Dealing with dog aggression in SchH - Page 1

A  member at my club has a super dog, this dog is ready NOW for his SchH3 and FH2 (tracks and indicates articles blindfolded) but he DOESN'T EVEN HAVE HIS BH yet!  He is dog aggressive and his owner is petrified to trial him.   When working his dog is fine, completely focused on work, but he is very nervous about the traffic test for the BH and reporting to the judge off leash for the subsiquent SchH titles.

His dog has been doing very good lately.  We've been tieing him out and heeling dogs near him and using electric for corrections.  But this past weekend he let his guard down while practicing reporting to the judge and his dog broke away and went after the other dog. 

He's really in the dumps and seriously considering calling it quits.  I feel very bad for him, he's got a super working dog.  I tried giving him a pep talk and told him he needs to practice much more behavior modification excersises while he's at the club, much more than regular training. 

We gave him some different things to do for this but any suggestions would be appreciated, perhaps someone will come up with something different.

Also, what should he do for trial day, no leash, no e collar???????

Thanks,
Melanie

Melanie,

Your friend needs to get control of this dog before considering trialling.  By the way, IMO a dog aggressive dog is not a "super working dog".  A working dog should be stable, reliable, and neutral to dogs and people alike.  Sorry if this sounds harsh, but this hits too close to home.  We've got a lady in our club with a very nice female that was attacked by a dog aggressive dog during her SchH2 trial.  Poor Afra has never been the same again, and is always looking over her shoulder, so to speak, when at trial around dogs. 

Forget the FH2 tracking - training time at club should be focused on behavior modification, as you put it.  If the dog can't pass a BH for aggression problems, then SchH3 doesn't mean crap.

Kudos to your friend for thinking of the potential threat that this dog poses, before just showing up at trail.

Yvette

melaine,  no no no!!! tell him not to quit!  anne kent from adlerstein adviced me quite some time ago about controlling aggression thru obedience.  i repeat her advice every chance i get because it is some of the best advice i have ever gotten.  please tell him to call her or email her.  i don't know where your friend is (where you are training) but anne is in california.  if at all possible, it would be worth a trip to go see her and train with her.

i'll repeat this again for everyone else's benefit since this topic comes up repeatedly:

AGGRESSION CAN BE CONTROLLED THRU OBEDIENCE.

the key to success is not correcting the dog for displaying aggressive behavior, but to correct for incorrect obedience.  making a correction for aggressive behavior only intensifies that behavior.

(JMHO, but an e-collar is the worst possible method of trying to control dog on dog aggression)

pjp

"the key to success is not correcting the dog for displaying aggressive behavior, but to correct for incorrect obedience.  making a correction for aggressive behavior only intensifies that behavior."

Very true....and so often not understood.

I repeat OB is "the end all/be all" the rest is the icing on the cake.

Perhaps instead of using an e-collar and other forms of "correction" the time would be better spent in desensitising and counter conditioning this dog's behaviour towards other dogs?

Time spent in changing the conditioned emotional response from "let me at him" to "yippee there is another dog" to complete indifference means that you will not merely be controlling his attitude but changing it................

Just a thought!

SchHbabe says "Your friend needs to get control of this dog before considering trialling"

That's what we are trying to do here.  So you think he should quit?  You are right about the definition of a great working dog but I was trying to convey he's a super working dog EXCEPT FOR THIS, sorry if I didn't make that clear.  This dog is 6 years old and this man has put so much heart into training him, sorry, I feel bad for him. 

Maybe we can always have a dummy dog in for him just for the "potential possibility", If he fails he fails and he likely won't try again, but no other young competative dog will be "damaged".  That is what eats at him...the "other dog" and his owner. 

Thank you Ziegenfarm, I train in Eastern PA...if you can email me her number I'll pass it on to him GSDfan1@yahoo.com, perhaps just talking about it with her can help, I doubt he'll make it to CA.

I agree about the OB thing, BUT like I said he's fine when in "OB mode", it is the informal times like the traffic test that he's worried about.  This last incident at training.  He was in a hurry and pulled the dog out cold and went to "report in".  He even said that he didn't "put him in OB mode first" by heeling around for a few moments.

Thanks for your comments all, keep them comming.

Obedience is the key to dog aggression. If the OB is rock solid, the problem takes care of itself. If the dog breaks to go after another dog, it is not trial ready.

I would stay away from the electric as a correction for dog aggression. It will actually increase the aggression. You can try the counter conditioning. That's what I would do. Most often correction for aggression increases aggression.

I agree with Langhaar, controlling his attitude will not solve your problem, you will be prone to an accident. But changing the attitude will give you  much  success. I had my male attacked twice while on a leash when he was young and he became dog aggressive for awhile, now he will ignore other dogs. I began walking him with other dogs, at first had to muzzle the s.o.b. I started taking him to OB clasess anywhere and everywhere, I felt like we we were going 7 days a week. He did not need the OB but the social around the other dogs. i use to get very strange looks when I took a petsmart class, and was speeking german to my dog, and he would do as asked perfectly as the other dogs were out of control, the first few times this also made him very nervous. Also, I always found one Ahole dog in the bunch, so I use to look for him and stay away from that one until later in the classes, then I would carefully test the waters by having that dog in front of us, then more time and try him behind us. if you try this make sure before you go, you have good control of your dog, and at fist keep him busy and focused on you. If you do not like blisters on your hands, use a pinch collar.

I also have a few girl friends who own kennels & resuces, and I have brought home some of their dogs to socialize them in home enviroment with other dogs lose in the house and yards. He now will not pick fights, but he will not tolerate another dog picking a fight either. Because of so many ob classes, I am able to call him off before they get started and redirect his attention.

My Mom has one we rescued and she can be a real bitch, we did the same with her, she use to walk her and she would want to attack everything, now she handles herself very well. This dog needs more work around others, than just a little time on the field once a week. By having the Ob on the dog allows you to work him in close proximity to others until he gets it.