Tuesday, October 16, 2012
Four legged friends (and enemies): Man stabs American Bulldog after it attacks his do...
Four legged friends (and enemies): Man stabs American Bulldog after it attacks his do...: UNITED KINGDOM -- The owner, Daisy Jenkins, cradled her dying American bulldog after it was stabbed repeatedly by Wayne Stearman, who said h...
Friday, October 12, 2012
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
An Organic Conversation | National Geographic Channel
An Organic Conversation | National Geographic Channel: Cesar helps interpret for this couple what their dog is saying to other dogs "organically". Akita featured
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
Criticism bounces off local inventor of rubber noise barriers for roads Columbia man invests life's savings in product
Driving forces behind our inefficient transportation systems.
Criticism bounces off local inventor of rubber noise barriers for roads Columbia man invests life's savings in product
September 10, 1996|By Alisa Samuels | Alisa Samuels,SUN STAFF
Indu Mishra of Columbia's Harper's Choice village is so confident that his creation of noise barrier walls made out of recycled and ground rubber will one day be a success that he's poured $100,000 of his own money and countless hours of labor into it.
But the concept of rubber sound walls just bounces off critics who say rubber noise barrier walls aren't attractive and that they cost more to make than traditional concrete barriers.
Ads by Google
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We Recycle Uncured Rubber, Belting Silicone, Hose, and Coated Fabrics
www.harmonyrecycling.com
Used Tire Shop in Tracy
Used Tires at Affordable Prices. Visit Our Shop Today for More Info.
CityTireAndWheelTracyCA.com/Tires
They also worry that using the nation's surplus of discarded tires could create barriers that leak vapors into the environment and contaminate the surroundings and are susceptible to fires.
Mishra, a Morgan State University chemistry professor, disputes those criticisms and says that if he didn't believe in his product -- called "kanwall" -- he would not have invested all his savings into it.
He's also had independent laboratories conduct tests and they found his product is effective and safe and will not burn. "We have put it to the severest tests and it does not burn," Mishra says.
Use of kanwall could help rid the country of solid waste in landfills, he said.
"I have a new technology," Mishra says, holding a sample panel of his product at his dinner table recently. "I'm very optimistic. I know it will fly one day."
But even after a five-year struggle, Mishra hasn't found a buyer for his product -- panels made of recycled tire-rubber slabs bonded to steel decks. He also hasn't been able to obtain a patent for kanwall, named after his wife, Kanan, a college professor.
Even so, Robert Armstrong, the noise team leader in the Office of Environment and Planning for the Federal Highway Administration (FHA) in Washington, calls Mishra a leader in the booming industry of noise barrier walls.
"He was one of the innovators," Armstrong says. "He was one of the first people I had heard of using grinded up rubber for noise barrier designs."
But Mishra is not the only person trying to use rubber for noise barrier walls. For example:
Since 1989, Carsonite International in South Carolina has sold a product with a fiberglass-like outer shell and rubber interior.
DuBrook in Virginia uses a scrap rubber and concrete combination for noise barrier walls.
Sound Zero in Birdsboro, Pa., manufactures recycled rubber facing material that is used with precast concrete and composite steel.
Despite the range of companies experimenting with recycled tires, Armstrong says, "the idea of using recycled rubber has not had a rousing success."
He said transportation agencies across the country are concerned about its aesthetics, the environmental impact and what happens if "a vehicle running into a barrier catches on fire? Will it produce a toxic gas or a toxic product?"
Most transportation agencies prefer sticking with the tried-and-true pre-cast concrete, says Armstrong.
El Angove, publisher of the 3-year-old Wall Journal in Florida, said the rubber concept has shortcomings, but he sees benefits. "All those stupid tires, they need to be gotten rid of," said Angove, who publishes the international publication on transportation-related and environmental issues.
Ads by Google
tire recycling plant
High quality, heavy duty reasonable price you can afford!
www.tire-crusher.com
San Jose Tire Dealer
Buy Quality Auto Tires at Great Prices! Call Us for More Details.
www.TireAndWheelWarehouse.net
And as the construction industry is increasingly hard hit, more people want a piece of the sound-wall pie. Each wall averages $1 million per linear mile.
As Armstrong says, people think "there's a lot of money. Can I get some too?"
Mishra touts kanwall as a material to drown out sound from highways and airports -- and says it might also be possible to use it in roofing and drywall in houses. "People haven't caught up with the idea of using rubber walls," he says.
About two years ago, Mishra asked the State Highway Administration (SHA) to take a look at his product for possible use on Maryland highways.
SHA officials looked at his mock wall that was assembled near BWI airport and were concerned about two basics: structure and appearance, says Charlie Adams, director of office of environmental designs at SHA's Baltimore office.
"It just looks like a plain flat shiny wall," Adams says, adding: "You can literally -- just with your hands -- just pull the pieces of the shredded rubber off the wall."
Another SHA concern was the flammability issue.
Since SHA turned down the kanwall, Mishra has created another design called exposed aggregate, which has stones on the top of the surface. He's hoping SHA will give this option a trial.
For now, he said he will suffer through the growing pains of being an inventor, believing one day his product will be bought. "I'm ready to sell it," he said.
Pub Date: 9/10/96
Criticism bounces off local inventor of rubber noise barriers for roads Columbia man invests life's savings in product
Where Rubber Meets the Road, It's a Mess
Environment: Two Washington state highways repaired with recycled-tire fill are smoking and oozing a toxic goo. They pose a threat to nearby marshes.
April 21, 1996|PEGGY ANDERSEN | ASSOCIATED PRESS Email
Share
ILWACO, Wash. — What at first seemed like a brilliant way to get rid of mountains of old tires has given new meaning to the old saying about what paves the road to hell.
Two highways repaired with chunks of rubber are smoking and oozing a toxic, oily goo that is threatening nearby marshes on the Columbia River.
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tire recycling plant
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Digging out the mess will cost from $1 million to $3 million, officials estimate.
The state used the rubber from a million recycled tires in place of rock or gravel to provide 7,000 cubic feet of fill when it rebuilt a 150-foot stretch of state Route 100 last October.
The road runs atop an embankment above Baker Bay, a pretty inlet at the mouth of the Columbia River, tucked into the little curlicue at the state's southwest tip.
The first sign of trouble came in December when asphalt pavement laid over the fill began to crack, split and give off wisps of noxious smoke, with temperatures up to 160 degrees.
Some of that buried rubber had started burning, apparently through natural processes, similar to what heats up a compost pile. And as the rubber heats up, it releases a goo that oozes to the surface and flows onto the mud flats below, dangerously close to a saltwater marsh and freshwater wetlands.
It smells like creosote, with a burned-plastic undertone.
The underground combustion is generating toxins such as benzene, a known carcinogen, said Coast Guard Lt. Rob Myles.
Workers at the site must wear protective masks.
In southeastern Washington, a 350-foot stretch of a Garfield County road has been emitting smoke--and even flames--since January at the site of another repair job late last year that used chipped tires.
Both roads have been closed pending removal of the tires.
"They're going to go in and take the part that's burning out," said Dana Humphrey at the University of Maine.
Above-ground tire fires are not uncommon--in March, a huge tire dump fire in Philadelphia damaged an elevated highway that ran over the site.
But this rubber is underground, without enough air to allow complete combustion.
"There's never been a tire fire under a road. There's no history of methods to use," said Joe Zellibor, a former science advisor to the Scrap-Tire Management Council in the Rubber Manufacturers Assn. His expertise is being tapped by state officials.
Route 100 leads to Fort Canby State Park, where the expedition led by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark reached the Pacific in 1805.
The cleanup is complicated because eagles are nesting nearby and by the spring migration of ocean-bound salmon fingerlings, said biologist Thom Hooper of the state Department of Fish and Wildlife. And salmon spawning will begin in about a month.
Ads by Google
Used Tire Shop in Tracy
Used Tires at Affordable Prices. Visit Our Shop Today for More Info.
CityTireAndWheelTracyCA.com/Tires
Heavy Duty Rubber Mats
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While there are concerns about the effect on the wildlife of all of the heavy equipment and people to be used in the cleanup, there's a sense of urgency because the rubber in each tire contains hydrocarbon compounds equivalent to about a gallon of oil.
"We're here because there is potential for a million-gallon oil spill," said Myles of the Coast Guard's San Francisco-based oil-spill strike team.
Humphrey, a civil engineering professor, is completing a report on the problem for the Federal Highway Administration, which has encouraged use of recycled-tire materials.
Lessons learned here will help with future projects, Humphrey said. About 250 million used tires are discarded each year in the United States, and "we can use up a heck of a lot of tires even on small projects," he said.
His report surveyed 70 known projects using tire-chip fill.
At Ilwaco, the recycled rubber is piled to a maximum depth of 27 feet on a 4-foot gravel bed, topped with 3 to 5 feet of soil. In Garfield County, where the repair involved a gully, the tire layer is about 45 feet deep.
It's not known exactly what is happening to the 4- to 6-inch chunks of rubber buried beneath the two roadways.
"There are a lot of unknowns," said hazardous-materials specialist Melany Lee of the state Transportation Department, slogging through the mud below the tire-fill slope.
But it appears that the process is a lot like what produces heat in a compost pile, she said.
Pressure, water, microbes--"you wouldn't think they'd munch on tires, but they do"--and the rubber itself are combining to create chemical heat measured as high as 160 degrees at cracks in the road's surface and probably hovering around 450 degrees deep inside the embankment.
Humphrey offered a range of other possible factors, including heat generated by the rusting of wire from steel-belted radial tires, and sulfuric acid, a possible byproduct from bacterial breakdown of sulfur-containing rubber compounds.
The only other report of a similar heat reaction came in October from Colorado, where tires were used as fill along Interstate 70 in Glenwood Canyon. The reaction stopped when the upper part of the fill was removed, Humphrey said.
http://science.kqed.org/quest/audio/building-better-roads/
http://www.thefreelibrary.com/The+use+of+recycled+materials+in+highway+construction.-a016340226
<a href="http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Solutions+to+the+rubber+waste+problem+incorporating+the+use+of...-a018348933">Solutions to the rubber waste problem incorporating the use of recycled rubber.</a>
Criticism bounces off local inventor of rubber noise barriers for roads Columbia man invests life's savings in product
September 10, 1996|By Alisa Samuels | Alisa Samuels,SUN STAFF
Indu Mishra of Columbia's Harper's Choice village is so confident that his creation of noise barrier walls made out of recycled and ground rubber will one day be a success that he's poured $100,000 of his own money and countless hours of labor into it.
But the concept of rubber sound walls just bounces off critics who say rubber noise barrier walls aren't attractive and that they cost more to make than traditional concrete barriers.
Ads by Google
Scrap Rubber Goods Wanted
We Recycle Uncured Rubber, Belting Silicone, Hose, and Coated Fabrics
www.harmonyrecycling.com
Used Tire Shop in Tracy
Used Tires at Affordable Prices. Visit Our Shop Today for More Info.
CityTireAndWheelTracyCA.com/Tires
They also worry that using the nation's surplus of discarded tires could create barriers that leak vapors into the environment and contaminate the surroundings and are susceptible to fires.
Mishra, a Morgan State University chemistry professor, disputes those criticisms and says that if he didn't believe in his product -- called "kanwall" -- he would not have invested all his savings into it.
He's also had independent laboratories conduct tests and they found his product is effective and safe and will not burn. "We have put it to the severest tests and it does not burn," Mishra says.
Use of kanwall could help rid the country of solid waste in landfills, he said.
"I have a new technology," Mishra says, holding a sample panel of his product at his dinner table recently. "I'm very optimistic. I know it will fly one day."
But even after a five-year struggle, Mishra hasn't found a buyer for his product -- panels made of recycled tire-rubber slabs bonded to steel decks. He also hasn't been able to obtain a patent for kanwall, named after his wife, Kanan, a college professor.
Even so, Robert Armstrong, the noise team leader in the Office of Environment and Planning for the Federal Highway Administration (FHA) in Washington, calls Mishra a leader in the booming industry of noise barrier walls.
"He was one of the innovators," Armstrong says. "He was one of the first people I had heard of using grinded up rubber for noise barrier designs."
But Mishra is not the only person trying to use rubber for noise barrier walls. For example:
Since 1989, Carsonite International in South Carolina has sold a product with a fiberglass-like outer shell and rubber interior.
DuBrook in Virginia uses a scrap rubber and concrete combination for noise barrier walls.
Sound Zero in Birdsboro, Pa., manufactures recycled rubber facing material that is used with precast concrete and composite steel.
Despite the range of companies experimenting with recycled tires, Armstrong says, "the idea of using recycled rubber has not had a rousing success."
He said transportation agencies across the country are concerned about its aesthetics, the environmental impact and what happens if "a vehicle running into a barrier catches on fire? Will it produce a toxic gas or a toxic product?"
Most transportation agencies prefer sticking with the tried-and-true pre-cast concrete, says Armstrong.
El Angove, publisher of the 3-year-old Wall Journal in Florida, said the rubber concept has shortcomings, but he sees benefits. "All those stupid tires, they need to be gotten rid of," said Angove, who publishes the international publication on transportation-related and environmental issues.
Ads by Google
tire recycling plant
High quality, heavy duty reasonable price you can afford!
www.tire-crusher.com
San Jose Tire Dealer
Buy Quality Auto Tires at Great Prices! Call Us for More Details.
www.TireAndWheelWarehouse.net
And as the construction industry is increasingly hard hit, more people want a piece of the sound-wall pie. Each wall averages $1 million per linear mile.
As Armstrong says, people think "there's a lot of money. Can I get some too?"
Mishra touts kanwall as a material to drown out sound from highways and airports -- and says it might also be possible to use it in roofing and drywall in houses. "People haven't caught up with the idea of using rubber walls," he says.
About two years ago, Mishra asked the State Highway Administration (SHA) to take a look at his product for possible use on Maryland highways.
SHA officials looked at his mock wall that was assembled near BWI airport and were concerned about two basics: structure and appearance, says Charlie Adams, director of office of environmental designs at SHA's Baltimore office.
"It just looks like a plain flat shiny wall," Adams says, adding: "You can literally -- just with your hands -- just pull the pieces of the shredded rubber off the wall."
Another SHA concern was the flammability issue.
Since SHA turned down the kanwall, Mishra has created another design called exposed aggregate, which has stones on the top of the surface. He's hoping SHA will give this option a trial.
For now, he said he will suffer through the growing pains of being an inventor, believing one day his product will be bought. "I'm ready to sell it," he said.
Pub Date: 9/10/96
Criticism bounces off local inventor of rubber noise barriers for roads Columbia man invests life's savings in product
Where Rubber Meets the Road, It's a Mess
Environment: Two Washington state highways repaired with recycled-tire fill are smoking and oozing a toxic goo. They pose a threat to nearby marshes.
April 21, 1996|PEGGY ANDERSEN | ASSOCIATED PRESS Email
Share
ILWACO, Wash. — What at first seemed like a brilliant way to get rid of mountains of old tires has given new meaning to the old saying about what paves the road to hell.
Two highways repaired with chunks of rubber are smoking and oozing a toxic, oily goo that is threatening nearby marshes on the Columbia River.
Ads by Google
Arsenic in Rice?
Make sure you have all the facts Go to our site to learn more
www.arsenicfacts.usarice.com/
tire recycling plant
High quality, heavy duty reasonable price you can afford!
www.tire-crusher.com
Digging out the mess will cost from $1 million to $3 million, officials estimate.
The state used the rubber from a million recycled tires in place of rock or gravel to provide 7,000 cubic feet of fill when it rebuilt a 150-foot stretch of state Route 100 last October.
The road runs atop an embankment above Baker Bay, a pretty inlet at the mouth of the Columbia River, tucked into the little curlicue at the state's southwest tip.
The first sign of trouble came in December when asphalt pavement laid over the fill began to crack, split and give off wisps of noxious smoke, with temperatures up to 160 degrees.
Some of that buried rubber had started burning, apparently through natural processes, similar to what heats up a compost pile. And as the rubber heats up, it releases a goo that oozes to the surface and flows onto the mud flats below, dangerously close to a saltwater marsh and freshwater wetlands.
It smells like creosote, with a burned-plastic undertone.
The underground combustion is generating toxins such as benzene, a known carcinogen, said Coast Guard Lt. Rob Myles.
Workers at the site must wear protective masks.
In southeastern Washington, a 350-foot stretch of a Garfield County road has been emitting smoke--and even flames--since January at the site of another repair job late last year that used chipped tires.
Both roads have been closed pending removal of the tires.
"They're going to go in and take the part that's burning out," said Dana Humphrey at the University of Maine.
Above-ground tire fires are not uncommon--in March, a huge tire dump fire in Philadelphia damaged an elevated highway that ran over the site.
But this rubber is underground, without enough air to allow complete combustion.
"There's never been a tire fire under a road. There's no history of methods to use," said Joe Zellibor, a former science advisor to the Scrap-Tire Management Council in the Rubber Manufacturers Assn. His expertise is being tapped by state officials.
Route 100 leads to Fort Canby State Park, where the expedition led by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark reached the Pacific in 1805.
The cleanup is complicated because eagles are nesting nearby and by the spring migration of ocean-bound salmon fingerlings, said biologist Thom Hooper of the state Department of Fish and Wildlife. And salmon spawning will begin in about a month.
Ads by Google
Used Tire Shop in Tracy
Used Tires at Affordable Prices. Visit Our Shop Today for More Info.
CityTireAndWheelTracyCA.com/Tires
Heavy Duty Rubber Mats
The best mats on the market. The lowest price guaranteed.
Mats.TheIndustrialSources.com
While there are concerns about the effect on the wildlife of all of the heavy equipment and people to be used in the cleanup, there's a sense of urgency because the rubber in each tire contains hydrocarbon compounds equivalent to about a gallon of oil.
"We're here because there is potential for a million-gallon oil spill," said Myles of the Coast Guard's San Francisco-based oil-spill strike team.
Humphrey, a civil engineering professor, is completing a report on the problem for the Federal Highway Administration, which has encouraged use of recycled-tire materials.
Lessons learned here will help with future projects, Humphrey said. About 250 million used tires are discarded each year in the United States, and "we can use up a heck of a lot of tires even on small projects," he said.
His report surveyed 70 known projects using tire-chip fill.
At Ilwaco, the recycled rubber is piled to a maximum depth of 27 feet on a 4-foot gravel bed, topped with 3 to 5 feet of soil. In Garfield County, where the repair involved a gully, the tire layer is about 45 feet deep.
It's not known exactly what is happening to the 4- to 6-inch chunks of rubber buried beneath the two roadways.
"There are a lot of unknowns," said hazardous-materials specialist Melany Lee of the state Transportation Department, slogging through the mud below the tire-fill slope.
But it appears that the process is a lot like what produces heat in a compost pile, she said.
Pressure, water, microbes--"you wouldn't think they'd munch on tires, but they do"--and the rubber itself are combining to create chemical heat measured as high as 160 degrees at cracks in the road's surface and probably hovering around 450 degrees deep inside the embankment.
Humphrey offered a range of other possible factors, including heat generated by the rusting of wire from steel-belted radial tires, and sulfuric acid, a possible byproduct from bacterial breakdown of sulfur-containing rubber compounds.
The only other report of a similar heat reaction came in October from Colorado, where tires were used as fill along Interstate 70 in Glenwood Canyon. The reaction stopped when the upper part of the fill was removed, Humphrey said.
http://science.kqed.org/quest/audio/building-better-roads/
http://www.thefreelibrary.com/The+use+of+recycled+materials+in+highway+construction.-a016340226
<a href="http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Solutions+to+the+rubber+waste+problem+incorporating+the+use+of...-a018348933">Solutions to the rubber waste problem incorporating the use of recycled rubber.</a>
Inside Story US 2012 - Ignoring America's poor
Inside Story US 2012 - Ignoring America's poor
Yep, Once you turn 60 medical coverage is more than doubled. One friend's health insurance (despite him paying into the program since the 1970's) rates increased to more than $800.00 per month, just to cover himself, no dependents, no illnesses or diseases, no preexisting conditions.. He visited the MD, utilized health care services, less than 5 times, if not fewer, in the last 20 years. Despite all this, Kaiser raised his rates just because he turned 60 years old.
Yep, Once you turn 60 medical coverage is more than doubled. One friend's health insurance (despite him paying into the program since the 1970's) rates increased to more than $800.00 per month, just to cover himself, no dependents, no illnesses or diseases, no preexisting conditions.. He visited the MD, utilized health care services, less than 5 times, if not fewer, in the last 20 years. Despite all this, Kaiser raised his rates just because he turned 60 years old.
Thursday, October 4, 2012
What is 'frustrative aggression'?
What is 'frustrative aggression'? Here's a piece copied from the wayback machine archive. Could this behavior also manifest itself in poorly socialized, isolated humans?
What is 'frustrative aggression'?
Studies show that dogs who are regularly tied, or walked on a tight leash, or those who are restricted mostly to their yards, have a significantly higher number of incidents involving unprovoked aggression than those who are not. It appears that a dog's social nature is so innate, that attempts to restrict this natural desire only result in aberrant behaviour. However, the solution is not simply allowing dogs to run free. To better understand the cause and effect of inappropriate aggression in dogs, we must first understand what makes dogs 'tick'.
Dogs are social animals. They absolutely require a pack structure to survive. Dogs also naturally crave interaction with other dogs. So why, if dogs are so social, do we sometimes see dogs behaving badly?
Part of living in society is behaviour modification. Humans don't trespass onto their neighbours' properties simply because it is convenient, nor do we play loud music at all hours of the day and night because we enjoy it. We modify our own behaviour so as not to inconvenience other citizens. When we choose to bring dogs into our homes, we accept responsibility for teaching them how to behave in human society. Similarly, dogs have their own social rules. They use body language to signal their intentions to other dogs. However, dogs are not born knowing these signals. They must learn from other dogs.
Sadly, because all too many dog owners fail to train their dogs adequately, most communities require dogs to be leashed when in public. This is unfortunate because it sometimes leads to inappropriate use of that training tool. Which brings us to the concept of 'frustrative aggression'.
The term 'canine frustrative aggression' was coined when studying aggression in dogs. Researchers noticed that dogs who were not allowed to interact "naturally" or "on their own terms" with others, via physical restraint (in most cases a leash or tether, but can also refer to a fence line), developed behaviours which led to aggression. By the same token, they noticed a much lower incidence of these kinds of behaviours amongst dogs who had been trained to control their own behaviour through obedience training and regular socialization. Click here for tips on 'heeling'.
In practical terms, this is almost intuitive. A dog who heels, for example, is not merely being physically manipulated by way of a tight leash. Rather, that dog has learned to control her own behaviour. A dog who is always physically restrained never learns how to control its behaviour.
The researchers also noticed that the longer a dog was physically restricted from normal interactions, the more intense was the desire to gain contact. This increasing excitability would grow from mere exuberance to overwhelming agitation, and sometimes even aggression. When dogs aren't properly socialized, they misinterpret the signals given by strangers. Sometimes they interpret these unfamiliar signals as threatening. The concern for society is the danger these dogs pose, should they find themselves loose, one day.
'Frustrative aggression' essentially refers to domestic dogs who have not been allowed to develop normal social behaviours as a result of always being physically restricted from such interactions. This form of aggression is entirely induced by humans. 'Frustrative aggression' is unknown in wild canids. As a result, we know the only way to prevent this kind of aggressive behaviour is to teach basic obedience (heeling), combined with regular socialization experiences. Doing so results in a dog who can be trusted to interact with others without becoming overly excited, and never threatening, whether on-leash or off.
Splash Home Site Map Contact
© 2002-2007 GoodPooch.com
What is 'frustrative aggression'?
Studies show that dogs who are regularly tied, or walked on a tight leash, or those who are restricted mostly to their yards, have a significantly higher number of incidents involving unprovoked aggression than those who are not. It appears that a dog's social nature is so innate, that attempts to restrict this natural desire only result in aberrant behaviour. However, the solution is not simply allowing dogs to run free. To better understand the cause and effect of inappropriate aggression in dogs, we must first understand what makes dogs 'tick'.
Dogs are social animals. They absolutely require a pack structure to survive. Dogs also naturally crave interaction with other dogs. So why, if dogs are so social, do we sometimes see dogs behaving badly?
Part of living in society is behaviour modification. Humans don't trespass onto their neighbours' properties simply because it is convenient, nor do we play loud music at all hours of the day and night because we enjoy it. We modify our own behaviour so as not to inconvenience other citizens. When we choose to bring dogs into our homes, we accept responsibility for teaching them how to behave in human society. Similarly, dogs have their own social rules. They use body language to signal their intentions to other dogs. However, dogs are not born knowing these signals. They must learn from other dogs.
Sadly, because all too many dog owners fail to train their dogs adequately, most communities require dogs to be leashed when in public. This is unfortunate because it sometimes leads to inappropriate use of that training tool. Which brings us to the concept of 'frustrative aggression'.
The term 'canine frustrative aggression' was coined when studying aggression in dogs. Researchers noticed that dogs who were not allowed to interact "naturally" or "on their own terms" with others, via physical restraint (in most cases a leash or tether, but can also refer to a fence line), developed behaviours which led to aggression. By the same token, they noticed a much lower incidence of these kinds of behaviours amongst dogs who had been trained to control their own behaviour through obedience training and regular socialization. Click here for tips on 'heeling'.
In practical terms, this is almost intuitive. A dog who heels, for example, is not merely being physically manipulated by way of a tight leash. Rather, that dog has learned to control her own behaviour. A dog who is always physically restrained never learns how to control its behaviour.
The researchers also noticed that the longer a dog was physically restricted from normal interactions, the more intense was the desire to gain contact. This increasing excitability would grow from mere exuberance to overwhelming agitation, and sometimes even aggression. When dogs aren't properly socialized, they misinterpret the signals given by strangers. Sometimes they interpret these unfamiliar signals as threatening. The concern for society is the danger these dogs pose, should they find themselves loose, one day.
'Frustrative aggression' essentially refers to domestic dogs who have not been allowed to develop normal social behaviours as a result of always being physically restricted from such interactions. This form of aggression is entirely induced by humans. 'Frustrative aggression' is unknown in wild canids. As a result, we know the only way to prevent this kind of aggressive behaviour is to teach basic obedience (heeling), combined with regular socialization experiences. Doing so results in a dog who can be trusted to interact with others without becoming overly excited, and never threatening, whether on-leash or off.
Splash Home Site Map Contact
© 2002-2007 GoodPooch.com
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