"Firm" correction occasionally results in "firm" protest...

[Malakai]

I realize that questions like this are often impossible to address without meeting the dog/owner and knowing some history, but I would still appreciate any input. Here's the situation.

We walk our 1.5 year-old male on a 6' lead and a pinch collar. We occasionally have to correct over-excited behavior (such as pulling, darting toward dangerous things like the road or cactus, etc) and a firm correction on the lead usually does the trick. I do my best to use the pinch collar as an on/off switch and as a firm correction rather than a nagging one. Under these circumstances, things work well. However, in the event that he begins to pull toward another dog, lunge at a cyclist, or chase a small animal, a firm correction frequently results in increased aggression. What begings as a "tractor pull" results in snarling/growling after being corrected. Out of curiosity, I allowed him to approach a couple of neighborhood dogs (that I knew) pulling all he wanted with no correction, and there was never any aggression during the encounter.

This tells me that his intentions toward these objects is not necessarily aggression since he's well behaved when allowed to approach on his own. Rather, it's as if he's trying to correct me when I protest his lunging/pulling behavior. I am prepared for the battle of will, but I don't want to make things worse with improper actions. Remember, this doesn't happen all the time and I am not yet able to identify what's different in each situation.

So the Cliff's Notes question is...when a firm correction occasionally results in an aggressive protest, what approach do you take? Thanks for any help!

[Judi W]

So it is not really an issue of his being aggressive, but an issue of his totally disrespecting your control (or attempted control) or thwarting what he wants.

Answer: Serious formal obedience training not just attempted control for going for walks.

Sounds like a simplistic answer, but it is the answer.

[Ramon]

I totally disagree that your dog is trying to correct you for protesting his "innocent" behavior of approaching other dogs. You didn't give all the details of the encounter. What kind of dogs were these, and how close was your dog allowed to get? I assume you wouldn't have let him get close to aggressive dogs, so I'll take the position that these dogs were submissive and non-threatening. What would have happened if a dog challenged him?
If curbing aggression toward dogs, animals, and cyclists is a concern of yours, you need to address the pulling one way or another. If someone else knows a way to address it behaviorally, that's great. Personally, my next step would be to raise the level of correction. Prong collars were not enough to address my dog's dog-aggression. I needed an electric collar. I'm not saying that's the solution everyone should use, it's just an example. Of course, your risk here is raising the dog's level of aggression towards you. Oh well, not everything in life is easy! :D

[Judi W]

I have found that most dogs however accept without protest corrections by their leader for actions they know and have been taught are wrong. The correction is not a teaching tool, but rather just what it is called - correcting to the right action. The teaching not to pull and to respond to instructions is best done away from the emotional areas and then transferred. Now, the level of correction might certainly need to be heightened if after some darn good training, the dog still believes it can bull its way past what you want, but the training comes first. If the dog is protesting the correction, the training needs to be firmed up.