Dealing with dog aggression in SchH - Page 2

I agree it can be controlled and dont find it a huge fault.. Couldve been attacked as a youngster or inherited but who knows. Either way, it shouldnt discount his working ability. TIme & Obedience Work should minimize this, but if hes super dominant it will always been an issue and owner must be responsible.

I had a Shep like this once. Was attacked as a youngster, forever on she was a terror and very dog aggessive. I take partial responsiblity for allowing this to happen, but sometimes they do when you least expect it..otherwise was a marvelous working dog and family pet..

The dog is 6 yrs old.  When will he "get it"?  If the dog was @ 2yrs old,  I would take the desensitizing approach too with obedience, but this may take a long time and time he does not have.  What is the point in trialing a dog for maybe a year after training him for 8 yrs?    I agree with GARD and the others.  Everything to this dog must be an obedience exercise.  The entire traffic test and check-in must be an obedience exercise.  He does them as directed.  This is tough.  Depending on the judge, the dog will probably be left alone with dogs passing by. 

I had a young female that didn't like other females.  This never came up until before a Sch 1.  Every day we checked into the judge with another female.  It not only helped to lower the stimuli, but the whole thing became more of an exercise to ignore the surroundings and focus on me. 

Too bad this wasn't worked on 4 yrs ago when he should have gone for the BH.  Why would you wait until a dog was 6 to start trialing?

It is the nature vs. nurture question. How much can we influence the inherited temperment of a dog?  If I socialize  and train OB a lot, the basic nature of a dog may still be very dominant, aggressive and diffiult to keep a handle on.  My 7 mo old pup has completed  several puppy and beginner classes, gone to the local dog park  4 days a week since she was 3 mos old and lives with my pack of 4 other dogs of various breeds.  She has recently started going after dogs at the dog park and starting fights (bigger dogs, like boxers and Great Danes!).  I can call her off and she will come to me, but the behavior is still totally unacceptable. She is fine at home with my dogs, fine on leash in class as long as she isn't  really close to another dog.  I would like feedback and suggestions, since I would like to keep taking her to the dogpark because that is where I swim her (and she needs that for her hip dysplasia).

Thanks

Inslee Baldwin

Florida

In my training with Ivan and Michael Ellis, both have been VERY dismissive of using an E-Collar to correct dog aggression!  What that teaches the dog is that anytime a dog comes by, something bad happens to me!  Then the dog has no idea of where in the hell that correction just came from, as far as he knows it came from that dog walking by, his eye balls radiated this intense amount of hurt, and next time, he's going to get that dog before that intense pain gets him first!!

Our club helper has worked a lot with bully breeds, and has had a lot of luck with dog aggression and it's just as Calvin mentioned above, it comes from the owner and it's not pretty!  The dog MUST know that you can at any time get in his face, and it is not going to be fun when you have to do that.  Obviously if their is any issue with the dog coming after the handler this is going to be a not very fun battle, but if this is the case, the dog probably should not be on the trialing field.  This can last for a good few minutes, but remember pressure on must have pressure OFF, and if this is what is going to happen, be sure the pressure off really is off.  Bill Szentmiklosi once told me, for every 100% of pressure on, it takes 150% to take it off.

There is nothing worse than trialing with someone who has a dog that EVERYONE knows will get up on the long down.  It makes for a very stressful trial, as if they weren't nerve racking already!  I do not ever again want to be on a trial field with a dog known to get up on the long down, let alone a dog that is aggressive just checking in.

I recalled my bitch from the running stand at this year's H.O.T and the dog on the down broke.  His owner said he was horny and just wanted to get to my female, she was not in heat not even close, been out for a few months, and had two more to go!  I know my female is pushy, and not super friendly to other dogs, she is however WELL behaved on the trial field.  I put in in a down and grabbed her collar before she could get to him, and the other dog's owner got him within about 8 feet of us, but let me tell you, I was shaking so bad, that the rest of our routine was CRAP!  I was not a happy camper to say the least!!!!

Best of luck.  Kari

It is kind of simple.  Let me give you an example.

Every time that I come on here, I want to tell someone to F-off.  When I drive, sometimes I want to ram my car up somebody's rear end.  When I am out in public, occasionally I would like to smack people.

I don't do these things because I have learned not to.  Not only because they may hurt someone else, but because I have learned that the consequences will be bad for me. 

A dog does not care that they may hurt another.  They do however care what may become of them.  They don't want harm to themselves.

Don, about his age.  He just started training with our club last December, returning to the sport from a hiatus of about 3 years.  Not sure if any of it was about the dog aggression but I know it was mostly for a move out of state that took a long time.  As far as performence the dog didn't seem to miss a beat.  This year he had to take a couple months off to recover from bloat that occurred around March.  

Thanks again everyone!

Melanie

I only pointed out the age because numerous people seem to think that this dog has years to desensitize him.  I was only pointing out that the dog was six and didn't have a whole lot of time.

No problem, it is something I probably should have explained sooner anyhoo...thanks

If your going to do the "in your face" domination technuiqe (It does work if done right) make sure you have a muzzle on that dog!

This is a great subject and great timing for me as well,
I have a 16 mo. old male that is dog aggressive. This is the first animal that I have had to deal with this to this extent. It sorta crept up on me. He is the first dog I have owned that I did not do lots of dog socializing with. I have been using obedience with corrections for looking aggressively at another dog from a distance. It has been slow progress. I have not opted to do electric correction for a number of reasons mostly being that I have always believed that if the correction comes to close to the dog making contact with the other dog that it will produce exactly what KariM and others have stated. The dog associates the correction with the other dog and is even more determined to hurt him.
However, I have always assumed that if the E correction is timed right, before the dog physically moves towards him, then the correction along with "NO" or "LEAVE IT", etc will at least teach the dog the need to be responsive to my " NO". 
From what I am gathering from most is that this is not so. Don C's last statement that  " they don't want harm to themselves" seems to being saying the oppisite. My question then is, are all corrections not necessary even if timed before the dog engages or is still just at the awareness of another dogs presence? Is simply giving a heal comand, for example, better then a firm correction immediatly with a "NO" then heal etc. Thanks for ideas