We are taking on another Naughty Nellie soon. That's not her real name, but we will introduce her shortly. She has a bit of dog aggression. In fact, when I was evaluating her case, Leon was lying quietly beside me. The smallest movement of his paw brought about tantrums from this normally sweet girl. In talking to him, and amongst ourselves afterwords, we tried to remember the dogs who had come in and gone out a bit differently:

1) Devon-Re homed and working out in new home. Devon started with us in July of 2007. He came here for aggression towards humans (men generally) and aggression towards other dogs. His owner later decided another breed would work better. Thai Ridgeback's are a huge responsibility and are a bit more primitive than other breeds of dog. While his original owner thought he wanted something exotic and the responsibilities that go along with it, in the end this was not the appropriate dog.

Devon was trained but would always need that bit extra supervision that made life uncomfortable for his owner. They now own a much more typical dog.

Devon now lives with new owners, and a new sister named Bri!! He will compete in obedience at the end of this year or the beginning of the next year.

2) Hannah-Owners were considering euthanizing at one point, but couldn't bring themselves to do it. Hannah is the cute Springer girl in this picture with my Jack. She lived with her litter mate, Katie, for eight years when things started to change. Hannah's owners were at their wits end one day, when Katie was badly injured around the neck after a confrontation while the pet sitter was there. Hence, Hannah came in for training on October of 2006.

Their veterinarian diagnosed Hannah with "Rage Syndrome". Rage syndrome is an actual seizure like epilepsy and does not come at predictable moments. This same vet also refused to do blood work for Hannah that would show thyroid problems or look for additional health problems. He said "those don't cause bad behavior". That is true, but it can certainly bring down a dog's "patience threshold", and as you will read this "vet" was wrong on all counts.

During her stay and training, Hannah looked very flat. A new vet was found, and she suffered from an ear infection, several teeth that were infected and needed to be removed AND a bladder infection. While this didn't solve the training issues, a much chipper Hannah was ready to do some work.

Katie was here for the training, although not the problem. However, it was discovered that Katie had recently developed painful hips, as could be witnessed by her inability to jump on furniture anymore. Hannah used to play by jumping on her. Then Katie, thought to be the more submissive, would tell Hannah to back off, and chaos thereafter with Hannah "winning" the fight.

Therefore, obedience training program was followed so Hannah could be directed to come, go, sit, and stay when it looked like she was going to do this. Also, a "let's go" command was used to keep Hannah supervised people did not want to sit still in the house, and if it was preferred that she not be in her crate.

Hannah is now the class clown when she comes over for boarding. A dog that started out needing to be watched around any other dog (owners let her tell other dogs off because she was "dominant"), now is the regular entertainment around here. In fact she goes from dog to dog until they are all too pooped to play!!

Meanwhile, this little smart girl had me exhausted at the end of training. It is so hard to believe now what a hard time she put me through. Everything was an opportunity to challenge to her. She is probably one of the best and most liked dogs that come here now!!!

3) Ursa-Owners were considering euthanizing also. In April of 2005, Ursa was the first dog to make my hairs stand up on end! No amount of ...s was going to make her your friend.

However, a well devised obedience plan set into motion made this bad girl, good company for visiting children and family. Not that you would leave her alone unsupervised around those that she is not familiar with.

Ursa is a Great Pyrenees whose job it was to guard the chickens and her JRT friend, Wild Willie. Sometimes her guarding duties had gone a bit too far in the past, and anyway, it was more a protection of herself. (Ursa is really afraid of her own bark, you see).

A brief stay with the boys also brought her play drive out, and the realization that strange dogs are not always out to get her. Of course, this also relies on the owner/handler not putting their dogs in those situations for which they haven't been equipped to handle (or without guidance).

4) Zeek-Owners were considering re homing. In July of 2006, I met big old Zeek. Upon meeting him, I assumed that Zeek was going to be a pretty hard dog to train.

I had to laugh at that later. What a sweety, and when you meet him, he knows you and you have a friend for life. However, that isn't very comforting as a stranger, and having this big red Rhodesian Ridgeback charge at you when you come to the front door.

There was also dog fights over food in this three dog home. Zeek's enthusiasm to get into Gus's (see below) bowl sparked fights. It was thought by the owners that Zeek was initiating this. Although Gus would come in for training, he wasn't there when Zeek initially came.

After teaching Zeek that other dog's food was off limits, and feeding him along with my own crew, I did not see any open hostility or even guarding coming from Zeek. He just wanted to get into other's food bowls, and when told this was a "no no" he was fine with it. He did tend to eat in a hurry, as if worried another would take his food.