We have an Old English Sheepdog. He has attacked our neighbors husky. Since then he attacked my cats and other dogs. Should I put him to sleep?

Question

I have a 5 yr old Old English Sheepdog. We purchased this pup from a private breeder who I now feel, gave little regard to temperament. From the very beginning, he has been a "nervous" dog.

    When Barnaby was 6 months old I took him to a local basic obedience class. During a session of 'meet your neighbor,' where the dogs were allowed to sniff each other, he lunged and pinned the other dog to the floor. I soon realized that all dogs were considered the "enemy" to him and avoided contacts with other dogs. However, he was tolerant of dogs that he knew like my sheltie, my mother's and brother's smaller dogs. Although, he had also "gone after" them on occasion, they just learned to avoid him. None of the "incidents" resulted in any wounds until last year.

    Last year, he attacked a neighbors Husky, unprovoked by the dog. In fact, he surprise attacked the dog. Barnaby NEVER shows any warning before he attacks, except staring. There is never any barking or growling. He did hurt the neighbors dog... I mean that he broke the skin.

    Since that time he has unpredictably attacked my cats and other dog. Honestly, I have done everything I can think of, but there doesn't seem to be any ?rhyme or reason? to the attacks. In general, he is very nervous with new situations, he shakes and whimpers.

    Okay, here's my question. I am concerned that since he first "broke skin" on one of his attacks that they seem more INTENSE. The last two cats have received wounds. We are seriously considering have him "put down." What is your opinion on this?

    Thank you for your time,
 Pamela

Accepted Answer

I am aware that many in this breed has temperament issues. I would begin by trimming the hair around the dogs eyes. Many times this breed has so much hair over the eye's they cant see well.

With this said I also would not be quick to kill this dog until I had exhausted behavior modification issues. I don't believe that you have done this.

Dogs are pack animals. They need to learn to respect pack leaders and pack leader rules. One of your rules is that there should be no unwarranted aggression.

Take this dog through my pack structure program ( Establishing Pack Structure with the Family Dog) Then run him through a serious obedience program. (Basic Dog Obedience )

This dog should not be off leash unless the training has incorporated remote collar work. In addition the aggression is partially controlled by you controlling the environment that you allow this dog to be in. In other words - why take it near other dogs.

If it were my dog it would be trained with a remote collar. ( Remote Collar Training for the Pet Owner ) This starts on leash and the dog would get high level stimulation when it looked at another dog. Not when it was in high fight drive. That's how to use a remote for dog aggression. Once the dog understands that it gets stimulation for looking at another dog the level can be reduced to a very low setting. At that point it's just a slight warning that say "HEY KNOCK IT OFF - LOOK AWAY."

The issue of killing cats is the same. The behavior of chasing cats is "SELF REWARDING." This means the dog gets pleasure from the chase. No amount of motivational training is going to change this. So the behavior needs to be extinguished. That means high level stimulation from a remote collar for even looking at a cat.