On the basic obedience dvd, ed mentioned he would cover aggression after a dog is corrected. i don't remember him ever getting to that and was wondering if any one had suggestions (or a link to another post if this was covered before).

there have been a few times where i corrected her and she freaked out, growling, barking and very unhappy about her correction. i wasn't sure if i should praise her to calm her down (possibly reinforcing her aggression by thinking if she growls then i'll be nicer and thus starting a paattern) or guide her back into the correct position (but putting myself in risk of getting bit by approaching her when we were practicing the sit-stay) or correct her again to knock the attitude out of her? did i correct her to hard? was she just not in the mood for being corrected at that time?

suggestions?
thanks

Handler aggression has many varibles to include dogs age and maturity, breed and sex, pack rank/ status, length of ownership, previous history of aggressive displays, etc.
Most posters when they ask about this subject don't give nearly enough information for anyone to give them an informed opinion.

Once a dog learns that it can prevent corrections by an aggressive display, it's the start of a slippery slope that usually has a bad ending. I see it all the time with small foo-foo pets and it's usually the fault of the owner, sad to say.

I recently got a great SchH II male GSD for a good price just because he's handler aggressive - when a dog can injure you, many handlers will not longer deal with the animal, period.

It usually takes a skilled two or three man team to clean up handler aggression in big powerful breeds. A solo handler can fix most aggression issues in smaller dogs, but you have to have to handler skills in order to do so, and the ability to read dogs well, which usually takes experience.

Ed is still working on his Dominant Dog video, I'm sure he'll be touching on these points a bit.

i am 100% sure that this was my error. i had her on a drag line and was practicing the sit-stay in the house. she moved out of the sit and i went over to correct her. i realize that i should have had her on a long line and corrected her the instant she moved. a timing error on my part and she saw the correction coming from a mile away, so she was unhappy knowing what was coming. a timing error on my part. she doesn't have any sort of problems under normal corrections when my timing is good. it was just a side of her that i saw could pop up and wanted to be prepared if a situation occured again where i gave her a correction and she decided to not take it anymore.

i initially didn't add this stuff because i was more interested in the general answer.

thanks for you help.

philip, sometimes the best way to eliminate something is by not fueling it. if you don't want to experience handler aggression in your dog, then don't give her anything to fight against.
i attended a michael ellis seminar the end of january and witnessed some things i would never have believed possible had i not seen it with my own eyes. i could barely believe how quickly some of the dogs learned/corrected themselves when no corrections were given. they were told "no" (that's not correct) were given no corrections and no rewards, but had to repeat the excercise until they were correct. dogs who had real problems with being dirty going into the blind had previously been given correction after correction which resulted in unclear thinking and some handler aggression, these dogs cleaned up so fast it was nothing short of amazing. most of them had to repeat the excercise only a couple of times. they remained clear in the head and very quickly realized that correctness brought the reward and were clean thereafter. since this seminar, i have done a lot of serious thinking about the devastating effects of "corrections." i am convinced that too much correction leads to confusion and unclear thinking. when the dog remains clear, the learning comes many many times faster and without the unwanted side-effects.

YES! This is something I see all too often in dog training. I feel that inexperienced owners go to corrections before the dog knows what they are doing. On stays time before distance is the rule. I see owners with 15 second stays trying to cross the yard. I highly recommend Micheals way of training.

Time before distance, and when distance is added, the time shortens up again.

Yes, I agree with being very careful with corrections. You would be amazed to see how clean a High Drive dog can be coming into the blind to do a B&H with NO prong corrections...if he's dirty, NO bite, and the exercise is repeated.

Philip - I am working on producing a DVD titled Dealing with the Dominant Dog - as I produced the Basic Dog Obedience I realized I could not include the amount of information in the Basic Obedience DVD that would be needed to cover this subject. I am also close to being done with an e-book on the subject.

With that said - anyone who can go to a Michael Ellis seminar needs to go. His seminars are sport seminars not dominant dog seminars - but many of the concepts apply. Michael's training seminars are some of the best you will see. Plus he is a really nice guy. He treats people and dogs with respect.

The same holds true as old earth dog Bob said..time before distance....so when adding destractions to the equation....you go back to shortening the time again before adding distance.