How to teach aggressive alert

[ladylaw203]

Originally Posted by LoveEcho;25551

The OP has said that teaching her dog to "speak" has done nothing. She wants to take it to the next step. Very experienced voices of reason (like Renee) are saying that if someone is so determined that they'll even ignore a barking dog, you're not helping yourself any by having the dog as a false sense of security. Also, OP wants to teach her dog to "lunge and snarl", and people who are well versed in protection training are saying from experience that it is not that easy and that in the hands of the inexperienced, you're going to end up with an insecure dog who doesn't know WHAT to lunge at, and what is and is not appropriate. Often in the hands of the inexperienced, you teach the dog to react that way out of fear, and saying that that is a bad idea is not judgmental. All totally valid advice, and the OP can listen or not.


[SIZE="1"

Also... someone with the tag "Don't Spay Pits", asking how to teach their dog to be aggressive on a police k9 section of the forum, getting everyone arguing and then disappearing... reeks slightly of trolling. Just saying. [/SIZE]

Yes. The other thing is that folks with no experience do not need to be attempting aggression training. Can wind up real quickly with a dog that is a liability

[Blanketback]

This is a true story: my last GSD went to work with me every day, and in the course of the day he's see about 2 dozen or more people. Some of them even brought treats along - he had it made, lol. Anyways, he would nap when nothing was going on. Every time I said, "Hi" to someone coming into my work area and he was woken up from his nap, he would bark. I think he didn't like the fact that I was the first one to notice them, lol, but hey "you snooze, you lose". So after a time he conditioned himself to bark every time I said the word "hi".

This was a funny joke, and I ended up greeting people with the oddest phrases and in different languages just so I could avoid having him shout "Woof!" and this even happened at home, when I was on the phone. I really had to watch what I said unless I wanted a bark, lol.

[Anthony8858]

For starters, I don't think anyone picked up on "spoiledmaltese.com". Is this a Maltese that you're trying to protection train? LOL

I'm assume the thread is a joke, but I'll play along.

I've been a martial artist for many years. My first advice would be for you NOT to expect your dog to protect you.
If your neighborhood is that bad, either move, or find some way to protect yourself. Take some self defense courses. Carry mace, and a whistle.
Learn how to strategically avoid the confrontation. Sounds like you have body language with a bullseye.

Just tonight, I was walking with Kira, and someone approached with their Pitbull, and asked if I wanted Kira to play with her Pit. Not being a fan of having Kira play with strange dogs, I asked if they would step back because Kira was not the friendliest dog in the area. We ended up having a brief conversation from 20 feet away.