I just read that even neutered boys take a while to settle down. The hormones may not be there but they are still thinking adolescent thoughts. It's apparently very unusual for adolescent boys to have steady rapid improvements in behaviour and they don't always take to training. (Encouraging thoughts for us with teenage shelties isn't it?) We just have to keep plugging away at socialising and desensitizing them to whatever they are fearful about and keep with the obedience training until they are 1 and a half, 2 years old.
I mentioned Control Unleashed earlier and I think I also said this in a post elsewhere - there's a "game" recommended called the Look At That game where essentially you mark (click) the moment your dog looks at whatever he's afraid of (eg. hooded man / mob of teens) or finds interesting and reward your dog (do this with you two standing at some distance from the object first). The dog then starts offering the behaviour of looking at said object (because he realises looking means he'll get a treat and it becomes a game to him) then turning to you. Done over and over, this creates a chain in the dog's head - every time he sees something interesting he'll turn towards you, breaking off contact with whatever scares the crap out of him and cutting off the spiral into fear aggression that usually happens when he sees something scary. I thought this was BRILLIANT because not only does it turn something scary into a game for the dog , the dog also refocuses on you which is what we ultimately want. I've started to work on this with Romeo. I have high hopes!
I do see how some of the principles behind CM's work can be sound, like silence and energy, which the dog can sense and they definitely affect the dog's behaviour (if you are tense, it does travel down the leash!). I also agree exercise is very important! But for me, it ends there. The making a dog face what it fears and popping of the leash doesn't modify the aggressive behaviour from what I've studied so far on how animals learn and behave, they just suppress it. (I didn't read what critics say about him but drew my own conclusions from research) When I watch his vids, the dogs are throwing all sorts of stress and coping signals. Some shut down completely. From what I see, his methods are all about empowering the handler with 'confidence' rather than truly caring about the welfare of the dog. Confidence can be gained by understanding your dog, and I find that there are better and more effective methods, safer and less stressful to dog and humans to achieve the end result. Just my thoughts!
Like Silaria, I tried the leash popping for loose leash walking under a trainer. I was unhappy with the technique but didn't have the balls to stand up for my dog then. The end results were FAR from desirable - Romeo showed clear signs of stress and while he walked loosely by my side, he was clearly miserable and never once would he look at me. We've since switched trainers and now use purely positive techniques and I'm getting amazing results - he's heeling practically all the time when he's not sniffing/marking and bonus, he's giving plenty of eye contact without being cued throughout. He's happy, I'm happy! Win-win!
