hello all.

I recently met with a trainer to work with my (probably) fear aggressive rescue rott. It was simply an interview type meeting, he met my dog, I talked to him. A few things he said didn't seem quite right, and I wanted a more experienced opinion.

As we were talking he mentioned that a dog's pupils will dialate just before it bites. Is this true?

Then later when he went to pet my dog he said, "whoa her pupils just got really big, she woulda taken off my hand if she had a chance." (She had just gone up to sniff him after standing mostly behind me while I was talking to him.) That is the part I really didn't buy: it was night, the lights were behind me (i.e. into his eyes), and rotts generally have very dark eyes. Do you think he really could have seen her pupils?

I went and checked his web site. He's supposedly a Police Dog Trainer, and a mal breeder. The site only had stuff about his dogs, who all had *a lot* of letters behind their names, but the letters were CGC, HT, TDI, CD, etc-- nothing that seems to take a lot of work to achieve.

His advice for training would be to probably come to my house in a "heavy jacket" and some gloves and try to get her to bite him to recieve a correction.

Any opinions on this guy?

thank you,

-chloe

Keep looking!

agreed-- there wasn't really anything pointing towards trusting this guy.

But I'm really curious about the pupils claim. Those of you who take bites-- is this true?

I catch my dogs and haven't seen it, My helper sure hasn't said anything that silly. Granted their eyes can get big, but pupils? Gees.

I've never seen any pupils swell. I've seen eyes get real wide and eyes get shut, but never noticed anything with the pupils. And that's Rotties, Dobes, GSDs, and Mals that I've worked. I'm thinking the guy needs to visit the toilet, cause he sounds full of it. I especially don't like the "come over in a heavy coat and gloves to get the dog to bite to get a correction". So he wants to agitate and provoke the dog to bite, so you can slam the dog for it...hmmmm what happens if you NEED the dog to bite? The guy sounds full of it, look elsewhere.

Originally posted by chloe palenchar:
hello all.

I recently met with a trainer to work with my (probably) fear aggressive rescue rott. It was simply an interview type meeting, he met my dog, I talked to him. A few things he said didn't seem quite right, and I wanted a more experienced opinion.

As we were talking he mentioned that a dog's pupils will dialate just before it bites. Is this true?

thank you,

-chloe Stress can cause the pupils to dilate. A fear aggressive dog is a stressed dog. So, in some cases a dog's pupils will dilate just before it bites. I would not however use that as the only sign of an impending bite.
Now parrots, especially the Amazons- when their pupils start dilating and constricting- watch your fingers!

Anna Carson

Chloe
By "fear aggressive" do you mean that the dog gets aggressive with eople out of fear?

If that is the problem, I suggest you envite people over to meet the dog and go out and meet people. Every time some one comes over tell them to bring a hot dog or other treat for the dog. Very shortly he will learn to love people arriving.
Ron

I have also heard about a dog's pupils dialating as a sign of a possible bite. The biggest problem with this however, is that if you are constantly staring into a dog's eyes to watch the pupils, you are obviously challenging the dog <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> That combined with the fact that it can be hard to see this happening in a dog with dark eyes or in the wrong lighting, makes this not the best way to judge for biting. But I can definately say that what this guy said is true. I have a very interesting video about the signs dogs will give you before they bite and there is alot of footage of this happening.

Looking at the dog's general body language is a far better choice than just staring the dog in the eyes. I would probably be missing a few fingers if I used the dog's pupils as a sign that they were going to bite. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

You have a fear aggressive dog, and he wants to stress it for a bite? There is something drastically wrong with this picture. and how many of you guys that are helpers can see the dogs pupils when they hit you running?