Dog Fancy, November 1985
Bitten for a Living
This trainer wants dogs to bite him - so that he can help their owners solve this common and frightening problem.
by Alison O'Connell Cohn
"Does he bite?" many people ask when they meet a dog for the first time. When Jeff Loy meets a dog, he knows it bites. He wants it to bite. In fact, he goes to great lengths to get it to bite him. Biting Jeff can save a dog's life.
The founder of Animal Behavioral Research in Chester, New Jersey, Jeff Loy rehabilitates biting dogs, many of which would otherwise have been destroyed by frightened owners unaware that a happier solution was possible. Fortunately, many vets refer the owners to Jeff after determining that biting is not caused by health problems. He has earned the respect not only of those grateful owners but of numerous professionals as well.
Jeff's success is not only with biters; he as also developed methods for teaching standard and special commands. He estimates he's seen 2,000 dogs since he began his work in 1975, approximately 800 of which have been biters. He has been bitten well over 1,000 times, many times seriously and twice requiring hospitalization. His hands and arms are scarred and some of his favorite sweaters have been ruined, which he admits sometimes upsets him more than the bites.
"If I'd followed my heart from the beginning, I'd have gone into behavior. But I was told I couldn't make a living with animals," Jeff says. So he majored in math at Rutgers, planning to go on to medical school. When he was not immediately accepted, he went to work for The Seeing Eye as a trainer in 1971. His interest in animal behavior grew during the next three years. Though his work there was solely with dogs, he continued to study and observe both wild and domestic animals. "Scope," he says of animal behavior, "is critically important. If you study only dogs and not wild animals, you know nothing."
From his study of wild animals, Jeff knew that the weakest signal an animal receives is the verbal one. Standard obedience training is verbally based. Commands are repeated over and over again until an animal obeys, and scolding is common. Unfortunately, an animal will listen and respond only when distractions are minimal. When something more interesting occupies its attention, calling, pleading and shouting are useless.
After leaving The Seeing Eye in 1975, Jeff soon developed methods of standard training and bite rehabilitation in which touch replaces words and only praise is verbal. Animals respond to Jeff's "phenomenon of touch" because they understand it. Touch overcomes even the greatest distraction. "Touch," says Jeff, "is everything."
Jeff can rehabilitate a biting dog only after he understands both why and how it bites. He explains that the "why" of many biters is answered in one word: frenzy. Frenzy is, most simply, hyperactivity. A frenzied dog overreacts to little things in the environment that do not bother other dogs. A frenzied dog is a stressed dog; it sleeps less and eats and drinks more.
"Frenzy," says Jeff, "is naturally occurring but undesirable. It happens when a social animal is denied it natural setting." For a dog, the natural setting was once the dominant/submissive hierarchy of the pack. Now the domestic dog strives to find its place in the hierarchy of its family. It is natural for the dog to try to become as dominant as possible. Because it can never truly dominate, yet is often not made to be submissive, it is unsure of its place. The dog becomes frenzied. It bites."
Jeff can answer the "how" of every biter only after he has been bitten. Though he requires a detailed history of every dog from its owner, including a description of threats and attacks, he feels it is critical to experience the bite before working with the dog. "The bite," he says, "guides you perfectly every time."
Does provoking dogs to bite frighten this 5 foot 6 inch, 130-pound man? "Oh, yes. Sure. I feel my lips getting dry. It wouldn't be so bad if you could defend yourself indiscriminately, but you can't. You have to wait for the instant of the bite. It comes down to a psychological battle." Jeff has seldom lost that battle, but he has thought about the worst possibility. "I may get killed one day and I know that. I have no misconceptions about that." He was almost killed several years ago by a St. Bernard that nearly knocked him down when it attacked. "If I'd gone down, that dog could have killed me." Yet Jeff believes his size often works to his advantage because women and children feel that if he can handle their dog, they can too.
Although more than 100 types of bites and biters have been catalogued, Jeff puts bites into three broad categories: shy, frantic and dominant/aggressive. He believes it is imperative to determine which type of bite a dog exhibits. Shy bites are rapid, multiple bites with little pressure. A shy biter may snap rapidly in the direction of a person and miss him entirely. A shy bite is rarely a serious wound. Frantic bites are harder, also rapid and quick releasing. The frantic bite may puncture and draw blood. The dominant/aggressive bite, by far the most dangerous of the three, is a deep puncturing bite. The dog clamps down hard and holds on. A tear wound may result when the victim of the bite tries to pull away while the dog's teeth are still deeply embedded in him. One dog may exhibit one, two or all three types of bites.
Because it is possible for a dog described as shy to actually be a frantic or dominant/aggressive biter, Jeff insists on seeing and feeling the bites himself. A dog may being as a shy biter and after a period of time - weeks or even years - become dominant/aggressive. Or it may be a seemingly shy biter and display dominant/aggressive tendencies an hour later. "Imagine if I took someone's word about a bite and went along from there and it bit some child," Jeff points out. "I'll listen to someone else about bites when he's been bitten a thousand times."
Perhaps the best way to understand Jeff's method is to meet Chloe, a 2-year-old female Husky/Doberman mix with a tragic past and a bright future.
Chloe is currently with Jack and Jean Atthowe in Chester, New Jersey. Jean, through her unofficial affiliation with Helping Unclaimed Dogs, has fostered a number of problem animals with the hope of sending them to good homes. She has been successful with runaways, chewers and house wreckers. With Jeff's help, she has also been tremendously successful with Chloe, a biter Jeff warned would be tough. In her six weeks with the Atthowes, the unapproachably ferocious Chloe has become a loving household pet.
In the year before she joined the Atthowes, Chloe was shuffled back and forth between an animal shelter and five families, none of whom would keep her for any length of time. When destroying her seemed the only solution, Jean called Jeff on the recommendation of a local vet. Jeff agreed to see the dog.
That Sunday, Chloe exhibited each type of bite, beginning shy, becoming frantic and finally dominant/aggressive. Jeff admits she gave him a real battle during which he repelled her attacks in any way possible. When she became aware that he wasn't going to submit to her as other people always had, she quieted down. Jean took her home that night.
That first night wasn't easy. In addition to her biting, Chloe was a fierce cat chaser, and the Atthowes had six cats. She repeatedly went for each with the apparent intention to harm. One ran off and has not been see since. Today, Chloe sleeps curled up on a sunny couch with a cat wrapped around her legs.
Jean became the first client to actively participate from the start. Jeff handles the early, most dangerous work for each client, whose role becomes largely preventive: To curb frenzy and so remove the root of aggression. Jean, however, was able to tolerate Chloe's bites in order to communicate with her through touch. She learned to keep her hands where Chloe was able to bite them, yet use them quickly to prevent further aggression. Gradually, by refusing to submit, she became dominant.
When Chloe arrived at the Atthowes, she was starving. Whatever food she was able to find was vitally important to her. Although today she has filled out and is fed regularly, her attitude toward food id the same. When she eats, Jean says, "she huddles over it like a refugee." To demonstrate, Jean took hold of Chloe's collar as she ate and tried to gently pull her from the food. Chloe first turned her face further and further into the bowl, trying to protect her food as best she could. When that didn't help, she began to growl and leaped up toward Jean's face, jaws snapping. Not one bite touched Jean or her clothing. These were shy bites, frightening to the observer but a great improvement from the frantic biting Jean's hands had endured.
By continuing to talk to Chloe through touch, Jean will soon have her over this last hurdle and safely ready for adoption. Even by the end of the demonstration meal, Jean had improved Chloe's behavior by refusing to respond - or yield - to the dog's apparent aggression.
Jeff stresses, however, that this was the proper manner to handle Chloe and does not suggest that all biters be handled similarly. No two dogs are alike and to treat them as such could be extremely dangerous.
The story of Chloe is the story of hundreds of Jeff's biting clients. The circumstances differ, but the results are the same. Dogs that very likely would have been destroyed are not only still alive but happy, calm and trusted. Owners who have learned the "phenomenon of touch" from Jeff will continue to use it throughout the lives of their former biters to guarantee that their pets remain stable. Owners of dogs with behavioral problems other than biting will also continue to use it to channel their pets' energies in positive directions.
To own a dog is to be responsible for a life. Food, exercise and affection are part of that responsibility. So is understanding. Be the leader of your dog's pack. Nip its frenzy and it won't want to nip you.
