Update on Gracie and her tattoo - Page 1

I have finally been able to get a good look at Gracie's tattoo. With the help of my groomer, we've determined it's GKNCJA. There's no doubt about the letters this time, as both Nancy and I agreed on it.  No one has been able to track down the breeder, because almost no one uses all letters for tattoos! (Belgium does, but someone who has access to that database has checked, and drew a blank.

Sooo, if you know of anyone who uses all letters for their tats, please let me know!

When I got Gracie, everyone thought it rather strange that such a well-bred, registered dog wound up in such a bad situation. When I found out about her dog aggression, I thought that maybe she had been bought by someone to use for schutzhund, who then decided he/she couldn't handle her. She was then likely given away or sold to the Chinese man, who kept her tied up as a guard dog for his barn, and came to give her food and water only every three or four days.

I now have some proof that I'm right. Someone has worked with this dog. She does a lighting-fast down into the sphinx position. I had to teach her what 'platz' meant, though. "Down' she knew, as well as 'sit', so it could be the owner was doing AKC obedience and not schutzhund, unless some clubs allow you to use English and not German.

I took her to traning for the first time last night. She was so distracted by all the new sights, sounds and smells that she couldn't focus well at all. But the trainer did give me permission to bring her to the club and work with her.

She learns extremely quickly, so I think she will do well once she gets used to the training field and having all those people around. I will probably go there tomorrow to train (alone) just so she can get used to the place before our regular training session on Saturday morning.

My biggest worry is her extreme prey/hunt drive. When we'd finished training, she kept pulling towards the clubhouse trailer. It's elevated on concrete blocks, and has a small deck in front of it. I decided to let her check it out, as I couldn't understand why she was so interested in it. She stuck her nose to the crack between the trailer and the deck boards and sniffed all the way along it. Yup, there are no doubt critters underneath the trailer...

When I let her out in the kennel, she runs from gate to gate, hunting for other dogs. Tonight, she kept sticking her nose in the crack of the door of the dog that had just gone home. I got the unsettling feeling that if the dog had still been there, she would have wanted to get into the cage and kill it.

I hope I'm wrong....

Sunsilver, she's never going to be hosting canine cotillions, I think that's a safe bet.  And in the hands of someone who doesn't reflexively pay attention to canine body language whenever they had her outside of a secured kennel, yes, she'd likely remain a liability forever.  But I have faith in you, and I DO think you will be able to work her through the aggression to the point where you'll be able to walk her in public and not worry that she's going to overpower you and then drag you along to hunt down every dog within scenting distance.

Thank you for the vote of confidence, Hexe!  It's not ME I worry about, it's the other idiots out there who think all dogs are safe to approach, or who don't bother to control their own dogs. Right now, a muzzle is my best defense against them.

The worrisome thing right now is how hard she's able to pull against a prong collar!! (Which is exactly the reason I plan to give that Gentle Leader a try!) 

Can anyone think of any East coast kennels that might have the initials GK? Some kennels use that format for their tatts. E.g. Kirchenwald in Pa. starts their tatts with KW.

The point of a prong collar is to use it for correction...correct her for pulling against it. Many dogs will pull against a prong collar. Harder dogs don't care. My bf took Capri for a bike ride last night and I told him to put a prong on her just in case. She pulled him on his bike wearing it, and Caleb used to regularly do bitework in a prong because he was huge and I'm small...helped me keep decoy safe. My point is that just wearing it isn't a correction; it has to be fitted properly and is has to be used as a correction tool, not just as a collar. I know this isn't your first rodeo, but sometimes I think with a dog that got you at your wit's end, you sometimes need a reminder of the basics you already know...the dog just makes them seem difficult. 

Jenni, I worry about hurting her neck with those prongs. She shrugs off my corrections, and just goes right back to pulling. She must have a pretty high pain threshold...actually I KNOW she does. We both kicked her pretty hard when we were trying to get her to let go of Ranger's leg, and she totally ignored us!  The only thing that got her attention was Ranger's teeth on her muzzle. She still has a small scar from that.

I hope she shows the same persistence when she gets her teeth on a sleeve....

She is one hard-ass bitch. If she weren't so old, I'm sure there's a PD out there that would love to have her. (That hunt drive of hers looks just like videos I've seen of dogs searching for narcotics!)

My previous rescue, an 86 lb. male, who'd never walked on a leash before, was walking on a prong like he'd been doing it all his life at the end of a 3 day weekend.

It would be extremely difficult (IMO) to injure a dog in a prong collar with a correction. If she's shrugging it off, it was not a correction. I would be more afraid of injuring a dog with a choke collar.

Sent you a PM about leash pressure.

No offense, SS, as maybe you're a totally buff badass with a 6 pack, LOL, but you are not going to hurt that dog with a prong collar. 

The only six-pack I have is the one that comes in a cardboard box, Jenn. And I strung Gracie up with the prong when she was latched onto Ranger's leg, and she did not seem to mind in the slightest...

Because that's steady pressure, SS. I've done the same thing in a few situations. That has to be done sometimes, but it's not the same as a prong correction.  The correction aspect comes in when you go from a slack lead to sudden, swift correction; you want to "pop" it hard, not pull. I have a video I'll PM you. I'm PM'ing it because the dog isn't mine.  Never mind, I can't find it:-(