[Michael D'Abruzzo]

I agree with Allie that you must be careful putting moisturizers on the paws. If I were to, I would use something like bag balm that is made especially for chapped udders on cows and such..

Looking at this dog’s toenails, you can see how much wear and tear it is exposed to on the paws. You can see the nails worn down to the quick (the dot in the center of the nail). So if the nails are that worn…

Considering cold pavement is already one of the most damaging surfaces to the paws, even if there are no chemicals or salt on the surface, the dog may simply have too much activity on that specific payment to keep up with the healing.

[Michael D'Abruzzo]

Love it! Your instruction is your product, and when you are good you can serve it anyway you like: in-kennel, private, group, virtual, braile, etc..

[Michael D'Abruzzo]

Hi Stav,

Although a plan can certainly be made for a case like this following both the fear aggressive and dominance aggression blueprints, this case has so little room for error and is the perfect storm for life altering injuries or death to their youngest child, either during the management process of training or after the owners’ let their guard down with some time.

Without being politically correct and remaining unbiased, this family just brought into their home the exact type of dog statistically that kills the most children: 2 year old intact male pitbull with an unstable temperament. This can turn out very very bad. Stats here: https://www.dogsbite.org/

I would feel unethical if I told the family anything other that it is not worth the risk to their child when there are so many other dogs that get killed daily without homes that do not pose this type of risk to the child. A stable pitbull can be a great family dog, but one that does not have a “normal” temperament for the breed, but still has the quick trigger and ability when it does decide to show aggression is what the problem it is. It would be different if this was shih tzu with similar temperament, there would still be risk of terrible bites and scars, but guardian and gladiator type breeds we are talking about lost limbs, parts of the face, death etc.. when it decides to go for a child and sometimes even adults.

One of our most important jobs on the professional level is evaluating a situation and determining if the situation is reasonably safe, despite what the client may request.

Safety is determined not just by the dog itself, but the ability of the owner, and the environment the dog is expected to live in. So this dog may be OK in a different environment, without a five year old, with an equally dedicated owner with further evaluation.

That being said, there is a LOT that can be done with a good training plan and patience, and technically it could be possible that the owners can succeed with this dog with ninja like supervision, management, and training. BUT, we already know this dog WILL attack the child for multiple reasons and likely other unknown reasons at this time, with what sounds like no warning at all if they don’t completely dedicate the next 10 years to making it impossible for the dog to do so.

[Michael D'Abruzzo]

I was going to post a link to a “chuckit” until I watched the videos and this looks so much fun lol!

[Michael D'Abruzzo]

Stormy is so damn cute! That was a great session! It would be good to stick with similar drills until the false indication rate gets lowered.

There is some troubleshooting to do:

– Is it from different levels of odor on those objects?

– Is it from any cues from you?

I would be curious to see what happens if Brian hides for you, so you are totally blind to the location. If she falses, he can simply give you a thumbs down and you keep searching, if she is good he gives you a thumbs up and you reward.

One good thing about blind searches is that it automatically forces the handler to notice the differences in their dogs searching behavior.

[Michael D'Abruzzo]

Overall I think this looks good. She found the odor and you were conducting a good pattern without cueing her to the odor. There are two obvious things to fine-tune: backing up more than necessary after locating the odor and the slow sit. But, overall Stormy is successfully searching and it is obvious to anyone watching where the odor is!

Besides maybe you could have presented the reward more between her nose and source to start the play, i think you used good judgment by reinforcing when you did. I would have done the same and then would have digested the session to make a plan for the next session.

My intuition would be to go back to more repetition with basic item drills because you will be able to get more repetition if you want to have her not back up and sit quicker. if those go well then do the same with room searches again indoors.

I may be wrong but it looks like the motivation to back up may be so she can see you before she does the final sit? This can be a default to the initial training before rewarding at the source?

If working this out in easy drills I would immediately prompt her to “search” again if she sits that far away and then prompt her with a verbal “sit” when it is obvious she has the scent (stand behind her) then reward at the source, be very happy, and then move onto another search instead of lots of rewards when she is now in the right position.

I think her energy and what motivation you have to play with in a teaching drill is best spent on the initial indication and when she gets it right the FIRST time she gets a big reward and moves on. I think there is a chance that she may second guess herself if she isnt getting big obvious reward when she does it great that first time. I’m mostly brainstorming out loud here…

Keep in mind that the final response in a real working dog does not have to be super pretty, it only has to be obvious to you and consistent.

All of my dogs would sit (or lie down if it was low find) when they were at the source and then look at ME, and it was very obvious to me and everyone else. If I would say “show me” if i was in doubt they would touch the source with their nose and look back at me.

So it is what you make it and going with mother nature helps. Therefore i think it is just the initial back up and slow sit that needs fine tuning.. best done in a drill where you can get more repetition. lots of flexibility as to how you think stormy will respond best to prompting her, but the faster the better when she backs up to get her back where she will be closer.

again, these are my initial thoughts. what i do know is that it is always best to address final response issues first in the easy drills to get more repetition no matter how you go about it, which what you mentioned you were going to do so i agree.

[Michael D'Abruzzo]

I remember when you first put out this video. I think it great an important missing link for many dog training protocols, especially if someone wants the dog to change positions from a distance and do so on the move. You really hit on important mechanics and environmental considerations for the training session. Overall I love it.

[Michael D'Abruzzo]

That was amazing to watch! Not just the performance, but the bond!

What a great team you two are!

[Michael D'Abruzzo]

I found this article from a couple years back:

“Neutering prevents prostate enlargement and causes regression of BPH. However, unlike in human men, testosterone stimulation in dogs is not related to the development of prostate cancer. Thus, neutering is not protective against canine prostate cancer.”

https://www.vetmed.wisc.edu/ask-a-uw-veterinarian-problems-of-the-prostate/#:~:text=Neutering%20prevents%20prostate%20enlargement%20and,protective%20against%20canine%20prostate%20cancer.

[Michael D'Abruzzo]

Great video! Such nice instruction and presentation. This makes me miss my giant-flexi (I had two walk away on me and I never replaced them after much pouting), the ones with the really wide tape. So good for so many drills.

[Michael D'Abruzzo]

I agree with Allie as far as working up the pyramid for the family barker. I have done actual “quiet” commands before that can be trained into phase 3 pretty easily but if it may not be necessary and/or will be barely needed or very easily enforced if all the lower foundation below obedience is addressed first.

[Michael D'Abruzzo]

That is terrible about the horses! I did some further research about the drainage issue at the shelter and it seems to be referring to storm drainage for the parking lot!?

So I may be wrong about there being no drainage in the kennels there and the video shows a hint of what may be a drain hole in one of the kennels. Either way it is food for thought because some terrible kennel setups exist out there for sure that make it harder to maintain at the very least.

[Michael D'Abruzzo]

Art, I like to use “leave it” if a dog has already noticed a distraction and “look” to prevent a dog from seeing something in the first place.

So, for something like “heel” where a dog does not have to stare at my face and can do a relaxed walk with my leg easily visible in peripheral vision, I may say “look” if I notice a distraction before the dog such as another dog eyeballing yhe one in my command and it prevents dealing with the adrenaline associated with the dog locking eyes first and then disengaging with “leave it”.

Of course, “heel” is enough for majority of distractions if that is what the dog should be engaged in, but it becomes obvious when the other commands become useful. For instance, when I would train dogs in Manhatten, it was unavoidable to not have close passes with other dogs on busy streets where a “look” became very useful command even if it was for a few seconds duration on a close pass.

[Michael D'Abruzzo]

The main thing that caught my attention was the total lack of a search pattern, which technically will help clear areas must faster and with more accuracy.

There is so much that can be winged in a small areas, but once a whole home or floor of a building needs to be swept there will be much-wasted energy and time, not to mention no way to keep track of what exactly was “cleared”.

So basically i like what he is saying, but he seems to have a different experience with the power of search patterns, perhaps with handlers that do not let the dog take over when necessary.

I find it similar to “tracking”. In sport work handlers tell the dog exactly how to track and dont let the dog be more efficient when it is time.

There is a time for us to lead and a time to recognize when the dog should take over. That is my experience to clear HUUUUGE areas efficiently and accurately without the dog burning out.

[Michael D'Abruzzo]

Barrier frustration is very common with board and trains, especially if the dogs are in crates and in the same general area where they will see/hear you training with other dogs.

Definitely worse if paired with true separation anxiety, but can also simply be frustration.

I deal with similar with my 8ish month German Shepherd pup (in her case mainly intense barrier frustration) and her barking and squealing can be crazy in those moments, and I mainly deal with it by managing the order of which I do things and what I do in front of her when she is crated, so the ruckus is limited to seconds vs ongoing.

From a professional point of view when doing in-kennel, once I switched to a true “kennel” set up vs crated, where I kept dogs in kennel runs separate from where I trained it became a non-issue and made the day so much easier even if dogs had periods of barking. I also would have affordable “busy items” for the dogs to work on every time I returned them into their kennel between sessions. For example, their food would be in the kennel after AM care, then I would put a galileo bone with frozen canned smeared inside after first training session and then a kong with frozen canned food smeared inside after second training session, then dinner was in the kennel after last walk. I would clean and prepare the bone and kong after last walk and put in the freezer to have for the next day.

Keep in mind I also made sure I incorporated temperament appropriate play during the training sessions so I basically was trying to mimic a routine that would feasible to reduce anxiety in a similar home setting where the dog may be left by itself for periods of time.

In the extreme case where a dog is in a crate between sessions and mainly just waiting for their chance to get out and have activity/needs met it will be logical to also have more frustration from the dog.

I would always think to myself if behavior “problems” in my training environment were going to be “problems” when returned home? If i felt it was related mainly to the training environment I limited my effort in fixing issues like that through training and adjusted the management plan which has almost endless variables to experiment with and tweak.