Thursday, July 30, 2009

I have a pit bull mix who is extremely 'fearful aggressive', mainly towards dogs, but other animals as well.

Does anyone in the Portland area know a great dog trainer-rehabilitator along the lines of Cesar Milan?
Answers:
Ah, the typical pitbull. Scaredy cats!
My female is a fearful aggressive, bark at everything I don't understand type dog.
I just make sure I keep her on a leash when in public, I live in Alaska, so there's really no dog trainers or anything up here.
A "great" dog trainer along the lines of Cesar Millan? No such thing. Unless your definition of great is someone who can beat the snot out of my dog until it gives up and shuts down, and then call it good. Anyone who knows anything about dog body language will tell you that a large number of dogs Cesar calls "calm-submissive" are actually terrified, anxious, or completely stressed out, they are just too mentally exhausted to react any longer.
Cesar's methods may make you a leader and may make your dog behave, but do you want to rule through force and fear, or do you want to rule through mutual respect and love?
There are MANY dog trainers listed in your local yellow pages. I would suggest you contact them to see if any of them have experiences or specialize in one-on-one aggression cases, then ask to observe one of their sessions with another client.
Observe the trainer with another aggressive/fearful dog and see if you are comfortable with their methods. Hanging the dog by its collar until it stops fighting (or passes out if it's choked long enough!), pinning the dog to the ground or otherwise forcefully restraining it to force it into a situation it is not comfortable in, and explaining a dog completely enraged, terrified, and just out of its mind in "attack mode" as "part of it" are all things that Cesar does which I would NEVER allow done to my dog. There are much gentler, safer and more respectful methods available to help your dog.
Just because it's on TV and it gets results doesn't mean it's right.
Let your heart speak to you if you really love your dog. If you could watch your dog be goaded into a complete frenzy, no longer in his right mind, to where he would bite YOU without even knowing what he was doing if you got too close, watch him strung up by his neck choking and being expected to relax instead of fight harder because of it, and not feel sick about what you've allowed to happen, then you don't deserve that dog. Watch the trainers and find one who is effective but humane. They are out there.

No comments:

Post a Comment