A Boston Terriers Tale

In March I received a call from a man with two rescues. Both dogs had some behavioral problems that needed to be dealt with. But one of the dogs, a Boston terrier, was showing signs of severe aggression. The dog had just bitten two of his neighbor’s dogs, a boxer and a wire haired pointer, without provocation.

He had called Boston terrier rescue in a nearby state. The lady he talked to told him her rescue Boston had also been dog aggressive. She put the dog on doggy Prozac and suggested he do the same.

He did not want to medicate the problems, he wanted to fix them so he called me.

When we talked about the dogs there was a red flag on Moose, the Boston terrier. Moose was in his fifth home.

The more times a dog has been re-homed, the less chance there is of success. The reason is simple. A dog sees being moved not as a wonderful opportunity to start over, but as failure. The dog feels it has been kicked out of its pack. No matter how dysfunctional the pack is, it is the dog’s pack. When a dog goes from home to home without success, the dog can lose the ability to trust.

He came in with the dogs for an evaluation. Moose had a lot of aggression and was in really tough shape. But I saw two things that made me decide to work the dog. One there was just something about Moose that made me think he could come back. But more importantly I had an owner who did not want to give up on this dog and was going to apply the things I taught him.

Moose came in for his first private training session. It went well. He came back three weeks later for his second class. It was obvious that Dave had worked with him conscientiously and that Moose trusted Dave.

Then we moved him into my Neighborhood Pack sessions. This is where I can put your dog with other dogs and other people. I can find the triggers, show you how to recognize them, and give you the experience to deal with them.

At his first session Moose tried to start a fight with every other dog in the place. He was stopped before he got himself into trouble learning that Dave would not tolerate those behaviors and could now control him.

His second group Moose still wanted to go at with some of the dogs, but no longer had to challenge everyone. When his behavior was acceptable, Dave praised him. When it wasn’t Moose was corrected in a way he understood. Dave was becoming his pack leader, and you respect and obey the pack leader.

Each time Moose comes to group he improves.

There are still some hurdles for Moose to clear before we are done. He is fine with the neighboring boxer he bit, but the wire hair can trigger Moose by getting wound up. And due to being bullied by a Rottweiler when he was in another home he is still aggressive with Vino. But each time he comes in he is doing better.

Here is the e mail Dave sent me.

Doug,
Since you are a little better at analyzing dog posture, please take a look at the attached photo and tell me which dog is about to attack. To answer your question, yes the boxer is Angie and she has been bitten by Moose twice. One down and one to go. Buddy the Wired Hair Pointer, is next. If you remember one of our earlier conversations, the lady that runs (deleted) Boston Terrier Rescue suggested I put Moose on Prozac. Im sending this picture to her. Titled I dont need no stinkin Prozac. Just a good trainer and owner that doesnt give up.

Thanks Pikes Peak Manners in Minutes you help save my life.

Moose.

PS dad helped me type this

The picture at the top was attached to the e mail.

Doug

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Dont Tase me Bro

Last week I played phone tag with a gentleman about training his dog. I finally got in touch with him late that evening.

He has a rescue dog from breed rescue. I was really excited because the dog was of a breed that I had as a child. I really like that breed and have not had one in to train yet. I really want to work with that breed.

He told me they had already picked a trainer. I asked him if he minded telling me who he picked. There is one trainer in this town who is an out and out crook. I figured if he had picked this trainer I would do my best to talk him out of it.

He told me it was the chain that uses shock collars. I asked him if he understood what shock collars did. He said he did. I offered my standard free demonstration and asked him to reconsider using a system that gives an electric shock. I told him to read my blog about shock collars. He said he would and then call me the next day to arrange to come in.

He never called.

Losing client to someone else is no big deal. But this one really got to me. I figure if you go to the crook you get what you deserve. But I couldn’t get over why someone warned about what shock collars do would still chose that method.

I finally figured out why it bothered me so much.

I was one of the first deputies on my department to carry a Taser. When we first got them there were not enough of them for everyone to have one so they selected certain people to carry them from each shift. I believe the criteria was that you were known to be a $%*# magnet.

As part of the training you had to be hit with the Taser. I had spent more than one end of shift in the emergency room over the years. Plus I had both back and neck surgery. I understand pain. But when they turned it on, it was the most excruciating pain I have ever experienced. I would have bought the operator a car to turn it off. And I am talking a good car, like a Rolls.

Maybe we should require owners to get tased before they are allowed to use a shock collar.

Doug

PS. The dog in the picture was not shocked, but it was taught to trust.

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