huski

Wow Dyzney that's terrifying! Glad you are all ok, you too PME. Generally I always crate Daisy in the back of my car, I would hope if god forbid I had a car accident that having her crated would help keep her safe.

Who clearly has a limited understanding of aggression going from her posts here. I am constantly surprised at the number of DOLers who will happily make an assessment on a dog's aggressive behaviour having never seen the the dog themselves. Who knows how easily the dog's issues could be managed or fixed.

Desexing a dog very rarely makes any real impact on aggressive behaviour... Hopefully she sees a reputable professional who is experienced in working with aggression. I've seen the scariest aggressive dogs you can imagine rehabilitated, I would be surprised if this dog is beyond saving.

Totally agree Amps :thumbsup:

Lots of people don't like dogs with behaviourial issues, but that doesn't mean that they are bad dogs that are beyond help. True but some are. I don't really think any dog is truly beyond help, but I do think on rare occasion there are dogs that owners simply cannot manage for various reasons (even with professional help). Using a water pistol for what is apparently a serious aggression issue? Hmmm, okay. I hope she gets appropriate help from a reputable professional ASAP.

Lots of people don't like dogs with behaviourial issues, but that doesn't mean that they are bad dogs that are beyond help.

I think it's idealistic and unrealistic to think that there are that many homes out there wanting and experienced enough to take on a dog with aggression issues. Who says the dog has to live like that Has the dog had a professional behaviourial assessment?

I also wouldn't rehome a dog like that. I don't think it's fair to call the dog "nasty". There are many reasons why dogs act aggressively, and I think she is doing the right thing by having a behaviourial assessment. Dogs like that need training and I'm surprised she hasn't gotten professional help before now.

Teaching a good on/off switch is something I will emphasis heavily with my new pup - Daisy is bad enough :laugh:

Hehe good luck! I woudln't change a thing about fox, even when she's on her second hour of trying to get my OH to play a game of fetch :D which breed are you getting? I could quite possibly eat my words so we'll see what it's like once pup pup is here :laugh: I am getting a field bred English Springer :) Can't wait!! :)

LOL well I'll see how I go doing the same thing when I get my WL pup later this year, I don't think you can ever have too much energy or drive if it's harnessed correctly

Guess it depends on how you like to train Weasels - We have an instructor at our club who tells me off if I don't immediately launch my obedience class into a big paddock bashing session when class starts because apparently the dogs need some "drive taken out" before they can focus - entirely the opposite to how I train. If I had a really high drive dog and I wanted to take the edge of a bit before going in the ring I would do it by playing a big tug or food game and doing a bit of work before hand. But I personally like my dogs to come out and work straight away, I used to have to walk Daisy for miles before training so I had a chance of getting something out of her because unless she was super tired she'd scent all the time. We don't do that now because I want to harness that energy instead.

I don't really do classes but when my dog isn't working she's crated. When we get to training she's crated and when I want to train her I take her out, we play/train, then I put her away and repeat. Sometimes at the end of the night I let her have a run around (usually to go to the toilet before going home) but I don't let her play with other dogs at training (before or during or after). I don't really understand the 'burning energy' thing before class, why wouldn't you want your dog to give 100% of what they have in training I also discourage people when I teach obedience classes from letting their dogs play with others at training, especially before class, I see people all the time who have let their dogs play before class struggle with their dogs during class because they want to go and play with the other dogs. If your dog can't focus when other dogs are around, it seems counter productive to let them play with other dogs at training. ETA: If I am in between exercises or have to stop training for a short period to do something I'll usually put my dog in a stay so she is still "working" and engaged with me. I never used to crate her much at training/trials etc but then I realised I was using up a lot of her energy just by having her out of her crate so I now have her crated all the time.

There's a difference between a dog causing a god awful ruckus and 'looking' like it's going to then there's the ones who do. Not saying a FA dog wont give a few bites, it's still a dog. I've been training a few dogs in the past year that really pushed, despite how frightening their initial action is, wont follow through to the point of a take down. I do think regardless of the reason the dog is exhibiting the aggression, a dog that will actually go that point of mauling someone is not very common at all.

You said earlier that all guests in their house have to do is walk past the dog and it goes off. It doesn't actually surprise me to hear that you think that kind of uncontrollable aggression is desirable. Ever seen a fear aggressive animal tear down a yard, all alone, in the dark, and actively engage someone? Forward, confident and deliberate movement unrestrained goes against the core of what fear is about. Now if the dog was restrained we'd be in 50/50 territory :laugh:- You haven't seen the dog aggress so you don't know that's what it looked like or even what happened, we only have Magic6's word to go by and that is hardly reliable :laugh: A dog that tries to maul every strange person it sees hardly strikes me as a confident dog, but that's JMO. Even my FA dog would run across a park unrestrained to attack another dog, the scariest dog FA dog I've seen would have mauled a person unrestrained if given the option too.

I wouldn't call it that, the dogs territorial and guarding instincts are through the roof and I think the owners are merely living in controlled chaos ;) I'd call it lucky the owners got away with it this long without a council visit. It would be worth your husbands friend going and getting some proper training for this dog so it can learn to switch off and relax a little without feeling the need to guard all the time :) if you need a good trainer just PM me. I didn't say it was FA, I just said it sounds like it could be. Unless you've met and assessed the dog you wouldn't have any way of saying for sure that it was territorial either.

But it's not protecting anything - having a dog that is extremely aggressive towards strangers is not remotely the same as having a dog that is actually trained in personal protection. When I said I would never rely on an untrained dog to protect you, I wasn't saying that there aren't dogs out there that do bite people. There are plenty of untrained dogs that bite people but common sense dictates that this is a serious behaviour problem, if it wasn't why do so many of their owners come to us to book consults to stop their dogs displaying unwanted and dangerous aggression? Having a dog like the one in the example you are giving is a liability, sure it bit an intruder, but from what you said it would bite any one that came onto the property intruder or not, it would even bite your friends house guests! Having a dog like that is dangerous not desirable.

And from what you've posted about this dog, it would act exactly the same way if your friends had people over and the dog was given access to them. The dog clearly couldn't tell the difference between a genuine threat and any one else, having an out of control aggressive dog like that is certainly not something I would brag about or consider desirable. It's not like the dog was actually protecting your husband and your friend.

Friendly to people it knows but goes off at strangers? Hmmm. Sounds like text book fear aggression.

Sounds like a number of fear aggressive dogs I know. Reacting to strangers with extreme aggression? How is that remotely desirable in an untrained dog? Who wants a dog who decides of it's own accord when to exhibit aggression? I certainly wouldn't want a dog like that.

What Wuffles said. Besides if your dogs have been trained properly in heelwork you shouldn't need a leash or collar anyway

Yep like Nekh said, you can't rely on a dog to "protect" you unless you have a trained personal protection dog. I like to think having dogs is a deterrent but I would never expect they would actually do anything if anyone broke in, and I wouldn't want them to.

I met Daisy's breeder half way as she lived miles away and she was definitely not a puppy farmer, nothing dodgy about it at all. I wouldn't do it again as I would like to temp test the litter before picking a puppy but that alone wouldn't alarm me. Pup does look very small though, surely the breeder would have known he was drastically undersized when she gave him to you

I'm really lazy, I don't actually remember how I first trained the front, it was probably just through luring :laugh: I am lucky though that Daisy has never had much of a problem doing them straight consistently. Though having said that I did do a lot of pivot work on a perch and I've always done a lot of front work that way.

I would take it a few steps back then like others have said, like I mentioned above with the game I play with D, I run/take step backwards and get her to follow me 'pushing' into front position the whole time. That may help with the rally exercise as you're walking backwards?