Thank you Ben. As I’ve said, I believe I have gone as far as I can go with this guy without providing corrections. It’s hard to explain but pack structure is completely in place with him.

We have complete compliance with the exception of this lightening fast reaction should someone be facing him, up close with direct eye contact and moreso with movement in his direction at this close proximity.

I can speculate till the cows come home on what has caused this but he did come to me with two bad bites on children, and that's just what I heard about. I believe both these occasions accomplished the results he was looking for.

As time went on, completely managed, very little association to strangers during his rehab, just to change his state of being (on vibrate and wanting to lash out at anything and anyone – jittery and spooked liked I’ve never seen), he became fairly stable and I was looking for a “job” for him.

We looked into the protection sports (very bad idea, I had no idea at the time). At the first assessment, he was teased with a rag. He had no interest in this and was aggressively barking and focused on the agitator (I’m not going to call him a decoy or helper because I don’t think he had these qualifications – a dumbass I wasted my money on but knew no better at the time).

He then put on a sleeve and got within Vince’s bite range. Vince crawled over the sleeve and went for his high shoulder/neck area. I’ve gone into this in some detail on this already. I had a proper assessment done with similar results from a different process. Both times he responded extremely aggressively with intentions to do harm. He was not playing.

Is this learned, yes, I agree, to a large extent I believe it is. I also believe his personality/temperament plays an integral role in this. A different dog may have interpreted things and adjusted much differently.

I’ve spent the last year and a half exposing and desensitizing him to people. He is completely under control and quite relaxed in the majority of situations, with the exception of this direct, face on approach – not to mention he will not accept touch from anyone but me and my husband.


It’s a very specific reaction that I’m looking for the right correction approach. I’ve explained the reasons that I feel the incompatible command would not be the correct approach with him. I feel he needs to face this exact/only situation he’s reacting to.

Hey guys, a few folks have been asking to see video of Vince. And while this was not really a good time to be doing this (just finished sighting in a few rifles for hunting season and not prepared to do this at all) but a buddy was up at our property as well and said he’d be happy to shoot some video and show me how to get these stupid things into my photobucket properly. Which he did, woo hoo!!!

But I wasn’t expecting to be training (well, we’re always training, but not this) on video yet and I was full of padding (thick vest under that thick jacket) for kick back protection. Bob always makes me test the high powers once he’s done with them. He knows who has the better aim… or maybe it’s more that if I can hit the bull’s eye, it’s got to be close enough... no, no… I’m much better. But I digress.

In any case, Vince is quite visibly tense with the guy’s presence but he’s fairly focused. He’s just on flat collar (no leash). I made the mistake (well… precaution) of picking up a stick for a quick distraction if necessary, (they’re everywhere and have really come in handy) but he sees a stick now and is constantly anticipating the chase (gonna have to work on that). So he’s pretty choppy and not popping into heel which he usually does quite well.

And Echo, that little bugger, he watches us train all the time. I’m sure he knew exactly what he was doing getting right in Vince’s path when I went to call him. So I’m doing the funky chicken down at the end trying to get Vince back on track. The fun of owning 3 dogs.

His downs are also pretty hesitant as I’m downing him right in front of the camera guy (he obviously knows he’s there and even shoots him a bit of dirty look at the end), and I’m being a bit cautious too, ensuring he does go down (which he always does) but there’s always an extra layer of precaution when there’s any humans, other than Bob and I, around.

But as tense as he was (probably feeding a bit off me) I also know he would not break those downs unless he was approached directly from the front with close with eye contact. I’ve had him in one for a good 15 minutes while I carried on conversation outside of his reactive zone, he barely moved a muscle.

Our buddy knew to be a statue as he was standing there though. A really good dog guy, even said how much he thought Vince had improved. He’s been on the receiving end of Vince’s smile. Loved hearing that.

http://s684.photobucket.com/albums/vv210/wolfpup2227/?action=view&current=CIMG0133.mp4

And now that I think I know what I’m doing with this video thing (I hope I can figure it out without him) I’ll try and get Bob to get some better stuff.

Of course, any criticisms, completely welcome. Just remember what the thread it called though.

Very nice, CJ

Aww, thanks Ana. It’s no where near what you and other folks are doing but he really does try. I’m just going to keep working with him and maybe someday, far in the future, we might just get that BH yet. Maybe not and that’s okay too.

I’ve got him criss cross healing through four people too (no kids of course and people he’s familiar with) but he’s progressing nicely there. If I could just figure out how to get him thru that darn handshake.

I think you did a very good job there. Especially considering

1) a surprise guest;
2) being busy with your regular chores (where he probably learned to follow you around without being a pest);
3) other dogs wandering around very calmly;
4) The Camera - some dogs just don't like them at first

Do you think a "handshake" OB command might help? So that he knows what's coming and what to do?

Again, thank you, it's encouraging hearing that even though I know how far we have to go yet.

And that’s funny about the camera, you’re right. He’s not really familiar with them at all. Stuck right up to the face, which he seems to try read on everyone. We’ve got some footage that Bob’s taken in the past though and he’s not nearly as tense. I can have people at a nice safe distance though, maybe I should be working on desensitizing him to it a bit more. I like it.

And yes, I think a "handshake" OB command would be absolutely perfect. That’s kind of what I was hoping the “Be Nice” command would result in. Have you got any thoughts or anything in mind on how to start teaching it?

Ana, you’ve got my wheels turning … dangerous. But hey, what about even starting with Bob. OMG, I think you’ve given me something here.

Walk up in heel, “handshake” command. Hand goes out, he witnesses connection… we could exaggerate the "up and down" quite strongly at first. When hands disconnect, he’s rewarded.

We could do this a million times, well at least a hundred. He’ll get it and love it, I’m sure. He’s not being asked to do anything, only sit there and witness the hands connecting.

Ana… I can work with this. OMG… you’re brilliant!!

No comments about training, know NOTHING about it lol! But my GOD, where you are is stunning, the sort of place I can only dream of living in, lucky you and lucky dogs