Maceo is not people agressive at all, just other dog/animal agressive. It really is frustrating. But i have currently found a trainer in Colorado who would be willing to help me out, with her, she knows her obedience commands very well and is fine in the yard by herself and listens to everything, just no around animals, I am thinking of selling her to a home with no pets and someone who has the time and experience for a dog of her type. Will have to think about it more, especially since i found out i am going to have a baby, Thanks for your adivce.

Protection training may help with this. The other thing is a systematic desentization or the animal aggression. It will require the assistance of an understanding trainer with understanding clients because you need "bait". It can be done though.

Kari, I know I'm the broken record here but I've had great success with defensive dogs training them with Ecollars. Most dog to dog aggression is based in defensiveness rather than aggression. It’s a very rare dog, outside the fighting breeds, that is truly dog aggressive.

Prizgard suggested putting OB on the dog and you said that has been done. But you also say that outside the yard the dog doesn't pay attention. So I'd say that the OB really isn't there.

I just had a client whose dog was highly defensive. A couple of times at the off-leash dog park near her house a dog had come up to him and just wanted to play. My client's dog first tried an aggressive display and then took off running, when it didn't work. She was lucky to catch the dog before it got out of the parking lot.

Two lessons later and the dog held a sit while other dogs came up and sniffed him. He was a bit uncomfortable but there was no aggressive display and the other dogs got bored in a few minutes and wandered off.

About ten minutes after that he was running and playing with them. One dog came in a bit too fast and some growling started. I had the client simply walk away and call the dog. He responded and a few minutes later all was O.K. with that dog.

I’m not sure why the Ecollar works so much better than leash and correction collar techniques but I’ve seen this identical result at my seminars. One of the more common problems I work on is dog aggressiveness. After about 15–20 minutes the dog I’m working is walking within 2'–3' of other dogs. Sometimes so much progress is made that I can jump the dog over another dog without any problems. I think it focuses the dog’s attention on the handler more, that lets him go by the other dogs without the defensive display and they both calm down.

I also have use the ecollar for correcting some obedience and aggression problems in a female just recently. When she seems to forget, we go back to it some more as regular upkeep.
Her problem is dominance and drive (prey). Even at 8 weeks of age she was fully agressing on other dogs/puppies, one evening taking on an adult male malinois visiting our home. Her basic obedience with a prong collar helped most of it, but to proof her against aggression in nose to nose meetings or passing by with in few feet took the ecollar. Now all her aggression is brought on by dominance and not fear, so it was easier to handle. We are able to let her play now with pups no younger than 4 months and she is responding to their warning yelps if she is too rough, which is just great, I would advise the ecollar all the way. It gave her some time to sort our the priorities.
We also had the same problem, she would escape the outdoor run in no time, she liked to break off the wire at the joints and pull the whole panel of fence inward. Now she is staying in the run with a roomate - a very civil large male that keeps her very happy and takes no guff. A match made in heaven, by the way, when her heat cycles come and the male is removed from her run, does anyone know another way to keep a dog inside. P.S. she's fine in the car, crates, house, just the outdoor run. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

Just a thought -- one of the reasons an Ecollar might work better than a leash when correcting for behavioral problems like inappropriate aggression might be because the owner/handler is not attached to the dog. I say this because often dogs pick up on their owner's moods -- they are telegraphed right down the leash. And, sometimes what we actually telegraph is not what we want to communicate or what we think we are communicating.

Back when I got my first GSD I took her to puppy kindergarten when she was about 3-4 months old. In the first session we were all in a line walking our pups on loose leads around in a big circle. The pup just ahead of us (a BIG airdale -- older & much bigger than my pup) suddenly turned and lunged very aggressively at my pup for no reason. There was no contact & no dammage but I (as a newbie) startled & reacted protectively by tightening up on the lead to pull my pup to me. After that every time my pup saw another pup/dog come toward her she would bark & carry on pulling & lunging "aggressively" I thought and I would tighten up on the leash immediately and pull her in to me. As time went by I became embarrassed at his behavior because I thought it was a sign of a "bad" dog. The more I tried to avoid the problem by pulling her in to me every time I saw a strange dog, the worse it got until I stopped wanting to take her out in public. Finally, I took her to a trainer who helped with "problem" dogs in NYC. This is how bad I had become <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" /> . I had to walk the pup (9-10 months by now) 2 blocks from the car to the trainer's apartment. I walked her down the street on a tight, tight lead to avoid people on the sidewalk <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" /> . To make a long story short -- I learned that *I* was the one who was fearful, that *I* was the problem not my dog, that *I* was afraid of my dog barking and carrying at other dogs so *I* was constantly on alert when I took her out -- *I* was looking to spot another dog before she did so that I could pull her in to me and try to keep her from barking. So *I* was actually teaching my dog to behave defensively on cue to other dogs because I, in effect, was telling her that *I* was afraid of other dogs and she was taking the cue from me that other dogs were something to worry about & defend against. The trainer in NYC taught me in one lesson to always keep a loose lead so that I couldn't send her "alerting" signals down the leash. Only if she behaved aggressively was I to "pop" her on the lead but never to keep her on a tight lead. She was literally "cured" as soon as I understood what I was doing wrong and was able to change my behavior. Within a few weeks we could go anywhere and she would hardly give notice to other dogs even if they were barking at her. *I* OTOH was still jumping out of my skin every time I heard a strange dog bark nearby :rolleyes: but at least I was able to control my impulse to jerk up on the leash and keep it tight <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> .

Lou is right on target! Obed. is only obed.
if it is there 100% percent of the time. I really think Ecollar is the only way to go, if done right you will see very quick results with a much much reliability which
makes owning an animal aggressive dog alot less stressful and much less of a liability.

Good Luck!

I have read the comments here with interest. It seems that only one person mentioned desensitization/counterconditioning as a solution. As a professional behavior specialist the first option i would choose is to desensitize the dog to the presence of other dogs. There is a threshold level of distraction where you will see a JND, or Just Noticeable Difference, in the dog's behavior. McKenzie's 'Decoys and Aggression' lists several JND's to look for when crossing this threshold. Ears and Tail Carriage, Body orientation, breathing, and facial expression are all good indicators of the dog's intent and aggression level. You want to catch the dog JUST at that threshold, and use R+ to reinforce the behavior you DO like, which is being near, and looking at another dog, but not acting aggressively. Once you've established what the dog's threshold is, you decrease the distance systematically. You will find a dramatic exponential learning curve after the dog figures out what you want. You will actually be classically conditioning the dog to be OK with being near other dogs.

I ALSO would provide the dog consequences for reacting aggressively. Ecollars work better than the collar and leash because they are a behaviorally sound P+ when used correctly. The most important factor when considering which punishment to use is remoteness. That is, the punishment must be remote from the handler. YOu don't want the dog to know it's coming from you. You want to provide the dog an alternative behavior he can do to avoid the P+. That alternative behavior is being OK around dogs. That's why we START using R+ and only go to P+ when the dog understands that he can perform an alternative behavior. To be honest, with most dogs I work with i never have to use an ecollar. They do just fine using R+. I also use P-, taking away reinforcement. An example of that would be when the dog does set off, a helper holds the dog and the handler leaves. The other dog is held where he is, and your dog remains there as well Both safely held. Once your dog calms down, you return.

In severe cases of dog aggression, an ecollar might be the only way to interrupt the aggressive behavior in order to have some calm time to reinforce. I hope this is helpful for you.

Nish:

You took the words right out of my mouth!???

What ever happened to the good old days when all you needed was a prong collar and a ball.

In response to Nish, many of these people including myself are ALSO professionals and in a pet dog situation desensitization is cery important, the problem is you cannot control thresholds and stimulous if it is kennel aggresion, all the cookies in the world aren't going to solve fence fighting. In this situation I would reverse the scenario and put a end to the aggressive display and then when you have some control, and can safely proceed work on the counter conditioning and introduce a alternate behavior that will get her rewarded. When you have a kennel full of working dogs the gradual desensitization is sometimes impractical and can be unsafe.

I sure hope that while all this desensitizing is going on, no one gets mauled by this dog in the mean time! Vince that prong collar and ball is sounding better and better!!