Desperately need help with my "glitchy" foster dog

Through a series of unfortunately events for the dog, I have ended up with a pit bull mix foster who is, what a friend of mine calls, "glitchy". He is about 1 year and 3 months old.He has been in 8 foster and adoptive homes and has finally ended up with me. He's been returned by adopters for submissive peeing, eating poop, jumping on kids and one person said their kids were allergic to him.

He did submissive pee once or twice when he first arrived at our house but now is totally fine. He was scared of me once when I scolded him for something - I just do this by standing over him and saying no. I had a hairbrush in my hand. It took me a minute to realize he was scared of the hairbrush. He has never eaten poop but I exercise him a lot.

Most of the time he is really a good boy most of the time but he is very complex. I watch him very carefully around my own dog, who is a cranky 15 year old. They have been in two scuffles started by my dog.

We work a lot of hours and take our own dog to doggie daycare. Baxter got kicked out of daycare for fighting with other dogs and, most recently, when one of the girls went to break up a fight he started he lunged at her. The people at daycare said they think he did it in the heat of the moment but it scared the girl.

Anyway, there is much more to story but, essentially, a lot of people are suggesting I put this dog down. I just don't want to make that decision. I mean, he was boarded at this daycare for almost two weeks before he hand any incidents and they said it was just a quick scuffle. No dogs were hurt and the girl wasn't hurt. I'm not sure he is beyond help.

I do feel like this dog has the potential to be dangerous. He has a very mysterious element to him but he's also incredibly sweet. I can clip his toenails and do all kinds of things to him. He frequently goes belly up and shows submission. I just want to try giving this dog s chance through training. He seems to start pushing the boundaries when he gets comfortable. I don't know that simple positive training is the best for him. He is also quite bullheaded when he wants to be. I walk him a field behind my house. He basically comes when it suits him. I want to make sure this dog comes back on recall and will listen in any situation so that I can keep him out of trouble. He's also very athletic and I would like I teach him to catch a frisbee. I wonder, is Ceasar Milan's method the best? The Dog Father? Any ideas?

Is Ceasar Milan's methods best?! Absolutely not! If you want to ruin a dog and turn him into a dangerously unpredictable dog then CM's way is the way to do it!

Positive training is the way to go and a proper behavioural assessment done by a properly qualified behaviourist who can assess him and see if they feel he has dangerous issues and, if not, can advise you on how or proceed.

Out of interest, what did you feel you needed to scold him about?

Just to expand on the positive training bit. He needs to under ad that people are not a threat to him, are not out to scare or hurt him, aren't interested in a power battle BUT that it's extremely beneficial for him to do exactly what they say.

As for the recal, mmm a difficult one....both my dogs aphave good recall, but they're not robots, and sometimes they like to finish what they are doing before they come back to me. Yes it does annoy me sometimes, but then I just go back to upping the reward for when they do come back. Today I took out venison treats with me, and their recall was really good!

Welcome.
Can't even imagine what poor Baxter has been through to make him so submissive,afraid of the hairbrush etc.He's fearful and mis-trusting and that's not without reason. I can't help with advising you how to deal with it, I have no experience with it but I'm sure other members will.Please don't give up on him.

It was over a potential fight with my dog over food.

Is there any way you can just avoid food being present when the two of them are together?

Yes. We do. We always watch them very carefully. We had two dogs that fought their entire lives and we are used to managing it. Maybe it's my own interpretation of Ceasar's method but it seems when I just stand over my dogs and block their way, it really makes them listen to me. There is no hitting or yelling, of course. Just doing this in a calm manner seems to really work. But this one particular time Baxter seemed really unsure about whether or not he trusted me and I realized it was the hairbrush. I just wonder if he can ever become a dog I could adopt out. I want to see what training does for him. We are not home much. It's not the best for him for us to adopt him. Do you have any specific training methods you recommend?

I'm wondering, why is Ceasar's method bad? It seems that he rehabilitates dogs with bad behavior. I have always trained my dogs with treats but they didn't always listen to me. But they were also never the types of dogs to harm anyone. One day after our walk instead of going into the garage, Baxter decided he was going to run the neighborhood. He ran to a neighbor's house and started barking at this guy who was raking his yard. It was not a friendly bark. Baxter has displayed fear of darker skinned, larger men which this man is. This man is also not that nice to dogs. Regardless, this seemed like a it could potentially be a very dangerous situation. Of course, it took me a few minutes to get there and Baxter didn't listen to me at all. I finally got ahold of his collar. Some people in this area feel that the pits have been bred to be aggressive and believe they should be put down. I know the only hope for this dog is training. I just don't know where to start. There are so many conflicting opinions. I even had someone tell me to use a shock collar training method but it seems to me that that would only work when the shock collar is on. Plus, are those even safe? I have handled a lot of dogs as a foster. i can housebreak a dog and teach them to integrate into our life with ease but this is a new level. This is a dog that needs something more. I really need to train myself to train a dog like this. I have the Dog Father Don Sullivan tapes but they seemed a little mean. I don't know....

Have you tried NILIF .?

http://k9deb.com/nilif.htm

Can I just say it isn't unusual for a youngster of 15 months to have a bad recall especially after the chequered past this pup has had. You sound to be ready to give him the chance that he needs to develop and be the best he can be.

I was just thinking: Over here you can't be a dog fosterer with a full time job, as a lot of foster dogs have problems and anxieties.
This dog has obviously been through a lot and has had to change environment so many times, he's confused and scared and has no self confidence. Taking him in is an honorable thing to do but then taking him to a doggy daycare almost every day must have been so stressful to him: different dogs and people every day.. that might have been a stresser for his reaction.

Cesar Millan's method isn't 'the best' because it's based on the pack hierarchy model, which has now been scientifically proven to be useless.
You can't just show the dog who's boss and he'll do whatever you tell him to do. He needs to trust you first, learn the rules in your house and learn to trust himself as well.
All of that can be achieved with positive training!
I wish you all the best of luck with your foster dog