Maria, I'm not sure if you missed it or not but CJ gave a lot of suggestions on how to interact with the dog that will bring out the best in your relationship with her.

I am really confused on what direction you want to go with this dog. Do you want to keep her and work with her or do you want to rehome her to a home where the person will be more equipped to work with her.

If you decided to keep her are you willing to wipe the slate clean and start fresh with her?

Look into your heart because you are the only one that can answer this. Can you provide what the dog needs and deserves?

Beautiful post CJ.

Ahhh, thanks Betty. They’re such beautiful animals with a ton of potential that often gets overlooked because of situations like this.

This dog does not strike me as dominant or fearful in anyway. She’s simply reaching out in the only way she knows how given the circumstances she’s been presented with.

Let’s hope they change in her favor, sooner than later.

 Quote: Betty Waldron

Beautiful post CJ.

Maria, CJ knows whereof she speaks.

That's not what I mean. I don't place any expectations on her.
When we got her we HAVE started treating her like a puppy.
She had toys, was allowed to run around wherever she pleased, get into trouble every minute, growled , BIT, nipped all the time, we had FIGHTs with her (well hell yeah I did not expect her to be aggressive, do you expect every dog to be aggressive?) until we understood that it is dangerous and the approach should be different. No, she is not a small puppy. She is over a year old, and I know she is far from maturity (hell, one of my dogs was a silly puppy til' she was 9 years old!), but she is not a four months old puppy that you can shake by the scruff or just verbally reprimand for being aggressive. She must respect us first, otherwise she takes her freedoms for granted and we already been thru this-we were playing as I possibly mentioned before, awhile ago, and she growled AND bit when i tried to correct her and lead her to her crate. I am not going to "distract" an aggressive dog with a toy, or pretend I didn't notice. She bit and left a bruise on my wrist, and to be honest my opinion of this is "You eat my food, you DO NOT get physical with me."

She has plenty of options to be nice, and it is rewarded GREATLY. But aggression will not be just ignored. These are exact things that even Ed (I can show where) advises to nip in the bud and correct very seriously, as I would have even if I never heard of dog training. And playing-I did play with her, a lot. all the time, after training, we played. She follows me around the house, but only on the leash. She is not trustworthy without. I know it sounds and is very cruel and obviously noone in our family does anything like that, but when I was very little, maybe 4 y.o., my grandfather's country dog (a spitz mix) that was usually very protective of us and without any leash or treats or punishment or training obeyed my grandfather all her life, got aggressive at me when I was near her food bowl and tried to bite me. My grandfather never hit, hurt, or even rarely petted this dog and I repeat she was his shadow and protector. But when she dared to touch me, he approached her and kicked her *ss all the way into the woods and back again, and never again, not once did she dare to touch the kids. She was an adult dog, and of course this was not greenhouse 2000s in America which is much more civilized, of course, but no matter what the approach, a dog cannot hurt humans, put teeth on humans, and it has to be corrected-as much as good things have to be rewarded. I know everyone her is "for the dogs" but in my opinion no matter how much I love and respect dogs, humans are much more important. We don't just yank her on the leash all the time. We are being very lenient with these things already, especially recently, and I am afraid it might contribute to the issue if its not a health problem of course, which we want to explore more now.

I understand why slow, consistent pack structure works, it eliminates physically fighting the dogs, and helps the dog see you as a fair leader. But when an incident arises despite of pack structure work, especially if I did not initiate this incident, just walking away from it is a bad solution. Yes, as I said, I love the breed, and I love their temperament, their meticulous decision-making, their stubbornness can even be cute at times, their peculiar noises, their intelligence and beauty, and of course how they carry themselves with such dignity. But it is only true if the nature and nurture were right. We are still working, and I hope that while she is here we won't have to get into altercations, i am very careful about it.



Treating her as a puppy, without limitations, ended up being a bad idea. We have been through this. Introducing her to all her past freedoms and fun is a slow process now.

Well, Ideally I want her to be my dog, why do you guys think I've got her?
First to get the trainer to see her.

Then on Monday when they open call the vet office ask for how much and where we can do full thyroid panel for her.

Then we'll see about her X-Rays and when we can afford it we'll do that. (I'm already paying the vets monthly and we are paying my own surgery loan, so we have to carefully manage).

This is the actual plan. have to wait til' Monday for the trainer to respond to my request, and for the vets to come out to work. right now I treat her like she is my dog. That's all for now. But "pure" puppy thing... she is not a small puppy. She did not respond to this treatment, everything is just a game, everything is allowed. That's how she was treated before we got her, and awhile after. She needs some serious guidance. we do some things that he described anyway, but she cannot run loose int eh house. Sorry.

Why does everyone thinks we did not interact with her or play with her? I have nothing else to do, all I do is dog:-) I can't draw right now which was my job and my passion all my life, and I finally have a long-desired dog now, of course I interact with her. Not that those interactions were always super-pleasant, but mostly, still.

hi Maria,
Are you familiar with the phrase, "perception is reality"?

Please stop and think, ponder, wonder, allow for the possibility that your perceptions of all your interactions with this dog are not the same as hers.

You seem to see cause and effect in all you do with this dog. She does not. She can't figure you out. She's confused so she tries things to appease you.

In her perception, in her reality, she cannot please you.

Please, please, please try to find this dog a happier place in the world where she can build a bond of trust with her people.

Hmm.? She can't please me?? Why is that? Most of the time she pleases me just fine, and knows it really well. Right now we played and practiced "Leave it" a little with no corrections besides verbal and a lot of praise and she is lying next to my chair right at this moment, ears back, breathing hard, looking at me non-stop, and I pet her periodically for staying, and she clearly enjoys it. Why do you think there is no pleasing me? Just don't bite, and that's it. I am forgiving of pretty much anything besides that.

 Quote:

When we got her we HAVE started treating her like a puppy.

I think we might treat puppies very differently if you think I was suggesting a free for all. Puppies need structure, they needing interactive playtime, they need a chance to just hang out with you and they need downtime.

It's not a free for all, it's a chance to establish rapor, teach the pup the rules of the house, build a bond, build a commnication system.

With a pup I would rotate between tethering to me, crate time, and play/motivational training with me.

New dogs need everything spelled out for them like a puppy does. They need to learn about you, they need to learn that you are a benevolant leader. They need to learn the boundaries. Everything is not allowed and they need to learn that in a fair, consistant manner.