Jacob MorganYorkshire Canine Academy Brain

Build Your Dog's Resilience #dogtraining #dogbehavior #dogtips

5 Aug 2026 · 2 min

Watch on YouTube

1:36

In this monologue, the presenter explains a method for increasing a dog’s tolerance to other dogs by using a gradual, steady‑pressure exposure technique he calls the “Chinese water torture” analogy. He describes how a dog (Little John, a blue staffie) becomes stiff when another dog sniffs him, and how, by allowing the encounter to continue for a few seconds, issuing a “leave it” cue, and then moving the dog away, the dog learns that nothing negative follows the interaction. Repeating this process over many short exposures builds confidence and prevents the dog from reaching a threshold that would trigger aggression. The speaker also emphasizes the importance of having a reliable cue (e.g., “leave it” or a “false sniff”) to intervene before the threshold is crossed, and cites examples with other dogs (Owen the Rottweiler, Thor) to illustrate the need for timely separation to avoid fights.

Chapters

Whose dog, if anyone's, has been in the presence of another dog for a number of seconds and then something's happened? It happens a lot, right? Essentially what worked for me is the way I term it is like Chinese water torture, like an elongation of steady pressure. Nothing's changed, but the dog's just felt pressure for long enough and they've hit the threshold of like, oh, I can't cope with that anymore. So it might be that you've got to get your dog away from the dog. Owen's got a right big Rottie thought. My little blue staffie, Little John, he's the typical Chinese water torture dog. He's walking along, a dog will sniff him, he goes stiff. If we let that ride out, Little John goes— the unfortunate part of him is he doesn't do any vocalizing, no growling, no barking, no nothing. He just goes straight to walloping. Owen has got a good leave it, false sniff Little John, We let it go for a few seconds, leave it, get him away. Chinese water torture. And then what essentially you're doing is building Little John's tolerance of that. Oh, nothing happened that time. Let it happen again. Nothing happened that time. And by the time we got about a km into the walk, they'd sniffed each other a number of times and you could just see Little John's body language. Oh, okay. He's not coming at me because it purely comes from a spot of unsurity, right? He's not like he's never had any trauma. He's just not very sure about dogs. But essentially, we need a cue or a way of getting our dog away from that, whether it be Little John or whether it be Thor. We've got to separate them out so we don't hit that threshold point where something happens, right? Because who wants to split up a fight between a Staffie and a Roy? Not me.