I was wondering if anyone has any suggestions. This is my first time on the forum so, hello! I have a 7 month old Dutch shepard that I can't take on walks! Everytime she sees another dog she completely looses her mind. She will wiggle, claw and even bite to get away from me to get to the dog. I'm worried that she will hurt herself, my kids, the other dog, or me. There is no consoling her? It is like a switch turns on and she forgets her place. Thanks for your help.

Jenni, This is your first Dutchie & previously you had a siberian husky & a lab? What are your plans for your Dutchie? Is she going to be a pet, service dog or sport?

Check this e-book out. It is the answer to most behavioral problems.



http://www.leerburg.com/pdf/packstructure.pdf

Also, get Ed's DVD on Dominant and Aggressive Dogs for more specific advice.

Please give us a little more info on your dogs background, temperament, and disposition. Where else is she out of control and how do you react to it?

James, cool picture.

There is a thread on dog aggression you might want to go into and read ,you'll have to search ,if I find it I'll post it back..

Angelique, She started asking about this on that thread & was advised to start a new thread!

 Quote: Angelique Cadogan

James, cool picture.

Thanks Angelique - My pointer is my pride and joy. I have family that has been breeding german shorthair pointers for over forty years.

 Quote: Jenni Knighton

..... She will wiggle, claw and even bite to get away from me to get to the dog. ......

Bite the handler? The leash?

I would like to emphasize here that Dutch Shepherds are not like GSD's, so when giving advice here, please bare in mind that this is a breed that just bites... they bite everything for fun, they'll fight with their handler just for the fun of fighting with the handler, n sound mean doing it, even though they are just playing. When they get wound up and restrained on a leash, they can go overboard, they'll bite anything around them, the leash, a hand, their own damn tail if it gets near their mouth.

Not a breed I reccomend to someone who doesn't have the skill and commitment to handling a dog like this, and I don't know the OP's experience level, but as I told her in a PM, the only way to cut that stupid drive is with a nylon choker n make the dog sit and chill out n regain a little focus, because the behavior she's describing is something I know all too well, n while personally I don't give a crap if my dog behaves like that (although my dog never directs anything at other dogs, which is my only concern in this case), for an unskilled or new handler it might not be wise to allow that nuttyness to continue without breaking that behavior a little with a nylon choker. Prong = drive, Choke = break drive. When the drive comes down the dog starts to think more about what they are doing and the handler regains the dogs attention span and can then try to communicate to the dog "Good girl! That's all I wanted from you, don't freak out, just sit down and relax!". I'm sure the folks who've raised really nutty female mali's know what I'm talking about

Just my $0.02.

Strange coincidence-I was just reading something in the Q&A section of Ed Frawley's articles. It was this one,

http://leerburg.com/qaobed1.htm#11mthgsd

And this stood out to me. This is Mr. Frawley's response to a similar question-

3- Dogs that are animal aggressive when on leash have RANK issues with their owners. They don’t respect the owners pack leadership. The pack leader decides when aggressive is appropriate – never a lower pack member.

4- A dog like this should never be take outside without his electric collar on – the best of all worlds is to make the dog wear it and NEVER Have to use the button. The biggest mistake in the world is to own one and not have it on the dog when you need it. In this case you have to change the way you approach the dog – it has to wear the collar ALL THE TIME and it must get a shock for even LOOKING at another dog. It cant EVEN LOOK at one much less fight. When you allow it to get to the fighting level the dog will think that the pain of the correction comes from the other dog and not from the handler.


I don't know if this applies to this breed or this situation, but it seemed appropriate to the poster's question. It wasn't clear to me from the original post if the dog is really being aggressive or just goofy, although she did call it aggression in the title of the post.

I don't know what lines the dog is from but at 7 months it's probably more goofy than real aggression, n I wouldn't use an e-collar on a dog that young, hence a nylon choker being the best bet. I agree with Ed's comment to catch it before it escalates to that frenzy, it requires accurately reading the dog though, n Dutchie's are pretty quick to go from calm to crazy in 0.001 seconds flat