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Parker's BIG problem

Fri, 06/15/2007 - 00:16 — patti

Parker is a 4 yr. old medium sized heeler/hound mix. He is SO aggressive around other dogs that he has broken his choker collar. When I take him for walks i need to use both a halti and choker collar. He heels, sits stays etc. perfectly until he sees another dog. He then turns into a snarling lunging beast.
He has been through 4 obed. classes, the last 2 were for dogs with behavior problems. He would try to hide behind my legs and lunge at other dogs if they got close. He also feels the need to guard the yard from anyone walking by, with or without a dog.
I know that he was abused by humans when he was a pup and that in his last home he was stalked by another dog daily.
HOW can I help him gain confidence, lose his fear ,stop trying to attack both dogs and humans?
He and my golden are great buddies. She is getting pretty old and I have no idea how I will be ale to get him another buddy if these patterns cannot be broken.

Comments

Fri, 06/15/2007 - 21:13 — Aidan
Aidan's picture

Snarling, lunging and

Snarling, lunging and barking are "distance increasing behaviors". This means that their function is to get some distance between your dog and other dogs.

This is learned behavior, like sitting or heeling.

It has it's roots in an emotional response, usually fear. Parker is afraid, so he tries to alleviate the fear by making the other dog go away. He tries one thing, then another and eventually something works - barking, growling or lunging will usually get the message across loud and clear.

The other dog leaving, or Parker being removed from the situation reinforces this behavior because it works for Parker to alleviate the stress.

Any "corrections" will give Parker greater reasons to feel fear, and he will probably escalate his distance increasing behaviors. Just running to the end of a choke chain will be enough to contribute to this, so I would suggest you invest in a limited-slip collar for safety without the aversion.

Being put into situations where he is too close to other dogs for his comfort will make his behavior worse; he will growl, bark or lunge and that will inevitably 'work' for him.

For these reasons I strongly advise against any class that uses choke chains, or any class that puts Parker into a position where his barking, growling, lunging etc will be reinforced in this way.

Recommended procedures are those that aim to teach Parker alternative behaviors. In the short term they will make him more manageable for you, in the longer term he will learn that other dogs and people aren't really anything to worry about.

You really need to speak to a qualified, experienced and competent veterinary behaviorist who can assess Parker for any contributing health problems and work with Parker to teach him these alternative behaviors in a way which gives him positive associations with other dogs and people.

This is a job for a genuine expert educated in scientifically acceptable methods. You will know this sort of person (if you can find one) because they will measure their results very carefully and only use gentle, modern methods.

In the meantime I highly recommend the book "Click to Calm" which you can find here: http://positivepetzine.com/Recommended.html

Regards,
Aidan
http://www.positivepetzine.com