Hello, dear forum members;

Sorry if this is going to be long but I have to describe what is going on. Please do not tell me that we have bitten off more than we can chew-I already know it.

Me and my husband have recently adopted a 9 months old Akita from a private party (not a shelter). She has been with us for 2 months. I am 33 y.o., but seriously disabled, and we have been looking for a dog for awhile to train as an assistance animal, and I kind of felt bad for her (she was heading for Animal Control in 2 days) so we got her. She is a purebred spayed American Akita. She exhibited dominance when we first met her (she knows some commands but was jumping, mouthing, pushy, etc.) but I thought it will be easier to fix as I had dogs before ( GSD and a dachshund, for many years when i still lived back home in Russia before I moved). My hubby's family bred Dobies.

Well, we have been battling this creature for 2 months and she does not seem to get it. She has been severely neglected at her previous home, left alone in the backyard for hours, rarely walked, was flea-ridden, not trained to heel or to come, she was allowed everything in the house (slept in the bed with owners, apparently nipped them, was never corrected) and grew up into a monster. We did not know she had aggression until she showed her true colours. We have started with her incorrectly (gave her too much freedom) and ended up being bitten. She guarded her food (tried to bite my husband and bit my shoes), she started a fight with me over her bed, growled and nipped for correcting her , etc.

We have immediately removed all the toys and her fluffy bed, got her a huge crate and a prong, started her on the groundwork after discovering this site...she has been thru 2 weeks of isolation, we got her a prong collar, did everything per Ed's instructions. When we started to allow her to be on the leash in the house and started to marker train her a little, everything went fine for a month (she is so intelligent) and then she got aggressive again. (She tried to prevent me from picking up her leash to correct her for not leaving the toy alone).

I know that alpha rolls are not cool, but at that moment I was scared and had to pretty much strangle the lights out of her -I am, I repeat, disabled, and I had to defend myself from this creature. It was scary. She left mark on my wrist with her teeth.

We have started the groundwork again. Her crate is in another room, she is there alone, I walk her and feed her. Noone pets her or talks to her. The problem is, she gets better for a few hours (proper body language, submissive and tolerant) and then it starts again, puffing up, threatening poses , etc. Even in her crate she often watches me with obvious irritation when I stand there after she gets her food.
We are doing everything seemingly correctly (very calm with her, she sits and downs before a meal, she is not allowed to communicate with other people and dogs, EVER, she walks on a prong collar with me, she walks in and out of doors last, and does respond to corrections if needed) but she is a very, very hard dog, she barely feels them anyway. ) We go with it by the book. Regardless, she has been sitting in this damn crate for over 2 weeks now and does not seem to be much better. I give her 5 short walks a day (3 potty breaks and two 30 minute walks). I used to walk her for hours but that was before our groundwork attempt.
What are we doing wrong? Please, if somebody checks this part of the forum once in a while, maybe you could give us some advice...I really, really don't want to put her down. She has good traits too (she loooves kids), she is friendly with strangers (albeit she attempts to be very dominant with them:-(, she shows concern when I feel physically bad ( behaves better and listens when I am sick). But it all pales before a scary concept of "handler aggression". We spent sooo much money on her already, and I am on state assistance. She is fully vetted, up to date on shots, eats great grain-free food, walks on a prong clipped to a Dom dog collar just fine. We crate-trained her and broke her habit of peeing in the house.

We bought 2 Leerburg DVDs ("Dominant Dogs" and "Family Pack Structure"). We are working. We can't really afford a private trainer, but of course I would love someone to come in and simply evaluate her in terms of how realistic our goals are, really. She is 11 months old now and growing. She is of course an incredibly beautiful dog, as all Akitas are, but these people screwed her up so bad i honestly don't know if we can fix their mistakes. Another problem is, after she and already 3 slip-offs like this, I honestly don't trust her that much anymore, and now it is becoming my problem, too.

I was sent here from Akita Forum by a very nice lady, who led us onto the Leerburg site in the first place. If somebody has a word of advice, I would be enormously grateful !

Continue the groundwork/NILIF program until she has gone a full week without any of the behaviors you're describing.

It may take several weeks.

And don't stand over the dog while she eats.
Put the food in and let her eat in peace. Walk away.

Sorry can't offer advice, just wanted to say she's a beautiful girl. Hope this works out for you, Good Luck!

You call your dog ‘creature’.
You said she grew up into a monster.
You ended up being bitten.
You had to strangle the lights out of her.
You were scared.
You have bite marks on your wrist.
She’s puffing up, making threatening poses.
She attempts to be very dominant with strangers.
She looves kids. ?????
You honestly don’t trust her that much anymore.

Are you sure you want to keep her.
You really got a problem there.
My advise would be also to continue groundwork and see how it will go.
You said also that she is a very very hard dog and she barely feels the corrections.
This tells me that your corrections are no corrections for the dog.

Akitas are very much like Chow Chows in my opinion: It is in their nature to be alpha and they will continually try to retain that position. I believe they require a very strong (in attitude, not physical strength), very capable owner. The four I've known have all been very independant, overly protective, and absolutely a "one person" dog.

I think you have your work cut for yourself. Depending on the nature of your disability, you may or may not be up for this level of work. Depending on your personality, you may or may not be up for this particular dog.

What does "we have been battling this creature for two months and she does not seem to get it" mean? Prior to finding LB, how were you and your husband dealing with her aggression?

We have forum members who deal with aggressive/assertive dogs and I'm sure they will chime in as they see this post.

For others who might be considering adopting a dog to train as a service animal, this thread should be educational. Although not helpful to the OP at this point, my advice would be:

Don't adopt a dog because they are headed for the pound in two days. The specific work you will be requiring of them should dictate every decision you make throughout the evaluation process.

Don't adopt a dog because they are beautiful.

Research the natural tendancies of any breed you are considering.

Dogs destined for service work, who are going to be trained primarily by a disabled person, should exhibit the traits and behaviors, from the first meeting, of a dog "with the right stuff". Don't take on a "project" unless you have the experience and knowledge to do so. Ideally, you want to begin training that dog to "do" what you need him/her to do, not have to "undo" behaviors and habits formed early on. JMHO.

Just from reading your post I got a different impression than her being a dominant dog.

It sounds to me that she is pushy and rude. If she's always been allowed to do what she wants, and now there are all these new rules, she's probably confused too.

Plus, at eleven months old, it not completely unheard of for a strong breed, adolescent dog to become a little more assertive. Even if everything has been done right. I raised my shepherd NILF, and still at around eleven months I started to see similar challenges. The groundwork program got us through it.

So don't think of her as a dangerous dog just yet, and try not to be afraid of her. Follow Aaron's advice and it should work out.

Another thing to keep in mind is that the groundwork program is nonconfrontational. If you are doing it right there shouldn't be any battles. Battles are prevented by controling the environment.

Like when you corrected her off the toy, that simply shouldn't have been a situation in the first place. She shouldn't have had access to the toy. Period.

Think of it as a lesson for you, now you know that you own a dog who gets a little possessive of toys. Doesn't mean that in the future you won't be able to play and have fun, but she may always need to have the rules regarding toys be very clear.

Another bit of advice is that the dog probably needs a lot more exercise. That is area about the groundwork info that I wish had more emphasis. A dog of her age can't even think without at least two hours of exercise a day. So try to make two of those walks a good workout for her. It'll make a big difference.

Maria, you just got excellent advise and I won't add to it. But I didn't see any location in your profile...on the off chance you are in Northern California I have a trainer that specializes in this type of behavior...

 Quote: aaron myracle

Continue the groundwork/NILIF program until she has gone a full week without any of the behaviors you're describing.

It may take several weeks.

And don't stand over the dog while she eats.
Put the food in and let her eat in peace. Walk away.

Yes.

I hope that exercise and management (and leaving the dog alone to eat) also shine brightly out at the O.P.

And PLEASE be aware that these are mindsets that are self-fulling: "a creature who grew up into a monster who you had to strangle and who scares you." Sheesh. I could turn any dog scary by telling myself this stuff.

If this is actually the prevailing POV, it's over, IMO. I hope it was just a moment of low energy and frustration.

Also, unless those service goals determine whether the dog stays or not, I'd shelve them. There's immediate work to do.

As pointed out, these are human lapses:

She tried to prevent me from picking up her leash to correct her for not leaving the toy alone.

Even in her crate she often watches me with obvious irritation when I stand there after she gets her food.

Those setups-for-failure are handler errors.

I'd pull up my big-girl pants and start over with a way better mindset, or I'd throw in the towel. This is NO service to that dog.

JMO! Not to be confrontational, but to jog some kind of "I can do this!" reflex.

First of all thanks a great deal for help! I am so happy that somebody answered. I will respond more in detail after our walk.

We call her a "creature" not out of spite. :-)
She came to us handler-aggressive, hence a "monster"> She is NOt at that stage anymore, thankfully.

My English is probably not too good in terms of explaining myself. The "strangle" part happened once and I had to either win or be bitten (Hi Connie!). I had to grab her so she won't bite me. I have adrenal disease and K+ deficiency, as a result of my illness, both those things can kill a man when sudden stress occurs, and she sent me into adrenal crisis when she got aggressive. It was the best thing i could do while fainting. I don't get offended:-) that easily, I DO want her to be a great dog and I have never put an animal down unless it was VERY old and in severe pain (incurable cancer in my previous doggy, and same with the cat). But we were told that Akita rescue won't take her if she has bitten, and SPCA is also very serious about adoptability of such dogs.


We do not actually necessarily want her to be a "service" dog that does something specific-she has assistance animal tags and she does not have to do anything for it, but I would like to have her behaving well enough in public places and certainly not to bite us.
I will give more details, but what Barbara said kind of concerns me...regarding what "personality" i should have. Sadly, I am easily upset and generally emotional because of the way my illness is going. Even if i don't speak of it, animals know. It is an endocrine (thyroidal) disease with severe resistance to medication, I won't go into details but it has changed me a great deal physically and we are unable to find help so far, it definitely takes a great deal of confidence out of me, as it would out of anyone. i walk with a cane, and have progressive swelling and changes of my face and hands to name a few symptoms only. We are quiet at home thou-no yelling or crying or anything. My husband is a very confident, sweet man. But if my personality is going to be the problem, well, that we cannot change at the moment. I am trying to keep my cool, obviously, and of course I never get angry at Yumeko (the dog). I work on myself more, much more now trying to be her leader.

"Battling her" means working with her issues. She was MORE, much MORE than pushy since day once, and to be honest, she is not nearly as bad as it was. Before we found this site we did what I would do with any other dog-removed her food if she was aggressive to us passing by, (fed her when she did not get pissed at us), removed her toys if she was possessive. She tried to bite us after claiming our bed (we never let her on it, she let herself on) on the first day. We made her work for everything she gets.

What is "POV"? (Connie).
We are continuing with the groundwork. I agree that we should have gotten a dog that was already submissive and willing to work with us. Too late for that, now she is our liability. I have been around dogs since I was, well born, around Caucasian Shepherds, Rotties, GSDs, etc. etc. and neither me nor my friends ever had to deal with behaviour directed onto the handler. We loved, but didn't spoil our dogs. This is new to me.

I have to say that I don't "tell" myself that I don't trust her. Once cannot really stop the thought process, no matter how one tries. it's just something I feel, without any deep thinking about it at all.

I really DO want to get her thru it. What other option do we have??? None. And we didn't get her for her wondrous beauty. We got her because we liked her-she was extremely friendly, her feet were smoking when she ran to greet us:-) and when I asked her to sit and down for me, she did happily. She also brought me a ball back when i threw it-her old owner said she never done it for her. She was pushy, but I knew THAT was fixable.

I will respond more to what posters asked after our walk:-)...

Thank you guys...

Aaron: yep, we are doing all that.
We ourselves have also decided that she stays there one more week.