I'm so sorry to hear that the dog attacked your daughter and your dog, I do hope they were both ok. The dog that attacked you DEFINATELY should have been on a lead and muzzled if it had shown signs of aggression! I hope your daughter has got over the ordeal ok, it can scare people for life if you are attacked.

Dogs do have that natural protective instinct, the other day two staffies ran aggressively towards Daisy (10 mths old GSHP) and my adult male GSHP stood in front of Daisy and myself and all he ad to do was growl (he has a very big gurrgley growl!) and they retreated. After that incident for about a month I had to watch him with other dogs as he started acting more dominating and even growling at other dogs, which isn't like him at all. We corrected this and he got back to his old self again - luckily.

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Thanks, it was a long time ago now (9 years) and my daughter has recovered well although her face was quite a mess at the time!! I have since lost my faithful friend to cancer about 18 months ago hence why I got Max as I missed having a dog so much.

The dog in question was a Border Collie who, i found out after , had attacked 2 or 3 other people. My ex husband called the police and the dog was destroyed. My daughter doesn't even think about it but I still have nightmares, makes you very wary.

On a lighter subject , just been down the lake and Max been playing with a couple of dogs, caked in mud, soaking wet but had me rolling around with laughter,what a treasure they can be.

Hey guys, been following this thread as it is similar to an issue i have with my lab. Just a quick question as i am new to the dog owning thingy....

How can i interpret a dogs approach, on page 2 there is alot of talk about "dogs approaching respectfully" point is that Daisy is NOT good off the lead when other dogs are about. She will RUN full speed at them and has not mastered the art of stopping yet so often plows into them, then jumps about all over them and tries to get underneath them and then jumps to flip them over. No growling no biting just trying to wind other dogs up to play i guess.

Anyway what kind of body language should i be looking for in a friendly encounter or an aggressive one ? Daisy is never off the lead these days cos she just wont come back if there are small humans or dogs about but alot approach her, i generally stamp the ground and tell the dogs to go away as i dont know whats playful and whats not and also i am quite frightened of dogs that are above my knee height as i have been attacked numerous amounts of times, below knee height and i recon i could take em if they got nasty.

Methical - the way your dog Daisy approaches other dogs is not respectful, be careful a lot of dogs would take exeption to being run at full belt, flipped over and jumped on, quite rightly so, they may react aggressively towards her, or they may just be terrified, either way its not good.

She needs to be taught to be calmer around other dogs, if you need to keep her on a long line to do this so you still have control over her, at the moment you are allowing her to act like a hooligan, this is not fair on her or the dogs she runs into.

Well i didnt think that her conventional greeting was the way to say hello nicely and she's not been off the lead since. I tend to take her to parks with lots of dogs in, sit her down far far away and not walk one step closer untill she is all calm....saying that she never actually gets close to the dogs as the other dogs are rarely on a lead and if we get too close then she'll probably get attacked. Chocolate Labs seem to be the main culpret for this. One pinned her down and started in her kneck the other day. I felt so bad cos she was the one on a leash and so was just tied up for the other dog to do what he wanted. Owner didnt seem to care much however.

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Nice one, thanks, sounds like a solid plan ! I have had her working with a whistle for a few months now....infact that VERY whistle. I have to say, while the concept of a whistle is great, that particular whistle is rubbish. It has an adjustable cuff on it to alter the tone, the only issue is that it unscrews when round your neck or in your pocket making it almost impossible to maintain the same tone for more than one training session. Also, the other weekend, the whistle unscrewed itself totally and fell off of the inside coil, its now on a beach somewhere in devon, never to be used again.

I like the idea of a silent whistle as it means u can use it in public places without alarming others to a loud whistle. But, i find it quite hard to get the tone out of it. Blow to softly and the sound does not travel far enough, blow to hard and you blow through the pitch and it makes no audible sound atall. Thats just a matter or practice and i have not done much research into other types of silent whistle, however, i have come across Dog Whistle W211 1 2. While these do tend to alarm people sometimes when they werent expecting it, it is much easier to get a tone, a consistent tone out of it.

With only a week of indoor training the whistle i wa using managed to stop Daisy bounding over to humans and small children when off the leash. She always used to stop dead in her tracks and check the humans out before approaching and blowing the whistle during this thinking period generally made her choose the chance of a treat over visitng new humans.

BE AWARE though, while training your dog to recall on a whistle, while you are blowing the "come here" command, be sure not to have your body in a posture that does not suggest you are ready to give a treat, i.e - Bent over with your hand showing, stand as normal untill they reach you, then reward. Im no professional but that is just what i have learnt so far.

Hi

Really good advice here enjoying the thread!

Daisy Update:
From today I have started training my two dogs seperately. I take Daisy out for 30 mins each morning and then come back and swap to Snoop (the adult male GSHP). I am finding this more effective as when they are together they don't have as much focus on me. I want to get both of them listening to me and responding to my commands individually before I start taking them out and training them together.

I have also started using the long line, a 12 foot lungeing line on Daisy. This morning I played with her on the field without the line because nobody else was around (typical when you want people and dogs around they disappear!) Daisy was fantastic, she is so sharp, her eyes were always fixed on me and her distance work is coming on really well. I then spotted a local man with his alsation. Before Daisy noticed the dog I quietly asked her to come and put on the long line. I then kept working with her in the same way regardless of the man walking around the edge of the field with his dog. Daisy did notice the dog but quickly put her focus back on me -I was chuffed to bits! Now this was an easy one to start with because the man with the alsation had his dog under control and the dog was calm, it didn't come bounding over like other dogs can. All the same, I was very proud of us both this morning Good start to the new training regime!

Then a miracle happened later in the day when myself and my boyfriend were out with both dogs...
Daisy was on the lead when we saw Alfie, a large Golden Retriever who LOVES to play with Daisy . Alfie's owner is a lovely lady who knows Daisy and the problems I have had with recalling her so she allows me to practice with Alfie. So I say to Daisy 'go play' from her sit position and let her off the lead. I allow the dogs to play for 10 minutes and then excitedly call Daisy back, inviting her to play with her rope lead by swissing it round and looking playful (you have to make yourself look silly in dog training its all part of the fun ). Suprisingly Daisy came STRAIGHT back to me and I had her sit stay while I put her back on the lead - I could have cried . That is a first - maybe we could be making progress!!!

There's hope for anyone if I can do it! Good luck 'Methical' keep going with your Daisy and I would definately try the long line like I am.

I use cheese to treat my dogs, they love it!

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