Consious Training against MALE AGGRESSIVENESS

[Ethár]

I feel COOL today.... it has now gone TWO days since my instructor took me and Ambrosius to a kennel where we should do the final training to stop Ambrosius from being male aggressive.

We have now trained for about a month when we have met other dogs at a distance and he is quite relaxed so it was time for the next step...

My instructor showed us in to two fenced yards (quite big). Those yards were located right beside each other and she put one male dog in the one yard.

This male dog was known to be nice but liked to bark at other males.
Ambrosius and me had gotten restrictions before on what to do. We walked back and forth, closer and closer and strangely both Ambroisus and the other dog were QUIET.

I got told that I SHOULD demand of Abbe to look at ME and not the other dog - so my instructor showed me how to do that.

I can say that my heart broke for a few minutes there...
BUT now afterwards I agree with her.

I have been TOO "nice" to Ambrosius. She said: "It feels like a little mosquito when you pull his leash". And for gods sake USE YOUR LOW VOICE!!!!!

Okay - I took a real hard pull in the leash and yelled at Ambrosius. He went totally in shock.... and looked at me as if he was saying : Oh dear Mistress - do you have such a voice resource???? Oooops, better to obey.

And then he walked NICELY looking at ME....

Three more dogs were put in the other yard and I just needed to correct him with my voice now. WHAT A VICTORY!!!!

Then we trained with male dogs in the same yard and Ambrosius and me walked back and forth with both short and long leash. Finally Ambrosius listened to my voice.

We have met quite a lot of dogs walking the neighbourhood and he STILL listens to my voice. I do not need to correct him with the leash anymore.

Probably he was so shocked by all that male dogs the other day.... but what the heck. If I just keep up this it will be a pea in the pie to walk him.

Thank god for my instructor!!!
Happy - happy - happy

P.S. Maybe I should add that he comes to me more happy now also when calling him. AND he has approached me MORE times these days to get pet. It is like he looks up to me more.

[This message has been edited by Ethár (edited September 07, 2000).]