If your dog is always aggressive, or always flooded, then you may not be able to desensitize. This is not normal. Almost every dog can be separated from the fear-inducing stimulus or object.

What would your dog's reaction be if you were walking her in a very familiar place and she saw a neutral dog on a downstay (leashed) two city blocks away? Try it. If your dog is not aggressive, then this is the distance to start from. Maybe for your dog it is 1/2 a city block's distance.

As far as the situations you explained, I would completely avoid them. If you cannot completely control the dog and end the behavior, you are reinforcing it.

As far as exercises, and the vet clinic example, you may not be able to walk up to the door of the clinic - depending on your dog's reaction. Plan on no progress at all and you will be thrilled when your dog improves. That is a good example of socializing. Some vets will let your dog board for a 1/2 hour at a time to socialize it. (Make sure the chew toy you bring will last). Leave very clear instructions that you do not want anyone to handle the dog (if that is what you want).

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I guess my next question is with dogs like this, will every new situation over her lifetime require 1000 repetitions to neutralize, or do these methods slowly work into their sustained personality?

My experience has been that it depends on the dog. One rather extreme fear aggressive/handler aggressive dog that I worked with was compltely changed in 2 weeks and became very confident. Another less extreme (but still nutty) fear aggressive dog I worked with will require consistent handling and continued socilializtion.

Dogs do tend to generalize well. I can't think how to define that right now - but an example: I taught my dog that she cannot pick up treats off the floor. She generalized this to outdoors - tracking is not going well.
The dog that I referred to above that will required constant socializing generalizes a bit too well. She was "mauled" by a child and after that experience was very skittish around children (like 10+ feet away from the child) . She generalized that all children of approximately that size are scary. I had to go back to square one with hildren until she "recovered"

Well, today I was able to find a couple of willing participants (neither of which have seen the dog before) to work with around my pup. In two different sessions, I had one person stand away from the dog as I approached at an angle with her on leash. As I began speaking with the person in a normal conversational manner from maybe 20' away or so (they were instructed to completely ignore the dog), I gradually worked toward them while continuing to speak. In each instance I was able to close the gap to normal personal space and converse with the person with no response from the dog. The second time around, the pup sat in front of the person and began barking, but in a far less aggressive manner than usual, and with no fearful indicators. This subsided within one minute or so, at which point she began nudging and licking the hand of my volunteer. This progressed over several minutes to the point that the person sat down on the lawn, and by the end of the session the pup was running playful circles around the person and displaying very confident, appropriate puppy behaviors. We ended on a good note both times, and needless to say it was very encouraging. It is helpful to have volunteers who are "dog people" themselves.

Sorry for the rant, but to those who replied to the post, your advice WILL be applied and put to good use. Thanks again.

Beautiful! Well done!

Be sure to continue to use lots of praise, food and play as reward for appropriate behavior.

Figured I would update this for anyone who may read it....I've been trying to incorporate everyone's advice into short training exercises over the past few weeks, and Overall I have seen an improvement in the dog's behavior. I did decide to incorporate a prong into our daily walks, and this I must say has yielded the greatest results. She is more attentive to me, and much easier to reel in during any sort of barking or growling when something unexpected occurs (i.e. joggers, etc.). I'm not giving her any earth shattering corrections, just little pops to divert her attention. We also work through a little obedience during these walks, which seems to increase her confidence and overall attentiveness.

I have also been poking around the board a bit more and reading others' posts about this same sort of behavior. Somewhere in another post, someone recommended turning and walking away from their dog when he exhibited an aggressive response to a stranger in order to measure whether it was true aggression, or just a front (to see whether the dog would follow the owner or maintain posture). Just to see what would happen, I had a stranger (to the dog) in the back yard the other day, and when she began with the barking and growling, I threw the ball off to her left about 50 feet or so....she forgot all about the "threat", went after the ball, and brought it back first to me, and then TO HIM. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />. She then got along with the "stranger" just fine for the rest of the visit.

So I would be curious (if anyone is reading) what you think about this. Is her prey drive so high that it will overcome the fear? Did I just reward her for putting on her act? Is she just completely out of her mind?

Like I said, I feel things are SLOWLY getting better. Not great, but better. Opinions on the above scenario welcome. Thanks in advance.

Based on watching the Dog Whisperer (Cesar Milan - great show) and practicing what he teaches with our own dogs, the best way to correct unwanted behaviour is to give a correction to distract the mind before it escalates. However, you don't want to be too hard on a 5 mo. old pup. The best way for him to get over his fear is to expose him to the stimuli so that he builds his confidence and recognizes that there isn't any real threat. I don't think rewarding the dog by throwing the ball is what you should do. You do want to correct the bahaviour not reward it. Snap your fingers, snap the leash, whatever works, just to get the dogs mind refocused and understand that what is is doing is not acceptable.

I would get him conditioned to joggers, dogs, kids, bikes, skate boarders by joining them every chance you get and correcting him when he shows agression. Sitting on a park bench and watching them from a distance is a good start. Maybe people you know can then run/bike/skate along with you and past you while you are walking. If you show confidence, that you are the pack leader, and give him quick correction the dog should listen to you and get over his fear. Also, don't love on the dog, reward him, or comfort him when he acts agressive as that will reinforce the behaviour. Just do the correction and move on.

I know it's hard, especially with a big dog. Our GSD acts agressive towards other dogs and has since he was just a few months old. It started out he lunged at them wanting to play. We have to MAKE him heel, snapping his pinch collar the second he gets focused on the other dog, and keep walking with confidence and control. He's 85% better than he was before. He no longer lunges. He still is a little full of himself but at least he minds.

Good luck!

I'm with you as far as the philosophy goes. My question was meant to be directed more at the dog's reaction to my throwing the ball. If she is exhibiting what has been labeled as fear aggression toward an object, to the point that she is completely "locked in" to this person, or "threat" (I'll spare you the particulars, you can read page one), and I'm able to break that concentration with the simple act of throwing a ball, is my dog in fact scared, or is she just full of $hit?

Throwing a ball when she exhibits the behavior was not meant to be suggested as any sort of remedy for the problem.