Ted Aranda - Aranda Dog Training

President Mary introduced our speaker, Ted Aranda, who is a Problem Behavior Specialist (aka – Lenawee County’s only Dog Whisperer) for animals but primarily dogs. He is a lifelong Adrian resident who deals with “serious dog problems” as he stated that go beyond standard “dog training classes”. He spoke at length on dogs that suffer from severe separation anxiety. Pet owners, he said, have difficulty getting through to their dogs in a way they can understand. They tend to give animals all of the traits that humans have. For example, they think dogs are capable of spite, that they do things to get back at you, etc.

 

Typically, Ted said, that when a dog owner leaves his house knowing that his dog wanted to go with him, he returns home only to find that his dog chewed his favorite pair of slippers while he was gone. Ted calls these “stress replaced behaviors”.  Often times, the owner takes the slipper and spank the dog. The next time the owner leaves, the dog chews the owner’s favorite couch or recliner. Why? Because they all had the owner’s scent on them and they get even more stressed because they’re experiencing “separation anxiety”. The owner then drags the dog over to the piece of furniture he ruined and proceeds to hit the dog. Punishment like this, Ted said, does not begin to take away the dog’s anxiety, in fact it elevates it.

 

The solution to all this, Ted said, is “systematic desensitization”. The issues discussed are not “obedience” problems, but “emotional” problems that require knowledge in Pavlovian Classical Conditioning” in an effort to counter the emotional distress and anxiety the dog is feeling. Ted said that 90% of a dog’s aggression is fear-based. They’re afraid someone is going to intrude on their territory, they’re afraid of people in general, etc. and they think punishing the dog with a choker chain is the answer.

 

Some dogs seek dominance which is actually the result of heightened fear. Emotions such as fear, anxiety, stress and anger fuel aggression is animals, Ted said, which all need to be “counter-conditioned”. It’s not as simple as just giving the pet a cookie, but using a process mentioned above – systematic desensitization. Systematic desensitization is a type of behavioral therapy based on the principle of classical conditioning. This therapy aims to remove the fear response of a phobia, and substitute a relaxation response to the conditional stimulus gradually using counter conditioning.

 

For more information about Ted Aranda and his business, go to www.arandadogtraining.com.