May 13, 2013
My dog is becoming aggressive when we use a prong collar. What should I do?
Full Question:
Hi Ed and Cindy,I just recently purchased how to deal with dominant and aggressive dogs, dominant dog collar, leather leashes, etc. I had asked Cindy this question a while back when my female german shepherd was still only 9 months old. I bought the ecollar and DVD back then along with other Michael Ellis DVDs. She is doing very well with obedience without any high level distractions. She will obey on and off leash with people around only but cannot do that when there are any other animals around. She has extremely high drive and will chase anything I throw or anything that moves. I exercise her everyday throwing balls for at least 30-60 minutes. She is very well behaved in the house.
My biggest problem since I've adopted her at 6 months is her aggression towards other animals, especially dogs. She is now a year and half year old and starting to progressively getting more and more aggressive towards any dogs, cats and any animals. She is great with only people around and will obey on and off leash commands, but whenever a dog or cat comes around nothing seems to work, high value treats toys, etc she just go crazy with her hair standing up and will pull on the prong collar leash as hard as she can barking at the top of her lungs. Even with her two feet up in the air she'll continue to bark like crazy and fight the leash. I've tried to let her close to friend's dogs several times with a muzzle and she just want to fight with them.
I've followed Cindy's advice not to use the ecollar for correcting her aggressive behavior back then since she was too young and she may get confuse for being corrected for looking or approaching other dogs. Now that she's 1 1/2 year old is that old enough to follow Ed's video instructions with prong collar corrections as outlined in the DVD and the ecollar corrections as shown in the DVD. I am getting very concerned since she is getting progressively more and more aggressive to the point that my wife, who is only 95 lbs, is not able to handle her during their walks. She have not taken her on anymore walks because of this fear and whenever I take her she is just as aggressive. Please advise before I apply the instructions outlined in both DVDs.
Thank you,
David
Ed's Answer:
David,
I believe a huge part of the problem here is what your doing with this dog along with the fact that a solution (even when your doing everything correctly) can take a long time to fix.
Who knows why your dog acts aggressively? Not you nor I, that’s for sure. Often times rescue dogs have been attacked by another dog before they are rescued. That only has to happen once and the dog will be dog aggressive their whole life. I can guarantee you 100% that doing what you are doing is drop dead the wrong thing to do. Putting the dog in muzzle and taking it near other dogs will NEVER work and will only make it worse.
Think of this in human terms. If you are deathly afraid of snakes or spiders, will taking you close to snakes and spiders make you unafraid? NO, it won't.
Using a remote collar is also the wrong path. I wrote an article that is on my web site titled THE EVOLUTION OF USING REMOTE COLLARS FOR DOG AGGRESSION, read this article and follow the advise. The solution to your problem is not a bigger stick.
Using a prong collar is also a poor option. Prong collars can often make nervous dogs hectic, if anything using a dominant dog collar is the collar of choice. A prong collar is a tool that can be used in training. There are no tools that fit every dog.
If we had this dog we would teach it engagement and the first step of engagement is to teach the dog EYE CONTACT and put it on cue (on command) We would then work on engagement exercises at home and then slowly progress to places with more and more distractions – not dog distractions. If you have the Ellis food dvd you know how to do this. Revisit the information and study it. These DVDs are meant to be watched over and over.
When we take the dog to a new location we expect the dog to give us eye contact on command. There is a very fine line between correcting a dog for ignoring that command and the handler screwing up by putting the dog in an environment that has too many negative motivators (distractions) . New trainers usually try and up the distraction level too fast. So it becomes the responsibility of the handler to look for environments to train in that fit the needs to the dog. When the time comes to test the LOOK COMMAND when other dogs are around it may be that you start a block away from a dog park – not next to the fence.
Keep in mind we think dog parks are drop dead foolish and dangerous places. Our goal would never be to try and rehab your dog to the level that it could function in a dog park.
This training can be done with food or a tug toy – which one depends on your dogs motivation for food or a toy, along with your skill are presentations and where you are in the engagement training process.
Regards,
Ed Frawley
I believe a huge part of the problem here is what your doing with this dog along with the fact that a solution (even when your doing everything correctly) can take a long time to fix.
Who knows why your dog acts aggressively? Not you nor I, that’s for sure. Often times rescue dogs have been attacked by another dog before they are rescued. That only has to happen once and the dog will be dog aggressive their whole life. I can guarantee you 100% that doing what you are doing is drop dead the wrong thing to do. Putting the dog in muzzle and taking it near other dogs will NEVER work and will only make it worse.
Think of this in human terms. If you are deathly afraid of snakes or spiders, will taking you close to snakes and spiders make you unafraid? NO, it won't.
Using a remote collar is also the wrong path. I wrote an article that is on my web site titled THE EVOLUTION OF USING REMOTE COLLARS FOR DOG AGGRESSION, read this article and follow the advise. The solution to your problem is not a bigger stick.
Using a prong collar is also a poor option. Prong collars can often make nervous dogs hectic, if anything using a dominant dog collar is the collar of choice. A prong collar is a tool that can be used in training. There are no tools that fit every dog.
If we had this dog we would teach it engagement and the first step of engagement is to teach the dog EYE CONTACT and put it on cue (on command) We would then work on engagement exercises at home and then slowly progress to places with more and more distractions – not dog distractions. If you have the Ellis food dvd you know how to do this. Revisit the information and study it. These DVDs are meant to be watched over and over.
When we take the dog to a new location we expect the dog to give us eye contact on command. There is a very fine line between correcting a dog for ignoring that command and the handler screwing up by putting the dog in an environment that has too many negative motivators (distractions) . New trainers usually try and up the distraction level too fast. So it becomes the responsibility of the handler to look for environments to train in that fit the needs to the dog. When the time comes to test the LOOK COMMAND when other dogs are around it may be that you start a block away from a dog park – not next to the fence.
Keep in mind we think dog parks are drop dead foolish and dangerous places. Our goal would never be to try and rehab your dog to the level that it could function in a dog park.
This training can be done with food or a tug toy – which one depends on your dogs motivation for food or a toy, along with your skill are presentations and where you are in the engagement training process.
Regards,
Ed Frawley
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