Constructional Aggression Treatment

Summary:CAT (Constructional Aggression Treatment) applies operant conditioning for modification of aggressive behavior rather than the more traditional classical counter conditioning and desensitization (CC&D). CAT has stirred debate in the positive training/behavior modification community because it utilizes negative reinforcement. Positive trainers tend to try to use positive reinforcement (dog's behavior makes a good thing happen) and negative punishment (dog's behavior makes a good thing go away), rather than positive punishment (dog's behavior makes a bad thing happen) or negative reinforcement (dog's behavior makes a bad thing go away).

Dr. Rosales-Ruiz suggests that it's not about which principle of operant conditioning is in play, but rather that it's about the dog's emotional state. The intent of CAT is to keep the dog sub-threshold in the presence of the stressful stimulus that triggers an aggressive response - as is done in a good CC&D program as well - in order to change his operant response to a stressor. Especially in the case of dog-aggressive dogs, these are often stressors to which the dog is frequently exposed over-threshold in daily life. The goal is to subject the dog to as little stress as possible while changing the dog's operant response to the stimulus and greatly improving quality of life for dogs and their humans.

A successful CC&D program changes emotional response in order to change behavior. CAT changes behavior in order to change emotional response.

CAT link

Evidently there was an article by Pat Miller in last months Whole Dog Journal regarding CAT if anyone has access to it.

There's also a short video on Dogwise (towards the bottom of the page) that shows how it's used for on leash agression:
http://www.dogwise.com/ItemDetails.cfm?ID=DTB947

I've done some Feisty Fido classes with my girl who has dog aggression issues. One of the exercises we did in class seems to be a version of Cat. Our dogs, while on leash, were also tethered on a long line that was attached to a wall. While we held them on lease, a demo dog was walked past us. If our dog reacted, we were to call them back to us. If they ignored us, we dropped the leash and walked away out of our dog's vision. If they responded to us and ignored the dog, they were rewarded.

This exercise was really a break through for me because Keira isn't food motivated at all but is highly bonded to me. I found during the exercise, if she continued to lunge at the oncoming dog and I walked away, she immediately ignored the other dog and re- focused all her attention on where I had gone. She quickly learned not to ignore me even when she was over a threshold.

While I haven't been able to totally irradiate her on leash aggression, it is much more controllable ands easier to defuse.