do you ever 'pass' dogs w/aggressive histories?
just wondering what other people think....
....teagan does need more work, but she is night and day from when i got her in terms of her aggression. i'm really proud of how well she's done and her ability to learn and meet my expectations, even when i think she would beg to differ from them at times
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i'm just wondering though - she has improved, and is a different dog from the one i adopted.
but i still largely (other than a move to a martingale collar from the prong....whoo!) treat her like she is more aggressive than her current behaviour is. this sometimes confuses people who meet her b/c i maintain tight control over her, and they are seeing what appears to be a well-behaved dog (our biggest issue right now is she is overly excited by certain people visiting....so we are working to make them very boring to her).
i prefer to do this b/c i'd rather have her meet tighter restrictions and have nothing bad happen than give and have her attack someone/something. not recently, but when she first started improving and i gave her more freedoms, it was problematic - she would take those opportunities to behave in a way i highly disapproved of.
perhaps that is just a sign i haven't changed her behaviour as much as i think.
but i'm curious - for other people whose dogs have/had aggression issues, have you, or will you, ever give them greater freedoms and treat them like non-aggressive dogs? i'm just wondering to what extent dogs w/histories should be able to earn greater trust.
....teagan does need more work, but she is night and day from when i got her in terms of her aggression. i'm really proud of how well she's done and her ability to learn and meet my expectations, even when i think she would beg to differ from them at times
i'm just wondering though - she has improved, and is a different dog from the one i adopted.
but i still largely (other than a move to a martingale collar from the prong....whoo!) treat her like she is more aggressive than her current behaviour is. this sometimes confuses people who meet her b/c i maintain tight control over her, and they are seeing what appears to be a well-behaved dog (our biggest issue right now is she is overly excited by certain people visiting....so we are working to make them very boring to her).
i prefer to do this b/c i'd rather have her meet tighter restrictions and have nothing bad happen than give and have her attack someone/something. not recently, but when she first started improving and i gave her more freedoms, it was problematic - she would take those opportunities to behave in a way i highly disapproved of.
perhaps that is just a sign i haven't changed her behaviour as much as i think.
but i'm curious - for other people whose dogs have/had aggression issues, have you, or will you, ever give them greater freedoms and treat them like non-aggressive dogs? i'm just wondering to what extent dogs w/histories should be able to earn greater trust.
