Most people I've talked to, their dogs have become aggressive after they've been attacked on lead by other dogs. A vicious circle I think.
I'm not sure about John Rogerson.
This is someones (in Anchorage) first hand experience in 2003. (I'm assuming we're talking abou the same person!)
"The thing that was impressed upon me the most was his use of the dogs
relationship with the owner to change the dogs behavior. This seems to be
contradictory to much of the operant conditioning we have been using to
train our dogs with.
For example, there was a very dog aggressive belgian. He put two leashes
on the dog and he held one and mom held one. The dog was walked near
another dog and as the dog began to pull towards the other dog the mom was
to throw the leash down with disgust, and speak loudly with disgust and
leave the room. The belgian was rather upset by this and wanted to go to
mom, but John kept her on the leash and walked her around. Every time she
looked at the other dog he pulled the leash so that the belgian was forced
closer to the other dog (explaining to us "you want a piece of that? I'll
give you a piece of that"). After a couple of repetitions the dog wouldn't
go anywhere near the object of the aggression. Her mom returned and they
walked towards the dog again. The belgian looked and walked as far away
from that dog as possible.
The other thing that was contradictory to so much i have learned is that
john often ends a training session on a BAD NOTE deliberately. He describes
a situation where his tracking dog knows very well how to find objects
hidden in a big field. Occasionally, he lets them loose in an empty field
with no objects, and tells them to find the objects. After a few minutes
they begin to get discouraged. He ends the session and while he distracts
his dog his wife throws a toy into the field. Instead of allowing his dog
to find the toy, he makes his dog watch as her dog finds the toy. He
believes this motivates a dog to work harder next time. "
Alison