Dog Behaviour
Examples
Came across a woman who has a golden and black Lab, the black lab is fine but the 7 year old bitch golden Lab has maimed several dogs around the face and neck area...
It has also managed to kill two deer and got into a pheasant pen and killed 15 pheasants, the owner just managed to get the dog in time before the farmer found his shotgun to shoot it...
I observed the aggression and saw it was of a very high level with plenty of intent, very wolf like with its head near the ground and teeth showing with lips curled back to show all the weaponry (teeth), with a very low toned aggressive growl.
This happens any time a dog gets about 3 foot away, no attack happens unless the dog comes any closer..
The dog also has an obsession with large stones and the owner throws them for her to retrieve, most of the dogs teeth have been worn away as a result...she feels she has to throw the stones as the dog just barks at her until she does, I taught her how to 'own' the stone and just remain calm and the dog will stop barking when you get that message across, took about 1 min for the dog to stop barking and by the end of the session was not asking for the stone any more....
I spent an hour with her showing her a few things, within 30 mins I got her dog walking side by side of mine, with a few timely corrections of a short sharp noise I managed to reduce the aggression by about 90%, my dog sniffed her butt, she had a go then, but she has never had a dog this close to her without a full scale fight, so was a massive improvement.
I then spent time empowering the owner by teaching her to be a calm leader, she accepted after my explanation that she had unintentionally taught her dog to be aggressive by being a weak leader, in just 30 mins of practice there was a massive improvement, in most part she could now control the dog, we even had other dogs come along and the lab showed no aggression whatsoever....
This is not a done deal by any stretch of the imagination, but with some work she can do it...
She took the dog to many dog training classes and some said that the dog should be shot.
With some pack behaviour knowledge it just shows what can be achieved. I also found out that the Lab was in season, so even more remarkable that the aggression was reduced by 90% in one session...
I received some feedback on a dog i helped with it was a cross breed (some GSD in it i think) it had ran into a garden chasing a monkjack deer and the owner of the garden hit him over the head very hard with a plank of wood, he needed a lot of work at the vets to save him, since that attack he had become frightened of the outside world, I showed the owners a few things that in my view would help him over come it, mainly them letting go of what happened so the dog could move on and showed them how to correct the dog as he in my view had developed fear aggression, after doing what i had told them they told me today that he is 95% the dog he used to be and far less stressed and doesn't want to attack people anymore and had learnt to trust people again, I know its only one dog, but its heart warming to know that there are at least some people out there that will listen and will step up to the plate to help their beloved dog.
He was showing a lot of aggression, in my opinion all based on fear. He had also shown a lot of aggression towards my dog on the first meeting, after a 'sturctured and controlled' walk with my dog they formed a bond and became friends instead of enemies, a structured pack walk with the humans as the leaders can have a very strong bonding effect with dogs that once wanted to fight each other.
To prove to the owners that he had really moved on I took the dog along with them to the house where the attack happened, I gave the owners strict instructions not to think about what happened in the past and they must just remain calm no matter what happened, as luck would have it the guy who attacked the dog was in his garden....the dog did not bat an eyelid or react at all whatsoever.
I came across a lovely woman called Enna and her Schnauzer, the Schnauzer was 10 years old at the time, female..neutered..
As they approached us the dog was barking and growling and was straining on the leash, she apologised and explained the dog has always been like that with other dogs in its 10 year history....
After a chat she agreed to let me help, I asked her to remain calm no matter what happened, she agreed, I asked her to give me the lead which she did and we went for a walk, almost intermediately the dog was completely different with me holding the lead and doing nothing in-particular, this told me that the dog was just reacting to the owners tension / nervousness of what had happened in the past, I was so confident that I was correct I just put my dog side by side of the Schnauzer, now instead of before the dog was being social sniffing my dog and letting my dog sniff her....the owner was amazed......she could now see she was the cause of this so called aggression.....I explained that her dog was about as aggressive as a tomato.........
I showed her a few things to practice, remaining calm and forgetting the past being at the forefront and treating this as day one, she asked for my help in the future which I gladly agreed to and all she had to do was pick up the phone and ask me........
About a week later I got an message from her on the answering machine which I replied to leaving her a message and I never heard from her again.
Then today I saw her walking the dog, as we approached she gave me a warm smile and she had remembered my name and said hello, this time there was no aggression from the dog, it was calm...she apologised for not returning my call but explained she had received some very bad news shortly afterwards followed shortly after that some more very bad news which knocked her for six.
It was very sad to hear of her news, she did however tell me that she did continue to practice what I had showed her and now her dog isn't aggressive at all with most dogs, which was evident while we were speaking as we were approached by a young excitable border terrier and the dog was fine.
I had just finished my walk for the day, but asked her if she wanted to go on a walk and have a chat which she agreed, there was one issue still left with the dog that she hadn't managed to overcome and that was people on bicycles or large noisy lorries or trackers which she asked for my help, the dog would just go crazy at the sight of them, Enna has an on going serious health issue which doesn't make life easy for her, that just made me want to help her even more and the fact she is such a lovely charming person, however I did explain that feeling sorry for her on its own as I do will not help her and the dog and that I honestly believe that her practising being calm would help her own body fight the health issue as stress can cause toxins in the body and it will give the body less to deal with.......
As luck would have it a large tracker and trailer came into the field where we were walking heading right for us.....I could now see the behaviour for myself, she went crazy pulling jumping and barking, I took the lead and got her to sit, we now stood our ground as the tractor got nearer, each time she showed some fear of the tractor I gave her a little sideways tug of the lead and instantly relaxed the lead so it was loose, after doing this twice she just sat there as the tractor went past about 3 feet from us, I could tell she still wasn't keen on it but was a massive improvement, the tractor stopped about 20 feet from us with the engine still going and I walked towards it with the dog, she went to act up a couple of times but the intensity of it was much lower than before, she sat next to the tractor for about 2 minutes before the tractor set off again, I then showed Enna how you can use speed...direction....control as another option by just turning and walking the other way or in any direction you want to snap her out of focusing on the tractor......
I mentioned that if we can find a quiet road one day we can set up stooge situations with someone coming up and down the road on a bicycle and practice the same things as with the tractor to get a positive outcome.....
I am very keen to help her if I can as she may get a lot weaker in the future and won't be able to hold on to a lunging dog....
As the dog is 11 years old now and spent the first 10 years being unsocial to other dogs it yet again shows me that the saying 'you can't teach an old dog new tricks' is a complete myth and yet again a so called aggressive dog is not aggressive at all and that a dog that isn't socialised with other dogs can be even very late on in life.....