We have a friend who adopted a dog a few years ago, in a not very good condition. Poor Tyrone, he is such a beautiful boy, Boxer/Pit mix, a stunning-looking animal, the most loving, affectionate sweetie you ever knew - our friends have worked really hard with him, and he's VERY hard work, but they love him to bits. We were there last night and he climbed in my lap (all 35kg of him!) and licked my face until he went to sleep. Awww.
He is everything you could want in a dog, until he sees another dog. Then he turns into a snarling, growling, slavering Cujo with murder all over him - I've seen it happen once and it was the most terrifying thing. And he is SO strong, it's very, very frightening. Goodness knows what happened to him before he came to our friends to make him that way, they've done EVERYTHING - behaviourists, you name it, he just hates other dogs. His Mum can't walk him - he's too strong for her, so he goes out at midnight with his Dad every night - it's the only time he can be walked because there is little to no chance any other dogs will be out then. He is never, ever off-leash and always gets walked in back streets. Not very enjoyable for him or his Dad.
Now this is unless the other dog snaps back at him - if that happens, he gives it up. It's so bizarre - the only dog he plays with is their friend's Jack Russell, who won't put up with Tyrone having a go, and Tyrone follows him around like a puppy. So you can see he wants to play, he wants to socialise, but if he went for another dog and they submitted, he would kill them. Chester and Ruby would submit straight away, and so we can't allow him to be around them - the first sign of weakness and he's in for the jugular. It makes me certain that he was being trained to fight before he was rescued, and so I wonder if this is something that he can ever be helped with. Their vet told them not to bother, that he'd always be that way, but I don't agree - especially since he can hang out with a dog a tenth his size and not try to kill it.
I have offered to work with him, but it's tricky because behavioural aggression is not something I really do, and I don't want to make anything worse. I work more with puppies and families who are wanting to learn new techniques to train and understand their dogs. Aggression is most certainly going to be part of my business, but not until I have finished the course I am starting next year, which goes for 18 months.
There are many of you here with vast knowledge about this kind of thing, and I was wondering if, in your experience, you have come across dogs like this and how you treated them? For now I have given our friends the name of a wonderful behaviourist who specialises in aggression issues, but I would like to help, too.
He is everything you could want in a dog, until he sees another dog. Then he turns into a snarling, growling, slavering Cujo with murder all over him - I've seen it happen once and it was the most terrifying thing. And he is SO strong, it's very, very frightening. Goodness knows what happened to him before he came to our friends to make him that way, they've done EVERYTHING - behaviourists, you name it, he just hates other dogs. His Mum can't walk him - he's too strong for her, so he goes out at midnight with his Dad every night - it's the only time he can be walked because there is little to no chance any other dogs will be out then. He is never, ever off-leash and always gets walked in back streets. Not very enjoyable for him or his Dad.
Now this is unless the other dog snaps back at him - if that happens, he gives it up. It's so bizarre - the only dog he plays with is their friend's Jack Russell, who won't put up with Tyrone having a go, and Tyrone follows him around like a puppy. So you can see he wants to play, he wants to socialise, but if he went for another dog and they submitted, he would kill them. Chester and Ruby would submit straight away, and so we can't allow him to be around them - the first sign of weakness and he's in for the jugular. It makes me certain that he was being trained to fight before he was rescued, and so I wonder if this is something that he can ever be helped with. Their vet told them not to bother, that he'd always be that way, but I don't agree - especially since he can hang out with a dog a tenth his size and not try to kill it.
I have offered to work with him, but it's tricky because behavioural aggression is not something I really do, and I don't want to make anything worse. I work more with puppies and families who are wanting to learn new techniques to train and understand their dogs. Aggression is most certainly going to be part of my business, but not until I have finished the course I am starting next year, which goes for 18 months.
There are many of you here with vast knowledge about this kind of thing, and I was wondering if, in your experience, you have come across dogs like this and how you treated them? For now I have given our friends the name of a wonderful behaviourist who specialises in aggression issues, but I would like to help, too.
