Member Questions 7-05-26

Dakota

I have a rottweller how is two years old. I have him for two month, he is a rescue. He was very leach reactive but I was able to fix that at about 80%. He has been been improving every week. 5 days ago I gave him a beef knee bone and I check to see how he would be with me. He immediately growled and got aggresive towards me. I took away the bone. he got very mad and peed in the house. I gave him back the bone the next day and he was still agressive. From that point on I noticed that he does not follow commands well anymore. When I correct him with prong collar he tries to lightely bite my hand. Can I bring him back to respecting me again. He seems to be in control. I am carefull not to correct very hard anymore because i feel like he might try to really bit me.

Karen 

Do you have suggestions for getting through to the handler who is very "all business" assertive. She has a newly adopted young Golden, who shies and goes to the side of the handler with practicing/just learning recall! The owner has trouble when I suggest a high fun voice and to lighten up. !!!

Tommy A

 Last summer my malinois Mills had puppies. I am not the breeder but Mills have been living with me. This Saturday I got a phone call with a very sad message, one of the puppies ( one year old in a couple of weeks) Had killed a small but grown-up dog. She had bed left alone with 2 small dogs. She finished her first heats Circle a few weeks ago. Why someone would live the dogs alone this way is beyond me. I went to pick the dog up, she is now with me. I want to evaluate the dog for myself, I want to understand what went wrong. I have already seen a few red flags. I have had some dogs with real killer instincts before, huskies with a bit of wolf mixed in. The biggest red flag i can see is the lack of structure and respect. I like to think i know what to look for but your experience and input would be highly appreciated. I will make a longer post on this with more details and how i think.

Jasmin

 I'm currently using treats to train my border collie but I would love to train her using toys as well. At home, she likes to play tug but once we go outside, she loses interest in tug toys. If I pull out her ball toy, which is her favorite thing, she gets jacked up so it becomes very hard to train her, e.g. her position is not accurate, etc. What can I do so that I can train her using tug toy or even ball to train her outside like you do with your dogs? Thanks

Bruno

How do you feel of having a working dog let' say, for 12 years, and he's an only son... Now you want to introduce another dog into your life, and he's also going to be working dog. You live alone. The older dog is very balanced and he enjoys the extra attention. And now he might feel someone is getting the undivided attention and even feel he's underperforming in comparison to the younger dog…

Jasmine

I have one border collie and two cats. My border collie does well in her kennel when I put her away to take a break but once I start to play with the cats, she starts to whine and gets excited. Her kennel is in another room so I close the door and that seems to help a little bit but sometimes I still hear her whine a little. When I verbally correct her when she whines too much, she does stop but I wonder if she'll eventually get too excited in her kennel whenever I play with my cats. Can you please provide some advice on how to make her settle down in her kennel even when I play with the cats? The cats jump and run around when I play with them.

Jackson

Mr. Cabral, We just brought home our first malinois puppy about a week ago at 8 weeks old. We are working though your first 30 days with your puppy class and she's making incredible progress so far with crate training, potty training, meeting our other dog, and engagement with me. Our first obstacle we've hit is that she seems to be losing much of her confidence when we take her on walks through our small town. Her tail and ears drop and she tends to shut down quickly. It causes her to lose focus and be much less responsive to anything I say. Do you have any recommendations for how I can help her work through this and build her confidence?