Why I try to avoid using ‘labels’

Firstly, labels don’t tell us anything about the particular behaviours involved, are vague and ambiguous.

Secondly, labels are subjective, they mean different things to different people

Thirdly, labels can have a negative effect on both the dog and people including legal ramifications

 Think about the above ‘labels’, aggressive, fearful, friendly, stubborn, naughty, dominant,

What do they tell us about the behaviour???

Absolutely nothing  (though we will likely have our own thoughts about what they mean) – they don’t tell us anything about the actual behaviour the dog is doing.

What is far more beneficial is to describe what you see.

Lets use a simple example where ‘labels’ can have a negative impact on the dog and caregiver.

‘ My dog, Fido’ is sometimes aggressive and when I sought professional help the trainer told me that she has territorial aggression. 

One afternoon Fido escaped through the front door and chased a child going past our house on a scooter, thankfully Fido didn’t try to bite the child but the child was scared and the child’s parents made a complaint to the council.

The rangers investigated the incident, collecting information including the trainer’s report.

Because ‘Fido’ was ‘diagnosed’ with ‘territorial aggression’ , the rangers determined that  I didn’t take reasonable care and I’ve received a big fine and ‘Fido’ has been declared a ‘dangerous dog‘. Now we have to have a special collar and lead if out, special signage and an approved enclosure at home.’’

In this example the only actual behaviour described is that the dog chased a child on a bike.

There was no bite nor mention of barking, lunging, snapping and from the above example nothing to indicate the behaviour was ‘aggressive’ BUT the dog was ‘diagnosed’ with ‘territorial aggression’.

This ‘diagnosis’ had a significant, negative impact on the dog and the caregiver when the matter was investigated by the local authorities (council rangers). It is likely that if there was no pre-existing ‘aggression diagnosis’ that the outcome for both the caregiver and the dog would likely have been much different, possibly resulting in a warning or fine.

Of course, in addition we don’t have any information about what the ‘diagnosis’ of  ‘territorial aggression’ actually means or includes.

When working with behaviour problems, a key part of the process involves firstly talking with the caregiver about the problem(s) to get a better understanding of what is happening (tell me what it looks like) and then at consult undertaking a functional assessment, to determine what is causing and maintaining the behaviour of concern, identifying the functional relationships or in everyday terms ‘the purpose of the behaviour’.

Rather than use ‘labels’ or general terms (which are subjective) when speaking with people I ask them to tell me what it looks like.  For example if they tell me their dog is aggressive to strangers I will ask them to describe what this looks like, when it happens, what the strangers are doing and so on as this helps to identify and describe the behaviour of concern.

For example, ‘my dog is aggressive to strangers’

This doesn’t tell me anything about the behaviour of the dog, but it does tell me the dog is acting in a way that the caregiver doesn’t think is acceptable or appropriate.

Asking questions such as where and when does this happen, what does your dog do, does it happen in the same place, every time or only with certain individuals, what are the strangers doing and so on helps to better describe the behaviour that is occurring.

Using this example, further questioning might result in the following information:

My dog does this when we are on walks and barks and snaps at people when they try to pat him on the head, they quickly pull their hand away and then he is ok. If they don’t try to pat him, he is fine.

This is far more informative than ‘my dog is aggressive to strangers’ as it gives us more information about when it happens (on walks) what behaviour the dog is doing (barking, snapping), the behaviour of the strangers (trying to pat on head and then stopping/removing hand because of snapping).

Instead of ‘my dog is aggressive to strangers’ we now have a more functional understanding of the behaviour:

‘Stranger pats dog on head → dog barks and snaps→ person removes hand/stops patting’

This is much clearer description of the behaviour of concern and certainly more helpful to assist the dog and their people as functionally we can now identify:

• what evokes the behaviour, (stranger patting on head)
• the observable behaviour (barking and snapping, and
• the consequence of the behaviour (stranger stops patting and removes hand)

We aren’t ‘labelling’ the dog, we are simply stating what we observe which is far more beneficial in setting up the correct behaviour modification plan.

Be aware of using ‘labels’ it is far better to simply describe what you see.