DOG FIGHT on our property, HELP!!! JRT R.I.P. 8/25/10 Post #78

I do NOT agree with the shock-collar thing! This is really a kind of lazy way to go about training------if you can call it training. This woman simply needs to get rid of some of these dogs------probably all but the JRT and lab. Sorry, but that's my opinion.
 
Other than thinning down the pack dramatically, I agree with Wellsummer chick. My next question though is since both of these breeds are pretty intensive in their focus on something once they get hooked on it. Would the situation still be safe for the JRT, who if like a normal JRT believes they are in a bull's body? I have poms, and a Aussie. They aren't without supervision just because of the size difference and the potential for something to go wrong that potentially can't be fixed.
 
Last edited:
You have to work with your dogs, right from day one... work work work.
I have 3 dogs, the oldest is around 4, the other two are around the year old stage. All 3 are lab mixes. I can take my dogs anywhere and not worry about them. I feed them all in the kitchen at the same time, any of our cats can come up to them and eat out of their food bowls while they are eating and the dogs either keep eating or sit and look at me like mom make them stop!!!
At any time I can take their food away or a rawhide away from them and there is no teeth shown, no growling done, nothing! My one boy dosen't always eat right away with the other two and his food can sit on the kitchen floor all day and the other two don't touch it.
My mom has a tiny little pom dog, she can put any of mine in the corner. They know if they EVER show their pearly whites or start growling it's punishment time. Punishment is a stern look, getting yelled at or a smack on the butt. They aren't agressive with other dogs or at other people. I can go to town to walmart or where ever and leave them loose in the back of the truck and know they will be there when I get back. The only time I use a shock collar is when I trained my oldest one to go with me when I took my horse out riding, and when I trained my husky mix to go for walks in the woods/feilds and not chase deer.
It takes ALOT of work to have multiple dogs but it can be done! Consistent discipline right from day one.... they need boundaries just like anyone else does! I'm not trying to step on anyones toes here or to tell anyone how to raise their dogs but for the saftey of yourself and others, if you can't do that and can't train your dogs like that then you shouldn't have that many dogs, especially agressive breeds. I'm sorry to say that its just an accident waiting to happen.
 
I find Welsummer's attitude refreshing after having been criticized in the past for being too harsh.

I have always had multiple AmStaffs, and with the exception of 1 dog in my lifetime, have always able to keep pack dynamics in control. Whenever a 'dust up' started to occur, I would step in with a big flappy riding crop - the kind that will make a very loud pop - and start beating butt. EVERYBODY'S BUTT. Any dog in the room got in trouble. Once this was firmly established in their minds I have NEVER had a fight or even have them snark at one another. I used a crop because I wanted to establish that I was in control, and not a shock from an unknown source. If the dogs will bite you, then a shock collar is a good alternative, as long as you get close in and reinforce your dominant position verbally. I don't have cringy scared dogs, either, but a happy pack that understands their position in life.

The one dog that was a problem was kept away from the other dog's for the rest of her life and was well loved and cared for and slept with us at night and had her time out and about.

You cannot handle all breeds of dog the same way and expect them to react the same way.

I would bet even money the Jack started it and would remove it from harm's way.
 
Last edited:
I am not harsh or punitive, and I don't believe in being a despot or taking pleasure (or emotion - ANY emotion, positive or negative) in punishment OR discipline. To me, it is just part of the responsibility of owning a dog, and I take no pleasure in it. It is just work, hard work. Like cleaning up poop and all the other work.

My point is, though, that if you think like a dog pack leader, you don't care who started it, but you know who is going to end it. That's you.

Shock collars are bad? Rigid thinking leads to tragedies and dogs in shelters.

I have never resorted to one. I start with a six week old puppy, taking away its food. Dog fights are rare in my home, even when other dogs visit(generally if anything starts, all I have to do is walk over to the dogs, and it stops before any drama occurs, I think mine may tell the new dog, 'Look out, 'cause when Mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy'), but I also believe rather strongly, that one dog is easy, two dogs is still fairly easy, and three dogs is a whole heck of a lot of work.

But yes, I would rather an owner used a shock collar than got bit and disfigured for life or in pain for life, or sent a dog off to who the heck knows who, to join a fighting string or get run over by a car. That woman's arms were covered with scars from breaking up fights between her dogs. Electric collar, hallelujia. I've even seen The Dog Whisperer use one. He's no idiot. He isn't going to put his arm down and get it bit off, even for TV. They don't pay him enough.

A shock collar means a trainer can give a dog the shock more immediately and more timely, than any other sort of correction he might give. It is indispensable for serious problems.

The main problem with most corrections is they are not consistent enough and not soon enough. You hit the dog with a leash, or some other object? What about when you don't have it in your hand? Hitting a dog, to my way of thinking, is just about the most useless, ill timed, ineffective thing I've ever seen go on. The collar provides the owner with a way of making an immediate response. He doesn't even have to move toward the dog. Especially for a disabled owner, it is a crucially necessary tool.

People BELIEVE 'the dog knows he has done wrong' when he goes slinking away after he bites. He does not. He is just respoding to the person's body language, which his posture and way of moving change when he is angry. He is not 'sorry'. He is not 'contrite'. A dog does not have the sort of brain that allows 'sorry' to occur. He is just reacting to a person 's changed body language.

If the person were using his body language more effectively, or NOTICING when the DOG'S body language changed, WELL BEFORE the aggression, the aggression would not take place.

What the pain of the shock collar does, is it says, when you bite, you will hurt. It is very simple. The dog stops biting (or whatever behavior it is, snarling, showing teeth, whatever) because EVERY TIME he does it, HE HURTS.

I am disgusted with anyone who would use a shock collar to teach sit or down, or anything else. The ONLY time I can see it is justified, is for aggression. Dangereous situations call for drastic measures and a shock collar is drastic. It's as drastic as it gets.

It goes back to my dad's version of the Lord's Prayer...I can PM it to anyone interested, it is family viewing safe only with some paraphrasing.

You walk in the room, stand up tall, and every pair of limpid doggy eyes is looking up at you saying, 'hello master, what is on the list for today'.

And no, actually, it rarely works out for Mommy and Daddy to have his way and her way, and always arguing about what to do.

The dogs know it is like that, and to them it says, 'The position of pack leader is open, applicants may form a line and snarl here'.

Frankly, if it got to the point where I was arguing with my husband over how to discipline the dogs, I'd figure we were not a 'dog ready' family. I'd get rid of the dogs - all of them. Not good for the dogs or the marriage.
 
Last edited:
Quote:
I agree with Brindle. We have worked/do work on pack dynamics daily. We don't have food aggression issues because that is something we have worked on since the boys were pups. Everyone in the family (including our 4 year old GS) can pick up either dogs bowl or take their bone away at any time and the boys know to sit quietly until we decide to give it back.
We also have a big flappy riding crop. When the boys are engaging in behavior we don't like, all we have to do is say "stick" and it stops. Only one has ever had his butt whooped with it (Jax). Kane saw what happened to Jax and decided he wanted no part of the stick.
 
I think its time you sit back, and read the post you posted. You have 7 dogs. That is quite a bit of dog. Of those 7 dogs 6 of them are terriers. Terriers are known to be dog aggressive, feisty, fight starting dogs.


How many of your dogs are spayed and neutered? This will lower the factor. Since you have multiple APBT invest in a "break stick" to break up a dog fight the proper way.

You need to gain control over your pack, You need to separate the dogs that do not get along, and consider rotating. You have 6 dogs that are known to be dog aggressive, and not get along well with other dogs.

Or, make your pack a bit smaller. Please look into joining the pit bull forum.com . It's a great website for pit bull owners.

This is something that could be prevented with time, patience and proper handling of your dogs. It is NOT the fault of ANY of the breeds, but a fact of life when you have so many terriers in a house.
 
You're lucky you only had your poor JRT injured. I see you have grand children. I won't say anymore.
 

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom