Tell us about yourself: I'm a 22 year old part time student who recently got a dutch shepherd puppy who I would like to either do schutzhund with or possibly mondio ring with. He is about 5 months old and been so far trained purely using marker training without any corrections thus far. I am looking for some help with him as he is dog reactive when on leash, inside or in the car while driving.
Had a set back today while out walking around, in the form of four little dogs and an ignorant owner. Two of her little dogs slipped out of their collar while they were walking past us, and came running towards us and I reached for my pups collar as he started to get defensive not even thinking about it as I swung my stick at her unruly dogs only to have my hand bitten.
I had heard about the potential for handler aggression and was warned by people about it in ds's. After getting away from the other dogs we finished up our walk and he was back to his happy playful self as if nothing had happened. I'm going to try and treat this as a one time incident and not as a problem but will definitely be keeping my eyes open for future problems.
I will also be changing our walking times to try and avoid the times that other people seem to be out most walking their dogs as well as doing more of the desensitizing training with him from the three times a week to five. Thanks for listening to my rant and getting the frustration out. Any suggestions or comments are welcome and appreciated.
I guess the big questions are: 1-was it handler aggression (meaning the dog was actively trying to bite you because he was seriously pissed off). 2- Was it redirected aggression (meaning he was trying to bite you because he was frustrated and didn't have anywhere else to put his teeth - less malice than handler aggression). 3- Were you slow like me and just stuck your hand in a stupid place?
Tell us about yourself: I'm a 22 year old part time student who recently got a dutch shepherd puppy who I would like to either do schutzhund with or possibly mondio ring with. He is about 5 months old and been so far trained purely using marker training without any corrections thus far. I am looking for some help with him as he is dog reactive when on leash, inside or in the car while driving.
I do think that he was mad that I was stopping him from getting after the little dogs who were trying to get after us but I am not sure if he was actively trying to bite me so much as he was frustrated over my stopping him from biting and my hand ended up being a handy target for the frustration.To make contact with my hand he had to jump up some to get to it. Trying to grab his collar was probably a stupid idea on my part and not one I will make again.
Tell us about yourself: We current own 1 Dutch Shepherd - ThunderHawk's Child of Lilith "Mazikeen" And we have loved and lost 3 - Vrijheid's Amie "Vada", Vrijheid's Hafwen "Letty" and Sather's High On Life "Narcotic". We train/compete in mondioring and agility.
I've done #3. One dog going for the other dog cuz he was freaking out at the phone ringing. I put my hand between them and got the bite intended for the dog freaking out. I grabbed the biter by the scruff just to stop him, not hard, but he yelped. That set the terrier mix off. I was able to grab the terrier mix as he was coming in for a scrap. I was bleeding all over. Luckily my husband was home and there so I was able to calmly ask him to come over and take the terrier mix away. Ah, life with dogs! We need to get one of those phones that has a flashing light on it instead of a ringer.
Tell us about yourself: We current own 1 Dutch Shepherd - ThunderHawk's Child of Lilith "Mazikeen" And we have loved and lost 3 - Vrijheid's Amie "Vada", Vrijheid's Hafwen "Letty" and Sather's High On Life "Narcotic". We train/compete in mondioring and agility.
With my old guy when dogs come up I always grab his muzzle so he can't bite the other dog. But it's usually at shows where I know the dogs are just annoying and not aggressive. I always try to keep my body between them too. Not sure if that helps at all since it sounds like those little dogs didn't have good intentions.
Tell us about yourself: I have had a DS for almost a year. Gwen and I are considering participating in PSA and or possible Ring Sport. I also have a Great Dane. I have grown up around working GSDs and my last GSD was a working K9 officer. I am all about dogs and animals in general and want to learn as much as I can about training.
putting your body in between will get you the same result as putting your hand in between... lol.. I broke a serious fight by grabbing one large gsd by the scruff and putting my body between him and the smaller girl.. she ripped my favorite pair of shorts, chewed my behind... ate the back of my arm, and the back of my thigh.. I was pissed my dog ate me...... and the bad thing is in a pinch I d do the same thing to break it up..
Kristie
Rommel's Guenhyvar (Gwenice the Menace) BH, PSA PDC sleeve
Tell us about yourself: I'm a 22 year old part time student who recently got a dutch shepherd puppy who I would like to either do schutzhund with or possibly mondio ring with. He is about 5 months old and been so far trained purely using marker training without any corrections thus far. I am looking for some help with him as he is dog reactive when on leash, inside or in the car while driving.
I don't usually go for the scruff or collar, but then most of the problems I've had in the past the dog was on a leash I was hold so I tried to just get them away from the situation before it got serious or beyond the posturing stage. I have been practicing collar grabs with him as he was uncomfortable with anyone reaching for his collar so I guess it was just habit to reach for it.
Lesson learned, and now have to start over with that one. Desensitizing has started over with that and has been going well. But his reaction to other dogs has gotten a lot more intense at a lot greater of a distance. I have started back over with working him but he has even been reacting towards my brothers dog. Found a club that I am going to see if we fit in at, hoping to get some help to get past this. Any suggestions or tips would be greatly appreciated. I want to get to a point where he can at least be neutral towards other dogs and ignore them.
Tell us about yourself: I have had a DS for almost a year. Gwen and I are considering participating in PSA and or possible Ring Sport. I also have a Great Dane. I have grown up around working GSDs and my last GSD was a working K9 officer. I am all about dogs and animals in general and want to learn as much as I can about training.
there are several things you can do. the one I like the most is teaching a focus heal, foos whatever you want to call it and use that to have him focus on you despite the distractions in the area.
Kristie
Rommel's Guenhyvar (Gwenice the Menace) BH, PSA PDC sleeve
Tell us about yourself: I'm a 22 year old part time student who recently got a dutch shepherd puppy who I would like to either do schutzhund with or possibly mondio ring with. He is about 5 months old and been so far trained purely using marker training without any corrections thus far. I am looking for some help with him as he is dog reactive when on leash, inside or in the car while driving.
I have been working on his foos throughout the day in mini session and with no distractions its 100%. With low to mild distractions its at about 90%. With moderate distractions such as squirrels its about 80% with light corrections to remind him that he needs to focus and pay attention. (need to find a pic of a ds chomping down on a squirrel rather than a chicken)
I don't want to correct him to much for a distraction (ie dogs) when hes not at a point where he can handle that level of distraction. I feel like that is asking to much of him right now where he is at in his training and would be unfair.I do correct him for overt signs of aggression towards other dogs when I can't manage the situation enough to completely avoid him seeing other dogs. Though I am looking for a different collar as his martingale or prong tends to amp up the problem rather than help it. I only use his prong now when we are going walking in crowded places where he is prone to pulling more on the leash. I will keep working on the focused foos with him and hope that this is just a bump in our road to a successful learning relationship that we have going for us.
Sorry I don't understand. Did you pup bite the hand that grabbed him or the hand that was swinging the stick? If it was the later I would contribute that more to prey and possible redirection rather then handler aggression.
BishonVonAachen wrote:Any suggestions or tips would be greatly appreciated. I want to get to a point where he can at least be neutral towards other dogs and ignore them.
First, desensitize at a distance where he can see and notice the dogs but doesn't begin to react to them. What works well is instead of denying your dog the ability to look at the other dog and possibly correcting him for it, let him notice the other dog and then reward for refocusing back on you. At leas initially, corrections have their place but not while the dog is learning this. Each time your dog sees another dog, stop and wait until he reverts eyed contact back to you, treat and praise. No commands necessary, this is simple focus work and you're rewarding for making the correct choice therefore increasing the likelihood of the dog choosing to repeat that choice. As he gets better at this he will begin to offer focus on you as soon as he sees another dog, that's the first sign of progress. You can then gradually begin to do this with the other dogs closer, being careful not to go over the thresh hold that will make him feel he has to react to the other dog instead. You will eventually get to a point where you can have another dog walk right by you and he won't even blink towards the other dog. The key thing is to take your time and rewards lots for the right choices.
Tell us about yourself: I'm a 22 year old part time student who recently got a dutch shepherd puppy who I would like to either do schutzhund with or possibly mondio ring with. He is about 5 months old and been so far trained purely using marker training without any corrections thus far. I am looking for some help with him as he is dog reactive when on leash, inside or in the car while driving.
Did you pup bite the hand that grabbed him or the hand that was swinging the stick? If it was the later I would contribute that more to prey and possible redirection rather then handler aggression
He bit the hand that was reaching for his collar,the other hand was away from him and swinging the stick. Sorry that I wasn't very clear on that.
Facebook page.
Two of her little dogs slipped out of their collar while they were walking past us, and came running towards us and I reached for my pups collar as he started to get defensive not even thinking about it as I swung my stick at her unruly dogs only to have my hand bitten. 
Found a club that I am going to see if we fit in at, hoping to get some help to get past this. Any suggestions or tips would be greatly appreciated. I want to get to a point where he can at least be neutral towards other dogs and ignore them.
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