Quote: connie sutherland

Explains a lot about why some of the most experienced and knowledgeable often hesitate to stick with a "waffle" thread. They do it, when they can stand to do it, because of the dog.

Whats worse than that is the inexperience that trys to fill those voids and ends up giving advice on matters that they've only read about and never actually dealt with firsthand.

 Quote: Joyce Salazar

 Quote: Lauren Jeffery

You owe her a professional evaluation because of your mistakes. Killing her without giving her this last chance is inexcusable.

I could not agree more with Lauren's entire post, as well as everything Randy and Aaron have also said in this thread.
The very best thing for this dog, is exactly as Lauren said here so succinctly.

Maria, please let us know what your plans are now for the dog.
Please don't take offense, but know we all want what is best for this dog.

Well said.

Have to say that the OP iS VERY lucky the this dog is NOT dominant & still a young dog & female to boot. Not that there arn't strong females out there. But these are most likly the only reasons that she didn't take your head off.

Try it with an older dog & especially an intact male & you can be in very big trouble. You get a handler aggressive or dominant dog & do this kind of nonesence & you would have your head handed to you. Even just a dog that just likes the 'fight'. Even so you are playing with fire, if you continue to travel down the path you are taking. She is going to get bigger & stronger & may eventually have enough & then you are GOING to get hurt.

For the dogs sake & in the long run, your own, move this dog on & out of your home ASAP. She really deserves better than this.

 Quote:

Have to say that the OP iS VERY lucky the this dog is NOT dominant..

Excuse me, did you read the thread? She is dominant. That' why she is biting. I am confused what "she deserved better than this" means. What exactly are we doing to her that is NOT good enough? She will be put down, and I guess it will be better. We have put over three months of intensive work and yes, I risked myself to get this dog saved. What is this post supposed to mean, and why am I all of a sudden treated negatively?

 Quote:

You get a handler aggressive or dominant dog & do this kind of noesence

WHAT NONSENSE?????

Maria, wait, please wait! I thought you were working on rehoming this dog. PLEASE, don't put this dog down.

Please, stop, take a breath and think about this. I can see you are offended at the many comments here. But please, this dog needs an evaluation first.

Very few are qualified to make such a call on if the dog is indeed aggressive or not.
Just because you have been unable to work with this dog, doesn't mean that you should put her down.

Maria, "biting" and "dominant" are not synonyms. (This is ignorance. Ignorance is not evil or even "stupid"; it just means you don't have that particular information.)

And "mouthing" and "biting" are not synonyms either. (This too is ignorance. Ignorance is not evil or even "stupid"; it just means you don't have that particular information.)


We've been reading YOUR words, Maria. Not the words of someone who hates you and wants to make you look bad.

The experienced people on the thread are pretty much of one opinion: you have added hugely to the problems the dog came with.

If I were you I'd get off the whole "risked myself, spent grocery money" stuff and everything else and do what needs doing, now: get the dog an eval., get it into your hand, and start calling and emailing breed rescues.

 Quote: Joyce Salazar

... Just because you have been unable to work with this dog, doesn't mean that you should put her down.

*If* your dog behaves like the dog in the video you linked, I can promise you, your dog is not dominant.

Difficult, frustrating, confusing and infuriating? Yes.

Potentially dangerous? Absolutely. Every dog is. A dog that is confused and scared and doesn't understand how to turn the negative stimulus off is definitely a ticking time bomb.

But not dominant.

I know it feels like you've put in an insurmountable amount of time with this dog... but you really haven't.

It has been three months.

For the first chunk of that time, you were alpha-rolling her and using other methods that were destroying her trust in you. Her day to day life literally became a scary, unpredictable place where any moment she was going to be bullied by these people for reasons unknown to her.

Your training and management of this dog has been inconsistent, and she needed more consistency. Her behavior reflects her confusion and fear. In her mind, ever correction has been completely out of the blue, for no apparent reason.

Previously, she could make scary things stop by being ultra-submissive. You put her in an alpha-roll and suddenly everything got less scary.

When she started getting unfair correction after unfair correction on walks, she tried the only thing she knew that worked. Suddenly, EVEN THAT FAILED! You were angry with her, and she knew it. You were correcting her, even as she laid on the ground doing what you've previously wanted her to do. So she tried harder and harder to be submissive for you and please you.

A dominant dog would NOT go belly up, screaming, in the face of a correction.

A dominant dog would not mouth your hand while screaming and laying on the ground.

It would come UP the leash and bite you at the first correction.

The dominant dog in that video is no dominant dog.
It is terrified.
A dominant dog is not going to clamp it's tail to itself. That is FEAR! The entire point of lifting the tail in the video was to give the dog confidence- something a dominant dog DOES NOT LACK.

I NEVER said I am going to KILL anyone. I never killed any animals. I came here for advice, not judgement and to be even insulted by some here. I was asking what can we do OURSELVES in view of our current situation. Our current situation means we DON'T have thousands of dollars to FIX her aggression, and I cannot be in danger. It's not because we are greedy. We are poor and our family lost one provider, ME. We are low income family struggling, it does not mean we feed her worse in any way or treat her worse. She does not know about our problems, which we had before we had her. We got me a companion. We did not meet her and saw aggression. She did not display it until we handled her as owners. Period. She WAS going to the shelter mind you. You have no idea how much I care for this animal or I would have dumped her off in NO time, and trust me we discussed it 3 times before when she tried to bite (she had many missteps and not necessarily means it was ALL MY FAULT.) Yes, you guys can handle her much better. So,do you want her???? NO. we are the ones who are working with her, regardless of danger. Instead of being judgemental and treating em like a Hitler, how about some cheering for what we have done as it is and constructive advice???? There have not been any advice besides one person recommending trainers (thanks), but everything else was just talking about how I am nearly abusing my dog, mistreating her and how much she suffers. Bullsh•t. If this is where it's going, I am signing off.


Can't believe it.
And I never said we can't give her a consultation. We WILL give her a consultation. But we were told many times "It's free, go get it", so we did, happily. It proved to be NOT free and now we have to put money away for this, we also got reprimanded that apparently we should have expected it to NOT be free now, OK, we'll deal. But I cannot afford many sessions $125 each. That's a ll I said. We have to do many things ourselves, hence the questions. Sorry, if somebody starts judging me for NOT having money and this person is SUCH an altruist, how about lending me some, for free haha? Seriously, I don't think it's appropriate to get this "up close and personal" with people you don't know.

 Quote: Aaron Myracle

*If* your dog behaves like the dog in the video you linked, I can promise you, your dog is not dominant. .... when she started getting unfair correction after unfair correction on walks, she tried the only thing she knew that worked. Suddenly, EVEN THAT FAILED! You were angry with her, and she knew it. You were correcting her, even as she laid on the ground doing what you've previously wanted her to do. So she tried harder and harder to be submissive for you and please you.

A dominant dog would NOT go belly up, screaming, in the face of a correction.

A dominant dog would not mouth your hand while screaming and laying on the ground.

It would come UP the leash and bite you at the first correction.

The dominant dog in that video is no dominant dog.
It is terrified.
A dominant dog is not going to clamp it's tail to itself. That is FEAR! The entire point of lifting the tail in the video was to give the dog confidence- something a dominant dog DOES NOT LACK.

Again, ignorance (or just lack of certain esoteric knowledge) is not a moral lacking, Maria. But deliberately refusing to see that you are incorrect out of misplaced pride -- that would be, with the life of this dog at stake. PLEASE do the right thing.

Maria, you have to not take our comments personally. We are here to help you, help the dog.

Look, there is no shame in not knowing how to handle this dog.
Many people would be in the same situation. But you have to start first with admitting you are in over your head.

You did try to work with her, but now is the time to find the people with the skills and knowledge to help her.

Please, for the sake of the dog, listen to the many experienced members here and get the dog evaluated.