Split from CM thread/how many people on here have worked with an aggressive dog

can I ask, how many people on here have worked with badly aggressive dogs?

what problems they came up against?

how they delt with it?

I have worked with badly aggressive dogs. (including the ones we own )

Main problems have been past conditioning.

Dealing with - has depended on the situation, but I have never had a quick fix.

as i have said before i am working with a badly socilased, untrained, fear agressive, noise sensitive,reactive dog who is used to getting her own way, bulling other dogs resorce controling and although not people agressive will and has bit people who get in the way when she is reactive
i am using methods of confidence building, calming signals, desensitisation,trust in me and making being calm near triggers v rewarding
its taken three months so far but there have been huge steps forward that everyone is noticing and i have not so much as even told her off

Hi Shona I adopted a bitch Tilly not sure of her age, she had belong to an old lady and been kept outside in a kennel most of her life.
She had seen very few people other than the gardener who fed her, and she was very fear aggressive. The gardener managed to catch her and put her in a box and we let her out in my kichen ,if you tried to touch her she would snarl and snap.

My son was only 6 at the time and I wondered if I had done the wrong thing taking her on exposing him to danger. I instructed my son not to go anwhere near her or to even look at her, not an easy thing with a small child . She sat shivering under a chair and growled and snarled when anyone went near her chair only coming out to eat a little and relieve herself when the door was left opened for her.

I just 'let her be' for the first couple of weeks asking nothing of her in the hope that she would come to realise we meant her no harm.
I then started sitting on the floor not far from the chair and held pieces of chicken in my hand outstretched hand ignoring Tilly completely. Gradually she came to take the chicken and I progressed to speaking to her softly and in time touching her on the chest, a least vulnerable spot.
It took many weeks of patience and work to get her to feel comfortable around people, when she did she became my sons best friend.

Sadly after all that work she developed Pyometra and she died on the operating table. This was 24 years ago..
Here she is with my son, her legs are a bit bare because it was weeks before I could groom her and the legs were so knotted I had to cut the hair off.

Lovely photo Mini.

thanks for that everyone, I think the one thing we would all agree on is,.... all of us that have aggressive dogs come into our lifes will have delt with them in whatever way best suits the dog,

I have had several, no two were delt with in the same manner,

fear aggression is a very disableing thing for a dog, dominance is another thing compleatly.

but the point is, many dogs with aggression issues can and do go on to lead a normal life in the right hands.

Aggressive Dogs I have worked with include:

Labradors (the most, from doing 7yrs Lab rescue)
Golden Retrievers.
German Shepherds.
Siberian Husky, the worst by far.
Dobermann, my own, rescued from being chained as a guard dog for 3yrs, aggressive towards men in overalls!!
Rottweilers, males only.
Springers and Cockers a plenty, and a couple Jack Russell types too!

In fact we have had dodgy dogs of all types in for boarding, but those are the main ones.

The thing with boarding is you have NO option nor time to wait for a few weeks or anything else, you MUST get the dog out for exercise, you MUST clean its kennel etc..

....I have also dealt with aggressive dogs in kennels, all sorts of breeds which came to board and a Scotty which was saved from being PTS, but Tilly is the only one I have had living in my home .

Added Thank you Dawn

A was very aggressive towards other dogs when we first got her.

All I did was to introduce her carefully to as many dogs aspossible. I knew the signs that she was going to 'attack' (although she never bit another dog) so when I saw her go into that stance, I would grab her collar, turn her around and say 'No!'.

That's what worked for her anyway.

Aggression towards other dogs I think is a far easier thing to live with, when another human is in danger, to me, thats when you need to think hard.