To make a very long story short, I was a complete and total idiot by letting my Boxer mix Ollie play with my best friend's dog. My friend's dog was playing rough, which turnhed into aggression, and finally led to the dog attacking Ollie. I didn't allow Ollie to engage in the fight, but I did break it up.

That happened about two months ago. Ever since she has been trying to attack every dog in sight. She lunges, barks, growls, and looks like an vicious killer. She has been fine with all the dogs she has met up until the incident(my other house dogs and my sister's dog). Just to test if she was truly dog aggressive or it was some sort of fear fueling this, I introduced her to a mutual friend's dog. Ollie met this dog through a fence--and she was fine though initially she wanted to go after it.

I started working with a dog trainer last week, and this person does group sessions at the park. There were four other dogs there, and Ollie wanted to go after every single one. The trainer had me jog Ollie a couple laps to burn some energy. The trainer then showed me an avoidance method. I use a prong collar. What I am supposed to do is turn Ollie around and and put her in a sit(if she'll focus enough) facing away from the distraction. Every time she turns her head to look at the dog, I say "Leave It" and give a correction on the prong collar. I do not praise her or say anything else. By the end of the hour long class Ollie was able to weave in and out of group of dogs, and was actually laying down and sleeping. The trainer said her body language was screaming fear aggression, and she is basically out-of-her-mind scared but is being forwardly aggressive about it.

The trainer's methods were working, but I cannot attend the classes for the next couple weeks because of scheduling. My family and I are going on vacation in a couple days, and we were going to bring Ollie with us but I am having second thoughts because of her aggression towards dogs(the resort we are at allows pets).

I've been thinking of purchasing an e-collar for my dogs. When she sees another dog she fumbles around and lunges so much that I cannot properly administer a correction on the prong collar. Plus, I am a very petite person so after five very hard corrections on any of my dogs(I have a dog aggressive APBT as well), I am pretty much worn out. Will an e-collar make her situation worse? I need a better, or effective way of getting her attention. Any reccommendations are greatly appreciated. I don't want to ask for a "quick fix" but I need to know if I can help this at all by Wednesday. Thank you.

Emily Iniguez

You need to anticipate the behavior and correct right when it starts.
So therefore, you need to be very aware of your surroundings and notice the other dogs before she does.
When you see the other dog, you need to stay calm and direct the dogs attention to you. Maybe use some treats and start having her make eye contact while in the heel position, use a command for it. I use "look". When the dog makes eye contact, it gets a treat.
Also, if she sees the dog and gets stiff or slows her pace or tries to lunge, you need to correct right then. Do not give her the chance to portray the behavior you do not want. If you know she is getting ready to do it, give her a "leave it", pop and then redirect her to whatever you want her to do.
This takes timing, effort and practice but is really not that difficult to master.
Remember, by the time she is lunging and acting that way, she is too far out of control for proper handling and it will be more difficult for you to get her attention.
I am fairly small also and so I make sure that my corrections are fair and tough so that I am not having to give more than two. You have to have your dogs respect and attention in order to get this done. IMHO.

P.S. Here is another link to a thread about dog to dog aggression.
http://www.leerburg.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/137515/page/0/fpart/1

Thank you for the reply.

What you are telling me is exactly what the trainer is telling me, so that makes me feel more secure in the advice. I've owned my APBT for four years and he has been DA since day one, so I've learned to be hyper-aware of my surroundings and I can spot a dog where most people cannot. Do you think it would be too risky or troublesome taking her on vacation with us tomorrow? Despite this dog aggression she is very behaved, but I know dogs will be present. It's an RV resort, so if I walk her she will be seeing dogs staked out in front of spots and if I take her to the beach or something, there would likely be dogs(but thank god the local beach requires leashes). I figure it will all be good training for her, but it does have me concerned.

I'll work harder at timing my corrections and her body language. She turns on really fast when she sees a dog, so that doesn't help much. It is a very night and day kind of look to her.

What do you think about the e-collar idea?

If you don't already have Ed's 2 videos on aggressive dogs & e-training, I would definitely buy both of them first...

http://www.leerburg.com/301.htm

http://www.leerburg.com/318.htm

These DVDs are absolutely priceless & will help you decide on whether to get an e-system -- I have a pair of Innotck IUT-300 "Smart Collar" remote trainers for my dogs (they come in a set) and this has controlled my Akita's dog-aggro tendency, although her motivation is dominance, rather than fear (but I don't think that really makes any difference).

Emily, I don't think it's to tuff to keep her a safe distance from other dogs at an RV park. We RV all the time and even though my dog isnt dog aggresive, I usually keep him back away from the other dogs and the playgrounds just so that people who are afraid of him arent bothered. I prefer to crate him though, not tie him out. I'm not trying to answer your training questions but our experience with dog owners and RVing are people are pretty good at controlling thier dogs and avoiding problems at the parks that allow them.

Thanks, I will look into buying the DVDs.

Steve: I'm not so worried about her attacking another dog--I don't allow her close enough to any dog for that and she never leaves my sight. But I know she will for sure make a racket, and she'll have a whole scene going once she sees another dog.

If we bring her, she'll have a crate. If I have her out of the RV, I will just lock her in the crate or I'll keep her on a leash more often than a tie out. However, if I do put her on a tie out I will keep it short and have her away from where she can see any dogs passing regularly. You're right, I have seen people with dogs who bark and are aggressive towards other dogs at RV resorts and I've personally never thought anything of it.