BrianW
Active member
- Feb 17, 2013
- 220
- 49
- Country
- United States
- Bulldog(s) Names
- Brandi, Jackson, Ca$h, Daisey, Winford, Charlee, Darla, Mack, Babee, Ralphie & Stuart
I wanted to tell you about the successes and failures that we have been having with behavioral problems between two of our rescue dogs.
A little over a year ago, we adopted a seven year old female (Brandi), which had been through at least four different owners prior to us, the first two being puppy mills. Her last owners were a couple that was going through a very bad divorce, and the wife took out all of her angers for the husband on Brandi. She was a very sick dog when we got her, actually only being in the rescue for about a week before she came to us. Through all of what she went through in her life, Brandi is a mellow, good girl that really never had any issues with anything/anyone until just recently.
About three months ago, we received a call from our vet asking if we would be interested in adopting another dog. At the time we already had four others, but it was an English bulldog and she really needed someoneās help. I really do not what to even think what would have happened to her, if we would not have adopted her. Daisey came to us as a very sick little bully. She had been beaten (bruises on her head and body), was attacked by the breeders other dogs (had about fifteen bite marks), and had really bad bladder stones (she had surgery to remove four stones about one inch in diameter, four days after we picked her up).
The first few weeks were good, Brandi and Daisey would lay on the couch next to each other, or Daisey would rest her head on Brandiās body. Then, all of a sudden one it was like Brandi decided that she did not like Daisey and she went after her. I was just shocked, because Brandi was a typically mellow, quiet and slower old girlā¦ now she was fast and showed a lot of rage.
At first it was only one attack, and then we would go a day or so with nothing. We wanted to nip it before it got worse, so we talked to our vet and others about what was going on, and they all suggested that we had to be the pack leader and suggest some of Cesar Millianās techniques. The attacks seemed to intensify, from one every other day to multiples every day. This whole situation was frustrating, because we were following everything that was being told to us, but the situation just got worse daily.
During this time, my wife had a conversation with a fellow bulldog rescuer/foster parent and she said that they were going through issues similar to ours with two female rescues also. Their issues had gotten so bad that her husband had been to the emergency room several times for stitches from breaking the dogs up. The rescuer/foster turned to a dog psychologist/behaviorist for help and suggested that we do also.
So about a month ago we contact Jen, from Wild Canine, about the issues that we were having with our girls. Jen is one of 58 CBCC-KAās (certified behavior consultant canine) in the entire nation. She came out for a two hour appointment the next day, and discussed with us positive reinforcement techniques, rather than the sometime physical ones we were using that were recommended to us by others. We were taught about negative stares and how you have about 3 seconds to react once a stare is started and how to positively break the stare. I also thought it was interesting to learn that after the conflict, it takes 36 hours for a dogās adrenaline to go down and them to forget the attack.
After the first week of practicing positive reinforcement, the number of attacks/fights /stares decreased immensely, to an attack only once a day (where it at times was 6 or more a day). A week or two later these attacks/stares were back to what it originally was before we practiced the Cesar Millian type techniques, every other day or so. I am happy to say that it has been over a week without any issues or stares, all thanks to positive reinforcement.
A little over a year ago, we adopted a seven year old female (Brandi), which had been through at least four different owners prior to us, the first two being puppy mills. Her last owners were a couple that was going through a very bad divorce, and the wife took out all of her angers for the husband on Brandi. She was a very sick dog when we got her, actually only being in the rescue for about a week before she came to us. Through all of what she went through in her life, Brandi is a mellow, good girl that really never had any issues with anything/anyone until just recently.
About three months ago, we received a call from our vet asking if we would be interested in adopting another dog. At the time we already had four others, but it was an English bulldog and she really needed someoneās help. I really do not what to even think what would have happened to her, if we would not have adopted her. Daisey came to us as a very sick little bully. She had been beaten (bruises on her head and body), was attacked by the breeders other dogs (had about fifteen bite marks), and had really bad bladder stones (she had surgery to remove four stones about one inch in diameter, four days after we picked her up).
The first few weeks were good, Brandi and Daisey would lay on the couch next to each other, or Daisey would rest her head on Brandiās body. Then, all of a sudden one it was like Brandi decided that she did not like Daisey and she went after her. I was just shocked, because Brandi was a typically mellow, quiet and slower old girlā¦ now she was fast and showed a lot of rage.
At first it was only one attack, and then we would go a day or so with nothing. We wanted to nip it before it got worse, so we talked to our vet and others about what was going on, and they all suggested that we had to be the pack leader and suggest some of Cesar Millianās techniques. The attacks seemed to intensify, from one every other day to multiples every day. This whole situation was frustrating, because we were following everything that was being told to us, but the situation just got worse daily.
During this time, my wife had a conversation with a fellow bulldog rescuer/foster parent and she said that they were going through issues similar to ours with two female rescues also. Their issues had gotten so bad that her husband had been to the emergency room several times for stitches from breaking the dogs up. The rescuer/foster turned to a dog psychologist/behaviorist for help and suggested that we do also.
So about a month ago we contact Jen, from Wild Canine, about the issues that we were having with our girls. Jen is one of 58 CBCC-KAās (certified behavior consultant canine) in the entire nation. She came out for a two hour appointment the next day, and discussed with us positive reinforcement techniques, rather than the sometime physical ones we were using that were recommended to us by others. We were taught about negative stares and how you have about 3 seconds to react once a stare is started and how to positively break the stare. I also thought it was interesting to learn that after the conflict, it takes 36 hours for a dogās adrenaline to go down and them to forget the attack.
After the first week of practicing positive reinforcement, the number of attacks/fights /stares decreased immensely, to an attack only once a day (where it at times was 6 or more a day). A week or two later these attacks/stares were back to what it originally was before we practiced the Cesar Millian type techniques, every other day or so. I am happy to say that it has been over a week without any issues or stares, all thanks to positive reinforcement.
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thanks for sharing!!
Watching for and correctly identifying trigger behaviors is not easy for most folks. It takes a special kind of calm awareness to nail it. Practice, I suppose? Anyway, thank goodness for such a wonderful outcome for these two!
