I have a 18 month old pomeranian who just bit me. I had recently used a choke collar in training. Do you think this aggression was caused from using the choke collar?

Question

I am in a desperate need for a help with my dog. I was reading your article on internet and thought you would be able to give me some suggestion.

    I have a male pomeranian. It is one year and six months old. I've had him since he was three months old. Since little, he is very very shy and intimidated around other dogs. Every day I take him to park where 20 other dogs are running around off leash. First few months he was just scared that he would be on my lap. After getting used to the situation, he started roaming around making little distance from me, however, would never go play with other dogs. When the other dogs came close to him, he just jumped back on my lap. Recently though, instead of simply run away from them, he started having the habit of barking and trying to bite other innocent dog who are just being friendly, and this habit gets worse day by day.

    This morning he picked up fish bone on the road and ran away from me with it. After 30 minutes of chasing, I finally caught him with rage on my face. I grabbed him aggressively and he bit me. He had never done this to me no matter what. I could take away his toy, his water, his food, anything I want while he was enjoying them and he would've still not got aggressive at me like that, nor any other human being. He is not shy at all around people, young, old, male, female, as long as it was human being, he would love to play with them. (Last night however, he snapped one of my friend whom he used to like the best when she tried to pick him up).

    I started using jerk chain a couple months ago since my friend who has a very trained dog suggested me to use it. I was wondering if all these aggressive behavior has gotten anything to do with it.

    He had been couple times attacked by a big dog at the park, and two weeks ago by a German Shepard who had thank God muzzle. I think that changed his personality a little also.

    Whether it's the jerk train or the attack by the other dog, is there anyway to bring him back to non aggressive attitude? I am willing to work with him on whatever it takes to remove any psychological damage I might have given to him. Please please help us.

    Thank you.

Accepted Answer

These problems are all caused by you.

Read the article I wrote on my web site about dog parks.

You have not trained your dog well enough. Had you trained the dog he would have come when called. This has NOTHING to do with using a choke chain. In fact you should have been using a prong collar. I also suggest that you change your attitude on obedience training. What you are currently doing does not work.

If you would like to learn more about the principles of obedience training a dog, read the description for my Basic Dog Obedience video. You will probably find that you have not had the full picture on the steps of training a dog must go through before it can be considered fully trained. You can also read why I am not a fan of taking an untrained dog to obedience classes. I think if you read the testimonials on that tape you will see that my customers feel the same way.

Get this tape and a prong collar and train your dog and stop going to dog parks.