Dutch Shepherd Forum

Hi! I rescued Zelda, my Dutch, from a shelter in September... and picked up a husky who she was friends with as well. Thor and Zelda are the best of friends, it took her some time, and it seems she never was socialized. She has aggression towards other dogs, but when no other dogs besides Thor are around, she is the best dog in the world. She is bright, intelligent, trained, and I would love some ideas on how to work with her aggression. I bring her to the dog park, musseled, to get her used to being around other dogs. Any suggestions?

zelda89 wrote:Hi! I rescued Zelda, my Dutch, from a shelter in September... and picked up a husky who she was friends with as well. Thor and Zelda are the best of friends, it took her some time, and it seems she never was socialized. She has aggression towards other dogs, but when no other dogs besides Thor are around, she is the best dog in the world. She is bright, intelligent, trained, and I would love some ideas on how to work with her aggression. I bring her to the dog park, musseled, to get her used to being around other dogs. Any suggestions?

Can you start a new thread with this topic. It'll make it much easier for us to respond and keep your responses separate from those intended for Mykal.

Stephanie,

Thank you for the suggestion.

Zelda's owner - thank you for saving a life I started your own thread to introduce you to the forum. Please post with any other information if you would like. Also, please take a moment and visit the User Control Panel and create a signature for yourself that includes your name.

We are so happy to have you hear. (Oh, and the other members are crazy for pictures )

that is so great you took both of them! Dont get me started on dog parks, I hate them.

Welcome to the forum!

I would work more with trusted dog friendly dogs than randoms at the dog park. Like Lisa said, there are many reasons not to like dog parks. To be fair to other dog owners that still take the risks of using a dog park, I wouldn't take a muzzled dog their in case it fires up any of the non-muzzled dogs.

Have you worked with a trainer at all to locate the reasons for aggression? It could be simply leash frustration. If you notice it a lot around small dogs, it could be your Dutch's high prey drive.

What's your goal with your dog being dog friendly? Do you want to take her dog parks, or do you just want to eliminate reactivity when you walk by another dog. You may never get a completely strange-dog-social pet out of certain Dutch Shepherds, or any breed for that matter, but you can train a dog to be neutral to other dogs.

I personally have a dog reactive dog out of a rescue. He was an owner surrender for that exact reason. While he's not 100% fool proof yet, he's been able to attend training classes, dog shows and walk through Petsmart without incident by being purely trained to focus on me, the handler, instead of the other dogs. He'll likely never be able to run around with any ole dog off the street, and there are still occasional resource guarding issues with a few dogs at my parents house, but teaching a dog to ignore other dogs is much more realistic than changing them into a social butterfly.

Welcome, and I agree that dog parks are not a good idea.
Lots of info here about shaping behavior. My feeling is that a muzzle only adds anxiety and doesn't help in forming better behavior. Read through some of the old posts and you'll find what suggestions have helped some of the other forum members.