Dog extremely aggressive with people

Mr and Mrs Homes   Name: Lady   Breed: GSD   Age: 2 years old

History

Lady was owned by a single man, who worked all day, so Lady was left on her own for very long periods, sometimes inside and when the weather was better outside tied to the clothes line post on a long line.

Because of the location of the house and garden she was tormented by children going to and from school and barked most of the day, which upset a lot of the residence that made their views known to the owner.

On returning home from work Lady would bark with excitement, which was met with physical abuse from the owner to try to shut her up. This continued for some time witnessed by Mr and Mrs Homes who began to feel sorry for the dog and eventually persuaded the owner to allow them to have the dog.

With Mr and Mrs Homes, Lady could want for nothing, she was completely spoilt, constant attention from the new owners, toys, treat for free, slept in the bedroom. Lady became very territorial at home, chasing off passers-by and gave very aggressive displays whilst in the car if someone walked by.

During her territorial display in the garden Mr & Mrs Homes would rush out and shout at her to be quiet, which was compounding the behaviour.

It was reported that due to the type of interactions between Mr & Mrs Homes meant that Lady had been given signals that had raised her status within the pack to an unrealistic position, which did not suit her weak character, raising her anxiety levels as she tried to cope with the position had inadvertently been instilled upon her.

In consultation with Mr & Mrs Homes vet Lady was placed on medication, which would help with the behaviour modification programme and help to allow learning to take place.

Behaviour training

On arrival at my centre Lady was going ballistic in the back of the car and Mrs Homes was very anxious about getting her out whist I was there, so I agreed to go back inside until she was ready. I had already suggested that Lady was placed on a “basket” type muzzle, which would allow treats to be given. When Mrs Homes was ready she went out into my training field, which was secure and “safe” from other people and dogs and waited for me to arrive.

Mrs Homes, on my instruction held Lady on a long 30ft line so that if Lady wanted to remove herself from the situation she could, Mrs Homes was under instruction not to stop her.

As soon as Lady saw me she was up on her hind legs giving a very convincing aggressive display, Mrs Homes had a job to hold her.

Had she not been held Lady would have come straight for me and I was at that point well over 50-60ft from her

Over the next 4-5 week I carried a technique, which I have used successfully in the past, which is based on Classical Conditioning, in this case giving food in the company of people – me no matter what the behaviour in an attempt to change Lady’s perception of people – good things happen when people (me) was around, but it was not working, Lady would take to food from her owner but then fly back at me, and I was not able to get any closer to Lady or her owner.

Something was still getting in the way, stopping Lady from learning from her new experiences.

Before Mrs Homes next visit I had pre-prepared the training field by placing a dog spike in the ground and attached the 30ft line to that ready for there arrival.

I had Mrs Homes attach Lady to the line and withdraw from the field out of site. I then went into the field on my own – BINGO Lady showed no aggressive behaviour towards me at all, she slinked off to the end of he line.

Lady had been protecting and reacting to Mrs Homes nervous, anxious energy, now she had nothing to protect Lady was doing what she would have done naturally given her insecure character – to remove herself from the situation.

Over the next few weeks / months I gained Lady’s trust with lots of treats but allowing Lady to make all the moves, and introduced Mrs Homes into the equation. I had reached the point where I could run passed her, jump about in front of her, smooth her quite firmly without any aggression.

I then carried out the same process with other people, without Mrs Homes to start with but gradually building up the trust. We had 4-5 people involved with Mrs Homes with Lady now soliciting the interactions, approaching and each time given a treat.

I pointed out to Mrs Homes that Lady could never be trusted 100% and she would need to be continually vigilant around strangers.

During my last session with Mrs Homes and Lady we were able to walk Lady through a busy high street (muzzle on) on a Saturday, through people, dogs, shopping trollies etc. We were conscious throughout not to get Lady to over-whelmed. It was now a case of giving Lady as many positive interactions with people and the environment as possible to keep the progress going.

Mrs Homes was very please with Lady’s progress and had never thought that she would ever by able to walk her amongst people, let alone through a busy high street.