Viewing Single Post From: Please help

Viewing Single Post From: Please help
Laura	Feb 24 2009, 07:55 PM
One of the regulars Posts: 192 Group: Full Members Member #730 Joined: October 14, 2008	some very good advice already. :flower: You sound like a lovely lady who loves her dogs to pieces! They are lucky to have an owner who can be bothered to look for a solution when things get hard. What you have written about Snow sounds exactly like what I would have written about my Sally 12 months ago! (To be honest, Molly sounds similar too) and I have gone through the stage of being almost angry at her for 'ruining our walks' etc. Then I realized me being upset at her was making her worse, and also that the reason she was being aggressive was not to annoy me! Here's what I did: I tried walking and letting her off lead when there were no other dogs around so she could get her exercise, and walking her on a lead in the park so she could be around other dogs but under control (at her worst she would run to a dog 100 yards away and do exactly what Snow did with the Alsatian) making sure i was praising any behavior which wasn't aggressive and ignoring any I didn't want. I walked around at a distance she was happy with, if she reacted, I had taken her too close too quickly. It was quite a slow process but now she can walk past other dogs on a path, on lead, and not show aggression. In the meantime I got her recall 100% perfect. She comes as soon as I call or whistle without questioning or hesitating. I can call this dog off a rabbit chase every time (we're on about a patterdale x BT/whippet!) It took lots of work, consistency and yummy treats but it is well worth having. I'm going to disagree with Zandd a little bit here, just because my experience is different. I have not got rid of Sally's aggression. I'm pretty sure if I let her go up to another dog and didn't say anything she would snap. She is not a sociable dog (not even with our Meg, really) and she is not a dog who will happily play with others at the moment, maybe ever. But she is a dog with a flawless recall. I can have her off lead in a busy dog park because if she does get too close to another dog, or a dog approaches her, I can call her knowing she will leave it straight away and come to me (even if she does give it a 'smile' as she turns around!) I gave up trying to introduce her to dogs and 'make friends' because she is not happy with it. She wasn't as a puppy, she isn't now. What i do agree with is that you should not let him off lead near other dogs if he is potentially aggressive and doesn't always come back when called. Accident waiting to happen. It took about 18months to get from Sally ignoring me and running off to have a go at other dogs, to walking through the park muttering the odd 'come on' if she get's too close. I can even stop and have a conversation with another dog owner, and make Sally 'stay' by my side. Sally has been to agility classes and competed a bit with no incidents, and she loves it, despite all the other dogs around. At one point i never thought we would even get close to this and I nearly gave up and stopped walking her. Please keep at it! I must have spent hours on the internet looking for different techniques, have read loads of books ('click to calm' Karen Pryor really played a big part in Sally's training) and spoke to 4 behaviorists in my search for a 'cure' to Sal's aggression! You have to find out what suits your dogs and your lifestyle so you can all be happy. Good luck! Make sure you don't get so upset about certain aspects of their behavior that you ignore what you love about them.


Please help · Training & Behaviour