In previous posts I've stated that there aren't just two forms of training for pet dogs, the pack leader model and operant conditioning, that there's a third method, called drive training, which has traditionally been used only for training attack dogs, detection dogs, search-and-rescue dogs, etc.

That all changed in 1992 when veteran police dog trainer Kevin Behan published Natural Dog Training, a comprehensive guide for training pet dogs using the prey drive as the focal point for learning new behaviors and for solving behavioral problems of all kinds.

Drive training is essentially about giving the dog an outlet for his energy, primarily the urge to bite. In Freudian terms, the trainer teaches the dog to "transfer" his urges and impulses onto objects of attraction.

Just as with operant conditioning, the 4 Quadrants of Drive Training come in pairs of opposites: attraction & resistance and tension & release. However, unlike + or - R and + or - P, which can only be measured in terms of statistical changes in behavior after the fact, attraction & resistance and tension & release can be measured empirically, in real time, via physiological changes in an animal's body.

There are also four basic ways to use drive training to solve behavioral problems. In this article we'll look at some old and some new ways of giving a dog a release for his or her pent-up energy. These include playing tug-of-war, which taps into the wolf's primary tension-release mechanism (the kill bite), and which use up more energy in less time than taking a dog on long walks, running her on a treadmill, or other "energy-draining" exercises. Other healthy outlets include playing fetch with a ball or Frisbee, rough-and-tumble chase sessions with other dogs (or with you!), and even taking your dog on long walks in a park or other natural setting.

Much of what I've learned about how dogs relieve internal tension and stress has become intuitive or second nature to me. For instance, I think one of the biggest sources of behavioral problems in adult dogs comes from being punished for mouthing during puppyhood. Absent a definite history of the dog's upbringing how does one know if this has happened? For me it's a matter of observing various kinds of troubled dogs over long periods of time and getting a feeling for how, when, and in what manner a dog's oral impulses are or aren't being expressed normally.

I had a session a few years ago with a client who owned a pit bull named Latte; she'd been found on the street, emaciated, a year earlier. She'd reportedly been a lovely girl in the interim, very affectionate indoors, but had recently started exhibiting occasional leash aggression outdoors.

When I came in and sat on the sofa, Latte was unable to settle down. We tried giving her a bone or a ball, but nothing seemed to calm her down, so while I was discussing options, I gently put my fingers into Latte's mouth, hoping to give her a chance to ground some of her excess energy by mouthing my hand. I did this reflexively because of a sense I had that the dog had been severely punished for mouthing when she was a puppy.

This only made her more uncomfortable, though. She pulled away, zipped around the room for a while, then finally settled next to me on the couch, "sneaked" in close and started to nibble on my fingers. I let her do that, praising her softly, and petting her with my other hand.

She mouthed my hand gently for about thirty seconds, then jumped up next to me on the sofa. Two minutes later she was sound asleep.

I didn't pay much attention; this happens to me a lot. I let the dogs nibble my fingers, they become very relaxed and then they fall asleep. But in a subsequent conversation, Latte's owner was amazed. She said, "She has never done that with someone new in the apartment, ever!"

That's when I actually remembered what I'd done, and realized that by letting Latte nibble my fingers, I'd taken her back to puppyhood so she could complete her oral development phase, or start to. I had also let her use me as a "ground wire," which enabled her to offload some of her pent-up aggression (or urge to bite) in the form of nibbling (one of the ways puppies bond) rather than the social-anxiety behaviors she'd been exhibiting. And that's why she became relaxed enough to fall asleep.

A few weeks later, however, I met another dog -- another pit bull -- whose energy was far too ungrounded for me to feel safe about putting my fingers anywhere near her mouth. So this is not something I'm recommending for everyone to do with just any dog. You have to have a very clear sense of how far off the charts the dog's oral impulses are.

Another, much safer way of grounding a dog's energy is through "The Eyes Exercise," used by many trainers as "Watch Me."

This exercise was invented by Kevin Behan in the early 1990s, but most trainers have learned it incorrectly. It's all in how you hold the treat when you begin the exercise, with your thumb and forefinger in a circle as you're holding the prey object (treat). Only by holding your hand in the specific way Kevin developed (which is quite easy), and by finding that magic spot -- roughly 3 - 5 inches from the dog's nose -- will the dog sit perfectly still, then automatically lock her eyes onto yours. (Then, of course, you say "Eyes," and give her the treat at the same time.)

I've done this exercise both ways, and it always works much quicker and is more effective when done the way Kevin designed it.

A big love of a mutt named Bailey had a leash-aggression problem, one that manifested itself initially as an "eye-stalk" behavior. Then when he got in close enough to the other dog, he would lunge and try to bite.

After teaching him the "Eyes" exercise, I was able to replace his need to stalk other dogs simply by saying, "Eyes!" and getting him to look me in the eye, i.e., offload his predatory energy into me. After I'd done that, I was then able to get him to calmly sniff-and-greet other dogs.

With dogs who have a generalized anxiety, the "eyes" can help settle their nerves. With others it's a bridge between feeling aggressive and releasing the energy behind that aggression via a quick game of tug.

This is a mistake I think some trainers make, of doing the "Watch Me!" game and thinking of it only as an alternative or replacement behavior. That's because without also giving a dog the opportunity to offload even more energy by biting and tugging on a toy, they're only accomplishing the first part of the process: re-focusing the dog. He's still going to have some pent-up aggression that will need to be downloaded in some way, at some future point in time. That's why I think it's much better to help such a dog release as much energy as possible the instant he's focused on you.

But what if you have a dog who won't play tug-of-war?

We'll cover that in the next installment.