Training for CD : Dog Aggressiveness

[Sansano]

Hi everyone. I'll give you some quick background. I am training my 3 1/2 year old female for what I hope is a CD, then CDX etc. Cheyenne has a wonderful friendly temperament with all people. She does, however have issues with any female dog over the 40 lb mark.

I was in class tonight and we were doing figure 8's. We were the 'pole'. Another Rottie bitch was doing the figure 8's and went by us. Unfortunately my leash was slack and Cheyenne took a 'potshot' at the other girl. It was a very aggressive attempt to take the other female out. I quickly and fairly harshly, collar corrected her with her pinch collar along with a loud verbal reprimand. I am not exactly sure what to do. I wonder if this is something I can overcome for the obedience trialing. Right now, I foresee problems in the sits and downs or going past dogs in and out of the ring. I am looking for advice & opinions on this issue.

Thanks in advance.

Mike

[AngelBunny]

Sansano:

Moxie and I are in the same boat, only it's the reverse with Moo--she thinks small dogs are prey.

I take her to dog class 2x/week. One club is very active and the handling class in the next ring has lots of little dogs.

We do alot of Watch me and walking around and working around small dogs.

I *expect* Mox to restrain herself because I *want* her to do so.

[CarolineS]

This isn't advice or an opinion, but just my personal experience with a similar problem.

Dresden isn't aggressive but is very prey driven. Any other dog, no matter what size, that is excited, jumping or running fires her up. It was getting so bad she'd be spinning on the end of her leash on walks when another dog went by.

It has gotten a lot better since starting obedience classes. We've used a couple of different techniques. She's been taught "watch me" and I'll use that when her attention wanders to another dog. Also, I found I wasn't correcting strongly enough when she decided to lunge at another dog, I was "nagging". Something else that's really important that I didn't do enough of was praise after a strong correction when the dog is back in position.

She's by no means perfect yet, but I did get her by another dog out on our walk the other day without too much fuss. I put her into "heel" as soon as I saw the other dog, used a lot of "watch me" and treats and corrected when she went out of position. She was a coiled spring, ready to lunge, but I kept her so busy we got by with a semblance of control. ;) My instructor said as the obedience training progresses this will get easier.

Like you, I have a goal for this dog. Dresden is going to be my next therapy dog, so has to be able to ignore other dogs. I've been taking classes for about 6 weeks now and practicing faithfully at home and I am definitely seeing an improvement. Hopefully, the obedience training will help with your "challenge".

[Mick Trainer]

What is her body language like when she is doing this. Hair up all down her back, just at the neck, not at all? Does she stiffen before she lunges? How long has she been doing this?

Answering these question will help make the answer more specific but at the end of the day she is to be corrected harshly for breaking her sit or heal what ever and rewarded when she behaves correctly. She just has to learn that she cannot do this behavior without there being consiquences.

I would start the dogs moving past her at a gret distance where you know she will not break her position and reward her (treats, praise the lot) everytime the dog passes. The slowly move the dog closer and closer. With each successful pass she gets rewarded. If she breaks at all she is corrected for it.

Teaching a command to watch you will also help. Teaching her to displace her behavior onto you will help her have successful passes.

If you do these exercises correctly and do only small bits at a time then she should learn to behave very quickly. As you are already in class and have some control over her it should not be too difficult.

Do you use a release command? If not I would implement one so that she knows not to break a command until told otherwise.

Mick.

[Sansano]

Originally posted by Mick Trainer
What is her body language like when she is doing this. Hair up all down her back, just at the neck, not at all? Does she stiffen before she lunges? How long has she been doing this?

Hi Mick.

Unfortunately, her body language does not alert me to this. She doesn't seem to be changing it at all before taking her shot. I will however, watch her closer to look for any indicators this week as I work on this.
She has had isues with other bitches pretty much since I got her (9 months). She is never allowed to play free with them and I keep a tight control on her whenever we are near other females when walking etc. This is the first time whe went after a dog in a class situation