Not A Grey, But A Red Zone Dog

[vjui]

I am posting this on behalf of a friend's dog. This dog is not a greyhound, but a lab mix mutt adopted from a shelter. She was apparently a bounceback. Yesterday I witnessed extreme uncontrolled aggression toward another sweet, timid, half blind dog. If the owner ( my friend) hadnt had a good hold on her, her dog would have attacked this poor sweet thing. I want to help my friend. What do you guys suggest? How does one find a trainer experienced at this kind of thing?

[Walliered]

See if a basket muzzle will fit on the lab. If it does, that would be a quick fix and then the owner could start working on slowly introducing her dog to others.

[smurfette]

You have to change the way you think to understand that behaviour. Dogs don't think in terms of sweet and poor thing. What did that poor thing do? I know a half blind dog which always stares at other dogs trying to focus on what is it that they are going to meet. All the other dogs think this one is extremely rude for staring at them and would often launch into attack mode - even if this nearly blind dog is as sweet and friendly as they can be.

 

What experiences does the lab have with other dogs? My Andy can't stand unknown dogs after one came to him and bit him in the head - from out of nowhere. His new mode of approaching is to show that he is a dangerous dog and not to mess with him. You would think he tried to kill the other dog. He needs time to learn that the new dog is no danger to him. Once he gets that he is friendly and quite social.

 

You see, there is no easy answer to your question. You have to watch the dogs' interaction and try to understand what happens there from a dog's view.

[GeorgeofNE]

I'm assuming you're from Australia, as there is no such thing as a "red zone dog" here in the US.

 

My guess is that dog landed in the shelter for the exact behavior you saw, and unless your friend is an experienced dog owner willing to work with it, she's might be best off taking it back. That might seem like a cop out, but

"extreme aggression" is not something to be taken lightly. It would be that there is something actually wrong with the dog, and given that your friend now KNOW the dog is aggressive, her options are 1) keep it away from all other dogs all the time, or 2) get professional help and hope there is a solution. But if she JUST got the dog, she is probably not terribly attached to it, and unless she is prepared for a project dog (and to pay for any injuries the dog might inflict), she might be best off returning the poor thing.

[Guest Jordan33]

I agree with Smurfette. From what I've been reading lately, that makes perfect sense.

 

Your friend needs to read books like Patricia McConnell's The Other End of the Leash, Bones Would Rain From the Sky by Suzane Clothier, And even Be The Pack Leader by Cesar Milan.

 

The first two talk about handling "aggressive" dogs, and Cesar's talks about the energy you, the owner, are sending your dog and how your dog is reading your body language and emotions, which the others also talk about.

 

There is always something you can do to help a dog that is acting out! you just need to make time to understand the dog.

 

I would also recommend checking out other forum posts here as I know something similar was discussed somewhat recently.