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Hi Michael and Caroline, thank you for your replies, I very much appreciate it. I have over the years rescued & adopted out 40 or so shelter dogs, mostly GSDs, malanois, the odd dalmation, husky, cocker spaniel, mini poodles and 7 akitas. I don’t do it anymore for health reasons; this little socal family was a one off and I didn’t intend to keep any of them. Of course the beau fell in love with Cobbler, and he is really a very affectionate dog at home. Tina stayed because of two cruciate surgeries and the biting .. Sophie is great and I need to place her, although it’s hard because Cobbler enjoys playing with her. The three (momma & siblings) are a very cute family.
Short-term management is in place as you suggested (has been for some time). The three don’t need to be separated in my mind as there’s never been a fight. They play together happily. Cyrus has not been with them unsupervised since the first fight.
FYI in the wisdom panel DNA the genetic group for pitbulls etc is the guarding group. Cyrus is very high in the category also and judging by his ears had been in dog fights before I got him (he was 5 then, almost 11 now).
Cobbler will not be without a leash and muzzle around people or to introduce him to people. But I do want to be able to walk him around town so he can continue to learn. I got him a Do Not Pet vest so that should help keep people away. It seems that isolating him, which is the typical response when these things happen, seems like the worse thing to do because he’ll be even less socialized.
A practical question. So for phase 1, do I start with sit, go all the way up to phase 2 and then go to down, all the way to phase 2 etc etc?
How many sessions a day and how long do you think?
I used to exercise horses and I do well knowing what the schedule should be so I can stick with it. I do heavily use premack always (although I had no idea what it was called 🙂 )
Thank you so much for your help. I truly appreciate it.
