May 20, 2011
I have two pitbulls that are aggressive towards other dogs and will do anything to kill a cat. I am having trouble controlling them off-leash. Suggestions?
Full Question:
I have two pit bulls, 1 male, 1 female, both three years old. They are great dogs and my life. Single military guy, not much else to do. They dogs are great in the home and have never been aggressive towards me in any way. But are aggressive towards other dogs and will do anything to get to a cat and kill it. Major prey aggression. The dogs and I have established the master of the pack situation, but I am having trouble controlling them off the leash. I am trying to retrain them (previous military owners never discouraged the aggression) to be more calm towards others since I'm from atlanta, to prove pits are not killers and are great dogs to have. Which products other than the dealing with aggressive dogs dvd and remote collar training dvd, and which collars, remote or aggressive dominant would you recommend. I am trying to turn these dogs around to prove to my family and friends they are not a dangerous breed or animal. They are ignorant and won't do the research to learn otherwise. I am currently moving to Washington and am trying to deal with this issue before I get there so I can more options for living arrangements. I am also dealing with the option that I may have to give them away. Thank you for you time and help. 
Ed's Answer:
Your email reflects a conflict of terms. While you say “The dogs and I have established the master of the pack situation” when in fact your email in fact confirms this not to be the case.
Pack leaders have rules – pack leader rules. Lower ranking member of a pack follow those rules out of respect for the pack leader.
Now you either have not established your rule of not being aggressive to other dogs, or your have not properly enforced that rule or your dogs don’t respect you as a strong pack leader. I am not in the position to tell you which of these statements is true – but for sure one of them is.
For dogs to become calm submissive obedience pets they need to accept and understand the dynamics of your family pack. I personally don’t think they have or they would mind off leash and they would not have unwarranted aggression.
So the solution to this problem means you need to educate yourself (and your dogs) on pack structure. The dogs already know everything they need to know about pack structure. They were born knowing. You don’t know. Don’t feel bad about this. A great many people “THINK THEY KNOW WHAT A PACK LEADER IS” and how to get to be one. When in fact most people don’t know or understand the dynamics of pack behavior.
I would point you to my DVD Establishing Pack Structure with the Family Dog.
In regards to this dog aggression issue.
This behavior needs to be extinguished. Chasing other dogs, showing aggression to other dogs is in and of itself - self satisfying. In other words you’re not going to redirect these dogs to a different behavior by offering them the option of doing something else. The act of aggression means more to dogs with these problems than chasing a ball or playing with a tug toy.
The quickest and easiest way to extinguish this behavior is with a remote collar. But that doesn’t mean you simply put a collar on a dog and start pushing buttons. You need to learn how to use one. Once this happens you will not only stop the behavior you will gain off leash control. Get my dvd titled Remote Collar Training for the Pet Owner to help you get started. Read the threads on my web board about remote collar training.
Cindy and I both use a Dogtra 280ncp remote collar when we train our dogs. This collar has a very small receiver (on the dogs neck) in addition to a digital readout on the transmitter. This is critical in fine tuning the low level stimulation we use in the training.
A point to mention here is that “off leash obedience” and “extinguishing a behavior” require opposite methods of remote collar work. With obedience work we use low level stimulation. The level is adjusted to fit the temperament of each dog. Many times the final level is so low that you would not even feel it. While extinguishing a behavior is started at the highest level the collar can offer. I can compare it to learning not to touch a hot stove. You only touch one once and you understand the point.
The concept on dog aggression is to use the collar to stimulate the dog the INSTANT he looks at another dog and not when he is all wound up. When your dogs understand this work you will find that your dogs will not want to look at another dog. And when they do a slick low level nick is all that required to get them to look away.
With this said these dogs should never go out without a collar on. You may take 25 walks and never touch the buttons when the dogs are trained but you ALWAYS have the option and this is where control comes from.
I hope this helps.
Kind Regards,
Ed Frawley
Pack leaders have rules – pack leader rules. Lower ranking member of a pack follow those rules out of respect for the pack leader.
Now you either have not established your rule of not being aggressive to other dogs, or your have not properly enforced that rule or your dogs don’t respect you as a strong pack leader. I am not in the position to tell you which of these statements is true – but for sure one of them is.
For dogs to become calm submissive obedience pets they need to accept and understand the dynamics of your family pack. I personally don’t think they have or they would mind off leash and they would not have unwarranted aggression.
So the solution to this problem means you need to educate yourself (and your dogs) on pack structure. The dogs already know everything they need to know about pack structure. They were born knowing. You don’t know. Don’t feel bad about this. A great many people “THINK THEY KNOW WHAT A PACK LEADER IS” and how to get to be one. When in fact most people don’t know or understand the dynamics of pack behavior.
I would point you to my DVD Establishing Pack Structure with the Family Dog.
In regards to this dog aggression issue.
This behavior needs to be extinguished. Chasing other dogs, showing aggression to other dogs is in and of itself - self satisfying. In other words you’re not going to redirect these dogs to a different behavior by offering them the option of doing something else. The act of aggression means more to dogs with these problems than chasing a ball or playing with a tug toy.
The quickest and easiest way to extinguish this behavior is with a remote collar. But that doesn’t mean you simply put a collar on a dog and start pushing buttons. You need to learn how to use one. Once this happens you will not only stop the behavior you will gain off leash control. Get my dvd titled Remote Collar Training for the Pet Owner to help you get started. Read the threads on my web board about remote collar training.
Cindy and I both use a Dogtra 280ncp remote collar when we train our dogs. This collar has a very small receiver (on the dogs neck) in addition to a digital readout on the transmitter. This is critical in fine tuning the low level stimulation we use in the training.
A point to mention here is that “off leash obedience” and “extinguishing a behavior” require opposite methods of remote collar work. With obedience work we use low level stimulation. The level is adjusted to fit the temperament of each dog. Many times the final level is so low that you would not even feel it. While extinguishing a behavior is started at the highest level the collar can offer. I can compare it to learning not to touch a hot stove. You only touch one once and you understand the point.
The concept on dog aggression is to use the collar to stimulate the dog the INSTANT he looks at another dog and not when he is all wound up. When your dogs understand this work you will find that your dogs will not want to look at another dog. And when they do a slick low level nick is all that required to get them to look away.
With this said these dogs should never go out without a collar on. You may take 25 walks and never touch the buttons when the dogs are trained but you ALWAYS have the option and this is where control comes from.
I hope this helps.
Kind Regards,
Ed Frawley
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