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Dragongirl6 Calico Dragongirl6 Newfgal Dragongirl6 Chick-lo-Chick-Hi Tarkah Dragongirl6 |
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Dragongirl6 View Profile |
What Have I Gotten Myself Into??
He has dog aggression and he is possessive of food/objects. It was all I could do to fit him for a muzzle at the pet store when another (unaltered, I might add) male pit walked past about 20 feet away. Elliott FREAKED (of course I had planned on this happening and had him well under control), but the guy with the other dog just kept walking past, back and forth, while my dog was flipping! I was like, seriously? Take your dog farther away so he doesn’t get attacked, lol. Anyway, I did get the muzzle and a no-pull harness. I took him home and fed him (actually very few issues when I took his food away while he was eating, of course he was muzzled), and took him to my neighbor’s fenced yard. This dog probably has never been in such a large space in his entire life. He spent his puppyhood in a house, neglected and starved. He was sent to a shelter in CA, where he was scheduled for euthanasia along with 100 other dogs and many were transferred to rescues here in WA. He was adopted to a guy who got in a fight with him over a piece of paper and took him to a kill shelter because the dog nipped him. So, scheduled for euthanasia again, a rescue group contacted me and asked if I would foster him. Sigh, who could say no? So here I am, with a dog aggressive pit bull and a 7 lb poodle in one house. Luckily he is crate trained and, if I exercise him enough, he just sleeps when he comes inside. Lots of work ahead of me! Sorry for the long post. This is my first foster pit, I’ve been waiting my WHOLE life lol.
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| 05/04/09 09:18pm |
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Calico View Profile |
Message To: Dragongirl6 In reference to Message Id: 1998690 What Have I Gotten Myself Into??
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| 05/04/09 09:36pm |
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Dragongirl6 View Profile |
Message To: Calico In reference to Message Id: 1998711 What Have I Gotten Myself Into??
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| 05/04/09 09:48pm |
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Newfgal View Profile |
Message To: Dragongirl6 In reference to Message Id: 1998690 What Have I Gotten Myself Into??
Nancy |
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| 05/05/09 05:46am |
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Dragongirl6 View Profile |
Message To: Newfgal In reference to Message Id: 1998848 What Have I Gotten Myself Into??
The goof tried to swallow a tennis ball this morning, lol. We’ll have to work on encouraging those brain cells to shine through... Off to exercise him again. I think he’ll calm down a lot if he isn’t locked in a kennel all day full of barking dogs. |
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| 05/05/09 02:46pm |
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Chick-lo-Chick-Hi View Profile |
Message To: Dragongirl6 In reference to Message Id: 1998690 What Have I Gotten Myself Into??
Give it some time.. |
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| 05/06/09 08:37am |
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Tarkah View Profile |
Message To: Dragongirl6 In reference to Message Id: 1998690 What Have I Gotten Myself Into??
Well dog aggression is the least of your worries! Mind you better than human fear aggression. In your case I wouldn’t let him bark at the other dogs. Its stressful for him to be so fearful. In that case it is up to you to move away and to not let your foster dog continue with his fear induced barking. He is afraid. we are talking about emotions not behavior. In that case if Elliot was barking remove him from the stimulus. If this case continues where he barks bark barks and then the other dog leaves then he’s thinking "omg omg omg danger danger! so scary i must bark to get rid of that dog!" bark bark bark "oh good oh good that dogs walking away! I’m so good i scared him away!" Gain his trust first, work with obedience and create a bond. With fear based aggression you can’t discipline him. Punishment training wont work in these cases since his behaviour is because of fear. What you want to do is to change his emotions. In the presence of dogs you want his emotions of fear to turn into calm, happy, relaxed etc. You can do this walking by a dog at a distance where he will not react (this could be lunging barking, growling hackles, frozen etc) when he see’s the other dog and doesnt bark bingo! Feed him lots and lots of high value treats. Treats that he would possibly jump through a ring of fire for. stuff like hotdogs, cut up cheese, liver treats. This is called counter conditioning and it will slowly change his emotional state. As you continue to do this you will see an improvement. Once he sees another dog and looks at you expecting a treat then bingo! its time to move a bit closer. But be patient, if you rush into moving too close to fast and it’ll take even longer. I hope that helps. I have a german shepherd that is both fear aggressive to dogs and people! and congrats on the foster dog and being the hero to another dogs life! Ashley  |
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| 05/06/09 12:21pm |
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Dragongirl6 View Profile |
Message To: Tarkah In reference to Message Id: 1999543 What Have I Gotten Myself Into??
I am definitely working on bonding with him to start with. He doesn’t seem to be food aggressive (he will sit, stay, and leave it until I say it’s ok to eat, and will even let me take the bowl away in the middle). However, he is very possessive of ANY type of ball. Soccer balls, tennis balls, baseballs, if he sees a ball ANYWHERE he goes totally insane. It took me 20 minutes to get a soccer ball back from him this afternoon. I just made him sit, held the ball, and waited for him to let go. When he finally did I gave the leave it command. I’m hesitant to be too close to him while training unless he has a muzzle. He does have a bite history and I do not want to repeat the incident. I am setting up an appointment with a professional trainer who specializes in Pits and Pit mixes. I have done a lot of training and understand the concepts and basic obedience, being the alpha, etc. but in this case it wouldn’t hurt to have a bit of help. She has 6 rescue dogs who were considered to be "dangerous" breeds, and all are perfectly trained and happy now. Anyway, thanks! Here are a few more pics.
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| 05/06/09 08:48pm |
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