No Trent, it wasn't meant to be insulting or mean, if it was I would have wrote that in my first post! But it was meant to be an eye opening collar correction. Eddie needs to learn the word No, so he can teach it to his dog!

Yes Trent, I would have said that to his face. If he kept calling me or knocking on my door, with the same problem after others and myself have told him what he needs to do and it appears he isn't making an effort to do it. Then yes I will be abrupt with him. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" /> ...Now you and Theresa have repeated, what has been repeated already on this thread and on this forum, who knows how many times since its conception to now.

I am not on this forum to be contentious or insulting. So Trent,Eddie I do apologize if you all were offended by my words <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

Eddie you need to have control over your dog. Physically and vocally, What if your leash or collar broke and blitz went charging across the street towards some 'tradesmen' and another 'tradesman' was leaving for home in a hurry. If you couldn't stop him with a vocal command such as NO, he could be ran over resulting in death or some serious vet bills and the $ you will have to shell out to repair the damage to the vehicle if any.

So 'sigh' Eddie read Ed Frawleys articles and go thru the old post, You will have to sift thru them to get the tidbits of good info that you need. And do get the Basic dog obedience dvd it will be a valuable aid for you in your quest for knowledge <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> If you are waiting for someone to write a transcript of it here, you may be waiting for awhile.

No Eddie.....You are missing the point !! :rolleyes:

Actually Eddie, the behavior isn't 'brand new'
it started days ago, and like most things, it got
stronger with time. Dogs like to bark. Dogs like to protect their territory. Dogs like to please their masters. If you didn't discourage it, then
you've reinforced it. The longer you wait the worse it will get. Maybe an easier way for people to help you would be if you told them what Blitz DOES know....what commands can he execute 100% with no egging on or eye contact? Rock solid. No halfassed attempts, the real deal. If the answer is "actually, nothing" then a professional is definitely the only answer, since you're not home much and you have kids...not so great with an untrained dog, IMO.

I don't know why you'd call anyone a "sack of ****" and a "moron" when they were only being blunt. Maybe the worm comment got you going, but perhaps it'll inspire you to ACT on your hunch that yeah, you really should take this seriously.
Would an ambulance at your door be a better clue?

There will be absolutely no profanity used on this board.

I've taken a few minutes out of my time to play censor, don't make me do that ******* **** again.


I don't like it.

Hi Eddie,
Yes, obedience training here is a no-brainer. I won't reiterate that any more. Get the DVD, get the equipment, work with your dog. I just wanted to comment on a couple of additional points.

 Quote:

Unfortunately at one point i was doing something downstairs when the flooring guy opened the door (without knocking) and walked inside.

Mistake number one. YOU control who comes in and when. Don't leave it up to chance that some poor schmoe with a perfectly good reason to just walk in is going to have to be menaced by your dog. It's one thing if the person is breaking into your property, a totally different situation from a well meaning and legitimate person to have to go through that. That sucks. Your dog needs to look to you for leadership, so you should have control over whether or not he gets to make any social contact with anyone. If that means locking the door so people can't just walk right in, so be it. You're the boss, you decide who he gets to greet and who is/is not a threat.

 Quote:

Again today as I let him out of the car he sees a group of strangers (more tradesman) walking in and out of the house (I didn't notice them). He bolts after them barking and growling, lunging at one of them before I can stop him.

Mistake number two. Leash your dog before letting him out of the car. Even if you take a look around to check for the presence of anyone and it looks all clear, you never know if someone's going to suddenly appear from around the corner or behind a building/car/bush at the exact moment you let your dog out of the car. If your dog will not stop on a dime on your verbal command, he needs to be leashed when you let him out of the car. EVERY TIME. Because Murphy's Law dictates that the one time you let him out of the car unleashed, that's the time someone will come out of nowhere (the ******* cats next door have taught me that lesson all too well). <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

*Of course* you need to work on his obedience until he is solid with or without a leash. Your goal should be to have reliable voice control even under heavy distraction. As I said, no-brainer. But until that time (and it will take time to get there), you have to control your dog. If he will not respond to voice commands, then you need to use a leash. That's what leashes are for. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

G'luck. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Thanks again for the constructive help. The biggest mistake I've made is not teaching him the "no" command. Main reason being is that when I first took Blitz for training classes the instructor explicitly told the class that "no" means nothing to a dog and not to use the command.

She said use specifics such as "come sit stay" etc. Someone asked earlier what commands does Blitz know. With treats Blitz performs the folowing on first command come, sit, stay, heel, down, jump, go downstairs (when I want him to down a set of stairs), move (when I want him out of the way), in the cage (gets in his crate), guard (when he's home alone, I've removed this command from his vocabulary), who's that? (alertness command, I've also removed this from his vocabulary), in the car (jump into the back seat), go (mainly a command that indicates he is allowed o eat his food). When I work him I usually work a subset of these commands. This weekend I worked him for a few hours and made sure to quickly crush any aggression to humans.

One problem is that without treats Blitz's obedience level goes from no repetition of command to having to repeat it 3 or 4 times beore getting a response.

I've ordered a prong collar and Ed's video, between my thoughts, these tools and this thread I should have plenty to do. I've also made i clear that everyone in the house is to use watch and use the video. I've even started making the children in the house train Blitz via treats.

Yea Eddie the trainer I had was of the same mind. It did not take me long to figure out that wasnt going to work with any dog with any drive in it. Clickers and treats are great for teaching a dog what you want it to do but sometimes a short sharp shock is needed to prevent tragedies. IE, bolting out the gate, crittering, foot raceing the letter carrier.

Eddie I think your OB basics are set, you need to proof your dog. That mean do the same Ob routine with distractions and punishment if he breaks/slow or does the wrong command. (I use the term punishment because I forgot the politically correct term, you trainers like to hear,so bear with me.)

Eddie I disagree with taking the control aggression commands out of his training. The dog obviously has some/the drive and will protect, (you would be surprises in the dogs that won't approach a stranger). I find that a well trained dog in Protection is more stable then a dog that is just trained trained in Ob and is protective.

For example if he doesn't know the commands to "Stop" or "Its Ok", then when he goes into drive or threatens a stranger you will have to go get him or sit him, if you can. Sometimes in court these Commands can save the dogs life, if he bites someone. They want to see if you got control of the dog Ob build to protection, Protection build on advance OB.


But if he knows the command in mid flight he will return to you, still upset but the guys safe. Control and practice work on what you got because you can't eliminate it unless you do some extreme debrifing and that could cause him to bite U!

My dog if a stranger comes in, will alert and look at me, if I say "Its Ok" he will relax but be watchful. Of course this if my back is turned, I'm faced with the same thing you are except. I can verbally call him off as he trying to bite the back peddling guy. I know this sounds bad, but I think he has saved me from some knots on my head out in the sticks.

In the same instance sometimes if a guy is approaching unthreatening from my back he will only meet the guy and sniff him then circle him and walk with him to me.

I'm a novice, but this is my opinion. Its time for you to start training yourself in Protection work and relay that to him, it will make him safer.

Mats has been in drive biting the shrit of a behind my back prankser or almost mouthing a leg and broken the off bite to return to me. This is done by actually training this moment and there is no prouder moment "When he does what you want rather then what he enjoys".

I'm waiting for the no bite fall out of just do the OB people. But you can't hide from the fact the dog wants to protect and he will on his own if you don't train to count of U. Thats all I'm saying.

Almost forgot...

If you should decide that a muzzle would be helpful in some situations, I highly recommend Leerburg's wire muzzle. I use one when walking my mastiff in high-traffic areas. It is for his protection actually, more than that of the public!

The wire muzzle is very high quality and allows the maximum air flow. You can also give treats while it is on. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />