Hello, i would like opinions on a issue a have with my five month old male malinois pup.His drives are all intact and balanced ,his bloodline is strong his body is strong . I have done obedience with canned salmon . His food drive is super. He will sit and down from a distance. While he is at a distance in the down position he will sit with voice only, and then down. My question is when this puppy sees another dog he loses it, his interest in salmon goes away, his vision of me is blurred to a point of blindness. He pulls so hard he chokes himself out.My uncertainty arises with the level of agression that he has been sickened with from his genetics. This sickness is so deep that all i can envision helping me quell this ill is negativity from me, pinch,ecollar ,choke , ear pinch , scruffing. How would you trainers out there, that deal with these types of issues take care of this without making my dog squeal?. I love him so much i do not want to here him cry . THANK YOU ALL WHO WILL BE KIND ENOUGH TO TAKE THE TIME AND ENERGY TO ANSWER .

I would suggest posting your location and requesting the assistance of a professional trainer (with working dogs) in your area. This is a serious problem if it truly is dog aggression and NOW is the time to get a handle on it. A year from now it will be real ugly and you can forget dog sports, walks in the park, etc.. all together if it's not addressed.

Peter,
I've looked thru some of your past posts, like when you were asking to find a trainer to put a BH on your bitch. So I'm wondering, what your experience in dog training/handling ?

I ask this because it sounds like you're new to training high drive dogs ( judging from the questions that you're posting ).
A handlers experience is good information to know when giving advice.

Go to http://www.leerburg.com, training articles, Q & A on dog fights and animal aggressive dogs, and there is an article on "my dog is dog aggressive what do I do" ...I think that will answer your question.

Julia, your link is not working because of the comma.

Peter, there are a few different approaches to this issue, and you will find information from Ed about it in his articles. What I have found to be effective for my pet dog (I do not participate in SchH, so I am not any sort of "expert" in this area, but I do have some hands on experience with dog aggression in my pet dog) involves controlling the distance from other dogs while working her in obedience, using tons of positive motivation/reward, while slowly, over a long period of time, decreasing that distance.

Does your dog flip out just seeing another dog on the horizon, or is there a distance at which he can see another dog but not be flipping out?

I would set up structured training exercises using someone else with a calm dog. Position yourself maybe 100 feet (about 30 meters or maybe even more for insurance) from the corner of a building, get your pup working happily, and have the other person come around the corner with their dog and stand there for about ten seconds. During this time, get your pup focused on you, heeling, sitting, etc., and reward the crap (pardon my language) out of him for every correct response. After about ten seconds, the other handler goes back around the corner, out of sight, and you go neutral. Your pup gets no more attention or rewards, etc. After about a ten second pause, repeat the process again, a total of three or four times, then be done for the day. Over time, after maybe four or five separate sessions, you should start seeing an improvement in your pup's responsiveness and attentiveness to you with another dog in sight.

There should be no barking or lunging or growling, etc. If you do have any of these things, then increase your distance from the corner of the building, until you are at a distance where your pup can see the other dog come around the corner, but can still respond to you. If he won't take salmon from you, then you're too close and need to increase the distance. If he locks onto the other dog with his eyes and will NOT look away, you're too close and need to increase the distance. Your pup should be able to see the other dog, look away from the other dog to look at you, take food, and follow easy commands that he already knows.

You'll need to practice with a lot of different dogs so that your pup will generalize the information. Also, you might need to work at different distance with different dogs. Your pup might get used to one particular dog at quite a close distance, but if you introduce a new dog into the training, go back to your original distance and start working from there.

Basically, if it were me, I'd treat it like an "obedience under distraction" type of exercise, by first keeping the distraction at a low enough level that the pup can handle it, and as the pup's tolerance increases, make the distraction a little harder for him in teeny tiny increments.

This is just what *I* would do. Others may suggest a different approach for you.

This sickness is so deep that all i can envision helping me quell this ill is negativity from me, pinch,ecollar ,choke , ear pinch , scruffing.

This is the second time in a week I have seen you mention you wanting someone to condone your want or need to scruff up your dog. Why don't you think about the problem at hand, research articles on it and what other posters have already asked and try some things out.

Peter, First of all, SLOW DOWN! You stated your pup is only 5 months, a mere toddler. Be happy with the accomplishments you've attained. Maybe your pup *wants* to play with the other dogs, after all, he is still a pup and wants that interaction. Your pup is not sickened or aggressive, he wants social interaction. Keep your obedience upbeat and socialize your pup. Lisa's suggestions are very good.

You are falling into a mindset that affects many: wanting all these amazing results in a very short period of time. You are dealing with a living creature, a young one at that and it is up to you to understand what training you can do at the maturity level he is at. Stop blaming the pup, he is doing what is normal, now look at yourself.

For many years I taught people how to SCUBA dive. There were many times I had to be creative in certain exercises to finally achieve a positive result. Dog training is the same. I certainly couldn't get negative with a person and tell him he is an idiot because he couldn't clear his mask. He would walk out and maybe always have a little fear of the water. Well, our dogs can't walk out, but can shut down and become fearful. It's up to you, the teacher.

BTW, dogs are easier to teach than people! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

Peter,

I agree with Maggie that you need to slow down...while your method of training will work, it isn't as effective as the more positive methods. It has been my experience that any animal that works out of fear does not reach their full potential and tends to let you down when you need them most. Being a good trainer requires some creative thinking at times. Mals will make you get your thinking cap on for sure, that is part of what makes them so much fun.

Lisa's suggestions are sound, Ed's articles are always helpful with good information.

Best of luck,
Debbie