Dog Aggression--A Dream Comes True!

Almost a year ago I met with Adam, his mother and their dog Malachi. This beautiful Yellow Lab's world had gotten smaller and smaller as the years ticked away.

He attacked a small dog in his home requiring the dog be reassembled at the vet. His aggression didn't stop at dogs when a repairman was bitten. That's when I was called.

To assess Malachi's reactivity to dogs, I had my husband walk one of our dogs 50 yards in front of Malachi and I could barely hold onto him. He not only whined, whimpered and made noises like I was torturing him, he lunged and spun like I was reeling in a 200lb deep sea trophy fish.

The next day I brought in my champ, Archie who I've used with dogs like Malachi. I walked with Malachi and had my husband quickly hand off Archie to my other side. Before Malachi knew what hit him he was walking next to another dog, the first time in years. Archie did what he does best, ignores "bad energy." And Malachi was that. After walking with Malachi pulling and whining a little, finally I let Malachi sniff Archie. Malachi was sooooo relieved. You could feel the relief wash over him--finally he was meeting another dog.

Dogs are meant to be social. When they're cooped up behind a fence or in a home for years they become anxious and want to meet other dogs, but it's expressed in nervous, reactive energy. At one point Malachi was a loving, sweet Lab who played with other dogs. That social muscle had atrophied.

Showing Adam and his mother that Malachi wasn't "broken" was the first step. Inside their home with my dog Archie, I was answering their questions as they pet Malachi. I watched as suddenly Malachi turned to eye Archie for an attack. I simply gave Malachi a verbal, "Eh-eh!" and he stopped.

They continued to pet him as I explained what had just happened. Then explained that they should not continue petting him. This is where proper praise comes into place. If you praise your dog when he misbehaves or is nervous--you send the message, "I agree with that behavior." In other words, "Malachi, we agree with your guarding behavior in our home." This gave me insight into what might have happened to the little dog Malachi attacked and even the repairman. Malachi was easy to verbally correct, he just needed proper communication from his humans.

I showed Adam how to properly walk Malachi and told him to walk Malachi daily, starting slowly and short walks due to a torn ligament he was recovering from and to make Malachi's walks successful.

I asked Adam what his goal for Malachi was, no matter how unlikely or huge. He said he wanted be able to take Malachi to dog parks. I told him we'd achieve that goal if he stuck to the training program.

Adam is in my neighborhood and I would see him out there with Malachi walking even when the weather was snowy, raining, early morning, or getting hot. The dedication of that 14 year old was amazing.

Months later I ran into Adam while on a run with my Golden. Malachi met my Golden with no reaction whatsoever. Adam was calm, relaxed and cool, Malachi mirrored his energy. I was so excited to see their progress. Over the months I kept running into Adam and Malachi, often with all 3 of my dogs, and Malachi had no problem meeting my dogs.

It's been almost a year since my first meeting with Malachi and I told Adam months ago that Malachi's ready for the dog park whenever Adam was ready. Last weekend we finally made Adam's dream come true as we went to the dog park with Malachi and my dogs. Adam was a little nervous, but I gave him the dog park drill on the walk there.

It was amazing. Malachi behaved like a pro. The park was filled to the brim with dogs large and small and Malachi went from dog-to-dog. Oftentimes he was surrounded by dogs and stood comfortably while they sniffed. He was confident and relaxed. We didn't spend much time there as I wanted to make sure our first visit was positive.

Adam's looking forward to going back again and again. It's really great to see a dream finally come true.