Question:

My family has a part Australian Shepherd and part Irish Wolfhound dog 3 years old. We have had her since she was 8 weeks old. We took her everywhere with us in the car, and on walks to try and socialize her. She was great as a pup, but as she got older and bigger (she weighs 90 lbs.) we took her to a trainer because she was acting out when we took her out, such as barking at dogs and other people. She is so strong that we cannot handle her out on walks anymore. She has broken her gentle leader that we used for awhile on her for walks. First she learned to get out of it, then she broke it. Therefore, we cannot take her on walks anymore. The last walk we took her on she broke the collar and knocked a man down trying to get to his dog. Roxie (our dog’s name) got to the dog and attacked it growling and biting. We were able to get her off the dog and took her home. She has not been on a walk since. We have two other dogs (jack russel) and would love to take her on walks with them. She gets along well with them, but if a stranger comes to the door, she goes crazy and we have to put her in the bedroom in order for us to let people in. We have tried everything. We really need some advice as to maybe what type of collar we might use, or something else that would help us with Roxie. We love her and she is a very lovable dog with us. We would love to take her with us on walks.

Thanks,

Lonely Roxie in Lucerne

ANSWER:

Hi Lonely Roxie,

The collar that you may want to consider for such a big, strong dog is a metal prong collar. This collar allows you to use leverage rather than power and strength in order to help gain control over the dog.

When it comes to aggression issues and using any sort of training collar you may want to consult the help of a professional. If you have already consulted a professional you may want to look to another one who has more experience working with aggression issues.

There are some steps that I use to help fix an aggression issue:

1. Work on obedience training. Obedience is a great medium for communicating your desires, your dominance and appropriate ways to respond to new people and dogs.
2. Work on controlling the environment around the dog. If you can understand what her triggers are then you can help them to not get set off in the first place.

You really need to focus on obedience training your dog. I find that the overwhelming majority of aggression issues occur because the dog hasn’t received the proper boundaries, structure and control. A lack of these things can lead to issues like destruction, aggression, hyperactivity and the like. Work on regaining control and you should be able to rein in the aggression issues.

Ty Brown is an expert dog trainer, author, and speaker who specializes in obedience training, behavior modification, protection dog training, and narcotics dogs. To learn more about Ty and the dog training services he offers, visit www.dogbehavioronline.com