My dog is a fighter.
 

How do I cure it? She’s a Catahoula cur.
She’s great with people, very friendly and loving, but get her around another dog and it’s on. This weekend she got in a fight with a buddies blood hound one day and another buddies German short hair the next.
I hate it. I can’t take her anywhere with me if she’s constantly trying to dominate every dog we run across.
So, any helpful hints? How do I tame an aggressive dog without breaking her spirit?

This is gonna sound strange, but it works. Mount your dog. She needs to be dominated so she doesn't think she is the pack leader when you are around. Put her on her back and straddle her and muzzle her face and tell her NO loudly when she does it next, in the presence of the other dog. Or call that Ceasar guy.

once they 'turn on' there aint no rehab. buy a parting stick, learn to handle, and keep your dog outta those situations.

This is as sound advice as i can give you.

Edit- you own a 'catch dog' plain and simple. invest in one of these.

http://catchdogreleasetool.viviti.com/

Good rep. for being a sound product.

Yep. I had a female Airedale Terrier that was really aggressive with any other female dog. I don't just mean aggressive, but she would have killed other females given a chance, I'm pretty sure. It really bothered me because she was the best dog. I just had to pick and choose the places I could take her and who/what dogs would be there.

Oh believe me, she knows who the alpha male is. I understand the pack mentality and have worked it with the family. She understands and accepts that she’s at the bottom of the pecking order in our house, but that’s not the problem.
I’ve worked with dogs for hunting and retrieving but have never had a dog as aggressive as she is.

I think the only true rehab for that problem is found in the chamber of a Remington 10-.22

Sell her to Michael Vick.

OK, Radar, someone has to say it.


Anti Freeze.



J/K, but you knew that had to come when you started this thread.:D

I'd recommend not calling its woman a name, lest you get your ass beat.

Interesting, how do I use it?
Sounds like it’s to break their grip once they’re clamped on. I’d like to stop the problem before it gets to that point.

;) CP tradition.

take her to an dog training school, it might help :)

you take the dog by the back of the neck pulling back and insert the stick between the back of the jaw and twist.
might take a few times but it will part a dog. Id let em swap it out for a minute just to burn abit of energy then part em. wost thats gonna happen is theyll need acouple days of pen-g.
(PM me up if you need the dose)
Im telling ya radar, once they turn on to other fur its an impossible task to turn em off.
Ive never ever had one that i could 'turn off' once 'on'.

I was kind of afraid of that.
Maybe if we had her as a puppy we could’ve socialized her more but it’s probably just too late for that now.

:spock:

I'm sorry, but this is awful advice. First - this issue clearly isn't dominance within the household. Second - Ceasar Milan is a cherry picker that looks great because he can train dogs which were raised by absolute Fing reeruns.

If you take a dog with a true chemical issue or legitimately ingrained hostility and try that alpha roll bullshit, you'll end up with an extremely dangerous animal on your hands. You're likely to have a dog that now sees itself in competition with humans rather than just dogs. Or you'll end up with a standoffish dog determined not to slip any further in the pecking order. Sure, he may see you as the dude that can whup him, but maybe not that 7 year old next door. I cannot recommend strongly enough against that thing (and Milan in general).

My recommendation, though frowned on by some, has always been an adjustable shock collar. You'll need one with variable settings and never use more than is absolutely necessary to resolve a situation. You will also need to train the dog on just exactly what it means. I know a guy that got one, slapped it on his dog and proceeded to blast the hell out of the thing anytime it did something wrong. Well the poor dog didn't know what the shock was, where it was coming from or what it signified. All that did was create a nervous animal.

You need to put him in a controlled situation with a 'benign' distraction (like a child with a dog treat or something). Put a long check-cord on him and let him go towards the distraction. Tell him to come, invariably he will not and then you'll activate the shock collar while pulling on the check-cord. As soon as he breaks from the distraction and starts coming back like you said, release the charge. It won't take him long to realize that the shock means that he needs to stop what he's doing and listen for your command. In time you can dial the shock down to where it's just a chirp and no real juice.

The nice thing about the variable power, however, is that if he's in a real mess and won't listen, the option of incapacitating him is always there. I've never needed it, but it's an option worth having. Just remember, to the man with a hammer, the world looks like a nail. Don't go overboard with the juice on those things, it's not designed to hurt but to re-focus.

After a few of those situations arise, the dog will realize that it's the aggression towards other animals that's getting him the shock and if you're discreet enough with the remote, he'll never associate the pain with you, simply the commands. Anytime you're in a situation where he may see another dog, have the collar on him and ready to rock. In time you may be able to wean him off it. If you can't, c'est la vie, but it's still an effective tool for managing the situation even if it can't fully eliminate it.

Dogs are strange. They have very specific ideas about things, a lot of it ingrained. A friend of my dad's had a dog, some sort of Shepherd/Husky mix, I think. They got him as a puppy, when they had an older cat. That cat ruled over that puppy, even though he was bigger than her.

The puppy grew up into a very large and ornery dog. The thing's head was huge. It would growl at everyone. God forbid it got out, it would fight with any other dog and kick it's ass soundly. And as much as it hated other dogs, it seemed to hate cats even more. If it came across one, it was all over. Basically, any other living thing it could get at, it would rip to shreds.

And yet, even after going out and fighting with other dogs and literally killing cats if it could find any, this killing machine would go home, and there was the old cat, now almost 20 and barely stable on it's paws. And this giant dog would love that cat, and cuddle with it and lick it and protect it, and if anyone went near that cat he'd growl at them and eyeball them. It never associated the thing in the house with the things outside. That old cat finally died, and that dog moped for weeks.

Cesar Milan knows what he is talking about. I recommend watching a few episodes of the Dog Whisperer. Seriously, download them or whatever you need to do. Ignore what some of his detractors say. He just doesn't follow the typical dog trainer ways. But he has also rehabbed many a dangerous dog into calm and balanced dogs where a lot of other so called experts would just have given up and had the dog put down.

Monks of New Skete books, read them, re-read em.

I'd be interested to see the Cesar failures, and you know there's a bunch of them.

+1.

****ing Mike Vick could look competent given the right editing crew.

radar, how 'on' is your dog? jump out the window when it sees fur 'on'? or saddle up next to another dog, show some hackles and teeth waitin for a submissive position 'on'?

No doubt about that. The guys is good at what he does, but there is now way in hell he nails it 100% of the time, no way.

Ironically, his last failing was same day I was last wrong about an argument.

About 9 years ago, as I recall.

That's pretty close.
I mounted an eyebolt in the bed of my truck with a leash that keeps her in the bed but as soon as she’s loose around another dog she’s got her hackles up looking to dominate.
A fishing buddy has a huge yellow lab/German Sheppard mix she didn’t dominate but he’s about the only one, and honestly she was working on wearing him out, keeping him moving by circling and nipping at his backside, when I took her home.

I'm surprised it took even that long before someone made a Vick reference.

Um, that was mostly a joke. I am guessing by all the previous Radar posts that he already knew about pack behavior. Let me be less subtle. Put a bunch of peanut butter on your nuts. Dog wont want to fight. You wont hate dog so much.

pfffff, i dont know man. you can cut your loss and cull the dog or get those parting sticks(make your own outta hammer handles).keep one at the house & one in the truck.
You MAY be able to break her w/ a shock collar but it will never be a 100% guarantee. This is a known willful breed, hardheaded as they come by all accounts ive heard/read.
Me i wouldnt give up on her and give her the benefit of the doubt(being as young as she is), unless she gets over the top wild or shows any kind of latent human aggresion. If she starts to get people mean (and they are known to be man biters) id cull her with a hard heart and move on.

And if the dog does want to fight, he's gonna play rope-tug with your nads. No thanks, I think you're safer with The Stranger. Or a cat, maybe. They have those nice rough little tongues. So I've heard. :rolleyes:

Agreed.

People aggressive - "If it bites, say goodnight"

There are too many good dogs that get put down in shelters every day to waste your effort on a dog that's one more slip from massive legal liability (the 'one bite' rule isn't exactly good law anymore, but most courts still follow some reasonable facsimile of it). That's a loose cannon that you'll just never feel comfortable around.

Remote controlled shock collar and a stick.

Yea, everything I’ve read about them indicates they’re aggressive bread. I guess they’re often used to herd feral cattle and pigs, even used in three dog teams to hunt wild boar.
For the most part she hasn’t seriously hurt another dog but I’d like to calm her down, if I can, before she does.
I was worried when she drew blood on Gearhead Wrenching buddies blood hound. That would almost end a friendship if she had hobbled his dog.
Anyway, like you say she’s still young and I’ve actually had good luck so far with a link training collar and a retractable leash. Just a short tug on the leash gets her attention quickly. She may just have to spend more time on the leash when we’re out, until she calms down some.

Absolutely. I can’t have a man bitter, particularly not with a 5 y.o. and all his little buddies that run around.

Has ANTIFREEZE been suggested?

Yea, you're a page late.

is she a licker? does she understand that 'no' is an absolute w/ no loophole? do you have a release command(like when you play fetch/tugtoys)?
Cajuns dont mess around w/ dogs. did you know the dog & bitch or breeder atoll?

Same thing. My parents just bought a german shepherd. He's still not even a year old yet, but he's curious and friendly and loyal to everyone in the family.

Funny part is our cat is about 14 years old. Big maine coon. Just likes to sit on the chair in the patio and look out the window all day and hang around humans. We brought the dog along to acquaint the two animals. She gave him a decent slap in the face upon first meeting and since then, he's deathly afraid of her even though she's 4 times as small as he is. The really great part is she's gotten used to him, so she'll want to go over and make friends and he'll run away like a scared bitch.

there's only one person i trust on here for dog advice, googlegoolge

Has anyone mentioned Prozac?

Look into getting a remote control shock collar.

http://www.pet-super-store.com/pet-s...ining-collars/

They also work great on your wife.

Ceaser would say that the problem is in the owner. You probably show compassion to it by petting it after its been in a fight. You can't show compassion before you give discipline or you'll create what you see. Before you take it to other dogs take it out on a work out to where she's used all her energy and you're able to get it down to a calm submissive state then introduce it to the rest of the dogs. Be the pack leader.

Yes. I put up with it to an extent.

Absolutely. She's actually a bit timid towards me, I have to be careful with how harsh I am correcting her or she'll hide from me. I'm pretty sure she was beat before we got her.

Good point, I need to work on that. Mostly our play time is getting out to let her run or playing fetch with a tennis ball. To get her to release the ball I just stick a finger in her mouth and pull the ball out.

No, actually. She and her brother were abandoned by the city dump then taken in by Castaways, a local charity that rescues dogs. We adopted her from them.
At the time we asked about her brother but they wanted to separate the two because she was dominating him.

Watch this:

<img src=http://www.simplenomics.com/wp-images/dogwhisperer.jpg>

Then poke the shit out of the thing. It'll eventually submit. I've seen over 3 episodes of this show. It works every time.

ROFLROFL

Tazer...

Are you sure your dog is a she? :)
It happens I guess, but I've really never been around a really aggressive dog that's female. So I really have no idea how to work on that with her. And I sure as hell wouldn't mount the dog. :spock:
It's a good thing you have her though. She would of never make it to adoption in a pound.

Uh, no. She spent the rest of the night in her pen, or at least until GHW buddy and his bloodhound went home. I put that one off to the excitement, we were having a Halloween party with bunches of people milling around.
After she attacked Contractor buddies German short hair she spent the rest of the afternoon tied up in the bed of my truck and she attacked him after I had taken her for a long run. I was on an ATV and she followed me everywhere, including a couple of paths where we stretched her legs a bit. I was impressed that she can actually run 25 mph for quite a ways and not be completely gassed when we stop.
Thing is otherwise she’s a fantastic dog. Doesn’t jump on anyone, doesn’t knock kids down and is actually very careful around kids. Doesn’t make much noise, we had her for almost two weeks before I heard her bark for the first time. Doesn’t run off if I let her loose, she’s very good about sticking around and coming when I call her.
I’m very happy with her, except around other dogs.
So moving forward I think my plan of attack here is to just keep her on a leash and link collar around other dogs. That gives me a quick way to redirect her attention and keeps me aware of what she’s doing. Sound reasonable?

sounds like you got a banger use caution. FIRM BUT FAIR.
hope you two make a good run at it.

Makes sense, I’ll work on it.

Yea, I’ve been doing the foot stomp with a sharp “NO!”
When we got her she had scars all over her head. The vet put it off to puppies in a big litter fighting for food but I think there may be more to it.
One day she was just milling around next to Mrs. Radar and when Mrs. Radar put her hands up to fix her hair Rhetta dropped to the ground and started shaking. I’m pretty sure she was beat on before we got her.

The way I’ve always trained my bird dogs is to put my hand under their mouth and say “drop” while I give them a short chop to the back of the neck with the edge of my other hand. Not enough to be painful, just a short chop to cause the reflex of relaxing their jaw muscles. Keep working that and pretty soon they’ll drop a bird on command.
Problem is, when I did this to Rhetta she coward away from me and stopped playing fetch. I haven’t done it again.

I think we’ll be all right. I just need to learn to accept some of these character traits and not necessarily seek to stop it but maybe redirect it a little. She’s a different breed from anything I’ve had before so my learning curve is steep. Hell, I’d never even heard of a Catahoula until we got her.
Thanks for the help, MO. I appreciate it.

Radar, just try and break her of the lickin thing first. And please purchase all the books by the monks of new skete,and make/buy some parting sticks.
And i dont think she was beaten, sounds from you description that she has the 'shy dog' trait.
like we talked about shes just a youngin, i have more problems with dogs 18-36 months with behavior than any other time. Seems like between these ages they come into there own, just like people.