Help! Liability on a Leash...

[frogyoga]

Howdy!
I am the proud "mother" of two rescue dogs. I have had a black lab mix named Buddy for three years and he is about 4-6 years old and a 6 year old Rat Terrior named Maggie who I have had for 4 years.

Maggie is my concern. I have hired a behaviorist, have done extensive training with her and have worked on training myself. I believe I have corrected most of my own behaviors influencing her, however people keep telling me I need to medicate her.

She is an incredibly anxious dog with a long history of abuse prior to me adopting her. She is very dog-dog AND dog-human aggressive though she gets along with Buddy beautifully bc she is allowed to be Alpha Dog.

I can't take her on walks anymore as she gets so worked up that she does this "tasmanian devil" turn and will either get out of a harness or collar or throw herself into the street. I am afraid she will be hit by a car as she has had WAY TOO MANY close calls.

She is also a liability on a leash as she will attack other dogs, and people in my neighborhood rarely leash their dogs, thus they invade her space and she attacks.

Does anyone have any suggesions? I'll listen to anyone:)

[Patch O' Pits]

Ok first off what have you tried for this thus far so we don't give you advice to do something that already did not help.

Also some dogs not only have issues from abuse but may infact be genetically unstable due to poor breeding which makes the problem much worse

Is this dog medically OK. Has the thyroid been checked?

[frogyoga]

Patch,
I'm willing to bet money her thyroid has not been checked. Actually since I have been taking up the recommendations in the above posts she has remarkably improved. Still a liability but we're working on it. Thanks for thinking to suggest this test. She has an appointment coming up for her reg shots etc and I will request the DVM do this as well! Grazie!!

[SNOWFRANK]

try this put a choke chain on this dog slide it up behind the ears and keep the leash tigh and power walk this dog for about 10 min as fast as you can and if she or he rolls over keep going don't stop whats happening is he or she is getting away with this and they know it infor. from atrainer who knows

[StarWhisper]

try this put a choke chain on this dog slide it up behind the ears and keep the leash tigh and power walk this dog for about 10 min as fast as you can and if she or he rolls over keep going don't stop whats happening is he or she is getting away with this and they know it infor. from atrainer who knows

So what you are proposing is the intentional misuse of a training (choke) collar and the dragging around of a dog with a past history of neglect and abuse?

Do the canine world a favor and stop giving training advice.

To the Original Poster, it sounds like you are already on the right track in working with a behavioralist and trainer with Maggie..what exactly have you done thus far and what has been suggested?

[DiggityDogs]

This was a double post.... some of us gave her advice several weeks ago, it's further down the 'training and behavior' board.

[frogyoga]

Thanks to all who have reviewed and offered more suggestions, to be honest if you do look further down the post, you will see all that has been offered. I'm sticking with the original replies that I had and would highly recommend them to anyone with similiar issues.

Maggie's still on liability status, but we're learning together and she's responding beautifully.