[GermanSheplover111607]

A few weeks ago, my fiance and I brought Chief to my parents' house ( we were having dinner together) Chief was fine when he was the only dog, but as soon as we let my parents dogs out he tried to attack them. They have previously met and everything went off fine without a hitch.

We thought it was because we put my parents dogs away first, then brought Chief in.
We were baffled because he had NEVER shown any sign of aggression previously before that. (he lives with a male lab)

Then today, I went to meet my friend at her barn, and she had her dogs out and Chief went balistic. If it wasn't for the window, there would have been some serious blood shed!

We got a trainer soon after we got Chief and to be honest, it was all BS and a total waste of $400!

Does someone know any good dog trainers that don't cost and an arm, a leg and a hand? And also trainers that have dealt with dog aggression before.

In the meantime, what can we be doing with him to help get the aggression under control?

He plays outside for atleast an hour. He goes on the treadmill for 20-30 min 2x a day. He gets 2 1/2 scoops of Science Diet Adult food 2x a day.

I have never in my life had to deal with such an aggressive dog. It's rather scary to know that the dog you're giving a hug to, can turn into a monster.

We have also thought about contacting Cesar Millan (We're HUGE fans), but we're not exactly sure how that would work and even if we'd get a response....

 

[jazzy]

i have the exact same problem with my staffy x. hes the one in my avatar

because of our living situation our dogs are primarily inside dogs. this is fine for the 2 little ones as they prefer being inside but for cooper who is a big dog this wasnt a good situation. hes big and energetic and as such needs room to run and play and sniff and pee and do all those things dogs do. he was getting about 2 hours a day outside broken up into 1/2 hour stints and you could see him getting more and more restless even with the weekly trips to the horses where he could run his little tail off. we've organised the back fence now so that they can be left out there for longer and we have noticed him settling a little more.

with regards to the other dogs though, are they males? if they were females i couldnt imagine this behaviour normally but if they were males, by all means thats probably the problem. chief is probably at an age now where all the hormones are kicking in. a male dog that was once ok is now not as chiefs manliness is telling him this guy is a threat to any potential females. this is exactly how it happened with cooper. richards old dog merlin lives here with us too and when coops was a baby he absollutely loved merlin. once his 'you know whats' dropped there was blood shed. all of a sudden one day he saw merlin and went for the throat. and hes staffy x so all i could think of was that lock jaw staffys get. fortunately the cold water from the hose sent cooper flying upstairs lol since then we have had to keep both of them completely seperated 100% of the time.

the only solution is castration. you can never train that kind of behaviour out of a dog IMHO. we are having cooper done as we would really like to be able to take him to the dog park once in a while without all hell breaking loose. even still, some male dogs will never get on with other male dogs.

 

[jazzy]

i just wanted to add that you should be careful with him. coopers aggression at other dogs turned into aggression with us on occasion. i dealt with it quickly though and not much has come of it but shepards are a different ball game in a way...

 

[GermanSheplover111607]

two of my parents dogs are males, but he did try and attack the one female. Which was weird because.. well.. he's a male and she's a female.

We did have his neutered a month or so after we got him. He only dropped one, so for his health we did it.

I would also think that he's past the whole "oh my gosh, i have hormones" stage since he's almost a year. Maybe i'm wrong, I'm not sure...

He has not turned on us yet, but I do know if they're set on doing something they don't care who's n our way.

We did realize tonight that we're not spending enough play time with him. I'm thinking of getting or making an agility set, and we're going to get into a routine of walking/running/ riding a bike with him.

Thanks for the reply Emily, I appreciate.

 

[jazzy]

thats right. i completely forgot about the one walnut thing

does he sniff them before he goes off or does he just go in for the kill?

 

[GermanSheplover111607]

He sees them and just goes bazurk! No sniffing, no nothing.

Could he either a. have had a bad experience when he was young or b. have something wrong neurological?

 

[dogtraining]

My dog is honestly the least aggressive dog I have ever owned. But he is kennel trained, and the only time he gets aggressive is when a stranger comes in our house and he is in the kennel.

 

[sonnywimps]

I highly highly highly highly suggest Joe Feeney
Welcome to Your Pet's Trainer.com!

I have seen sooooo many good results from him...AND he is pretty affordable. He will work with you for payments. Drop him an e-mail and just ask questions......not sure where you are located, but he can still give you hints over the phone or e-mail, also mention that Jenny from Benson's in Clifton Park sent you

 

[GermanSheplover111607]

Thanks Sonny. He doesn't do NJ
I might send him an e-mail, not sure though yet.

I do have to say that we've been doing a lot with Chief. We've been leaving him home (in his crate) while we go to work. (he would normally come with us, but we can't always correct him, especially when we're dealing with customers) When we get home, we take him out and (mostly) I go out with him with his Jolly ball on a string (it's like 50+ft of rope) and we play around with it for a good 45 min-1 hour. In the beginning, he would never "drop it", but now when he comes trotting up with it, he'll either drop it without me saying anything, or I say it once and he'll do it.
He has been enjoying that a lot, as well as going on the treadmill. Whenever he comes inside, he almost always goes right on the treadmill and waits for it to start. He has been doing that off leash and doing very well.

We have also (almost) completely stopped him from going outside and playing with Chucky (FIL's dog) as he would try to dominate him and be aggressive with him. Since we stopped that, he has been coming inside when told and behaving a heck of a lot better.

We have also, been giving him more affections (after his exercise and discipline-which is him sitting or laying down and waiting for our permission to eat/drink). I guess since we didn't want to shower him with love only, we didn't do it. But I have seen a marked improvement in him while in the house.
Another thing we did, well I did really, was to tone down my excitement when talking/petting him. With my parents' dogs I would love to rile(sp?) them up and I see that I cannot do that with Chief. So now with my calm energy and everything, I can actually sit on the floor and pet him and not having him getting all crazy on me

I think as long as we continue to do this, he'll keep getting better and better.

 

[Blue Fox]

Sounds like your on the right track GSHep, you seem to be feeling more positive about him now which is great too. Good luck for the future with him, they are marvellous dogs when properly socialised and trained (like all dogs really). Our boy is the biggest sooky la la, so trusting and so loyal to his family.