Sue Miller

My puppy is from working lines--his breeder breeds specifically for social aggression. As long as he is properly trained & socialized, this does not mean my puppy is nuts or will develop into a dangerous dog as he matures. His nature is to be dominant & confident--these are the traits I want in a protection & sport dog.

I've posted lots of video of the training this puppy has had since day one (7-weeks-old)--he started out with all positive motivation until he was absolutely solid on what was expected--the food was gradually removed & corrections were added. Physically correcting a puppy before the age of 5-months-old is counter-productive imo.

At 6-months-old, my puppy is now maturing & he's feeling his oats by expressing aggression--this is his nature & no amount of correction is going to change his nature. His hormones are raging & this behavior is natural. I can put a real huntin on him but I feel that at this age the best way to stop him & to teach self-control is to tell him to do something else (like sit or down) & then correct him for disobedience to the command. When the puppy is ready, my idea of a properly given correction is to teach the puppy how to avoid the correction. Constantly having to correct your puppy is absolutely wrong--a correction should be strong enough to cause avoidance, it must be perfectly clear to the puppy & must be given without anger or frustration on the handler's part. Immediately after the correction, the puppy should be given the opportunity to obey & then praised. When administered properly the dog learns how to avoid the correction--avoiding a physical correction eventually becomes a reward for the puppy or dog.

I started a thread about my puppy & how when he starts feeling aggressive (natural) I control him by telling him to sit & even in the middle of biting, he'll stop immediately & sit. I wasn't complaining that he was aggressive & thought it was a good thing that he was learning self control by obeying me. I think correcting him for feeling exactly what I want him to feel would be very confusing for him. I think that many people misunderstand what is going on. You can't change a feeling without big side effects. A puppy bred like this can't be corrected for his natural instincts. If I stop him (and I certainly can stop him with corrections) what will he feel when he's expected to act this way during training? Will he feel confused? Intimidated since he was beat down for the same exact thing (in his mind)? Will he feel that there aren't any rules & he's going to do what he wants to do? I really think that lots of really good dogs are out-of-control because of trying to correct the dog into submission when he doesn't understand the rules.

Starting at :50 in this video, the 6 1/2-month-old Dobbie is trained to stay with the stroller & guard it. He is barking at construction workers off camera--as long as he sits & guards the stroller he can bark or not. Sorry about the leash--park rules.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRribNsESTM