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?
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.
We're well prepared to actually follow training plans following up. We've been consistent with our current one for 2 years. We're just looking for other options since his progress has stagnated, even though he has progressed a ton (like we can actually go to a park, and he will be happy and relaxed now). Not against negative training, we're only going off of what our current trainer tells us, which is "Since its fear based aggression, the best way to correct it is to use positive reinforcement so that he learns that people and other dogs are good things". Thanks for sharing your experience! I think we'll set up a consultation with this new trainer and see.