Shy, Aggressive, Fearful sheltie

Hi Amanda:

I want to reiterate some of the encouragment you're getting from others' posts! You're doing great to be thinking and caring about these things! As a dog owner who's had a dog in the past with pretty serious behavior issues (fear and dominance aggression, severe insecurity, etc. etc.) I want to encourage you to continue your journey in finding solutions for Ruckus. As Ann mentions, it definitely takes persistence and patience. There's a lot you can do but I found that the hardest part was following through and setting up the various situations to help myself and my dog to work through different scenarios and working on them consistently, especially in situations where I had to de-sensitize my dog over a long period of time.

I've found Dr. Nicholas Dodman's books ("The Dog Who Loved Too Much", "Dogs Behaving Badly", "The Well Adjusted Dog", etc.) to be very insightful which helped me with understanding possible roots for my dog's behavior and ways to address it. His books are very readable with a combination of good stories / cases he's worked with as well as explanations of what makes the dog tick.

Some tidbits from Dodman's latest book, "Well Adjusted Dog" he mentions that diet can really influence the behavior of an aggressive dog. Dodman has seen cases where aggressive dogs when switched to a low-protein diet have had dramatic changes in behavior for the positive and pretty quickly. He backs this up with several scientific studies.

Definitely consult with a behavior specialist. I'm keen in hearing about what you and the specialist discuss.
 
the trainer recommends me read all of cesar milan's books and to watch the dog whisperer. He demonstrated some of Cesar's techniques on Ruckus and I was highly impressed. Ruckus was highly responsive and I never seen him so content. Ruckus HATES me, and he adores this trainer (who is a big man with a booming voice) In just an hour I see a side of Ruckus that I did not think i would EVER see.

I was highly sceptical at first, because I normally do positive only, I do not even use a leash correction, and I treat train. So this is pretty well the opposite of what I am used to. I have already read half of Cesar's first book and I dont see why so many people think Cesar is mean, cruel, and a bully to the dogs. I have been using some of Cesar's techniques since monday and I already see a noticeable improvement!

Thanks for all the help!
I will keep you posted
 
Great to hear you sound so positive about Ruckus and yourself! :biggrin2: Keep up the good work! I have never had the chance to see the dog whisperer. I know, you'd think I live in a cave or something! :lol: Can anyone give me a day and time on the east coast?
 
I have watched a few episodes. But I actually do not get the channel that it comes on. I plan on buying the DVD collection, or trying to see if I can rent it. I highly doubt I can find it to rent where I live.
 
ruckusluvr said:
the trainer recommends me read all of cesar milan's books and to watch the dog whisperer. He demonstrated some of Cesar's techniques on Ruckus and I was highly impressed. Ruckus was highly responsive and I never seen him so content. Ruckus HATES me, and he adores this trainer (who is a big man with a booming voice) In just an hour I see a side of Ruckus that I did not think i would EVER see.

I was highly sceptical at first, because I normally do positive only, I do not even use a leash correction, and I treat train. So this is pretty well the opposite of what I am used to. I have already read half of Cesar's first book and I dont see why so many people think Cesar is mean, cruel, and a bully to the dogs. I have been using some of Cesar's techniques since monday and I already see a noticeable improvement!

Thanks for all the help!
I will keep you posted
Click to expand...

We watch Cesar from time to time and when you wrote this post I wanted to recommend that you watch some of his shows. He does amazing things but always remains in a calm and assertive state. I'm glad to see that the trainer was able to start helping and told you to get the book. I hope that things continue to go in the right direction for you. :biggrin2:
 
I am very
very
VERY happy so far. It has not even been a week and Ruckus is 70% better! I bought the second and third season on DVD today.
 
I just bought the Power of Positive Dog Training by Pat Miller. Its very good.

I'm going back to basics with Bacca. I was getting good progress with sit and come - but down, off, leave it - forget it!

So I've decided to try the whole clicker training thing. Bacca and I are at stage 1. Click, Treat, Name, Click, Treat. yadda, yadda
 
Pat Miller is a fabulous trainer. She writes regularly for The Whole Dog Journal which is one of the best publications around in terms of spot-on information about feeding, training, toys and most things canine. You can't go wrong with her.

Clicker training is great for some dogs too, Barb. I use an abbreviated version with mine for just the commands they tend to ignore, such as "come." Once Bacca figures out that "click" means "treat" he'll do whatever you want. Let us know how it goes!
 
I'm glad to hear that Ruckus is doing better too! Some things don't work for all dogs and sometimes the best thing is to try something new! I hope things keep moving forward for you and Ruckus!!
 
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