April 28, 2011
My dog went through a complete personality change after she was spayed. I am wondering if you think she is a fear biter and should be put to sleep?
Full Question:
I got Patton from a breeder when she was 11 weeks old and she was delightful - friendly to all. She went to stores with me and played at the dog park. She would go to manhattan and stay with my daughter and son in law and I would visit and she was the same - went into restaurants, stores, etc. When she turned 8 months old and was spayed, the world changed. She became very aggressive to all strangers - and she despises children. (She is fine with dogs off the leash still.) We have a very good trainer who agrees that she cannot be off the leash even with an E collar since once she is distracted, nothing stops her but pure brute strength. She is still lovable and affectionate with me, the trainer or whenever my daughter comes to visit, but to all else, she is growling and nipping. I am having her checked for thyroid problems, but based on reading your articles, I am wondering if you think she falls into the "fearful biter" category and needs to be put down - even though this did not start until she was 8 months old. Thank you for your advice.Meg
Ed's Answer:
Whenever I hear of personality changes like this, I suspect a possible rabies vaccine reaction. It’s something vets won’t tell you about, and I feel that it happens much more than any of us hear about.. Has your dog been vaccinated for rabies? If so, do you remember what age she was? Was she vaccinated at the same time as her spay? I believe that vaccines cause many more behavioral problems than most people realize.
Regardless of the cause of her aggression, I believe that this recently finished DVD could really help you. It’s titled DEALING WITH DOMINANT AND AGGRESSIVE DOGS and was a 5 year project.
This DVD is 3 ½ hours long. You can go to the web page and read the outline of what’s included on the video. My DVDs are not meant to be watched one time. The fact is anyone who needs this information needs to watch it many many times because every time they watch it they will pick up new ideas.
I would absolutely disagree with your trainer about the ecollar. If used properly, it is one of the best tools out there. I would not put a dog down, until I tried everything in my power to help this dog fit in to my life.
With issues like this I always recommend that people train their dog with a remote collar.
When people hear ELECTRIC COLLAR they always quiver and shake because there has been such bad publicity on these training collars.
The fact is today’s collars are 1000 times better than those I bought 25 years ago.
We produced a training DVD in the fall of 2005 titled ELECTRIC COLLAR TRAINING FOR THE PET OWNER. In this DVD Ed teaches people how to handle the foundation training and then how to use the collar.
Many trainers, especially hunting dog trainers and even some professional dog trainers use “escape training” when they train with remote collars. This is where they stimulate the dog, give it a command and then teach the dog how to turn the stimulation OFF by doing what’s told.
I don’t agree with “escape training”. I don’t think its fair to the dog. He is being stimulated before he is even asked to do something. In my opinion this is ass end backward.
Rather I believe in using the collar to reinforce a voice correction. In other words, I always tell my dog “NO” before I correct him. I give him the opportunity to change his behavior. My goal is to always teach my dog to follow my voice command.
If you read the article titled THE THEORY OF CORRECTIONS IN DOG TRAINING you will understand how to approach corrections. In the DVD Ed simply applies that philosophy to remote collar training.
The article explains how to determine the level of correction to use on each dog. This varies according to the temperament and drive of the dog along with the level of distraction it’s currently facing at that moment in time.
This DVD shows how to determine what level of stimulation to use on your dog. That’s important.
In this DVD we never used a level higher than a medium and most of the time it was on the low settings for every dog we trained.
We use a Dogtra 1700 on our personal dogs. This is about a $300.00 (plus shipping collar).
There are other good collars for less money. I recommend staying with DOGTRA, INNOTEK and TRI-TRONICS. Other companies sell cheaper collars but in the remote collar business you get what you pay for.
I hope this helps.
Regardless of the cause of her aggression, I believe that this recently finished DVD could really help you. It’s titled DEALING WITH DOMINANT AND AGGRESSIVE DOGS and was a 5 year project.
This DVD is 3 ½ hours long. You can go to the web page and read the outline of what’s included on the video. My DVDs are not meant to be watched one time. The fact is anyone who needs this information needs to watch it many many times because every time they watch it they will pick up new ideas.
I would absolutely disagree with your trainer about the ecollar. If used properly, it is one of the best tools out there. I would not put a dog down, until I tried everything in my power to help this dog fit in to my life.
With issues like this I always recommend that people train their dog with a remote collar.
When people hear ELECTRIC COLLAR they always quiver and shake because there has been such bad publicity on these training collars.
The fact is today’s collars are 1000 times better than those I bought 25 years ago.
We produced a training DVD in the fall of 2005 titled ELECTRIC COLLAR TRAINING FOR THE PET OWNER. In this DVD Ed teaches people how to handle the foundation training and then how to use the collar.
Many trainers, especially hunting dog trainers and even some professional dog trainers use “escape training” when they train with remote collars. This is where they stimulate the dog, give it a command and then teach the dog how to turn the stimulation OFF by doing what’s told.
I don’t agree with “escape training”. I don’t think its fair to the dog. He is being stimulated before he is even asked to do something. In my opinion this is ass end backward.
Rather I believe in using the collar to reinforce a voice correction. In other words, I always tell my dog “NO” before I correct him. I give him the opportunity to change his behavior. My goal is to always teach my dog to follow my voice command.
If you read the article titled THE THEORY OF CORRECTIONS IN DOG TRAINING you will understand how to approach corrections. In the DVD Ed simply applies that philosophy to remote collar training.
The article explains how to determine the level of correction to use on each dog. This varies according to the temperament and drive of the dog along with the level of distraction it’s currently facing at that moment in time.
This DVD shows how to determine what level of stimulation to use on your dog. That’s important.
In this DVD we never used a level higher than a medium and most of the time it was on the low settings for every dog we trained.
We use a Dogtra 1700 on our personal dogs. This is about a $300.00 (plus shipping collar).
There are other good collars for less money. I recommend staying with DOGTRA, INNOTEK and TRI-TRONICS. Other companies sell cheaper collars but in the remote collar business you get what you pay for.
I hope this helps.
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