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April 28, 2011

I have acquired a 1 year old female that is very dominant. Can you tell me what I need to control her?

Full Question:

Ed,

A have just acquired a dominant dog, it followed me home on a walk, someone had dumped her. She's approximately a year old, I've had her 3 weeks. I will soon be getting her spayed, she's had a litter recently. She's had a hard life with a lot of scars from fights. I have a Innotek econo-trainer shock collar and was wondering if you could tell me if there are any others out there that are stronger in shock than this. I have looked in a Cabelas book, but they don't say to use on strong willed dogs. She's coming around and I will be buying the Fatal Dog Attack book and if you'll suggest videos, I'll purchase them. I have a old Rot/Shepard female, the only time we have problems is when we let the old dog in the house, Tinker, the new dog has grabbed her by the throat. The other time is when we are outside, Tinker is an outside dog, if we show affection to Daisy, the old dog, a fight ensues. Our daughter has two dogs that visit and I need to train Tinker to not harm them. I'm going to buy the prong collar and muzzle you described. She's a good dog and is learning quickly, she's hard headed at times, I just don't want her to hurt the other dogs. She doesn't act like she's ever been trained. She's not shown any aggression towards my husband or I, but we have been firm with her in trying to get her trained. Tinker is a mix of possibly Beagle, Whippet or Doberman as she has short hair. She has a good personality, but these things we really need to get worked out. I have a fenced in area I keep her, so I can keep them separated. I appreciate any help you can offer.

Diann

Ed's Answer:

I believe you may be misreading your dog's temperament. I have never seen a dominant one year old female, and I breed police dogs and have for 30 years.

Now with this said, she is dog aggressive and she is stubborn. Here are my suggestions:

Try normal obedience first. Get my DVD on Basic Dog Obedience.

Get a prong collar and a long line

My video shows how to fit and use them

I do not think you need another shock collar – if you do it should be a DOGTRA 1200 NC (but do not buy it yet – we sell them if you need it later).

Read the article I wrote on DOG PARKS - You can find this on the article page on my web site. Even though you don’t take the dog to a dog park – allowing this dog to interact with strange dogs when they come over is not correct handling. It’s a “human thing” to expect strange dogs to get along. It's not a canine thing that is normal. Dogs are pack animals.