My dog is a fighter.

[Radar Chief]

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?

[alanm]

Originally Posted by Radar Chief

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.

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.
It's a good thing you have her though. She would of never make it to adoption in a pound.

[Radar Chief]

Originally Posted by badmajama

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.

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?

[MOhillbilly]

Originally Posted by Radar Chief

Yes. I put up with it to an extent.

put a stop to the licking. take her by the muzzle EVERY time she licks and tell he the 'NO' command. If she fights clamp down tighter. This does two things. Shows your ABSOLUTE DOMINANCE & disassociates the dogs lickmother for milk response.
pups lick the mothers face for milk, it actuall triggers a response in the mother hormones that drops her milk.
But once those milk teeth get sharp what happens? Mom puts a stop to the lickin by runnin them pups off. at this point (weening) you become mother.



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.

try the foot stomp w/ a no command. the vibration of the floor foot stomp really seems to work for me. I dont know how tight you and the dog are but she shouldnt be timid of you to the point that she hides. I know shes a handfull, shes a teenager, FIRM BUT FAIR.
remember those last 3 words always and shell come out of it in a year.

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.
i use 'drop' for a release command.




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.

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

[Radar Chief]

Originally Posted by MOhillbilly

put a stop to the licking. take her by the muzzle EVERY time she licks and tell he the 'NO' command. If she fights clamp down tighter. This does two things. Shows your ABSOLUTE DOMINANCE & disassociates the dogs lickmother for milk response.
pups lick the mothers face for milk, it actuall triggers a response in the mother hormones that drops her milk.
But once those milk teeth get sharp what happens? Mom puts a stop to the lickin by runnin them pups off. at this point (weening) you become mother.

Makes sense, I’ll work on it.

Originally Posted by MOhillbilly

try the foot stomp w/ a no command. the vibration of the floor foot stomp really seems to work for me. I dont know how tight you and the dog are but she shouldnt be timid of you to the point that she hides. I know shes a handfull, shes a teenager, FIRM BUT FAIR.
remember those last 3 words always and shell come out of it in a year.

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.

Originally Posted by MOhillbilly

i use 'drop' for a release command.

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.

Originally Posted by MOhillbilly

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

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.

[MOhillbilly]

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.