is the most powerful motivator. If you could totally control what will happen, there would likely be nothing you would be afraid of. I didn't make the aversive thing go away, the animal did.
How is CAT used in horses?
We are using CAT in horses where prior experiences have caused an excess of fear or aggression. We look at it with the idea that the response we are getting is out of porportion to the event.
"Suddenly" is a term we might use. Suddenly, the horse charged. Suddenly, the horse pulled the handler away from the trailer. In fact, it likely was not suddenly but the previous experience by the horse has put it into a defensive state long before the "sudden" happens.
If the horse is a little afraid of things and humans, but still curious about them, we can use positive reinforcement to help them get over the situation. But, for the some horses, the fear is so great that the animal is no longer able to think. In this situation, positive reinforcement can actually be a detriment. The animal may want the food reward so much that he is willing to bury his fear to get it. That is similiar to a zebra who will drink from a stream in the precence of lions who are not at that moment hunting. But, the emotional state will be so high that one small change in the situation will cause aggression or flight. And it will happen "suddenly". It has to in order for the animal to save it's life. That sudden reaction is what we want to eliminate.
More about this topic:
Animal Humane Society - Counter conditioning and desensitization
Whole Dog Journal - May 2008 Modifying Aggressive Dog Behavior
Comments
Eve, nice introduction to a new way of thinking. But, maybe you can help me with what is going on, okay?
I posted a video on YouTube dealing with resource guarding. Now I'm taking all sorts of crap from self-professed experts on how I am supposedly going to get killed by this dog. They exhort me to seek help or learn DCC (desensitization and countercounditioning) techniques.
Then there are all the experts who revile my apparent use of Cesar Millan's training methods (even though he doesn't train!). I always thought what I was doing was just being gentle.
I wrote to a woman on YouTube who really did a nice job of working with a rottweiler and his resource guarding. She called it building trust. I got picked apart on what I was doing wrong.
The funny part is, this mean, vicious Lab is doing so well now, despite all my errors. My gentle ways are just slightly "in his face" so we can deal with his junk, but never do I force the issue.
(continued)..
(Conclusion)...
Use DCC! No CAT is in now! Is it any wonder people like me - The Great Unwashed Without Titles - just shake our heads and tune out these experts?
We can't afford to hire these certified, highly qualified, professional, credentialed, perfect trainers. And now, for about the fourth time in my life, the "industry" makes another turn and disavows what is currently accepted as the best method (DCC).
Training has come a long way since the old heavy-handed, smash-'em-in-the-head methods. It's really fancy now with cool names, but I'm beginning to think behaviorists and trainers don't really know what the hell they're talking about!
Where does all this leave people who can't afford trainers and, yet, want to help their dogs/cats?
Is it any wonder trainers aren't reaching those who really need the help? To me it looks like 10,000 individuals on the gulf beaches, each with a small sponge, trying to wipe up the oil. It's going nowhere. Comments?
Tom, I've seen your work with aggressive dogs like Buster and I would say what you're doing is close to CAT. I've been reading a lot about CAT and many comments are from people like you who have been doing it all along before it had a name.
I would not call this is an industry change. This is a new and self-described 'controversial' therapy for animals with fear-based aggression issues.
But I'm no expert. Just trying to share information! I think you're wonderful and you should keep doing what works! Damn the experts!
As one of the "experts" you disdain so Thomas, I can tell you we are more than willing to help. I think one difference between some of us and say, you and your one dog, is that we work with thousands of dogs and our methods can be reproduced by 8 year olds without them getting harmed. It sounds constructive that people were concerned about you and pointed out how you could try things differently. Part of owning a dog is budgeting for medical care (hopefully you have some respect for those "experts") and for training. Even on a tight budget look at all the free help you can get. Eve posts regular articles with link after link. The "experts" in her articles give freely of advice and techniques. On the side here you can she that she links to other experts in many, many areas who also give freely of their time and knowledge. So, you've been led to the water, whether you are open minded enough to drink it or not is up to you.
Eve, please don't think any of that frustration was aimed at you, or even the trainers. Thanks for introducing "outsiders" like me to this new discipline.
Btw, I did follow your links and did some other reading on CAT. Wading through all their big college words it seems like the doctors of fanciness are saying:
1) DCC changes the dog’s emotions to change his behavior.
2) CAT changes the dog's behavior to change his emotion.
Does that sound right? I'm getting a headache from all this.
I gotta believe that's why Cesar Millan sells so well to all of us blue-collar people. He doesn't even mention training. No techniques, no operants, counter anything. The hardest thing to grasp is what he calls dog psychology. And really he just says it plainly - be a calm leader. No force, no screaming. Just take a deep breath and show 'em who's in charge by your energy.
That seems so easy and straight forward. And I don't get a headache when I listen to him!
Tom, I know how you feel! I've spent two weeks researching this topic and I got a headache too, but I think I finally understand it. I believe the difference between CAT and DCC is that in DCC you would retreat as soon as the animal shows anxiety, for instance the dog or cat averting their eyes from you. In CAT you don't retreat until the animal takes a step on the calm side, for instance, looking at you.
In human terms, let's say a boy was ridiculed by other students in elementary school when he stood before the class to do his report. Since that day, the thought of public speaking terrified him. In high school, whenever he was supposed to speak in front of the class he would become nauseous and was excused for illness. Now he associates public speaking with fear and nausea.
(continued)
But as an adult he needs to learn to speak in public to perform his job. Using DCC type strategies he practices speaking in front of his wife, then his wife and a friend, then his wife and two friends, and so on, all the while visualizing they are naked. He makes it through his speeches but is still very stressed and worried. He never can relax and feel comfortable.
One day he is forced to stand before a large audience. He takes that leap of faith, walks out on the stage fully expecting to be pelted with rotten vegetables, and nothing happens. Instead he sees the audience is watching him with interest and respect. He speaks and they listen politely. When he's done they applaud! After all these years, he realizes the thing that he was scared of (the contigency) was not real. He was afraid of something that didn't happen. After that day he enjoyed public speaking, and even if heckled, he could handle it. He finally felt in control.
Good metaphor, Eve. Thanks for the explanation. But if you think I'm going to stand in front of my dog naked, you're very wrong. He already laughs at me! :-)
Don't know if you've seen Lori Huston's article just posted, but here's ANOTHER new training methodology: it's called Behavior Adjustment Training (BAT). I haven't even gotten CAT figured out and now I've got BAT to learn. Geez.
This dog training stuff is quite a business enterprise.
Thanks Tom, checked it out and it sounds like BAT is the same thing as CAT. She even used the same kind of language such as 'freak out'. I think the important points are:
1) it's for animals that couldn't be helped with DCC or positive reinforcement
2) the animal fears the contingency - what could happen if ...
3) it takes a lot of patience to wait for the animal to take that slightest step towards a leap of faith and good observation skills to catch that change in behavior and reward it by removing the trigger.
Dr. Lorie's article is at www.examiner.com/x-7468-Pet-Health-Examiner~y2010m6d20-Behavior-adjustment-training-for-aggression-and-fearfulness-in-dogs
Spread the word, spread the word spread the word!!!!!!! thank you!
The trick for me is teaching my clients how to be hyper observant of their animals so that they can continue this kind of training at home. I offer Stanley Coren's books "How Dogs Think" and "How to Speak Dog" as great reads for non-scientists/behaviorists in this area. Anyone else have simple suggestions for teaching materials for owners to learn the art of what I've always called preemptive observation skills?
P.S. Been practicing "CAT" for over 25 years long before it had a name. And like anyone else, my methods have been tweaked and smoothed and stitched up this way and that until I really got it right enough to be consistently reliable. Grin...but every new animal is a challenge, and no 'ONE AND ONLY" method gets the same results every time. That's the message I keep trying to spread as I find more and more acrimony from the public about what is and isn't "the best way". On the other hand, DCC and CAT are my best friends EV-ER.
Thanks for the article Eve. It's time to take another look at what you wrote, though, because BAT is sooo much better than CAT. It's really not the same thing at all, even though some things look the same on the outside. Here's someone else's Examiner write-up on BAT: http://www.examiner.com/dog-training-behavior-and-nutrition-in-seattle/b...
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