Facebook page.
) Any way.... Stella continued to show aggression here and there with my kid's friends.... she killed a squirrel in the yard.... she was getting worse about charging at the fence when the neighbor's little dogs were out side... and I'll be honest I was really starting to worry. I felt like as time was going on Stella's aggression was getting worse.I contacted the lady from the GSD rescue and she put me in touch with a local trainer and fellow DS owner!!! He came yesterday and assessed Stella in our home and for the first time in a long time I feel like we are heading in the right direction!
Remember me telling y'all that Stella wouldn't bark for the other trainer or us... we tried and tried for the aggressive alert command.... well after "knowing" my dog for about an hour he took her out in the backyard had my husband hold her on a leash and came out around the corner with the whip and stick thingies (don't laugh at my lack of proper terms) and she was barking and pulling to get at him... tail wagging.... and finally it clicked.... that is what this dog was bred to do... that is what she needs to be doing.... and because of her responding to german commands he thinks she's probably done this type of work before... SO...... we are doing in home sessions with the trainer so WE can learn how to properly handle this dog... and joining a Shutzhund club so Stella can start doing protection work.... as much as I'm sure she LOVES (sarcasm) getting her nails painted and being forced to platz for tea parties with Vivian
she's going to get to do what dutch shepherds do once a week..... I was VERY hesitant to do any type of protection work with her because it just couldn't be safe for a family pet... well right now we have an unpredictable dog that will randomly be aggressive and we can't turn it off or on.... and hopefully soon we'll have an obediant well trained dog that we can be in control of.... the knew trainer said a lot of the same things y'all have said.... oh and many of the things the other trainer was doing was actually making Stella's OCD crap even worse.... it was a total waste of money.... what a journey this has been! One of you (I think Lisa) told me to stock my liquor cabinet when I asked about any advise before we adopted a dutch shepherd..... NOW I know why.... but we love every crazy minute of it!
and I'm so glad you found a trainer you are happy with and have that sense that things are moving in the right direction! When done properly, protection training as a sport should be fun for the dog and the owner and it should very much put you in control and give her an appropriate outlet for some of her drives. Thanks for sharing this update!
