I have begun to read this great book, Clicking to Calm: Healing the Aggressive Dog by Emma Parsons.
Cisco is a joyous and friendly aussie... for the most part. Lately he has started to show signs of leash aggression towards several dogs who exhibit the same behaviour towards him. For the 5 years that he has been with me, this behaviour would only occur with 2 dogs on our block. Then since winter, it escalated. I am not sure why the change but it only happens on our block... and no where else.
Of course I felt like a bad owner... what part did I play in all this? Then I found this book and I am now starting to feel hopeful.
The author shares her own experiences with owning a dog that became aggressive. Grounded in positive reinforcement, there are many clear exercises that she presents to desensistize and calm an aggressive dog.
I don't like to use a head halter with a herding dog as she suggests however I do use a martingale body harness and this is proving to be easy to handle and effective.
I'll be posting again with our results in the near future.
musings from a contemporary dog and his portraitist
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