My mom has had a stray Golden Retreiver for almost an year. He is a wonderful dog with humans, never had an incident or even signs of agression towards humans.

Nevertheless, he has shown agression towards other dogs. So I have started to work on him, imitating Cesar Millan's techniques. Let me explain.

My friend has an ACD (also male, not neutered, mine is) and is well mannered with other dogs. So the dogs met and instantly my dog 'raised' his ears and started growling. So as soon as I see this I tap him on the neck with my two fingers (the way Cesar does) and do the Tsst sound. I then take my dog for a small walk and back to the other dog, and when he raised his ears I repeated the rutine again. When he did the growling sound again, I did a leach correction together with the Tsst sound and an ocassional 'No' (calm and assertive, not angry or upset lol).

After the correction, my dog looks at me and gives me his paws and looks for some attention. I don't give him much attention since I don't want to encourage this behavior. So I just scratch his head for a second and take him for a small walk again.

The first day of therapy was a total failure. A third dog (without leach!) came to say hi, and my dog got pissed, and I repeated the whole rutine, giving another leach correction. I can see in his face he feels the corrections because he flinches a bit.

Day 2 was a bit different. It happened by accident. The dog was in my car and I was parked. I then spotted a Minature Schnauzer (also loose without leach) and put the leach on my dog and got him out of the car. This time he didnt growl or raise his ears, and I made the Schnauzer smell his butt and vice versa. Session lasted 5 mins without incident.

Next day I called my ACD friend and we met. As soon as my dog saw his dog, the whole ears and growling started. I gave him a strong correction with a Tsst sound and the two fingers thing. He flinched and looked at me as if asking to pet him. I then took both dogs and started walking them (I remember Cesar doing this). The walk went great. My friend doesnt discipline his dog so the ACD 'drags' him when they walk, but not with me. Two corrections made his dog walk right beside me (ACD's are very smart. I taught him to sit on 3 tries with food).

We walked for about 10 mins without any incident. So then I took them both inside my house, and there my dog started growling at him. House was a bit crowded at the time and I didn't want to go through the whole process in front of the people, so I left.

Sorry for the long explanation, here are my questions.

Does my dog have a serious problem? Do you think I can handle them by myself without professional help?

Should I get a choke or prong collar? Right now he has a 'normal' collar and I feel like my corrections aren't enough (even though he flinches).

Just a bit of advice, I think you should not have brought those 2 dogs in your house together, it is just too soon for your dog.

Kim

I'm curious as to whether the (seemingly) undisciplined ACD is starting it, and your dog is reacting. Not that it's OKAY for him to be reacting aggressively, but it isn't okay for him to be aggressed and not allowed to react EITHER.

It isn't about controlling YOUR dog. It is about controlling BOTH dogs. I'd have the ACD put on a training program, and then once he is also calm submissive, give it a shot.

Remember, one of the KEYS to Cesar's method is that he is dominant in ALL aspects to the dog. The dog trusts him, and believes fully that Cesar will protect him. I get the feeling from your post that your dog is being disciplined for reacting to the ACD, but then at the same time you are still allowing the ACD to impose himself on your dog... So in HIS mind, you're telling him to stop defending himself/reacting, but then not stepping in to protect him!

Try protecting him from the ACD (even if he isn't outrightly aggressive) and see if that alone fixes it. I suspect once your dog views you as a worthy leader, this behaviour will stop. JMO.

True, the dog's look to you to do all of the jobs as leader, including letting him know if he needs to step up and not making that decision him/herself.

My Corgi will, on walks, growl and lunge on the leash if my finace is walking him. When he walks with me, I don't see any sign of this behavior.

Still waiting to see how the GSD puppy will be...The force is strong with this one. No wet-noodle walks for him.

I'll leave the training tid-bits to the pros on this, you know, the,
"you did that right, you did that wrong"...

But, I want to congratulate you on your love for your dog! Not many
average pet people would take the time to set up the scenarios like
you did.

So, I wish you lots of luck! My youngest GSD bitch had similar
issues, but advice on this board (and Cesar's advice too!) have
worked them out!

Richard, to answer your question about the collar specifically. Look at the type of collar Cesar uses....it is for all intents and purposes the same thing as one of Ed's Dominant Dog Collars. Not made the same way but does the same thing. I make my own dominant dog collars but they are adjustable to fit a wide range of dogs regarding size.

If you see one of Cesars' new "Magic" collars you will find that all it is is a dominant dog collar with some extra webbing to keep the actual collar up high on the dogs' neck which in effect works identical to the dominant dog collar Ed sells. Mine do the same thing except without all the unneccessary extra webbing.

Watch Cesar with a dog on lead. He keeps it high on the dogs' neck and when the dog does something he isn't supposed to then he lifts the dog up in the same manner Ed describes when using his. It's not magic. Just different peice of equipment that does the same thing as onother piece. Hope that answers your question.

Howard

One thing I need to pick up on is how you used the free-roaming Mini Schnauzer in your training. Bad idea. The dog could've been rabid, for all you knew, and you put your dog in front of it! Same with the third dog that showed up when you first brought the two ACDs together.

I never let my dog interact with dogs unless I personally know the owner, the handler (if different from the owner), or the dog itself. My dog is also at a signficant disadvantage if she is leashed and the dog she is interacting with is not. It makes her "weaker" as far as other dogs are concerned and making her a target for bullying -- dogs pick up on such energy. Dogs generally feel a bit vulnerable when on-leash, even with their pack leader (although they may not show it, at least not to humans).

The other training scenarios with your ACD-friend you suggested are a LOT safer -- stick with those and avoid loose dogs. You have no knowledge of their behavior or vaccination history.

 Quote: Katherine Ostiguy

One thing I need to pick up on is how you used the free-roaming Mini Schnauzer in your training. Bad idea. .... I never let my dog interact with dogs unless I personally know the owner, the handler (if different from the owner), or the dog itself. ....

Ditto, ditto. I can't say it strongly enough.

Also, aside from not lunging or growling at passerby dogs, is there some reason you want your dog to make doggy friends or socialize with other dogs (particularly off-lead)? How would it be for you if your dog just ignored strange dogs, which is my goal with my dogs?

Regarding the Schnauzer, my dog would just eat him if he came lunging forward. Besides, I've interacted with the dog before. It's always loose on that area and belongs to the house in front. He wouldn't dare to charge my dog and had 3 rabies tags when I saw his collar (talk about over-vaccination!).

Jennifer, the ACD is not starting it. My dog has always been aggressive towards other dogs. Regarding his training, that's up to his owner, not me.

I didn't try to interact with the loose Black Lab, though. My dog just went crazy as soon as he saw him, and I corrected him for it. My mom's dog trusts me and sees me as more of a pack leader than he sees my mom.

Even though I don't allow the ACD to impose himself, I should be able to do that if I wanted to. As far as I know, that's what pack leaders do, say whom is superior to whom on the pack ladder. Not doing that btw.

The ACD just stares at my dog as saying "what's your problem?" and I sense he's even scared of him too, since my dog is twice his size.

ty Martin

Howard, yeah, I know what you mean about collars, I just feel I don't have enough 'control' over him with this collar. I feel it's too loose and just slides to the middle part of his neck. I will try with a basic choke first to see how that goes.

And, I don't want my dog to be friends with other dogs, I just don't want him to get psycho on them.

 Quote: Richard Pryor

....I don't want my dog to be friends with other dogs, I just don't want him to get psycho on them.

In that case, you might prefer not to force interactions (butt-sniffing with an unleashed dog, etc.) at all.

What I want my dogs to do is to ignore strange dogs.

With my used-to-be-dog-aggressive dog, the first sign of focusing on a dog across the street, say, meant a pop on the leash. It's a LOT easier to halt the process than to reverse a dog who is snarling, lunging, and growling. (That said, if my dog somehow started an attack on another dog, that would mean a level-ten correction.)

With that dog, I never saw any reason to invite another dog into my house with him. If another dog had to come in for some reason, I'd put my dog up and keep them separated. And I'm with Jennifer about controlling a strange dog's access to my dog. It's my job (in my dog philosophy) to protect my dog from other dogs.

Sounds like you are doing well, though, and your mother's dog will be better off with your intervention. A dog-aggressive dog is not a good thing, IMO, and not allowing it to escalate IS a good thing.

All JMO.