I have a friend who shows his rottie in obedience. Dreamer is a beautiful dog with an outstanding temperament, no dog or people aggression. In fact, she thinks all other dogs were put on this planet to play with! But this is posing a problem.

This past weekend Dreamer was showing in Agility at a dog show. Her handler fell and Dreamer thought it was time to play and began jumping around the handler and play bowing to get her to play. The handler had hurt herself and couldn't get up fast enough to settle Dreamer down and that's when the problem escalated.

Dreamer turned and saw a Border Collie running it's agility course in the next ring and before anyone could even get out a NO, or a COME she was over the gating and jumping jumps in tandem with the BC. Unfortunately the BC wasn't into sharing it's ring and attacked Dreamer.

Dreamer attempted to get away from the BC but the BC would not back off. In the midst of this all a ring steward ran over and began beating Dreamer over the head with a metal chair. Dreamer now has some neurological damage that we are waiting to see if it is permanent damage or not. Her owner is now in contact with the AKC about this as witnesses have signed statements stating Dreamer was doing nothing more than attempting to get away from the BC when she was hit with the chair. She in no way even tried to fight the BC, she was confused and trying to find a way out.

Anyhow, her owner is now terrified to show her again out of fear that she may jump the gate again. He is working her strongly on the come command as he realizes that this obviously is the very first place to start even though she does know the command he realizes he needs immediate compliance, but was wondering if anyone has any other ideas on how to break her of doing this. While it is the first time she actually did jump the gate, she has ran to the gate before but was called back to position with a firm NO and a come command. Unfortunately her handler did not think to say either of those at the time this happened.

What, other than reinforcing that come command, would any of you suggest he try with her to prevent this behavior in the future? Dreamer is such a wonderful dog and he cannot risk her show career being jeopardized by this dog being labeled a menace, aggressive behavior, or vicious. (all of which were said by the judge this weekend, and all of which Dreamer is not) She shouldn't have jumped the gate, but she is far from being a mean dog!

Thanks for any help with this!

I forgot to say , she has ran to the gate only one other time at one other show about 4 months ago. It hasn't been a repeated thing at every show. It happened that one time, and then this time when she actually did jump the gate.

This sounds to me like this handler does not have very good off leash control of her dog and now, unfortunately, the dog is hurt. There are a lot of people competing that just aren't ready and this may be the case with this handler.

If this dog recovers sufficiently to compete, she needs to be set up repeatedly in a controlled environment with increasing amounts of distraction so she can be corrected immediately for even thinking about something other than what she is supposed to be doing. I also wonder if the handler has enough of a positive attraction for the dog to keep the dog's attention, like a favorite toy or food. You can't have correction without reward to balance it.

I can empathize with you friend. My novice dog almost interfered with someone else’s run once, and I will not set her up to do that again. I now know she may leave the ring, so I only enter her at trials where I know any zoomies that might appear will be easily contained. For example, one site I really like is an indoor soccer field that is surrounded by netting from floor to ceiling. My dog can run up to the edge and play bow at dogs/people walking by, but she can’t get out and self-reinforce her excited behavior.

Unfortunately, the trial atmosphere can only be replicated at a trial, so it can be difficult to train for a trial atmosphere except at a trial. You can practice control at fun runs, or enter a venue that allows schooling and only has one ring going at once. Schooling in the ring is an expensive way to train, but I like knowing that I can end the run on MY terms, regardless of what my dog thinks. I will be entering my novice dog in an upcoming UKC trial because I know there will be only one completely gated ring going at a time, and UKC allows you to put the leash back on the dog to gently (and positively) guide it to the end of the course if necessary.

You can find a trial with a better atmosphere. I have seen several instances where novice dogs have gotten the zoomies and run amok, yet never have I seen anyone even look like they would attack such a dog. Fortunately, most of the people I trial with are very tolerant of novice dogs, as long as the handlers do not allow their dogs to be a nuisance or take up too much time.