There is a video being made with tugs....fabulous!

 Quote: Jennifer Lee

There is a video being made with tugs....fabulous!

I know, huh?

You can walk him with the slip collar. It will be more effective than the prong for this type of dog.

Check out his body language. When he sees a dog that he's going to have a problem with he squares his shoulders to the other dog and gets an intense focused stare. Redirecting when you first see his gaze lock on another dog and surprising him with a VERY high value food treat can go a long way towards preventing it escalating and getting his focus back towards you. Having him do a behavior he enjoys that redirects him from squaring off with the other dog(spin, shake paws, wave) might also help. It just interrupts his thought process and then you can give a really good reward to make it worth it. Watch his tail for another warning sign. A happy relaxed tail doesn't get real stiff and wave that frantically. It shows he's getting overstimulated. You might try walking him in a circle away from the dog. Once he's moving you get less of the backtied effect and can get him to calm down a little easier.

That "class" was chaos. I think the instructor has taken on too many dogs at once.

Cathy, the problem is that when he sees another dog, he doesn't want anything to eat - even if he hadn't eaten anything that day yet - nor play with his favorite toy! Getting his focus off that other dog is extremely hard for me.

I am teaching him now in a field where there's no distraction and it's going good so far, BUT to get there we have to walk near a good number of houses with dogs behind the fences everywhere. It's hard to reach the field and I think he gets too excited by the other dogs by the time we get to the field. I will have to figure something out.

Mark, I'm probably essentially rephrasing what others have said, but your issue with your dog is familiar to me, as is the issue of redirecting focus off of other dogs.

I have an extremely aggressive female who is muzzled when outside. As she wears a leather agitation muzzle for extra safety, not because we do agitation, redirection with food and toys are out.

What I've done is what others have said. Work on obedience, and when we see another dog, give her a job to do - different obedience commands. My goal is to refocus her mind with the job, rather than with food or a tug.

It has been slow, but worthwhile doing. We've seen big gains. My dog will always be aggressive, and never be trustworthy, but she has improved her behaviour a lot and is far more manageable. Now we can meet other reactive dogs and come off looking like the calm ones!

 Quote: Jennifer Lee

There is a video being made with tugs....fabulous!

And here it is!

http://leerburg.com/221.htm?utm_source=nlist&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=11192009

Excellent!!

I know what Yote and I will be getting for christmas!!!!

nevermind, it works now YAY!

I have been teaching him some basic obedience while playing in the field, I'm delighted to see that even though he can't be motivated with food (at all!) he does a lot of things to get his favorite toy when he's alone in the field! I'm very happy with the progress we're making.
And I received the two Michael Ellis videos, going through them right now and taking notes

That is great!