Yup, mine too strange huh

Wow, really? i've heard it all now Your dogs/wolves whatever you want to call them are not more intelligent than other breeds, they do not have some super power that makes them able to read your mind..........Incidentally, have you ever seen the video of the Border Collie that knows the names of all her toys and will pick up the one she's been asked to get out of a pile? Same dog can be shown a photo of a particular toy too and go and pick it out.

If Ben has 100% recall, how come you couldn't stop him from running up to your neighbours dogs? And on the subject of that, you said he is fine if dogs are calm (your reason for wanting to use the "aggressive" black lab in the village to stop his DA) so why did he jump your fence and attack your neighbours lab when he couldn't even see him?

My dogs do this as well, even if I am walking or in someone else's car they know when I will be arriving home, this is normal.

Yes and my dog knows the sound of my car. Even if she is 5 floors up and at the other side of the building.

Dogs have brilliant hearing. They also seem to 'know the time of day'. I recall our old mongrel, Ruffchops, when I was a kid, trotting off to the bus stop on the A13 to meet my mum off her bus when she got home from her job in Maycocks laundry!

No one in those days thought it was anything spectacular or wonderful.

Absolutely Brings this to mind........."Me thinks the Lady doth protest too much"

Gnasher, I know you've said it a couple of times now, but I for one would be interested in seeing a video of Ben. Would be also interesting to see him with other dogs, or as you said, reacting at BL's. You say he's not fearful or defensive, and I'd like to see what behaviour it is you're seeing. Just for my own curious mind, and if you're up to it, then please do!

Same here. My first GSD, I could have sworn he actually read my mind half the time. Must have been the wolf in him.

I agree entirely ... and my husband falls into your categories. Although he ended up as a human medical scientist, the main part of his degree was Zoology - specialising in mammalian physiology, but also biochemistry. Before attempting to even think about using an e collar on Ben, he did an enormous amount of research with as wide a range of opinions as he possibly could. He consulted several behaviourists, at least two of which declared that there was no hope for Ben ... it was euthanasia or the last resort of an e collar. Even the option of keeping him on the lead the whole time, muzzled, was not an option, because he is so immensely strong that even OH could not have held him had he really wanted to go. He wears a muzzle occasionally, and this of course prevents him from inflicting serious injury, but his massive paws and strength mean that he can really hurt another dog in a fight with his claws and sheer body weight and power. This is in extremis ... usually when we meet a male black labrador, they really seem to trigger something primieval in his psyche which is most unfortunate because we are surrounded by black labradors! Hence the e collar, it was a last resort, we had to be sure that we could control him 100% when the red mist came down.

We are now at the stage where he does not wear his muzzle at all in public, but he always wears the collar. However, we never have to use it - once in a blue moon when caught unawares, OH has had to give him a vibrate, but an actual stim, no never. Our next step is to start meeting male black labradors, with him muzzled and of course on the lead, but not wearing the e collar. There is no point in zapping him once the red mist has come down - it simply would not work, and would be cruel and therefore pointless. You can never train any animal using cruelty - used correctly and gently, the e collar provides an invisble link between you and your dog - or at least I should say between us and Ben, because not all dogs would respond to an e collar. Ben does - it worked - immediately. Enabling the dog to live, opposed to being put down.

Rehoming was not an option - you really need to understand this type of dog, and have the right home circumstances - leaving Ben home alone is just not an option, and you need to be fearless when you come face to face with a black labrador! I don't know of anyone who would have tolerated what Ben dished out to us when we first rehomed him!

It was e collar or euthanasia - no choice. And we now have a dog who is absolutely adorable - a hooligan, but very very loving and loveable, who adores children but hates male black labradors!!

Our next big step is to do some training with a co-operative black labrador and his owner. Luckily we have just such a candidate living in our village ... a very arsey entire male who HATES Ben and vice versa, a perfect combination.