Hi all
My dog is 20 month old, 90lb pure bred male GSD (not neutered). I did some training for him earlier when he was a puppy, but not much after her got age 6-7 month, me and my ex boyfriend were together since he was 8 weeks, my ex was spoiling him over the weekends, I broke up with the BF 2 month back and two days later my sister came to my house in which the dog have not seen here in like 10 month, he blasted from the garage inside the house, chased her and bite her arm, we had to take her to urgent care and she got 2 stitches and luckily animal control was not called.
I immediately started to look for solutions and contacted several trainers here in LA and was referred to someone like 30 mile away in which they were very recommended, I signed him up on same day for 3 weeks boot camp (around $3500) and he stayed there for 3 weeks and I would go there every 4-5 days to get trained with him as well, they trained him good on obedience like sit, down, place, come, heel ... and since I brought him home 2 weeks I have been doing what they trained me to do with food of course.
Chase have a dog walker since he was 6 month old, he comes every day walk him for 30 min, sometimes twice a day while I'm at work except the weekends. Yesterday I was playing a ball catch with him in the backyard just before the dog walker time to come in as he seemed bored and I wanted to exercise him and I was home anyway, the dog walker showed up in the backyard like that I did not hear him coming and Chase went to him barking and was on high alert, then he was happy and the dog walker played a bit with him and took out for a walk. Today again I was staying home sitting room when dog walker opened the door (he has a key) and chase was happy to see him, the dog walker got in the kitchen to get the leash and came close to Chase food plate which was on the floor and chase started to growl at him, I immediately got up and said NO NO and tried to hold his pinch collar to correct him the way how's the trainers taught me but Chase just snapped and looked like he wanted to bite me then dog walker started to stop him by holding his collar and he just was mad and bite him on his hand, we pushed him back in the yard, closed the door and rushed the walker to the urgent care, he got few stitches on his hand and the dr gave him med, he didn't fill out the animal control papers.
I called the trainers at the boot camp and they told me not to call the animal control and they will give him more training but seemed to want to make more money, I then called another trainer who initially didn't agree to take him before I sign up to the bootcamp because the dog was not fixed. He was nice and promised to called the bootcamp people so they give me more free training, I then took him to the vet to check him out to roll out any issue causing this aggression, signed him up to be neutered next week and I asked the vet to give me some med to calm him down until next week and they advised me to call a behaviorist they know.
My dog is very sweet boy however he is full of energy alpha male, when I walk him outside he is always on major alert, he looks around and is very alerted to every single person or dog walk by, he used to bark at other dogs but the training fixed this problem a lot but he still kind of like: I'm in control, I'm the master type of attitude that he always in! I'm working on showing him that I'm the one who control everything and he needs to respect and listen, I have been training him all day long like sit, down, NO, stay ...
I'm very upset, I love him so much, I don't want him to hurt anyone else, I don't want them to put him down, I feel very bad, I don't know what went wrong and I have been crying all day, this is costing me so much money and I'm not sure if the below plans will work or should I make the decision that Chase is just aggressive and he wont be a normal dog and do something about it?
Here is the plan:
1- He is on some calming med now until next week, he usually sleep in my bedroom but I'm going to keep him out of the bedroom from now on and lock the door, as I don't want him to snap at me while I'm sleeping!
2- neuter him next week and I hope after 2-4 weeks this would calm him down? is it too late? have anyone here neutered his/her male GSD and saw improvements?
3- Go see the behaviorist as soon as he passes his post op time, may be a week or two
4- take him back to the bootcamp trainers or go to a different one here in LA? what else would they train him for?
Chase is very protective and I'm very concerned that is not seeing a difference between a stranger that showing sign to hurt me or family/ dog walker ..., is there any hope for him, please enlighten me, give me everything you have learned that helped your dogs, I don't want to give up on him but again I have responsibility here and I need to be realistic if a dog bite twice in a month and half period, then what are his chances of ever changing that? how does anyone can make a heart breaking decision to let him go because such dog is just a dominant alpha police line type of GSD as per boot camp trainers!
Please please help me, if you love your dog and have any advise to help me and Chase I would be forever grateful for you for spending the time to just type me an answer.
I'm willing to spend more on training and on the behaviorist and of course no more dog walker and I will do the walk/ jog with him.
They crated him at the boocamp but I have never crated him here, I guess I need to buy a huge crate .
Thanks
Linda
My dog is 20 month old, 90lb pure bred male GSD (not neutered). I did some training for him earlier when he was a puppy, but not much after her got age 6-7 month, me and my ex boyfriend were together since he was 8 weeks, my ex was spoiling him over the weekends, I broke up with the BF 2 month back and two days later my sister came to my house in which the dog have not seen here in like 10 month, he blasted from the garage inside the house, chased her and bite her arm, we had to take her to urgent care and she got 2 stitches and luckily animal control was not called.
I immediately started to look for solutions and contacted several trainers here in LA and was referred to someone like 30 mile away in which they were very recommended, I signed him up on same day for 3 weeks boot camp (around $3500) and he stayed there for 3 weeks and I would go there every 4-5 days to get trained with him as well, they trained him good on obedience like sit, down, place, come, heel ... and since I brought him home 2 weeks I have been doing what they trained me to do with food of course.
Chase have a dog walker since he was 6 month old, he comes every day walk him for 30 min, sometimes twice a day while I'm at work except the weekends. Yesterday I was playing a ball catch with him in the backyard just before the dog walker time to come in as he seemed bored and I wanted to exercise him and I was home anyway, the dog walker showed up in the backyard like that I did not hear him coming and Chase went to him barking and was on high alert, then he was happy and the dog walker played a bit with him and took out for a walk. Today again I was staying home sitting room when dog walker opened the door (he has a key) and chase was happy to see him, the dog walker got in the kitchen to get the leash and came close to Chase food plate which was on the floor and chase started to growl at him, I immediately got up and said NO NO and tried to hold his pinch collar to correct him the way how's the trainers taught me but Chase just snapped and looked like he wanted to bite me then dog walker started to stop him by holding his collar and he just was mad and bite him on his hand, we pushed him back in the yard, closed the door and rushed the walker to the urgent care, he got few stitches on his hand and the dr gave him med, he didn't fill out the animal control papers.
I called the trainers at the boot camp and they told me not to call the animal control and they will give him more training but seemed to want to make more money, I then called another trainer who initially didn't agree to take him before I sign up to the bootcamp because the dog was not fixed. He was nice and promised to called the bootcamp people so they give me more free training, I then took him to the vet to check him out to roll out any issue causing this aggression, signed him up to be neutered next week and I asked the vet to give me some med to calm him down until next week and they advised me to call a behaviorist they know.
My dog is very sweet boy however he is full of energy alpha male, when I walk him outside he is always on major alert, he looks around and is very alerted to every single person or dog walk by, he used to bark at other dogs but the training fixed this problem a lot but he still kind of like: I'm in control, I'm the master type of attitude that he always in! I'm working on showing him that I'm the one who control everything and he needs to respect and listen, I have been training him all day long like sit, down, NO, stay ...
I'm very upset, I love him so much, I don't want him to hurt anyone else, I don't want them to put him down, I feel very bad, I don't know what went wrong and I have been crying all day, this is costing me so much money and I'm not sure if the below plans will work or should I make the decision that Chase is just aggressive and he wont be a normal dog and do something about it?
Here is the plan:
1- He is on some calming med now until next week, he usually sleep in my bedroom but I'm going to keep him out of the bedroom from now on and lock the door, as I don't want him to snap at me while I'm sleeping!
2- neuter him next week and I hope after 2-4 weeks this would calm him down? is it too late? have anyone here neutered his/her male GSD and saw improvements?
3- Go see the behaviorist as soon as he passes his post op time, may be a week or two
4- take him back to the bootcamp trainers or go to a different one here in LA? what else would they train him for?
Chase is very protective and I'm very concerned that is not seeing a difference between a stranger that showing sign to hurt me or family/ dog walker ..., is there any hope for him, please enlighten me, give me everything you have learned that helped your dogs, I don't want to give up on him but again I have responsibility here and I need to be realistic if a dog bite twice in a month and half period, then what are his chances of ever changing that? how does anyone can make a heart breaking decision to let him go because such dog is just a dominant alpha police line type of GSD as per boot camp trainers!
Please please help me, if you love your dog and have any advise to help me and Chase I would be forever grateful for you for spending the time to just type me an answer.
I'm willing to spend more on training and on the behaviorist and of course no more dog walker and I will do the walk/ jog with him.
They crated him at the boocamp but I have never crated him here, I guess I need to buy a huge crate .
Thanks
Linda