Dog Aggression Sorted Out

[Meriment]

It’s been ages since I posted here but I thought I’d share what I’m doing with my dogs at the moment through a Distance Training Package with K9force, “Advanced Training with the Remote Collar”… and the fantastic results we’re getting! (It's a bit of a novel but I've kept it as short as I can )

First a bit of background info… we have 3 Jack Russell Terriers; 2 bitches (1 sterilized) and 1 entire male. For the past couple of years we’ve gotten through day to day life by keeping the 2 girls totally separated, using crates, other areas of the house & garden, 1 inside, 1 outside with my male, etc, etc., due to fights between the girls (the kind that leave you with jelly legs and a vet bill! ).

It started with the occasional fight and escalated over time until we couldn’t run them together at the park any more, I couldn’t walk them on lead together, one couldn’t even walk past the other in a crate without it being all on, snarling and carrying on, needing to be physically “removed” each time. No amount of calling them (or yelling - useless, but we did it anyway!) worked.

At our wits end and not knowing what else to do, I made my mind up that the sterilized girl would have to be re-homed I’d even started contacting people and making enquiries. Then a friend suggested I just stop and think about this for a minute… and consider professional help to sort the problem out, using e collars.

I was open to the suggestion and after a bit of research and talking to Steve at K9Force, I invested in e collars for both girls, and the manual, and committed myself to making this work. I believed everything I read and what Steve told me but still found it incredibly hard to believe that I’d be able to implement it with my 2 feral girls.

How very wrong I was!!

As we had no idea what we were doing or where to start, plus the situation with the dogs was pretty volatile and we had no control, we had Steve come to our house and observe us and the dogs in our general daily routine, get an understanding of what was going on and then advise what to do from there.

Steve explained how our pack structure was… well… (my words not his,) all over the place! What structure?!! I thought I was in charge but in reality I was intimidated by the girls, nervous, reacting to them ALL the time. They had us darting around all over the place after them; they were in complete control!

The girl who I perceived to be the trouble maker actually didn’t have any issue at all, but due to my lack of leadership, she’d taken that role upon herself… (A kind of “I’ll bash you up before you bash me, because she won’t stop you” scenario). It must have put her under huge pressure for so long. The instant I assumed the role of leader and started this work, the change in her was amazing. I’ve never seen her so submissive and relaxed.

The other girl, who I viewed as the angel who never put a foot wrong, was actually the one with the issues (Yes I see NOW that I caused this!). She has been brought down a peg or ten. It was hard on her, and me, and she resisted at first but she clicked pretty quickly that to get any attention from me, she needed to tow the line.

Steve started us off, and with both girls on lead he made them aware they weren’t in charge and couldn’t do as they pleased, coming between them if necessary. While he was doing this initial ground work with the girls, he was explaining the pack structure to us, what needed to change, how the collar work comes into everything, and so on. It was a lot to take in at first, and being nervous at the same time watching the girls so close together, but I had to learn to become the leader, stop being nervous, take control and have that same affect on my own dogs as Steve was having on them. With a training plan in place, we got started and to my amazement they had the same respect for me as they’d had for Steve

They both went through the collar conditioning process and before I knew it, faster than I could imagine, I had 2 collar literate dogs. The basic obedience that they learnt in short sessions over a couple of days went to use around our home & garden straight away, where I already had the 2 girls together (the male removed from the equation at this point).

We started off slowly, and gradually every day I’ve put the work in and we’ve progressed to where we are now; all 3 dogs running together under supervision. No cross ‘words’ or looks from the girls, their body language is completely relaxed. They both have a solid recall and sit under low distraction. One has her ‘sit at a distance’ (SAAD) solid with no distraction, the other girl has moved on to low distraction with great results. Today is 3 weeks since we started the work with them.

Before, out on walks, I would walk 1 girl while my partner would walk the other girl and the male. I now walk both girls, he walks the male!

Before, they ate dinner by me physically putting them in crates with their bowls and locking them in to eat. They now eat their dinner loose together side by side, after sitting and looking to me until I give the OK.

Before, we would crate one girl and cover her up while the other one came inside, or carry one around and put her away from the other. Now, they sit obediently at the open door and look to me for instructions. That might be calling the other inside to be with us, calling 1 in and sending 1 out, or us all going outside.

In hindsight, it’s easy to see that what we were doing was making the situation worse. But we didn’t know what else to do other than prevent a fight happening as best we could by separation.

We might never trust them together alone unsupervised – but that doesn’t matter to me. What does matter is that our house is in order, things are calm and in control. And if we decide we want to take them away camping or just sit outside as a family, or any situation! all the dogs can be with us. Gone are the days we have to lock one away, or split up snarling matches every 5 minutes.

E collars and K9 Force!!

Edited February 7, 2008 by Meriment

[Daisy]

Wow that is a great story. Well done, you must all be so much happier and relaxed now

[Kharn]

Thats wonderful, its shows how valuable and worthwhile some professional help can be! You've also been a very dedicated owner and are now reaping the rewards. Fantastic!

[jesomil]

Well done. Thats a great story.

It is yet another example of how a lack of pack structure can cause so many problems. Well done for getting in a professional to help!!!

[Staff'n'Toller]

Well done for doing the hard yards as well! Alot of people just can't bring themselves to do the leadership work because they humanise their dogs too much, but can't see the damage they are doing at the same time.

Also thanks for writing it all out, might help some others who come to read it.

Mel.

[Lou Castle]

Meriment, thanks so much for writing of your success with your training with Steve. I’m sure that many will read your post and lose a bit of their fear of the Ecollar and may even be encouraged to give it a try, instead of being swayed by those who don't know how to use it properly.

Let's not forget, "Good job, Steve."

[jaybeece]

Nice work! Glad things have worked out so well

[Kavik]

Well Done!

[JayGee]

If we had audio to go with your post, we could almost hear the "joy" in your voice!!

Congratulations, but really your had work has paid off and I bet the dogs are so much happier in their new situation.

Welcome to the K9 Force Success Cult. Surely this can become a registered religion and we can claim dog training as a tax deduction????

[Meriment]

Thanks everyone! It really is great. It's much more relaxed around here these days, that's for sure

I'm enjoying putting the work in because it's so rewarding! They progress so quickly with e collar that it still blows me away.

[crusader]

Hi Meriment, well we might as well share the stories while we are at it

I too used K9 while he was over a few weeks ago as my 18 month old Rotty has a massive positive value for other dogs (no aggression, just wants to hang out with dogs and play) she was an absolute nightmare for the wife to walk (lunging to see the other dogs) plus we could not let her off the lead as she would just take off and her recall was terrible under distraction.

Under no distraction all the sit, SAAD, stay and come was fine but as soon as we saw a dog oh man "I just gotta go and see that other dog for a play" was Frankies idea....

Well that was 3 weeks ago, I had purchased a collar sometime ago from Steve with the Long distance learning package but was having trouble on the most basic step of collar tightness and stim level plus business commitments had been make life hectic.

Steve mentioned he was coming over so I asked for his assistance to just get me started, on the basics of stim level and collar tension - man, 1 hour for Steve with Frankie at the park and I could see the difference immediately under distraction!!

Since then, I got 2 weeks of solid training in before I had a problem with the collar and water causing a failure - yes they are water proof (I contacted Steve / Innotek and it was replaced immediately under warranty - Innotek were awesome to deal with!!) and I was back in action late last week.

OK, so I had seen the improvement with Frankie and was extremely happy with progress in such a short amount of time, I decided it was time to show off my new found obedient friend to my wife Dee, so off down the river / park we go yesterday and low and behold there is about a dozen dogs and about 50 people having BBQs, kids running around etc etc,

Wifey is horrified I am taking the lead off her not because she will hurt anybody but because people are intimadated by Rotties and this crazy girl just gotta play.......

My wife was absolutely stunned at the change in Frankie, comes when she is told, sits, stays (10mins is no prob, out of sight is no prob...) but most of all, she comes when she is told to, off lead with a massive amounts of distraction!!!

Next was, ok wifey, take her on the lead past the dogs, the lunging is almost non existent (with me on the controller), another week or 2 and I am positive it will be gone.

Finally, can't help myself, but after only one week of training down the park off lead, people were telling me what a well trained dog I had!! Sure, I had spent a lot of time previously training her but it was all under no distraction and this meant nothing in the real world until Steve and the E collar came along.

I can only imagine what Frankie is going to be like in another 6 weeks worth of training.... Steve, you have just made my friendly big goof the best ambassador to her breed, friendly and obedient, you are a champ my friend.

Thanks Al and Dee

Edited December 10, 2007 by crusader

[Monah]

Congratulations on all your hard work!!! You've done a fantastic job. I love these positive stories

[Meriment]

pretty cool Al - it's a great feeling hey??

I'm into the whole "hey, come and watch this" thing too Poor Mark is up & down off the couch all the time, he'll just get settled and I'm saying "come and check THIS out!!"

[crusader]

pretty cool Al - it's a great feeling hey??

You know it!

The best thing is that when you communicate effectively with Fido, both of you can move in a positive direction very quickly. I know what you mean about being blown away too.....

Edited December 10, 2007 by crusader

[dee lee]

Oh wow guys!!! I'm so jealous- ive been putting off getting help for my demon dog (combination of both probs there) until next year (after xmas commitments are freed up) and had been undecided whether i could make it out to K9force (difficult to get to him) but i have to say, im very impressed by your progress and think i'll have to make it happen.

Good work everyone!!

[Meriment]

Oh wow guys!!! I'm so jealous- ive been putting off getting help for my demon dog (combination of both probs there) until next year (after xmas commitments are freed up) and had been undecided whether i could make it out to K9force (difficult to get to him) but i have to say, im very impressed by your progress and think i'll have to make it happen.

Good work everyone!!

deelee2 don't think (it's dangerous )...

As my boss would say, apply the "JDI Formula"... that is... JUST DO IT!!!

Seriously. Book a consult, go see Steve. JDI

[BrunoBella]

Merriment and co

Thanks for that great post. I ordered e collars and Steve's training for my two gsps last week. Am pacing up and down waiting for it to arrive.

I'm looking forward to finally being able to take them off lead and to stop them hunting butterflies (which one of my neighbours is not a fan of)

Great work guys!

[Meriment]

Hey BellasPerson... congrats on your investment I hope the postman is kind to you and delivers it soon so you can get started

I've ordered another collar too - for my male. Since the girls are obedient now, he kinda reminds me of a free spirit hippie, away with the pixies, absolutely no recall, totally oblivious to us if there's a bird/dragon fly/lizard A bit infuriating really when the girls come & sit when they're told!!

Our pool on backwash mode might be quite a good distraction to train under eventually... what do you reckon?

[BrunoBella]

The pool on backwash would work to distract mine.

They hunt butterflies during the day and possums at night. I have lots of trees and thousands of possums living in my backyard. Quite a distraction for my two.

[kateshep]

What a great story meriment glad you had things sorted and it went well

Hi Meriment, well we might as well share the stories while we are at it

I too used K9 while he was over a few weeks ago as my 18 month old Rotty has a massive positive value for other dogs (no aggression, just wants to hang out with dogs and play) she was an absolute nightmare for the wife to walk (lunging to see the other dogs) plus we could not let her off the lead as she would just take off and her recall was terrible under distraction.

Abby my gsd is exactly like that too................ , problem is she is pretty close to having a higher value for playing with other dogs than her food in obedience training.....does not have enough prey drive to utilise in training, works best for food....but still would rather hang out with the other dogs She has a prong on her but maybe I might consider an e-collar....