Our Aussie/Cattledog attacked our neighbor's black Lab, and did some serious damage. Do you think Riley can be salvaged without having to end her life?

Hi Ed and Cindy:

I am writing you for any information and advice you can give me regarding one of our dogs. We have 3 dogs; (Polo), a 6 year old male American white shepherd, (Bella), a 5 month old female lab/shepherd mix, and (Riley), a 4-1/2 year old female australian shepherd/cattledog mix.

We got the puppy at 9 weeks old in June, and previous to that we had a 16 year old female black lab/shepherd mix. They are all spayed/neutered except the puppy which will be spayed on October 31st. Our problem is Riley the aussie/cattledog. She recently attacked our neighbor's black lab, and did some serious damage. Riley was in our yard on a 15 foot cable, when the dog came into the yard. Riley apparently attacked the dog. My husband heard the commotion, came out, and was able to pull Riley off the other dog, who is also a female. The other dog had bite marks on her head, ears, stomach, and at one point Riley had her by the throat. Polo and Bella were also on cables, with only Bella, the puppy, being close to Riley. We got Riley when she was about 1-1/2 years old from my co-workers son. They said they couldn't keep her since they had Riley's brother, and their house and yard was not big enough. She had been trained by an in-home trainer. The only problem we had with her was at first she was aggressive to our cats. She now will just chase the cats, and tries to play with them. She never bothered our older black lab, and gets along and plays with the white shepherd. She has a habit of biting the back of his legs when they play. She plays with the puppy, always under close supervision. She does get pretty rough with the her. The only other incident of biting was when she bit our neighbor's 5 year old daughter in the back of the legs about 1-1/2 years ago. She did break the skin. The girl was running, and we attributed it to her herding instincts. Riley is never allowed to run freely in our yard anymore. She shares a 14' x 4' dog run with Polo. We do have 4+ acres, so my husband used to run the dogs in the marsh, but lately they have not gotten enough exercise. When we first got Riley I used an electronic training collar, and now use a choke and prong collar when taking her on walks. The dogs are crate trained.

Polo and Riley are both dominant personalities while the puppy is submissive. Riley is not aggressive to people. She has excellent behavior at the vet's office and in public. She does bark at other dogs on walks, but never before has attacked. We think she is territorial in our yard. She's intelligent and a wonderful family pet with us. We realize that we have not exercised her enough and obviously made mistakes in her training or the lack of keeping up with it. Comments have been made that we need to "put her down". I made an appointment with an animal behaviorist in Madison this Sunday, November 2nd. I am rethinking taking her to the appointment. The behaviorist does not recommend electronic collars, choke or prong. She also made the comment that going for the stomach is a "kill maneuver." I saw on your website that you do not recommend animal behaviorists. We do not want to kill Riley, unless we have no other options. I plan on purchasing your DVD "Dealing with Dominant and Aggressive Dogs." We think we need professional training help, besides using your DVD's and going back to an electronic collar. Is there any recommendations you can make regarding trainers in our area? Also, do you think Riley can be salvaged without having to end her life? Any advice you can give will be greatly appreciated. I have already gotten much information from your website. We need to make a decision which direction to proceed very soon and are desperate for any help you can give us.

Thanks so much for your help.

Sharon