pit bull, dog aggression, and obsession with ball???

ORIGINAL: Chuffy

and as far as putting a muzzle on a dog goes, most professionals do this to stop injury to either the dog or anyone else. Introducing it slowly isn't always an option.

Usually owners can avoid the stimulus while they muzzle train the dog. I can't think of any cases off the top of my head where it would not be possible to introduce the muzzle slowly. I'm sure there are a few, but I doubt there are many.

Has no one seen the show ref'd in the OP? The one with rocks sounds completely different. Espencer where are you dammit????

Exactly.
I want to know because I believe I saw the rocks episode when I actually DID have the NG channel. Wasn't the owner a new wave looking girl?
I'm talking about a fairly new episode.

ORIGINAL: Chuffy

  I can't think of any cases off the top of my head where it would not be possible to introduce the muzzle slowly.  I'm sure there are a few, but I doubt there are many.

With working dogs it's introduced like any other equipment, and in those situations it can be done slowly. Now slowly for somedogs can be as few as putting it on them three times, and then they're fine.

ORIGINAL: chewbecca

 we are to NEVER flush "poopy" down the toilet in front of our children when we are potty training

My mom must have missed that one, too. []  Thankfully, it did no permanent damage.  I am housetrained, and also learned to flush the john before I hit my 25th birthday... [sm=rofl.gif]
We do have a tendency to take some things just a tad too seriously, dontcha think?

Life is "Trial And Error".............we can learn from our mistakes.[]

But I've had 2 people tell me about a pit bull on a recent show that had an obsession with a ball or toy and the owner would bring her dog to work and it would be aggressive with the other dogs.

CM came in and took away the ball/toy and also started muzzling the dog.

I think that was the episode where Cesar went to the Paul Frank company and worked with various emplyee's dogs. The pit in question was no longer allowed to come to work with the owner due to aggression with other dogs. When Cesar visited the dog at it's home, he noticed that it was obsessed with a black kong. I don't recall him ever muzzling the dog. He took it to his Center and worked with the dog and the owner. The dog seemed to do extremely well with his pack - so he worked mostly on the owner. Then he worked on the dog's kong obsession by only letting him have it when he was calm and would not let him have it if he became too fixated. It did seem to me that the owner was very nervous around her dog. Then he took them both back to work and helped everyone in the company learn how to spot problems before they got out of hand and how to introduce dogs calmly. I'm honestly not sure where the muzzle came in. Maybe with another dog in the episode?

Chewbecca,
 
Your posted title also mentions dog aggression.  I would highly aggree that you find a trainer or behaviorlist and start to work with your dog.  IMHO, just throwing a muzzle on can't work and if there is any aggression you need a profession to help you through that.
 
Good luck
 
 

Wasn't the owner a new wave looking girl?

 
Yes, that was that episode!
 
Was the pit/ball/muzzle episode from this season or past?? 

I think Jen is right... the Paul Frank episode. I think he muzzled the dog briefly when he brought her back to the Paul Frank offices, just as a safety measure because he was reintroducing her to her coworkers' dogs (translation: avoid potential lawsuit! []).
 
Rebecca, my advice is... don't let other people make you second-guess yourself so much. I hate to hear someone throw their whole relationship with their dog into doubt just because of something someone else saw on a TV show!

ORIGINAL: chewbecca

Also, I wanted to comment that sometimes I feel like a bad, or unsure dog owner.

 
You are not a bad owner and the prove is that you are here asking for help, being unsure can actually make you not being as successful as you would like if you do it by yourself, the dog feels that you are unsure of what you are asking him to do and if his obsession is to much he wont listen
 
Yes i have seen the rocks episode, i have seen another one when the dog was obsessed with a laser light, i have seen other kind of episodes with aggressive obsession (which is not your case)
 
It seems that your dog loves to play tug of war, which is not wrong at all, the bad part is that he wants to play every single time so he is kind of obsessive and thats not an stable state of mind
 
Is true that play time needs to be at the time you want not him
 
What did he do with the rock obsession? well he grabbed the rock and if the dog wanted to grab the rock he was giving a correction, he was letting the dog know that the rock belongs to him and not to the dog, after a while (for sure not more than 2 hours) CM was able to have a rock in front of him without the dog touching it, of corse that didnt mean the dog was "cured" already but it was a good signal that it was working
 
The dog has to learn that the ball belongs to you and only when you want you share the ball to play
 
You can start by just putting the ball away where he cant reach it, only when you want to play you go for it and share the ball, of course i'm sure that once he has it in his mouth again he wont let it go but at least he wont be grabbing the ball every single time somebody looks at him
 
It would be really really hard to do the right technique for this case by just reading it in a forum, even more if you say you are sometimes unsure, when you do it you have to be confident on it to be 100% sucessful
 
You can reverse that behavior for sure, no question about it, but yes, you are going to need a professional behaviorist for that []

ORIGINAL: chewbecca

Also, I wanted to comment that sometimes I feel like a bad, or unsure dog owner.

 
Please try not to be unsure of yourself - as espencer pointed out the dog is bound to pick up on this.  Cherry pick from various trainers and books methods you like and put them together in a way that you think will work for Ella that you feel comfortable with.  Keep it as simple as you can, and just a put a few rules in place for yourself and even less in place for Ella. 
 

Is true that play time needs to be at the time you want not him

 
I'm terrible for over analyzing and I think sometimes it gets in the way of just enjoying owning a dog, so this is what I do.  You'll notice that most of the time, your dog doesn't engage in any fascinating behaviour.  Packs are the same - mostly they just chill out together.  Pick out key moments of the day which are significant to the dog.  Read his behaviour and act accordingly at those times, depending on what you've learned from past experience and reading up etc.  The rest of the time, don't worry about what a particular behaviour means.  Just enjoy her for herself.  That's my advice.
 
For example, its not always a bad thing to engage in play if a dog instigates it.  You should be fascinating and motivating for the dog, that's tough to achieve if he sees you as boring and not worth checking out to see if you are willing to play or interact.  If they are being pushy or hyper, sure you don't want to reward that behaviour.  For dogs with a particularly pushy nature, it might be a good rule to apply all the time.  For me, I am applying that rule because I want the dogs to realise I'm off limits and not to bother me unless I call for them because I think that will make life easier when I have a baby to take care of.  I do want them to think I'm a bit boring to be honest and be content to play by themselves in those early weeks because I can't even guess how much of an upheaval its going to be for me let alone them.

ORIGINAL: luvmyswissy

Chewbecca,

Your posted title also mentions dog aggression. I would highly aggree that you find a trainer or behaviorlist and start to work with your dog. IMHO, just throwing a muzzle on can't work and if there is any aggression you need a profession to help you through that.

Good luck

I mention dog aggression in my post title because that's what I was led to believe was one of the problems with this dog on the show. But, yes, Ella has some other dog issues that we are working with her on with our trainer/behaviorist. We are VERY slowly introducing Ella to my trainer's GSD. Every session, for half of the session, we do an introduction. That means, the trainer brings her dog in and walks to the other end of the room and gets her dog into a down stay. We work with Ella on focusing on us and NOT on the other dog. Whenever she looks at the GSD we say, "leave it" and when she looks at us we treat. Once Ella is focusing on us and is doing well, the trainer walks her dog a little closer. We do this for about half an hour with Ella displaying signs she's becoming more comfortable/tolerant of the other dog being around her. This is done on leash. And even when we DO do muzzle work during the sessions, I'm POSITIVE it will start out on leash and if Ella just seems to be aggressive to the trainer's dog, no off leash intro will be done. We're not even to the point of allowing any sniffing of eachother to occur yet. It's being done VERY slowly.
This is not only working on Ella being around other dogs, but it's building up our confidence as her owners to know that we have control over her even when she IS around other dogs. Because coming across other dogs on our walks scares the crap out of me. Not so much that the other dog would attack Ella, but if provoked Ella might attack. And I have to know that I have control of my dog and not panic and get scared and tense up the leash. I have to calmly get her attention on me and if that means standing between her and another dog, so be it. I want her to know that even if we are around other dogs, it's ok, she'll be OK because WE'RE in control, she doesn't have to be. She just has to comply with what we want for now and we'll take care of the other dog.

ORIGINAL: jones

I think Jen is right... the Paul Frank episode. I think he muzzled the dog briefly when he brought her back to the Paul Frank offices, just as a safety measure because he was reintroducing her to her coworkers' dogs (translation: avoid potential lawsuit! []).

Rebecca, my advice is... don't let other people make you second-guess yourself so much. I hate to hear someone throw their whole relationship with their dog into doubt just because of something someone else saw on a TV show!

no, no, wait.
I get doubtful on stuff like muzzling. I will continue to work with Ella as I have been. She's doing quite well as am I. But I know my dog is not very confident and that plays into her issues with other dogs (if not causes them completely) and I'm just afraid that if I force her into a muzzle, that's going to freak her out even more than she already is around dogs and then causing her selectiveness to become aggression.

Please please please ask your behaviorist about your concerns with the ball and don't take any advice, nor action until you do so.

 It sounds like  your trainer  has her stuff down.

 

ORIGINAL: chewbecca


I mention dog aggression in my post title because that's what I was led to believe was one of the problems with this dog on the show. But, yes, Ella has some other dog issues that we are working with her on with our trainer/behaviorist. We are VERY slowly introducing Ella to my trainer's GSD. Every session, for half of the session, we do an introduction. That means, the trainer brings her dog in and walks to the other end of the room and gets her dog into a down stay. We work with Ella on focusing on us and NOT on the other dog. Whenever she looks at the GSD we say, "leave it" and when she looks at us we treat. Once Ella is focusing on us and is doing well, the trainer walks her dog a little closer. We do this for about half an hour with Ella displaying signs she's becoming more comfortable/tolerant of the other dog being around her. This is done on leash. And even when we DO do muzzle work during the sessions, I'm POSITIVE it will start out on leash and if Ella just seems to be aggressive to the trainer's dog, no off leash intro will be done. We're not even to the point of allowing any sniffing of eachother to occur yet. It's being done VERY slowly.
This is not only working on Ella being around other dogs, but it's building up our confidence as her owners to know that we have control over her even when she IS around other dogs. Because coming across other dogs on our walks scares the crap out of me. Not so much that the other dog would attack Ella, but if provoked Ella might attack. And I have to know that I have control of my dog and not panic and get scared and tense up the leash. I have to calmly get her attention on me and if that means standing between her and another dog, so be it. I want her to know that even if we are around other dogs, it's ok, she'll be OK because WE'RE in control, she doesn't have to be. She just has to comply with what we want for now and we'll take care of the other dog.

I didn't realize you were working with a trainer already and only seeking the CM info from his show.
 
Well..   good luck.  I am so fortunate - my dog is so...............  overely dog friendly  and large that owners get afraid before the dogs and his only obsessions are food, kisses and at times my cat[].

I will continue to work with Ella as I have been. She's doing quite well as am I.

 
I think by how you described your training sessions that it is going very well!  Keep up the good work!