Aggression in (mini) - Dogs

So today, I worked with a little lovely super cute dog that was terribly afraid of people.  She's superrrrrrrr SMALL, so really important that training was non-confrontational and non-physical.The problem: she barks and has bitten (attacked) people coming into her owner's office.So we spent an hour or two 're-teaching her' what to do.The aggression came out of fear. If she can't flight, she'll fight. So my job was to reteach her to 'flight'/'avoid' so then we can go on to show her that people are friendly.solution: I used a twin-reward system whereby the dog was given food and praise by the owner; and when she aggresses, the food and praise is removed. the owner walks away from the dog and eventually.... the dog stops barking. the first time it took maybe 20-30 seconds, then after 2 or 3 repetitions, the dog stopped barking as soon as the owner left. At the end of about an hour, we had a bunch of employees walking in and out of the office (unharmed) no barking and a dog literally eating out of everyone's hand.Fear aggression is probably one of the most 'careful' behaviours that has to be dealt with - and I know first hand because one of my dog's is super freaked out by new uninviting people. If in doubt, stand still. Don't run. A dog is WAY less likely to bite you if you are standing still. And take every bark seriously. Hard to imagine huh?