Hi
I know nothing about marker training, please tell me more
Trai

 Quote: trai hiscock

Hi
I know nothing about marker training, please tell me more
Trai

Will do.

We will find some links. I am not at home right now, but after training I can point you to some threads here and most particularly to a video that Leerburg made on the power of marker training (answering the focus question). Or maybe someone else will see the thread and do that. You are going to love the video.

OK, the walks: What exactly does "try to attack passing dogs" mean, and what exactly do you do when it happens? How close do the passing dogs have to be for your dog to try to attack? At what distance is he non-reactive?

In what ways does he exhibit the dominant behaviors you mentioned at home?

Is it three weeks since altering him or three weeks since you adopted him?

Also, how much opportunity do you have to walk where there are few or no other dogs around?

Do you have a yard with little distraction where you could practice walking, and do you have a way to burn off some dog-energy BEFORE the walk? (Can you play a long game of fetch first, for example, in a fenced yard?)

I don't like the halti, myself, for the reasons already pointed out. Also, I agree with others that you are doing too many scattershot things (noise, spray) at once, and not really helpful things anyway. JMO.

 Quote: Kristel Smart

I .... I am familiar with the disks and the idea of sound aversion, but I have to tell you that unless you have a rather soft and fairly submissive dog, sound aversion and head collars don't work. In fact in the case of aggression, sound aversion can actually escalate the dog.
My DVD recommendations are as follows:

Establishing Pack Structure With the Family Pet
And:
Basic Dog Obedience
And:
Dealing With Dominant and Aggressive Dogs

Good suggestions!

Thank you for your reply.
I have known the dog for a couple of months, as i was employed to walk him once a week.This was the only excercise he had had off his running chain- so in fairness to him it is all new to him- this big wide world.
I adopted him 3 weeks ago as he had bitten the youngest child in the family as the kid had pulled hard on his tail, and within a week of that he had snapped his chain and lunged at a passing dog, knocking over the owner.
The previous owners thougth it was cute that he would ignore them and any commands they gave - albeit they never tried to train him. He made every decision for himself including food time as it was always there day and night.
Strangly the dominant behaviour he displayed at home with my other two dogs seems to have subsided considerably, as he was constantly putting his head over their necks which triggered several scraps- no injuries thank goodness.
He now plays well with the smaller of my dogs and generally doesn't react at all if the small one 'goes' for him.
The larger of my two was instigating a few probs by growling at him, but even that seems to be fading as they are keeping a mutual distance from each other now and seem to be giving each other a bit of respect.
I am pretty lucky to have a place to walk him out where we encounter only a few dogs, and sometimes none. I do have a garden where i can spend some time getting a bit of steam out of him prior to a walk.
I have also tried to do some road walking with him, which has been good so far and we haven't yet met any other dogs to distract us.
When we have met dogs on the country walks i have tried to continue to pass them without hesitating ( i think), but he will pull like fury towards them anchoring up which puts him behind me. At that point i put myself in front of him to distract him- it doesnt seem to work. On other occasions i have tried to get him to sit which he sort of does but his frustration grows and he becomes frenzied. Stupidly i clipped him one today- to my shame- and he went for me- so i did it again and he did back down.Not the route i want to take, as his previous owners used to whack him but not give him guidance. please don't judge me for that incident, as my reaction to him today led me to asking for advice on this site.
The poor soul has come a very long way in a short time, and he is a lovely dog. He is very intelligent and very willful at times, and it would be a shame not to get on top of the socialising in public with other dogs probs quickly so we can all enjoy a long life together.
We have previously adopted many dogs over the years, all shapes and sizes, including the other two, and of course they all arrive with different backgrounds and behaviours. We have had terribly unsociable dogs in the past whom remained muzzled whenever we were out in public, but they were much older and it would be nice if this one could be resolved as he is young and bright and full of energy, and we live near beaches and countryside where he could have wonderful freedom to run and explore if he could be trusted not to be aggressive.

Trai, here is a link to the free marker training (clicker training) e-book. This will get you headed in the right direction:
http://leerburg.com/pdf/markers-clickers.pdf

Also, here's one for pack structure:
http://leerburg.com/pdf/packstructure.pdf

And dominant dogs:
http://leerburg.com/pdf/dealingwithdominantdog.pdf

It's quite a bit of reading, but will help you greatly. Also, if it's in the budget, order the DVD's that were recommended.

Post back w/ any questions and good luck!

Thank you Lynne
I am going to read about marker training, my sister did this with her dog. Sorry i must seem dim, as we call it clicker training.
Today, other than a brief spat, was a very good day. I had the 2 deliquent boys in the garden and did some ball fetching, and leave, and wait. My russell (charly) gets it really quickly, but the Innuit (henry) is a bit slower but was enjoying trying to make a game of it.
I used treats as he is becoming much more food driven since we control his food quantities and food times.
Each day is a new day, and i'm sure we'll get this sorted in due course and with lots of patience.
Thank you again.
I look forward to reporting what a fine gentleman we have made of him someday soon.

I think you will find that clicker or marker training really changes the way you think about dealing with your dogs!
and also that you will be amazed with speed and accuracy with which they learn.

He sounds like he will be a great dog once someone takes the time with him that he deserves.

Hi to you all.
I posted an advice needed please in the last week or so about an innuit which i had taken on.
I am glad to say that he has settled down well, and i have slowed down my expectancy of him.
However, my rotty has taken to instigating fights with him. they are awful and full blown aggression. I know that this sounds as though i am humanising my dog- but i swear she baits him into reacting. She will approach him and get his attention by picking something up, or digging at something close to him(which happened today), then as he goes to investigate she will launch at him. If i am indoors and they are outside alone they will sniff each other then generally ignore each other- very respectfully.
She was doing this a little before when i posted, but now we are having fireworks almost daily.
The fights always happen when either myself or both me and my hubby are around. They were caught snuggling up together on the sofa when i was out and my hubby was busy in another room only yesterday!
Someone suggested that she is trying to protect us, but as very often she is not physically closer to us than him, i can't see that it is a protection issue. If she were trying to get between him and us then i would agee. sometimes these spats are quite a distance from where we are.
i had already taken the precaution of muzzling them both if they are in close proximity to each other to limit any damage to either dog, but the spats come out of the blue.
The innuit- Henry- is now getting on very well with my Jack russell (male) and they spend a lot of time together playing or just hanging.
today when trying to separate the fighters, my rotty daisy slipped her muzzle and grabbed him a couple of times. I couldnt see any damage, but boy did he squeal. He finally backed off, but she kept going even after i got her muzzle back on.
Will this ever pass? I have never seen her so aggressive. She usually avoids trouble.
I remember when we brought charley home she took a dislike to him, but although they're not the greatest of pals they co-habit without issues.
Daisy has been with us for about 4 1/2 yrs and is now 9, and Charley has been here for nearly 4 yrs and must be coming on 5.
Both were rehoming cases.