Meet Kronk! We adopted him ~3 years ago, after being given up on by 2 other families. When we adopted him, it was clear he was never socialized and is very reactive to other dogs and some people (Specifically men, which makes me wonder what kind of life he had as a pup). We’ve been working with a specialized Vet and Trainer for 2 years now, and he’s on some anxiety meds. He’s improved quite a bit, but he’s also gotten quite protective of my wife. So while I can walk him with only small reactions, my wife cannot. He’s very reactive and is a bite risk when someone gets close. And since he’s a cutie black lab, everyone wants to get close to pet him even when he’s actively snapping at them since they’re “Good with dogs” 😑 Anyways, we found a place that does a 3 week board and train to work with aggression, but I’m not sure how effective they are. I don’t think he’s going to get much better with us, since we have to focus on safety instead of training. And since he’s been given up on twice, I don’t want him to think we’re abandoning him since its a long program. Does anyone have experience with these type of training programs?

  • circuscritic@lemmy.ca
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    6 months ago

    YouTube is full of trainers, many of them are horrible, but some are actually good and they’ll answer questions, or schedule web consults.

    Find a good one, and ask them.

    My suspicion is that any behavioral training that doesn’t involve you, and everyone else in your household, will be all for naught.

    Effective training might require some boarding for the trainer to get a handle on the issue, and then then working with his immediate handlers on how to solve the human part of his behavior equation.

    Get multiple opinions from different trainers, see if they overlap, and then move forward.

    Here’s one example of a good trainer with a YT channel:

    https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6vdCX3-G6oDGajvQFreLLA

    He also runs boarding, training, and web consults.

    But, please don’t just take my word on his credibility. I’m just someone who’s watched some of his videos, and liked what I saw, that’s it’s. I’m not a dog training expert, or a shill, so take my opinion for whatever you feel it’s worth, or don’t.

  • AA5B@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    We were in the same boat, but tried “boot camp” and they said they couldn’t help her. Points for honesty I guess.

    We’ve also had a rescue about three years. In some ways she’s very well trained, or she’s smart and cooperative. However she’d been a year at the shelter and been abandoned before that, so definitely not socialized. She has a scar on her snout that looks suspicious, and she reacted strongly against men. Basically I sat on the floor for two weeks tossing her treats before she would approach. Now she’s the most loving and protective dog to our family, she lets the cleaner in with a warning, is generally ok with people, and loves our neighbors. She is much improved.

    However we were never able to stop her from pulling when on leash, never stop her from being dog reactive, and people better not surprise her.

    The biggest thing she needs is that socialization, but reacts so strongly that no one is willing to risk their pet (nor I the liability). I hope it’s posturing since the couple times an off leash dog approached, it didn’t lead to anything, but she’s awfully aggressive with it

  • thebeardedpotato@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    My gf is a trainer who does board and trains and it’s quite effective but only if everyone at home with the dog follows instructions and the rules suggested for the dog.

    A dog will be great with us but will regress very quickly if the family doesn’t stick to the structure provided. And the new structure and rules are especially important once the dog is back home because when they go back home, they think they can go back to their old behaviors.

    And finally, if it’s a purely positive training, then it absolutely will not work for cases like this.

    A lot of purely positive are against “balance” training where we use tools like eCollars and prong collars and will correct the dog. They claim it’s abusive and conflate eCollars with shock collars (two very different things and you absolutely should be against shock collars). But on the flip side, they’re okay with putting down dogs like this.

    I could go on forever, but you really want a balanced trainer who is willing to use tools, but not one of those super macho trainers who borderline abuse dogs.

    eCollars, prong collars, kennel training and proper balanced training save dog (and possibly human) lives.

    Around 4 years ago we got a “problem” dog that’s worse than yours from a shelter and he’s been fine with the tools and the structure we put in place and he’s living a great life.

    So tldr: find the right trainer, follow the rules and you should be fine. But if you slip up with the structure and get loose with the rules, the dog can start regressing.

    • stoned_ape@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      A lot of purely positive are against “balance” training where we use tools like eCollars and prong collars

      Probably because science doesn’t support

      their

      use

      and

      documented

      their

      harm

      many

      times

      over

      But do go on with how anecdotally “they work and people just don’t use them right and all these are different things”

      I think most reasonable dog owners will stick with proven science-based training and their vet recommendations. Anecdotally my vet said they are horrible. I even asked another because I had a friend who swore by them at her training school. Anecdotally two vets said the same thing .

      Anecdotally one of that trainer’s personal dogs she used prongs and ecollars to train mauled a kid and another dog at her training school so now she’s getting sued

      Anecdotally, of course