I'm currently in the process of seriously training my poodle mix named Picaso. About a month a half ago, my wife was walking Picaso and he got away from her and proceeded to confront a neighborhood husky. The larger husky had our dog’s neck in its mouth and my got in the middle of this debacle suffering bite wounds to her hand. Luckily the dog was up to date with the shots and my wife is fine.
We hired a trainer. My long-term goal is to go into agility utilizing my dogs seemingly vasts amount energy and athletic ability. The main problem currently is on-leash aggression toward strange dogs, particularly husky types within our neighborhood. Off leash my dog is fine, however.
The trainer I'm working with now is using the e-collar and applying the pack leader philosophy. I have used positive treat reinforcement and clicker training with some success. However the trainer feels this is bribing your dog in some fashion. I don't necessarily believe this, but with the e-collar I have seen dramatic improvement in walking behavior and obedience. However the on-leash aggression is still present. We've been working on technique that trains the owner to recognize the dogs precursor actions (like heavier huff and puffs and excessive excitability), then go into an immediate heel drills applying the e-collar stimulations when he doesn't heel properly. Is this a good approach? I do know that to get him to calm down or comply when in this state and we have to turn up the remote collar quite a bit and sometimes hit him with a continuous zap or nick. This will get his attention, not treats ever will.
I read through a site and this description of behavior generalized dog aggression fits. The website stated:
"Our experience has been that this aggression will eventually fade over time as the dog is prevented
from escalating any aggression."
It’s been a few weeks of using this ecollar, so I guess I should be patient and continue. I was hoping
for perhaps some reassurance in my approach or any information or suggested products that might be the
best approach in solving this problem.
Thanks for any advice.
Here's a pic of this future agilty athlete. (hopefully)
We hired a trainer. My long-term goal is to go into agility utilizing my dogs seemingly vasts amount energy and athletic ability. The main problem currently is on-leash aggression toward strange dogs, particularly husky types within our neighborhood. Off leash my dog is fine, however.
The trainer I'm working with now is using the e-collar and applying the pack leader philosophy. I have used positive treat reinforcement and clicker training with some success. However the trainer feels this is bribing your dog in some fashion. I don't necessarily believe this, but with the e-collar I have seen dramatic improvement in walking behavior and obedience. However the on-leash aggression is still present. We've been working on technique that trains the owner to recognize the dogs precursor actions (like heavier huff and puffs and excessive excitability), then go into an immediate heel drills applying the e-collar stimulations when he doesn't heel properly. Is this a good approach? I do know that to get him to calm down or comply when in this state and we have to turn up the remote collar quite a bit and sometimes hit him with a continuous zap or nick. This will get his attention, not treats ever will.
I read through a site and this description of behavior generalized dog aggression fits. The website stated:
"Our experience has been that this aggression will eventually fade over time as the dog is prevented
from escalating any aggression."
It’s been a few weeks of using this ecollar, so I guess I should be patient and continue. I was hoping
for perhaps some reassurance in my approach or any information or suggested products that might be the
best approach in solving this problem.
Thanks for any advice.
Here's a pic of this future agilty athlete. (hopefully)