rottnvegas, Mick, and Storm,
Thank you so much, your patience has been monumental! And you have finally gotten through to me. I'm a bit ashamed to realize that in my frustration with the lack of available resources, I spent a few days wanting the "dog's heroic
natural protective capabilities" myth to come true, in spite of all that I have learned here on the forum. I should know better by now. Thank you for the wake-up call. It will not happen again. If I cannot find a trainer to reliably instruct him in PP then I will not expect anything from him but good manners, whatever the situation.
rottnvegas,
I hope that your previous esteem of me and of the care that I take of Diesel has not been entirely lost; you may understandibly nurse a few doubts after my last post, but, other than the lapse in judgement of the past few days, I really have been as conscientious and responsible as I can from the beginning. In case you couldn't tell ;), Diesel is my first Rottie, indeed he's my first dog of any large protection-capable breed, and it has taken me awhile to sort through all of the urban legends that abound and the various training issues. Your post was blunt enough to leave me feeling as though you had slapped me back to my senses. And I appreciate it!
Yes, I did correct his head off the last time he tried to defend me from an innocent stranger, he did get in a whole world of trouble, and it hasn't occurred since. He has been doing very well with the help of my new trainer, to our great relief and encouragement.
My husband does now realize that his mini-tests were a mistake, and very confusing for Diesel. He will make no further attempts to do anything that could lead Diesel to believe that he himself or people in general are threatening in any way. We will go back to concerning ourselves with just having fun with our beautiful boy and training him to be a good citizen, and we'll go as far as we are able with Schutzhund, but I'm going to shelf the whole PP issue until I can find a very capable trainer. And if I don't find one, then I'll consider myself privileged to call Diesel my well-mannered sporting pet.
I feel incredibly embarrassed about this entire thing. But I'm so relieved now that you've cleared things up for me definitively- what would Diesel and I do without you?!
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Pity we couldn't train dogs here on the forum.
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Ah my dear Storm! You have no idea how much money I would pay for
that!
(Sheepishly yours,)
Michela