OK, Let me preface this by saying right off, I/we have made some mistakes already, hindsight being 20/20. But I am here in hopes of some no bullshit advice. My hope is that we can work through his issues for him to be adoptable. Although will need a special home, yadda yadda.

Keagen
4 ½ month old, presumed to be American showlines. Physically this dog is a stunning puppy, if you like that look.

History: Pulled from shelter, wouldn’t make adoptable cages due to dog aggression. Was dumped at shelter by owner of less then 2wks. Info on previous owner currently unknown, but I do have her phone number and plan to call her soon. I am inclined to believe at some point in the not to distant past, he was crated excessively, as his muscle tone was atrocious, and is rapidly improving with normal life.

He is on a martingale style Lupine collar. Collar options are limited with a 4month old.

When I pulled him from the shelter, he was reactive to all other dogs he saw on his way out, same as what was reported on the temperament test results: stiff body posture, hackles, barking, hardstare and focused, totally zoned. He also (this was interesting!) was SUPER-REACTIVE towards a pink plush teddy on a sale table at the giftshop. Lunging, hackling, barking, etc. Ruth, friend, and former Sch person, actually held it in her hand, not teasing him, but just held it casually, and you would swear someone had said "packen" the way he launched after it. (Now, this part gets interesting- I bought him a similar textured bear at the dollar store. Brought it home. When he saw it, he reacted the same. When I let him have it, (made him sit for it) then he was fine with it within about 5seconds. It was like he was threatened by it, but once he investigated it, it was AOK. In fact, it's his toy of choice, to take his teething out on.


Health: 95%Housebroken.Had kennel cough, resolved now. Neutered about 3wks ago. Teething.

QUICK learner- sit, down, wait. His commands are great without distractions, but not so good with any distractions. Not trying to do distraction training, yet, but does happen inadvertently at time.


He is a velcro dog.
Food and praise motivated, when low to no distractions exist. Walks along side me in the house, minor easily redirected puppymouthing. Easily redirected chewing of offlimits items. We are doing NILIF, we do it with all dogs in our home.

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I wanted to rule out leash aggression, so we put he and Halle (see below) on leads, but dragging. Jay took Halle out first, then Keagen and I went out. Didn’t take Keagen out first to eliminate him thinking she was moving in on “his yard.” He flew down the stairs, at her. growling, barking, stiff tail. Intermittently hackling. Lunging, Neck nipping. {Halle, who is a good judge of dog character, looked a little freaked, LOL…She had NO interest in trying to play with him.} No solid bites, but wouldn’t back down. She tried to walk around him, he kept going. Not able to redirect him, even physically trying to turn his head away from her. But, again, as I said...No solid bites. Nips, but not actually going for the kill. (Still not acceptable, but....)

I did not do much (although did do some) physical corrections at this point, as I wanted more to observe, and also didn’t want to inadvertently make things worse.


In hindsight, I realize what we did next was stupid, since he was already in a zone:
We then tried to walk them, to do figure 8s, etc, walking them by each other, praising him for each time he wasn’t a jerk. Mainly, he was a Jerk. TOTALLY focused on her, barking and pulling to get to her. I did at the point, issue a few corrections. These resulted in him nipping at my thigh. Not aimed at me, per se, but he was totally in the zone. I was able to solidly scruff the little turdhead, but without long-lasting improvement.
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When he's uncrated, the others are crated. He can be in the bedroom with me, which is where Halle and Serena's crates are, and be okay. Initial barks, but not totally apeshit. Then he will settle and chew or snooze either on the laundry pile, which is 6-8feet away from their crates, direct sightline, or under the computer desk if I am online. Desk is maybe 6feet from the side of Halle's crate. (Her crate is a wire one.)


His barks are hard for me to interpret, because he's a pup. Sometimes it almost is like he's not aggressive to be aggressive, like some dogs are, but that he's...clueless on proper dog manners, and is an asshole out of stupidity as a result. Does that make any sense?


Week #2:
So, we've been doing walks every day after work this week. Also working on the "watch me" command.
Monday: He zoned in on a swinging sled (hanging outside of someone's house...) This is also a house that has a yip dog, who supposedly wasn't barking, and is next door to 2 beagles. (Point being, my thoughts are he may have seen the sled, but got all "zoney" due to the presence of doggie smell)
Anyhoo, he was barking and zoning. Jay took him up on his hindlegs (Lupine martingale style collar) for about 6steps, until he stopped barking, then let him down, and he was fine. Then on the return trip, as soon as he started to zone, before he barked, Jay did it, but only needed to do it lightly, like not front feet in the air, but toes lightly touching.

Tuesday: I cut up several of those nasty Canine Carry Out Chik'n strips. (Blech) and put them in my pocket. We met our only nextdoor neighbor, and she fed him treats. Then we continued on our way. We hit the jackpot-although that nasty sled was meaningless to him, there was a real, live, dog out several houses away! And this one is the nasty bark at everything dog! Wooot! Partytime! He started to bark back, and pull. I whipped him around, not quite a swing, but a 2Legged skid. Did it twice more. Each time with a "NO!" and then a scruff to followup, then an immediate attempt at "watch me." After the 3rd time. we hit the groove. I stood there doing " watch me...goodwatch me. *treat*.... watch me...goodwatch me. *treat*.... watch me...goodwatch me. *treat*...." made him sit there. Every time he'd start to try to peer over at the dog, i'd start it all over again. After a few minutes, we continued on our way, down a few more boring houses, and back. On the way back, Nasty Nellie started her barking again. Keagen only needed a warning, and to tiptoe on front paws to halt his grumbling, and I WAS ABLE TO REFOCUS HIM ON ME. Unfortunately, she got take inside before we really got to do the full thing. What was aI gonna say-" Excuse me, Mr White Trash? Yeah, my puppy is dog aggressive...could you leave your fleabitten nasty dog outside to bark at us a little longer? Thanks, you're swell!"


Wednesday: From Jay : he walked very well on my left side after he tried to cross in front of me and I stepped on his paws accidently. the black dog was out again and did not take nearly as much correction to get him refocused on me and the walk.

Thursday: Did well, pulled just a little. Needed only a warning of front feet lifted just a little...

Friday: Short walk, too windy, trees down, etc. The jerks brought the dog in before we even got there. Did well. Jay’s sons come tomorrow.



Here’s the list of “demo dogs” we have in our home with which to work:
~Halle, 3yrs old, happy go lucky, LOVES other dogs, of all sizes. Loves farm animals almost as much. Loves loves loves life.
~Serena, recovering from her emergency gastropexy. She alpha rolled and pinned Karlee by her throat on our only 2attempts to integrate them, so I think she would kill him for his attitude.
~Remy, dominant yet doofy male, who is moody with energetic pups at times. Previously a victim of domestic violence. Fostered and rehabbed by us for a full year, before we adopted him. He was not adoptable for most homes.
~Karlee, somewhat obnoxiously energetic 2yr old foster. She loves people, loves life, but plays rough with other dogs. Not dog aggressive, just rambunctiously rough-housing.

I am sure I am missing info, so if you need something clarified before you offer input/advice/suggestions, please ask. I will check back.

I'm going to start off with - that is one of the most clear and concise self evaluations of a handler and her dog/problem that I've seen lately <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Let me put on my thinking cap here, anybody that will put that much time and effort into a post deserves a well thought-out reply!

LOL!!
Concise, it wasn't! I admit to a penchant for verbosity.
This is a post I have been working on for a bit, wanted to try to start of with all the scoop you would possibly need.
I have also posted on a GSD board, and am getting a variety of responses, as expected. Of course, dog training is a grey area. I have gotten some decent suggestions there from people I respect.
But I also need the straightshooting, no bullshit advice, too.
Thanks, Will....
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He is not an unstable dog. I know to some that sounds odd, given his issues, but I know many of you understand. He bounces back nicely from corrections. IF we catch it BEFORE he zones, the redirect works well. Like on walks where we know that nasty dog is going to kick it up. But if he zones, he needs a correction to bring him back to the world of " Mama's the Alpha, and nothing's gonna happen."
His redirect is improving daily, even hourly. We do sporadic focus even just in the kitchen, the living room, whatever room we happen to occupy. Sometimes with treats, sometimes just with praise. He is well motivated by both.

The more I watch, the more certain I am that this isn't typical DA, not like "I hate all other dogs and want to fight/kill them all." But more like " do unto them before they can do unto me." mixed with lack of knowledge of dog manners. Almost like he was removed from the litter too soon, and not put into a place that had a dog to finish his puppyschooling.

I have a slightly dog aggressive female American staffordshire Terrier, that wasn't that way until a weim grabbed her back leg at handling class a few weeks ago. I use a prong collar na dit has helped immensley. We went to Schutzhund on saturday and she did a long down right by a female shepherd. It takes lots of patience but it sounds like what you are doing is working, so I'd just keep it up. That's my advice, while it may not be good or something you want to use it's there. That's what has worked for me.

what a wonderful post!!
in my experience with the "zone" in horses, cattle, dogs, and human youngsters, you're doing the EXACT correct thing.
first, get their attention BEFORE they zone out, or back out of it to give them time to re-group. this takes some ability to "read" the animal involved (i imagine this is what makes a good vs really good decoy; pressure and how much, same as reading any animal).
second, if you don't "catch it" before, somehow (and the techniques are a little different cross-species, but not much), remove them from the area, settle/and/or redirect their attention.

so, basically, i'm not telling you anything new, but simply trying to send you some internet support. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> keep us updated, would ya?? so we can learn....