[Dan Reiter]

While still young at a immature age I like taking my dogs into environment were theyre a lot of dogs doing training such as agility, obedience indoors. I dont participate at first "just hang out" and have dog on down with me and just let him observe and get conditioned to all the activity. (doesnt happen on first or second trip) but intime he will understand & learn from other dogs he doesnt have to be aggressive or in defence. Then I run him thru couple of AKC style obedience classes just so he is conditioned close qaurters obedience with other dogs. I can walk him anywhere with strays barking and pulling their handlers he just Ignores them. However if some handler lets there dog out of controll (off lead) and lunges or nips at mine I am sure a fight would engage. He is very possesive & confident dog will not let a helper correct him if he does he will let go of sleeve and get the unprotected arm "gaurenteed". I still take him just to hang out and or do obedience under distraction a couple times a year for maintenance training, has worked well for me on a number of dogs. Been down that aggressive dog road on my first few best to get in the begining of foundation training, as it will get worse with age. Good conditioning and continued maintenence will get you all those nice comments when general public see you out and about "He sure is well behaved".

Dan Reiter

 

[Dan Reiter]

The senario I was refering to is when you expose your dog to a lot of others is you have checked out with out your dog. The other dogs are already trained and under handler control. (your dog is the rookie). They learn quickly by watching well trained dogs. I would never do this in dog park with general public, or unpredictable setting. (That should be a no brainer).

Dan