Sharon Blakeney-McDonald
Forum Replies Created
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Sorry Michael, I should have given you better direction to finding the chart I’m referring too. Its the obedience chart under “quick charts” in the knowledge base.
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That is great you have read through the self help section and about leadership… I find leadership and obedience training is the key to having a well behaved dog. You are on the right track of seperating your pup from the older dog when she not responding appropriately to the old dog social cues. Its good to hear you are supporting the older dog efforts and are disencouraging the pup pushy behaviour by intervening and giving her time outs. Stepping in sooner may be better if you see the older dog giving signs when she doesn’t want to play. You could try replacing the pup behavior with another activity to do. Example by<span style=”line-height: 1.5;”> getting her attention and guiding the pup to play with a toy instead or maybe guide her to her resting spot and give her food kong to chew on. Teaching her a “leave it” command can be very useful when it comes to thing’s you want a dog to leave alone or disengage from. In phrase 1 instruction videos you can learn how to teach your Dog this command… work your way through all the phrases to proof the command though. There a chart in the knowledge base that helps to explain the steps that you can follow when training your pup commands. You are doing great at learning and being member here you will learn heaps. We are all here to help and support each other when we can.</span>
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- Hi Victoria, I would have liked to have got back to you sooner… phone line been out for the last two weeks and I’m depending on my mobile phone to access the internet. My knowledge on owning GSD’s myself is its not unusual for the breed to be wary of strangers. One of my GSD was like Kimber where he needed time to warm up to outsiders… once he knew they were not a threat he too was ok with them and happy to greet them. I still use to take precaution with him by sending him to a place first with those he was uncertain about til I was sure he would be ok with them. Teaching him a “leave it” command I found to be very helpful too. Though with Kimber it seem it’s mainly men she is mostly concerned with. In my situation I found it better to use precaution measures just in case he did bite.
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- Welcome Michael. Your puppy would definitely benefit from attending puppy classes. I had this problem myself with a pup I was training where she was also showing aggression towards strangers/other dogs and found by attending a leash manner/greeting classes it did help towards solving her issue. This class was done in a control environment where all handlers and their dogs on leash were taught how to approach each others by keeping your attention on the dog owner and not staring or forcing yourself upon their dog. Often staring and walking straight towards a dog is a behavior that can be taken as a threat to them. Rotti being a guarding breed are also known to be assertive… your pup being half Rotti may explain her pushy aggressive behavior with your older dog. It seem your older dog is trying to teach your pup when enough is enough. It would be best if you take charge and seperate them. Your pup is being pushy/dominant and this may end up in a hierarchy disputes the older and stronger your pup becomes. It is up to the pack leader to keep the peace. My suggestion is go to the self help section on this site and read through it. Also you could go to the knowledge base to the leadership chart and read the section on leadership there. Most all canine behavior can be prevented and solved through leadership. I hope this is of some help to you – if there is any other members or trainers with other comments I love to hear them too.
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Hi Victoria… What a lucky girl Kimber was to have you take her in after she was abandoned.
IMHO though from the description of how she is reacting towards men “barking, staring directly at their faces, stiffen, etc” is signs to me of showing an aggressive response. A more placid dog – example like a golden retriever would more likely avoid or run away from what was making him nervous or frighten. My concern is if Kimber response to stress is reacting in a aggressive way that you may need to be carefully she doesn’t end up biting them.
I would think its more fear aggression based. Could be more safer, if its only men that Kimber is apprehensive with that they completely ignore her instead of trying to interact with her… at least til she becomes more confident that their not a threat to her. Sometimes I find its better to let the dog approach when they are comfortable enough and ready to do so instead.
Do you think these a chance she may possible bite them?
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Hi Dana… I have use a muzzle with a pervious dog I owned and first the dog will need conditioning to wearing the muzzle. Mike had a really good instruction vid on how to do this but I’m not sure where it as been put on the site… maybe if you go on Mike streaming you can ask him. Also if you go to the forum and look under “general aggression problem discussion” there was a discussion called “The case of Cobbler Rumpel” where the owner was having similar issue’s with her dogs as you are with Brody. Mike and other member gives her advice to how to best deal with the problem. You may find it helpful in your situation as well.
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Hi Dave… welcome. How I took what Michael meant by territorial mode was guarding. Guard can be a territorial behaviour where the dog protects their yard, car, owner and their personal space. Barking warnings to strangers or other animals. This can be confuse with aggression when it may be the dog as a high guard drive. Often once the stranger as come in the behaviour stops… it did with my dog Tazer unless you became threatening. I could be wrong but that’s what I thought he was referring too.
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I was thinking the same as you Michael after I read your post… the GSD Tazer I use to have was the same where after years of different trainers and methods never stop his aggression with approaching strangers when he was on leash, at home or in the car with me. (When off leash he wasn’t aggressive when we were out). Until I came across protection dog training and this site did I start to realise what the cause of his behaviour was… he too would get aggressive if anyone give him eye contact and didn’t back away from us. One dog trainer use the e-collar similar to how you would do but Mike suggested to me to give him a command first and correct him for disobeying the command and not his aggression. This was Tazer natural instinct to protect and guard me so I didn’t want to keep fighting across nature. Once I started to teach Tazer when he could defend, be aggressive and when he couldn’t was the day I started to have more control over the situation and him. Unfortunately that day came too late in his life and not long ago I put him to rest as he became cripple in his hind legs from having DM.
Thank you for your post… its important for others to know its not always fear the dog is reacting in.
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So glad this question was asked… I never thought to do this exercise with Tazer in the vid when he was a pup so when it came to medical treatments he was aggressive towards the vet and had to be sedated. I will for sure be doing it with my next pup. I also made the mistake of allowing people to pat him when he was a pup thinking I was socialising him – when he didn’t want them to. The positive side to me making these mistakes is I’m learning not to make the same mistakes with my future pup.
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Hi Marcus,
I was wondering how you are progressing with Illidan’s training? One thing I’m learning is if you don’t wean your dog off the treat rewards then the dog could start to believe it’s entitled to them, becoming demanding and treat aggressive to get them. It’s important to follow the steps to weaning the dog off the treats – watch phrase 1 sit video, the section where she talks about “variable Reward System”. You will notice she starts to replace the food treats with praise “good boy” and patting at variable times. (remember “good boy” before treat reward – the “good boy”/pat will become the reward and not the treat). Then you can move to the next step of durations where the dog only receives the treat reward after holding the position and when dog is given the command “free”. Eventually if you keep following step by step through phrase 1 sit you wont need to use food treat rewards as “good boy”/pats will replace the food reward. Further to make your commands more reliable is the premack principle – recognising what the dog wants most at that moment and using it as the reward for obeying your command. Example – my GSD loves coming out with me in the car so when we get to the car I give the command to “sit” before I open the car door to let her in. She knows if she sits when commanded then she gets what she wants to come with me – when I don’t give her the command to sit then she knows she won’t be coming with me. (I generally tell her “no” instead and put her inside – she understands this means she’s not coming with me). If you like to know more about the permack principle you can find the information in the “obedience chart” under the “quick chart” that is in the “knowledge base”. You can find the “knowledge base” on the home page here or click on the white dashes in the blue bar up the top of the page on right then click on “knowledge base”.
Later on in phrase2 your dog will learn he no longer has the option whether he obeys your commands or not as in this phrase the dog learns consequences will occur for disobedience. I hope you don’t mind me sharing this information with you. Being a member of this community, I try to help out wherever possible.
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Hi Adrienne, In the video instructions (blue bar up the top click on the dashes) under “lessons and tips videos” the first vid “foundation Style Dog Training Demo” Mike speaks about all the different collars and which one may be best suited to use depending on your dog. I hope the vid may be of help to you on deciding which collars may be appropriate to use with the three different personality dogs you are training.
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Hi Marcus, A similar problem happen with another dog becoming treat aggressive in the forum under “bad manners” jumping up on people. You may like to read it as I think it could help you further with your training of your dog.
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Oh, Thanks Mike… most important the leash handling techniques “leash Ninja”. Its easier to learn how to do ninja leash right from the beginning then trying to break long-term bad leash handling habits as I am trying to do now. Hopefully by starting the leash ninja with Sootie (mums pup) training I will eventually break the habit. (Practising & going back to the climb with Ara would help too). Adding the vids to show us where to start and how to continue with the “heel” is such a help to making sure no steps are being miss on the way…. Thanks.
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Hi Marcus,
I forgot to mention the written instructions for phrase1 is in the “obedience chart” listed under the quick charts in the knowledge base… I found reading these instructions help me with not missing any steps in phrase1 but also guide me towards the next phrase 2. With phrase 1 my understanding is its best to do it in a sterile place first with very little distractions keeping the lessons short and sweet. Phrase2 would be the better place to start to add moderate to high distractions.
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Hi Adrienne,
I also have finished following phrase 1 vids and have started to read the instructions from the quick charts in the knowledge base under the “obedience chart”. I did the same as you watch the vids and hadn’t been following the written instructions so I’m now using them with the vids to make sure I’m doing each step. Your question of when you start leash training is in the next phrase 2. From my knowledge Mike is working his way through writing the instructions ( the words in blue in the obedience chart) and you follower each one step by step all the way down to phrase4 maintenance. Mike written instructions lessons have only reached phrase 2 “conditioned punisher” and the rest isn’t completed yet. What I’ve been doing instead while waiting is repeating phrase 1 with the next command “down”, then “heel” and so forth. The next phrase2 is where you start teaching the dog discipline and aversive corrections for disobeying with light leash pressure. Phrase2 is where you will gain control of your dogs behaviour to stop them pulling you all over the place and to walk nicely on the lead by your side. Have you done Phrase1 “heel” yet? I haven’t done it myself with my mums pup I’ve been training so she does the same as your dogs – pulls on a walk. Heel in phrase1 is the next command I will be working with her to do and then I’ll move her onto phrase2 “heel”.
