OT: Dogs and Fireworks

[Connorpozlee]

It's all about knowing your dog. There is a right and wrong way to greet a dog, especially one that has its tail between its legs. I've had many big dogs, some bullies as well. It's all on how you train the dog, it once took me 6 months to break a dog of their scared aggression. Now it's the most gentle dog in the world, despite looking like a chiseled weapon.

Any dog can bite. Don’t tell me, “My dog doesn’t bite”. It will. It’s like my wife telling you, “Don’t worry, he won’t kill.” In the right (wrong) situation, I probably will. Train your dog all you want. I don’t know about the dog’s training. I’m just out for a walk. Keep your dog on a leash.

 

[wbcincy]

What tips do you have on breaking a dog of their scared aggression? I have a 75 pound boxer, who if you know her, is the most friendly and lovable dog. But, shes very fearful of strangers, gets leash aggression, and also very protective of the house. She’s been going to doggy daycare every week to play off some energy for her whole life, and she’s never had an issue. sank a bunch of money on a trainer who used the shock collar and prong collar, and it worked at first, but I don’t think that’s the final solution.

Not directed to me, but, if it were one of our dogs or one my wife is training:

It would not eat out of a bowl again until you're done trying to correct this behavior. Take her meals along with some high value treats (freeze dried chicken liver is our go-to), and take the dog out to open uncrowded areas on leash with either a prong or e-collar, whichever works best for your dog being corrected (and please learn the proper fitting and use of a prong if you're going to. It should be very snug, borderline tight on the dog, and corrected using a single jerk straight up, so you need to be holding the leash/dog close to you). Stay far enough away from people that the dog isn't reacting, and feed/treat her over a 20-30 minutes walk in this area, i.e. dog sees a person from a distance, doesn't react - boom, jackpot of food. Do this for probably a week or two. Then the next week or two, get a little bit closer to people but still far enough away that she isn't reacting and repeat with praising with her food when she sees a person and doesn't react. Little by little you're getting closer and closer to people and showing the dog that good things come when people are around. The correction collar is there if needed, but ideally you want to gauge the dog's comfort level based on distance and don't get her to where you need to use it.

Eventually, hopefully the dog would accept a stranger tossing it a treat. But don't make her accept being pet or physically messed with by a stranger for a LONG time while this behavior is being modified and reinforced. Especially if it's an older dog. This could be genetic or the dog had a bad experience when it was younger (even if you didn't notice or it was before you had her), or a combination of both. So she may never be a dog that people can just run up to and pet, but you can at least get her to where she isn't reacting poorly because strangers are around. It just takes a lot of patience and incrementally bringing up her comfort level, which requires you to gauge and further her progress.

For example, we had a dog recently that was very dog aggressive. Fortunately still young and more easily modified. We used that same technique, except with dogs rather than people. After a couple months it got to where we could walk by a person on a bike path with their dog, and instead of reacting to the dog, she would look up to us for treats, ignoring the other dog.

 

[AWS1022]

Any dog can bite. Don’t tell me, “My dog doesn’t bite”. It will. It’s like my wife telling you, “Don’t worry, he won’t kill.” In the right (wrong) situation, I probably will. Train your dog all you want. I don’t know about the dog’s training. I’m just out for a walk. Keep your dog on a leash.

I don’t trust anyone who doesn’t like dogs.

 

[nits74]

Not directed to me, but, if it were one of our dogs or one my wife is training:

It would not eat out of a bowl again until you're done trying to correct this behavior. Take her meals along with some high value treats (freeze dried chicken liver is our go-to), and take the dog out to open uncrowded areas on leash with either a prong or e-collar, whichever works best for your dog being corrected (and please learn the proper fitting and use of a prong if you're going to. It should be very snug, borderline tight on the dog, and corrected using a single jerk straight up, so you need to be holding the leash/dog close to you). Stay far enough away from people that the dog isn't reacting, and feed/treat her over a 20-30 minutes walk in this area, i.e. dog sees a person from a distance, doesn't react - boom, jackpot of food. Do this for probably a week or two. Then the next week or two, get a little bit closer to people but still far enough away that she isn't reacting and repeat with praising with her food when she sees a person and doesn't react. Little by little you're getting closer and closer to people and showing the dog that good things come when people are around. The correction collar is there if needed, but ideally you want to gauge the dog's comfort level based on distance and don't get her to where you need to use it.

Eventually, hopefully the dog would accept a stranger tossing it a treat. But don't make her accept being pet or physically messed with by a stranger for a LONG time while this behavior is being modified and reinforced. Especially if it's an older dog. This could be genetic or the dog had a bad experience when it was younger (even if you didn't notice or it was before you had her), or a combination of both. So she may never be a dog that people can just run up to and pet, but you can at least get her to where she isn't reacting poorly because strangers are around. It just takes a lot of patience and incrementally bringing up her comfort level, which requires you to gauge and further her progress.

For example, we had a dog recently that was very dog aggressive. Fortunately still young and more easily modified. We used that same technique, except with dogs rather than people. After a couple months it got to where we could walk by a person on a bike path with their dog, and instead of reacting to the dog, she would look up to us for treats, ignoring the other dog.

Good advice. Now, any suggestions for breaking a young dog (2 years old) of food aggression? My Border Collie, while very friendly, is overly protective around the food bowl. Growls if I or anyone walks by him while he eats. It has never resulted in anything more than that, but it's not a pleasant trait.
P.S. I took him to a puppy training class when he was very young and they told us to take the dish away while they were eating and then give it back so the dogs would learn that it's not a threat. Seems to have had the opposite effect on my dog because it wasn't too long after that he developed this sort of aggression.

 

[ras5051]

For example, we had a dog recently that was very dog aggressive. Fortunately still young and more easily modified. We used that same technique, except with dogs rather than people. After a couple months it got to where we could walk by a person on a bike path with their dog, and instead of reacting to the dog, she would look up to us for treats, ignoring the other dog.

I appreciate the response.. some useful info in there. I think it’s mostly genetics with her, I’ve had her since she was a puppy. The only thing I can think of that would cause the fear/aggression other than genetics would be, I was walking her when she was maybe a year old, we came up to a young kid that was petting her, his parents weren’t around.. he had a whistle and started blowing it really loud outta nowhere and wouldn’t stop, she really didn’t like that. I wonder if that single incident could cause the issues.

 

[Connorpozlee]

I don’t trust anyone who doesn’t like dogs.

I don’t trust anyone who says, “Oh, he won’t bother you.” as that person is letting their dog run up to you while they completely miss the cue that you want nothing to do with their dog licking you.

 

[AWS1022]

I don’t trust anyone who says, “Oh, he won’t bother you.” as that person is letting their dog run up to you while they completely miss the cue that you want nothing to do with their dog licking you.

Not all dogs will run up to you and lick you. Neither of my dogs would have done that. They would have walked up to you and hoped you would pet them, but they would not have licked you. But what an awful thing, being licked by a friendly dog...oh the horror.

 

[Connorpozlee]

Not all dogs will run up to you and lick you. Neither of my dogs would have done that. They would have walked up to you and hoped you would pet them, but they would not have licked you. But what an awful thing, being licked by a friendly dog...oh the horror.

Yeah, it’s nasty

 

[wbcincy]

Good advice. Now, any suggestions for breaking a young dog (2 years old) of food aggression? My Border Collie, while very friendly, is overly protective around the food bowl. Growls if I or anyone walks by him while he eats. It has never resulted in anything more than that, but it's not a pleasant trait.
P.S. I took him to a puppy training class when he was very young and they told us to take the dish away while they were eating and then give it back so the dogs would learn that it's not a threat. Seems to have had the opposite effect on my dog because it wasn't too long after that he developed this sort of aggression.

I don't care for the idea of taking the food away when it's showing aggression. I would feed that dog by hand for the foreseeable future. Make you and your hand become the thing that is giving it food, not taking it away. As with all training to correct difficult behavior, it takes patience (and getting nipped on the fingers while it eats from your hand, though the adults aren't as bad as those sharp needle puppy teeth).

Or, while it's at its food bowl, walk up and hold a high value treat in your hand for it to take (without getting so close as to cause the aggression). Then, hold another treat a little closer, and on and on until you're able to walk up and put treats right into the bowl while he's eating (this could take a couple weeks). Those are things that start changing its mindset from "this person will take my food" to "this person adds to my food, and the good stuff."

 

[gamblepsu]

I'm going way out on a limb and guessing you are not a psychiatrist.

If he’d meet my kid without meds (and therapy) I’d hope he’d change his mind. One example: He was afraid to take his bike (with training wheels -way past a ‘normal’ age for fears like this) over a tiny bump. Now he is riding anywhere with no training wheels at all. That wouldn’t have happened if I just yelled at him about it or otherwise tried to correct it. He had to do it on his ‘own’.

The real story is Medicine alone isn’t proven to be as effective as when you are using it properly in conjunction with regular therapy. This gets construed into medicine isn’t needed because there are a number of people (and drs) who forgo the therapy.

:end rant:

 

[nits74]

I don't care for the idea of taking the food away when it's showing aggression. I would feed that dog by hand for the foreseeable future. Make you and your hand become the thing that is giving it food, not taking it away. As with all training to correct difficult behavior, it takes patience (and getting nipped on the fingers while it eats from your hand, though the adults aren't as bad as those sharp needle puppy teeth).

Or, while it's at its food bowl, walk up and hold a high value treat in your hand for it to take (without getting so close as to cause the aggression). Then, hold another treat a little closer, and on and on until you're able to walk up and put treats right into the bowl while he's eating (this could take a couple weeks). Those are things that start changing its mindset from "this person will take my food" to "this person adds to my food, and the good stuff."

I'll give it a try, thanks. Have had many dogs over my life, but never one with this issue. It's gotten to the point where I just leave the room so he can eat in peace. When he's really worked up over it he practically inhales the food. At that point I actually feel sorry for him.

 

[Get Nasty]

I don’t trust anyone who says, “Oh, he won’t bother you.” as that person is letting their dog run up to you while they completely miss the cue that you want nothing to do with their dog licking you.

You must be a joy to live with.

 

[Connorpozlee]

You must be a joy to live with.

Because I don’t like dogs?
As much as I don’t like dogs, my wife hates them.

 

[Get Nasty]

Because I don’t like dogs?
As much as I don’t like dogs, my wife hates them.

Match made in heaven

 

[Connorpozlee]

Match made in heaven

Indeed. Would have been horrible if one of us liked dogs.