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My boy is on day 5 of his board & train.

It was slated to be 14 days, but the training director and I spoke yesterday for a progress report. We may be looking at 21 days.

My boy (we'll call him "P" since he has an unusual name and I want to stay anonymous), is "pushing back." Poor manners on the leash, wants to do what he wants when he wants. The trainer does not feel he's "untrainable" but does feel he will need more time.

What do you guys think? Would that one week make a difference? I know I need to stop "humanizing" P - I keep thinking that he thinks we have abandoned him (he is being trained at the same pet resort where he goes to daycare). When the trainer brings him to the lobby to train him with dog-dog reactivity, I'm sure he's wondering why we are not there to take him home. Maybe I feel like this because hubby and I feel so lost without him here.

Yes Lala another week will make a difference. I know it is so hard to not have your baby at home and it feels so off, but in the end you will be happy you did it.

A great example of the need to have dogs trained well was last week with me. I ended up on my own taking my 2 labs for their yearly exams because my H had a last minute meeting pop up.
So I have my old girl who is usually fine on a leash, but will still at 13.5 yrs pull when excited, and my 3.5 yo who is 85lbs, and 100% muscle can get wild when he gets excited.
So I pull up and they both are going bananas in the truck. I get out, and give commands outside the truck for them to sit and in our training sit means sit/stay. So I leash the old lady first, and get her out. Then leash the Chocolate Thunder, and he is trembling with excitement so we just stand there for a minute with him on a sit, with the leash on. Once calm I allow him out of the truck, he immediately starts pulling. I do another sit until he calms down. Took us about 5 minutes to get into the building, BUT, at no point was I not in control. There were 2 other families that went in in between us with 2 small dogs each and both had one that was ready to kill my 2, barking growling lunging. And I was getting the dirty looks from the owners.

They also have a practice of taking the dogs in back for treatment, and they took The Thunder first, and in a few minutes he was vocalizing, and they were all getting loud, they brought him right back, and the tech says we can't work with him. I said, well you don't know his commands, and he does not need to be retrained. So if you were doing that while trying to trim nails and get stool for parasites he was scared. Let the vet come in here, he will be a perfect boy. And he was. Then we went through some of his commands, and the vet was tickled. She added a big note to his chart, to not take in back, and to not attempt to restrain.

Anyway they were perfect when we were leaving and in comes in another fluffy mutt that weighed about 8 lbs and ready to kill my two. Of course mine were like whatever.

My point is without that special training for The Thunder I would have never considered doing that on my own because he is so damn strong. He could drag my fat ass across a parking lot in heartbeat if he wanted to.

Cant remember if i responded to this? But yes we did that a few years ago.

Went away for the week and had to board him.

Thought, we will also get training!

Paid some money for it… not a ton, but you know, way more than if hed just boarded.

Ummmm… the kennel told us our bill when we picked him up. We said,,huh? They said, yeah, we cant charge for training. He wouldnt let us train him. He just wanted snuggles and pets and to play

Lalagirl, I was wondering how it was going for your boy. Seems he is being consistent: strong-willed, independent, likes to be in charge, right? I trust the trainer has a lot of experience with this type of dog. If so, he probably will benefit from the extra time there. If they aren't used to training these war dogs, then I don't know, but they are saying they aren't getting the results they want, yet. It's hard to have sent him away and then to hear any discouraging news.

Is he making some progress they can tell you about? I am sure he doesn't accept them as having the same authority as his owners, but if they believe he is beginning to listen more, maybe good to keep going? Think of the opposite: if he isn't responsive and the trainer hands him back, it would reinforce his independent behavior.

A little German Shepherd story from this week's camping trip: I was walking our girl toward the bathhouse at a rural state park campground when a woman came around from another direction walking 2 large German Shepherd dogs (she'd told my husband she'd recently taken each of them as rescues from neglectful situations.) One was the almost all-black coat color, so likely to be the "working line" type. Well, that big dog saw my petite 60 lb. girl from about 150 feet away and started a big barkfest. Of course she pinned her ears flat back and barked right back at him! I bent down and put my hand over her muzzle and said "hush" and that got her quiet.

But at the same moment, this woman was putting her hand over her barking dog's muzzle and darned if he didn't snap up at her! I don't know if he nipped her or just was threatening to, but it showed me he didn't respect her telling him what to do! She scolded him "You know better than that!" I called out "Do we need to disappear?" She said "Yes!" So to prevent a bad situation, we headed back to our camper. Later on, my husband said he noticed she was walking only one of the dogs at a time. I guess she realized he was not under her control.

Keep us posted!

He could drag my fat ass across a parking lot in heartbeat if he wanted to.

Yeah, this is why we need the training. I'm short but not light, but that boy is so friggin STRONG! The trainer was quite surprised how much he still pulls on leash WITH a prong collar!

Seems he is being consistent: strong-willed, independent, likes to be in charge, right?

Girl, you know it; large and in charge!

I trust the trainer has a lot of experience with this type of dog.

Lots of experience. 40 years. He is also a behaviorist. He has also been in IGP competitions all over the world with his champion dogs. If anyone can break this boy, he can.

He asked the director how much time P had with him. She said, "14 days." He let out a sigh and said, "I really wish I could have him for 21 - we could do this in 21." Then the director reminded him that he has a busy schedule and he said he wants to review it Monday to see if he can accommodate P for another week if my H and I were amenable. I said yes.

Yes Lala another week will make a difference. I know it is so hard to not have your baby at home and it feels so off, but in the end you will be happy you did it.

You're absolutely right and we just need to suck it up while he gets what he needs.

Thanks, y'all - I appreciate the feedback and support!

On a side note, what the hell is up with the little doggos going batpoop crazy on the big doggos?

How much one-on-one time with the master dog trainer is your boy getting? Versus assistant trainers? I am sure a busy place has many hands to help, but if the credentials of the trainer are what brought you there, I would want to know that he is not "subbing out" part of the work, KWIM?

On the side note: Cesar Milan has the answer - something about the owner carrying the little dogs around makes them think they are BIG dogs?

Cant remember if i responded to this? But yes we did that a few years ago.

Went away for the week and had to board him.

Thought, we will also get training!

Paid some money for it… not a ton, but you know, way more than if hed just boarded.

Ummmm… the kennel told us our bill when we picked him up. We said,,huh? They said, yeah, we cant charge for training. He wouldnt let us train him. He just wanted snuggles and pets and to play

Bumping for Lalagirl, do you have your boy back yet? How is he doing??

On the side note: Cesar Milan has the answer - something about the owner carrying the little dogs around makes them think they are BIG dogs?

I ain't buying that. I've been the insane little dog owner a number of times. Don't hate me, mine are with me because they're little aggressive buttheads and nobody wants to deal with that, lol, but I have three little dogs who act as if they truly believe that they can slay large dogs. Picking them up is the only thing that stops them from raging. I think for some, it's the insecurity of being so small that has them acting out and threatening the larger dogs. When I'm holding them, they feel safer and stop.

All but two have gotten much better with training, but those two were abused, so...it's harder to break actions that come from damage.

[This message edited by DevastatedDee at 10:41 PM, Thursday, July 7th]

Bumped by request

In addition to the Monks of New Skete a good resource for working / aggressive dominant dogs is Leerburg. I used that resource a lot with our first farm dog. The mentality and approach to dealing with dogs on the aggressive 'spectrum' is good to know. Working knowledge and tools always help.

How did the Board and Train end up?