Meeting w/ a behaviorist...

[Erica&Riley]

Hi all-

Its been a long time since I've posted but I need the help of my fellow boxer lovers once again!! A little history...Riley had a ridiculous amount of socialization when she was a pup - from the time she was 16 weeks old I had her at the dog park at least 5 days a week for a couple of hours at a time. During this time she got along famously with all the other dogs - both big and small...we never had ONE problem. She hurt her knee at about 8 months old (Oct 2004) and we had to stop our dog park visits. She was fully healed around April 2005 and by this time I had moved and was now having Riley play with a few of my friends' dogs (no problems w/ this) because there was no dog park in my area. On leash, Riley has never been great around other dogs - growling, barking, pulling to get at them, etc. I've been to obedience classes w/ her and it helped somewhat. This past weekend, I moved from an apartment where it was only Riley by ourselves, into a house (with a big backyard) that my friend owns. She has a dog as well (beagle) that is one of Riley's best playmates. My new roomie is a petsitter and often has other dogs come to stay at her house. Riley has always gotten along with all of them. This weekend Riley started picking fights with all of them - a few fights were over the food bowls (which was somewhat understandable) but a few were unprovoked and for no good reason. I know that our move is going to be a BIG adjustment for Riley as she has never lived with other dogs before. She is also going to have to get used to the fact that strange dogs may come to the house from time to time (which may be a HUGE issue as Riley doesn't often get along well with unfamiliar dogs).

I want to nip this problem in the bud and have contacted a behaviorist in my area. I am meeting with her this Wednesday night at her office.

I was looking to see if anyone had any general advice for moving Riley into a new household w/ other dogs present. What questions should I ask of the behaviorist? What are the standard fees? What type of training program should I expect? Any tips on working with a behaviorist would be GREATLY appreciated as I have never done this before and don't know what to expect.

THANKS!!!
Erica

 

[Jpep]

Just letting you know I'm with you on your mission, I have someone stopping by tomorrow, wait today actually 17 hours away. I don't know what to expect. All I know is that I have a great dog that deserves to play with others and I'm determined to make it happen. Mine was a rescued stray so I have no clue about socialization but will guess my girl had little to none. My initial visit is only costing $50, not sure if it's his standard rate because he knows I rescued her through a league hes is involved with. I'm excited though and will post back on this thread the outcome (if you don't mind me tagging along, ).

 

[Lola's mum]

It's refreshing to see that some people such as yourselves do try to sort this behaviour out. Some dogs we meet on our walks are so unfriendly to put it mildly but the owners just shrug their shoulders and couldn't give a hoot. One bloke actually said 'Sorry about him, he despises other dogs and tries to attack them' I felt like saying well do something about it then mate.

 

[Erica&Riley]

JPep-

Please let me know what your behaviorist said and I'll let you know what mine says when I meet with her tonight. Riley went off on one of her little friends again last night for no other reason that I could figure out other than he was sitting under my chair and she got jealous. I REALLY want to nip this problem in the bud so we can all live more peacefully and stress-free!!

 

[Jpep]

Well our meeting went really well. He's only charging me $150 (which includes the initial visit) for 2 more hour training sessions. I felt like I was on the Dog Whisperer, within 90 secs of having our dog out with his dog he had our dog sniffing his all over sniffing his gentils (the dogs not the guys). It was the first time we've ever seen Mercedes in 6 months behave with another dog. I did have some reservations when before we even went outside to meet his dog he asked if we ever used a choke chain or leader, I said when we first got her from shelter they sent us home with one but I didn't believe in using them, he said they can be a great training tool but I want you to be comfortable, I said it's not just my comfort but my dogs. As soon as he brought his dog out Mercedes went crazy as normal he had his dog lie belly up and proceeded to bring Mercedes near his dog as Mercedes went to make her trade mark lunge he pulled her back and made a noise like he was breathing in deeply then side NO. He made another step towards his dog (he was about 5ft away) and she tried to lunge again, he did the samething deep inhale and said a stern NO while pulling her back towards him. He stepped to his dog once again and Mercedes tried to jump on his dog this time he just made the deep inhale noise and Mercedes turned right around and looked at him with no voice command or pulling on leash. She looked at him and then he said ok now and he stepped closer to his dog so Mercedes could do what ever she wanted and she just sniffed and sniffed for 3-4 mins, me and the GF were like holy s#!t we couldn't believe it. Then we tried and everything was great. She tried to jump on his dog only a few times, and one time she did jump on his dogs back and start humping (which was embarrassing) but she stopped after a few seconds when none of us or his dog responded. Then her brought out his rottie mix, first dog was a yellow lab, we went through similar exercises everything went good. He basically said we need to be more stern with our dog. I told him what we sis with our other trainer and he didn't put her down but said some dogs need a little more discipline, positive reinforcement is great and the correct thing to fo when shes doing the right thing, but when shes doing the wrong thing just ignoring her is not enough of a deterant.
So after watching our dogs interact for the better part of an hour he concluded that our girl is not a monster around other dogs. Our girl never tried to bite just dominate other dogs because in her mind she thinks she is superior or more important than his and it all starts with the way we were treating her (which we knew and having be using the amichien bonding and NILF programs). He mentioned allowing her on furniture and so forth all stuff I already knew from all the reading I've been doing but basically knowing our dog can be around other dogs has taken away so much stress from me and GF. After the next 2 sessions we hope we can join his group advanced training classes at the end of September. 2 weeks he'll be coming back I know have to get my dog around as many other dogs as possible and practice. We met a beautiful dog, great dane named Tyla this morning, it took me about 2 mins to get my dog to sniff her calmly and it felt great, she finally met her first dog friend. Tylas owner and myself made a play date for this weekend in a fenced in play area, this lady seemed to know a ton about dogs (boxers too) and said we can let the dogs run for a few minutes to see if they can play together, I can't wait!!! E&R hope to hear your results.

oh also at the end of the session he admitted that my harness was working great (its a gentle leader easy walk) hopefully he'll recommend them in the future before other options.

 

[BXRBESTFRIND]

Looks like you got some great info and some GREAT results.

Good to hear Mercedes already has a play date.

Keep working on your behaviorist about the choke chains maybe you can teach him a thing or 2 haha

Just remember consistency is key So Keep Up the Good Work