Aren't you going to tell us what happened with the German Shepherd?

None of that is allowed at my club
One handler did come with a dog aggressive staffie and a bag with rattle bottle etc in it.
The `tools` were binned, the handler, with a little help learned to read the dog and his space `needs` better, to understand him, and to communicate with him better without those things.

He is now a much happier dog around other dogs, his family are much happier and more relaxed with him, which in turn makes him even more relaxed in situations he used to find intensely difficult :smt001

To add, things like rattle bottles and water squirting used in group situations often have an unrealised impact on dogs the items are not being used on, I know of quite a few which became nervous as a result of someone else using them on another dog nearby

When she`s back after her tea I expect
Talking of which, shall we take a recess and come back to this after tea break - I`m a bit peckish too

[ If anyone else wants to carry on in the meantime, feel free of course :smt005 ]

Hey, in alot of cases it is effective without harming the dog!

A relative of mine has recently been getting one-to-one sessions with Lynne Davies (Dog Borstal) for their rescue English Springer Spaniel. She introduced them to a bottle with pennies it. It works a treat and keeps incessant barking at bay.

I've just scoffed my pasta mid-type!

In our dog obedience club we do an exercise when we put the dogs in a circle, about two feet apart from each other. One dog and handler go round at a time, slow pace, in and out of the other dogs, the other dogs learn self control with this excercise and should remain in the position they were left in. If they move, however, a distance command would be neccessary.

Here I am!

OK the German Shepherd. It's quite a sad tale in fact as the dog was put to sleep

I was reminded about it by what Patch had said re. stealth attacks.

The dog was taken to a club near us run by an ex RAF man - well so he claimed, it was said no-one in the RAF would admit to knowing him but that's another story!

The dog was taken in and did show his aggression, as I say it was mainly to humans and a bit to dogs. The way he showed it was to growl and stare, he'd also snap if someone came too close or tried to pat him but this happened the once as far as I know.

Advice from the trainers was for the owner to jerk him on his collar (check chain), each time he growled or if he snapped, and owner was to shout No! at him. The trainers would throw beanbags at him if he growled and the time he snapped.

Over a few months the dog went from growling to basically nothing. He actually appeared OK and he started to get involved, albeit cautiously, with club activities. One of these was a beach walk which ended at a beach cafe.

Everything seemed fine, but at the cafe whilst the dog was lying down a waitress came up and he attacked her and bit several times.

What had happened is that his warning had been taken away (ie he had learnt not to growl in case he was told off) and his owner and trainer decided all was well and he was "cured"

What in actual fact had happened, was that he had had his communication taken away, had no method of saying he was uncomfortable as he didn't dare to growl, so when in the end he finally couldn't cope he had one thing left which was to actually attack (in his mind).

They hadn't taken into account his emotions, and tried to cure the problem but didn't delve more deeply so that the root cause was altered (which woud have altered his behaviour). Even leaving him as he was would have been better although not exactly ideal.

A sad story for all concerned, but one I've never forgotten.

Wys
x

http://www.dogsey.com/showthread.php?t=59100&goto=newpost

Not sure if I have done it right, guss is a funny wee thing, thinks hes ten foot tall,

as you mentioned to tell a dog off for growling is not on, I agree with this without the warning there is only the attack option left,

What a sad story.

Throwing bean bags at the dog?! What?!

This ex RAF guy you're talking about.....I remember reading Jan Fennell's book, The Secrets That Make Good Dog Owners Great, and in this book she talks about a man, can't quite remember if it was the army or RAF he was in, but anyway, each soldier (or whatever they were) were assigned a dog to train, and one soldier thought this German Shepherd was unable to be trained.

At this point in time, it was one way of training dogs and one way only. However, one soldier didn't believe that this dog could not be trained and so alienated himself from his colleagues in the hope of training this dog through firm, but fair handling.

The roughy toughy method of training that they used back then didn't work in this dog. So this soldier decided to rise early every morning and spend time training this dog and succeeded in turning this dog into a happier, more rounded dog.

I'll look up the book tomorrow to find more details and to remind of what happened next.

Lovely videos there, what I like is that you can see the dogs are changing places, first one is chasing and then the other, so you can see the balance is there in the game and so they are all enjoying it

Thanks for the link Dougiepit

Wys
x