 He came from a Puppy Mill
The other day I found out about where Khori actually came from: A puppy mill. Now I understand more where he is coming from with his behavior more than ever before. He came out of Thunder Valley Kennels. He will be 4 years old this summer and we have dealt with food aggression, leaky heart valve, lots of ear infections, temperament problems. I feel like I was taken advantage of and all of my hopes of having a conformation dog was shattered. I don't know if I can trust another breeder right now. I have gone through so much with him in the time I have had him. The food aggression is so much better, and he doesn't growl and I can be around him now. He will never be cured of it, but I can manage him if he cycles back. His trial and error system is very slow and I am working on clicker to see if I can work him on that. I was playing ball with him, and he backed up and touched my husband and he growled at him. So that is an issue we need to deal with and I think that I can do that with a clicker also. Sometimes I feel really exhausted helping him through all of these little things. Next weekend I will be going to the Brenda Aloff and Steve White seminar, so hopefully I will be learning new things to help him. Khori has done alot of improvements in the past year. He is a very complicated boy. He is who he is and I will help him get through it. I never thought I would be dealing with a rottie, being my first one and having such high hopes of doing alot of fun things with him. I call him my learning dog and we will learn together.  |