"training Advice"

[lovemesideways]

Posted in general as well

So, my friend repeated the advice he was given regarding his german shepherd and I wanted to get other peoples opinions on it..

So the german shepherd, who is roughly 5 months old. When she is next to her owner, she has taken to snapping and growling at dogs if they approach. Her owner is nice, but very soft. His reaction is to grab her an tell her "No".

From what I have observed, she never reacts in any way aggressive to other dogs unless she is sitting next to her owner when hes crouched down, she tends to lunge out at the other dog, give a yappy snap and growl, and then back quickly up to her owner again.

Yet when shes away from her owner, shes a really nicely balanced dog who plays happily with others. I have never seen her react to another dog in any way, unless she was standing right next to her owner. If shes away from her owner and he pats other dogs, she fine, she doesn't act possessive over him. Its just when hes right there, crouched down next to her.

He told me today about the advice a trainer gave him. The trainer said that whenever she growls at another dog, he's to crouch down, roughly grab her face and muzzle in his hands and put his face right down close to hers, yell No very loudly and angry, and growl at her. Then clip a lead onto her harness (its a car style harness) and walk away from the other dogs.

I just see so many things that could go wrong!!

Her fearing her owner and learning to never go near him.

Freaking out because shes being held like that, trying to snap at a dog when hes holding her face right next to his, and getting his face instead.

Taking that correction and applying it to the dogs who have approached and becoming More aggressive.

Or if the reason she behaves like that is because it gets her a lot of attention from her owner, further reinforcing that behavior, making it worse.

So, am I overreacting in thinking that advice is ridiculous?

[poodlefan]

That trainer must be on commission with a facial reconstruction surgeon

Tell your friend to seek help from someone who doesn't endanger handlers with advice like that.

Someone needs to assess WHY your friend's pup is reacting this way and give them a non-confrontational strategy to help with it.

Where is your friend?

BTW, you aren't supposed to double post threads.

Edited April 22, 2010 by poodlefan

[lovemesideways]

That trainer must be on commission with a facial reconstruction surgeon

Tell your friend to seek help from someone who doesn't endanger handlers with advice like that.

Someone needs to assess WHY your friend's pup is reacting this way and give them a non-confrontational strategy to help with it.

Where is your friend?

BTW, you aren't supposed to double post threads.

I asked to have the one in general deleted .

He's in the northern beaches in Sydney.

[poodlefan]

That trainer must be on commission with a facial reconstruction surgeon

Tell your friend to seek help from someone who doesn't endanger handlers with advice like that.

Someone needs to assess WHY your friend's pup is reacting this way and give them a non-confrontational strategy to help with it.

Where is your friend?

BTW, you aren't supposed to double post threads.

I asked to have the one in general deleted .

He's in the northern beaches in Sydney.

I would strongly recommend he book her into see K9Pro. On leash aggression is not uncommon and can be remedied via a range of methods that don't include intimidating your dog

[Aidan]

Sounds like a scaled up version of what caused the behaviour in the first place.

[corvus]

My sister's greyhound does this. She was raised in a kennel and is undersized. It is suspected she was bullied a fair bit by the other dogs. I was down at the beach with them one day watching this lunging and snapping. After a bit I'd put my hand on her every time another dog was heading our way and say quietly "It's okay, Mitzi, no biggy." I would estimate the lunges dropped by about 80% instantly. Half an hour later she was letting other dogs sniff her. By no means fixed, but her problem was anxiety and she felt better for having someone soothe away some of that anxiety. She's a pretty sensitive dog, but IMO no anxious dog needs an owner - who is supposed to be their lifeline and sense of security and safety - getting in their face making scary noises at them whenever they try to alleviate their anxiety. It's just gonna convince them they are right to be anxious.

[lovemesideways]

Saw the dog again today, and the shepherd is now wearing a Check Chain...

5 month old baby, who now has a check chain being used on her...

[SkySoaringMagpie]

Sounds like a scaled up version of what caused the behaviour in the first place.

Yep. Lots of things that the person could try before resorting to rough handling, yelling and rewarding the behaviour by putting distance between the dog and her handler and the other dogs. A good trainer could help, shame they seem to have run into a chest-beater.

A couple of the posters in this thread witnessed what happened when OH's dog went snarly at another dog on a walk the other day. I took the lead, and took her away from OH. OH then went and patted and made a fuss of the dog she had carried on at. So the consequences of being aggro on lead were that she wound up with me (the evil long haired boss) and worse, OH went and patted the other bitch. For the rest of the on leash walk, apart from one incident with a strange lab cross with issues of its own, she was well behaved. I'm not saying we're perfect dog handlers, far from it, but manhandling and growling is not necessary. In our case, we know that she guards OH as a resource, and so it becomes a case of "make sure unwanted behaviour is unsuccessful". Of course, friends with eminently sensible dogs help too!!

[lovemesideways]

Sounds like a scaled up version of what caused the behaviour in the first place.

Yep. Lots of things that the person could try before resorting to rough handling, yelling and rewarding the behaviour by putting distance between the dog and her handler and the other dogs. A good trainer could help, shame they seem to have run into a chest-beater.

A couple of the posters in this thread witnessed what happened when OH's dog went snarly at another dog on a walk the other day. I took the lead, and took her away from OH. OH then went and patted and made a fuss of the dog she had carried on at. So the consequences of being aggro on lead were that she wound up with me (the evil long haired boss) and worse, OH went and patted the other bitch. For the rest of the on leash walk, apart from one incident with a strange lab cross with issues of its own, she was well behaved. I'm not saying we're perfect dog handlers, far from it, but manhandling and growling is not necessary. In our case, we know that she guards OH as a resource, and so it becomes a case of "make sure unwanted behaviour is unsuccessful". Of course, friends with eminently sensible dogs help too!!

I agree, the behaviour isn't getting better. She seems to be getting worse. The way shes playing with other dogs is becoming very intense, Ive been trying to insist that he see a trainer, but if I say it in the wrong way hes going to feel insulted and not listen to anything I say.