My dog had animal agression as a pup. I worked it out with obiedience and being a pack leader. He learned how to play with my naighbors two dogs one of them a younger puppy.

I Moved away where he had no other contact with dogs except for the two pitbulls that kept jumping my six foot fence to fight my dog! He now wants to kill any dog he sees.

Can I rehabilatate? Should I take him to a nutural ground like a park and slowly have people bring there dogs closer and reward for comfortable relaxed behavior. Maybe clicker training?

I don't want him to act anyway I don't allow and I was thinking of adding an addition of a puppy to our home. Thanks!

 Quote: Erick_Curtis

I Moved away where he had no other contact with dogs except for the two pitbulls that kept jumping my six foot fence to fight my dog! He now wants to kill any dog he sees.

Can I rehabilatate?

How many times did this happen to your dog? And why would you leave him out if you knew or thought it was going to happen again?

Not trying to be gruff here, but to leave one dog to fend for itself against two other dogs is not fair IMHO.

Rehabilitation is going to be tough for you I suspect, since your dog now views all other dogs as a threat.

How old is your dog now? And what exactly does he do when he sees another dog?

well it happened Three times, kind of. First time neighbors pit got out and fought my dog through the fence. He had a gash on his nose.
Called animial control, they fined the neighbors.

Second time my dog was out to pottie and I herd fighting ran out back to help my dog when I was bitten seperating the dogs. Punture wound to my arm and hand.

Called animal control they were fined. I figured the neighbors after recieving court notices and fines would have learned the lesson.
I only let my dog out for five-ten minutes at a time to go pottie.
Third time I heard the scraping going on I Ran out back with a bat! This time the neighbors turned the dogs over to be put down instead of waiting for a judge to rule it. They are imigrants who put thick chains around there dogs necks. They think it's cool to have a fighting dog.

Carol. I love my dog to death. I'm a batachlor and its just my dog and I. I work from home and have to be on the phone constantly. I can't sit out back when I quickly let him out to go to the bathroom.

He turned two 11-29-07
His hair raises, growling and charges to mame. Relentlessly.

I should have had a gun on hand to shoot these dogs myself.

Oh that is terrible!

Have you tried consulting a local animal behaviorist? In the meantime, I would have taken my dog outside to potty on LEASH, armed with mace or a baton. But since your work impairs you...
You can invest in a bluetooth headset for your phone, or have you considered cordless? That way you could accompany him outside. I have cordless at home and bluetooth at work...it is beyond fantastic!

Or can you consider his potty breaks YOUR breaks? Don't tell me you work all day long without any breaks! At his age you should be able to schedule is mealtimes/potty breaks.

You could also try installing barbed wire over the top of the fence if the problem is dogs coming IN and not him coming OUT. Some people in my area have done that.

Those were some great ideas. The problem dogs have been put down. That is not the issue anymore. Can I, or should I, try to rehab him? If so, What would your plan of attack be?

Calm and posotive or harsh and hard. Do I ease him into other dogs or throw him in and correct strong for this behavior?
Or a combination.

I've never delt with seriouse agression.
Just want some pointers.

well. I think I'm going to confide in some local trainers I know and get ed's video on dominant and agressive dogs. Thanks for your time everyone!

Do the video but I STRONGLY suggest a qualified professional so that you don't inadvertently make things worse.

 Quote: Erick_Curtis

Carol. I love my dog to death. I'm a batachlor and its just my dog and I. I work from home and have to be on the phone constantly. I can't sit out back when I quickly let him out to go to the bathroom.

I am sure you do, and I just asked, well, because I wanted to know. When something like this happens, some of us wonder. I just wondered out loud.
I am sorry I came across badly.

I cannot believe they did not take the dogs after they bit you....

Erick, I'm sorry this happened to your dog, really awful. It ticks me off that our dogs aren't even safe in their own backyards.

There are lots of articles that Ed Frawley has written on dog aggressive dogs. If you click on "Search Our Site" on the lower left side of any of this website's pages and put in dog aggression, you'll have many from which to choose. Here's one to start: http://leerburg.com/articles.htm (different articles with some aggression articles as well).

In some of these articles you'll read where Ed talks about not letting your dog socialize with dogs outside its own pack. Currently your pack is you and your dog, no other dogs. It's basically a matter of desensitizing your dog to the presence of other dogs, not necessarily "socializing" him with other strange dogs (playing together, etc).

There's also an article on introducing a new dog into your already existing pack - "Introducing a new Dog into a Home with Existing Dogs". Something you might want to wait on until you have the problem with your dog under control.

There are also numerous threads giving suggestions as to how to deal with a dog aggressive dog.

If you end up also consulting a trainer, make sure of the trainer first. Qualifications, expertise, etc, and ask a lot of questions before you commit your dog to that particular trainer's methods.

So basically yes, I would try to change your dog's behavior. Do not just throw him into the fray and then try to deal with him. That would not be fair to him. You need to protect him from other dogs, at the same time getting him used to passing one during a walk, seeing one in the distance etc. Desensitizing.

You have to correct his behavior at the moment you sense he's showing any aggression (a fixated look, growling, barking, hackling). The key is to know when your dog is going into that zone BEFORE he goes there and correct him at that moment. You wait even a few moments and he'll be harder to correct and harder to get his attention on you. The correction won't need to be harsh unless you've already let his behavior escalate.

When you encounter another dog, keep moving with your dog. Don't stop. Remain calm and matter-of-fact, all the while keeping an eye on your dog to make sure you catch any change in behavior immediately. When you catch his behavior changing, immediately correct him (use a strong enough correction that will get his attention back on you - it doesn't need to be earth jarring, your dog may not need much correction at all).

Whatever you do, DO NOT take him to a dog park ever. Some dogs may do well there but others suffer greatly for their "socialization" by their owners and their owners don't even notice. I would never take my dog to one and your dog certainly cannot go to one because of his aggression.

Not only do you need to protect your dog from other dogs, you need to protect other dogs from yours.

The key is to get your dog to pay attention to you rather than to the other dogs.

Hopefully some others who have had experience with dog to dog aggression will chime in here. Meanwhile read as many articles as you can.

Hi Erick, Sorry to hear about your dog being attacked by your neighbors dogs and sorry to hear they let their dogs get to point where they had to be put down. I have a GSD that was also traumatized as a pup by a neighborhood dog and yes, they can be rehabilitated. Shadow is slowly coming around (definately no dog parks or meetings with dogs off leash). If I see one running for us, I step in front of Shadow and give the visitor a peice of my mind. She use to charge the TV whenever a dog came on, but I give her the Down and Stay commands and praise her for complying and that problem is going away.

I brought another dog into our pack (unsure how Shadow would take it) after a couple growls on the first day they are the best of buddies now.

I agree with the previous posting, read as much as you can get your hands on and good luck.

Sandy