My dog, who is almost completely blind, breaks into everything. He can open doors and hurts himself when I try to lock things. Any suggestions?

Question

1) I have an Australian Shepherd rescue dog and really was abused.  Previous owner's grandparents took the dog when he was not home and took it to a shelter because of how poorly he was treated.  When I got him, he was 1 year old.  10lbs under-weight, worms, matted and had been tied to a tree by himself in a yard and took a good six months before we could have him around any men with facial hair at all (previous owner was a large man with a beard).

    He is also an in-bred blue merle.  Fortunately, his only medical side-effect is that he is 95% blind.  It used to only be about 50%, but over the years (he is 8 ? now) he has gotten progressively worse not that you can tell by watching him.

    The issue with him is separation anxiety.

    And that he is brilliant.  Plastic kennels a no go, he eats them.  Wire, he disassembles or breaks (all of his canine teeth are broken off).  Loose in the house, he is destructive and not furniture or the such, but any food type thing he can get his mouth on, including fish food and guinea pig food, candles that smell good (garbage can - he can open the pantry door to get to it).  Laundry room, a no-go and he has figured out how to turn the door knob.  Garage - same thing - if we lock the door (that he now knows how to open) he will tear the moldings off the door.

    The yard? He opens the gate and we have to put special lock on the gate and then he cuts his nose trying and he knows how to open the slider to get in the house. 

    The bark collar was a nightmare that resulted in a large vet bill.  He tried to take it off and best guess by the vet, he got his foot in the collar and embedded the prongs in his neck and then yelped all day.  It had to be removed from his neck in a very painful process.

    As his eyes have gotten worse, his behavior has gotten worse. 

    I don't know what to do with him next.  He really is too smart for everyone's good.  He sees each new attempt on my part (in my over-dramatic mind!) as a new challenge to his brain. '

    He gets a LOT of exercise, to the point of exhaustion and still this behavior ensues.

    I have read through the boards and did not see much of anything other than the option of leaving him in the kennel 24/7 & I am worried he will seriously hurt himself.  Have you have any experiences with instances such as above where this has worked?

    2) 1 year old Rottie with dog aggression.  He was fine with other dogs (we have 4) until our neighbors dog un-altered GS attacked him about 6 months ago.  WE were walking down the street and dog came running up the black and jumped on him.  Life has not been pretty since

    Pinch Collar does not work.  Even took him to a clinic to make sure we had it fitted properly.  Dominance collar again, he will get himself to the point of passing out and will not stop.

    I have recently purchased a halti (much like a be-nice halter I once used on a rescue horse I had to work on) and it stops the outbursts once they start, but does not stop the outburst.

    He is still a puppy and he is a large dog +/- 130lbs. All muscle and quite scary looking to anyone who might pass (except he LOVES people - I don't want him to have to live with his stigma of being  dog aggressive and would love to break it.  note, he is fine if dogs come over and are in his yard and introduced properly)

    Will enough of his hurting himself with the halti break him of his reaction?  How do I get him back to ignoring other dogs?

    Thank you in advance for your time & I hope to hear from you.

    Val

Accepted Answer

Dog 1)

Like many dog owners, you are living in the past with this dog. The problems he had in his previous life was 7 ½ years ago, and in order for him to truly move on you need to quit feeling bad for what happened to him in the past. Dogs live in the moment, and we need to be aware of the fact that feeling sorry for them transmits weakness and instability to them. Dogs can’t be emotionally balanced in an environment where the past is still such a big part of the day to day life. You even say in your email that you have an over dramatic mind. Dogs mirror us in many ways, so start paying attention to your emotional state and you may see some correlations between you and your dog’s behavior.

What kind of exercise does he get? How much mental exercise? I always recommend working an anxious dog’s mind as well as his body. Marker training can be done by any dog, of any age. Read the article titled Training With Markers.

I also don’t see any other choice than to kennel him when you are gone, no matter what. Every time a dog like this gets out of a crate or a room or performs a self rewarding behavior (like getting in the garbage) it becomes more and more difficult to keep them confined.

Here is article Ed wrote on dogs that break out of crates.

You may need to purchase a solid crate that your dog can’t chew out of.

Dog 2)

I would recommend the dvd Dealing with Dominant & Aggressive Dogs and I would recommend the Electric Collar dvd with the difference being when dealing with aggression you don’t wait until the dog is actively showing aggression. You correct the dog on a very high level for even looking at another dog. I don’t think there is any other way for you to deal with this problem with such a large dog.

I would recommend a muzzle for him also.

There is a large amount of information on the website concerning dog aggression, if you spend some time using the search function (located in the upper left hand corner of the website) you will find many useful articles and posts that address all the problems you are having.

I hope this helps.

Cindy