Cwolf, i am so liking the scent of hope i detect in your words, YESsss!!! I think, of all things you will need to help rehab your dogs--------knowledge, patience, persistence, etc etc, i do believe feeling HOPE is important!!! YAY!! I love your emphasis on exercising these dogs, too, that can only help!
Tre is a human? right? If so, if it was from Isis, it may have been just some spillover excitement or spillover aggression, or even normal dog "Ey! What's this sneaky looking stranger doing right beside
my house!!??" kinda thing. Fences can be triggers for some dogs, too, is very weird thing.
Yes, i really do believe, i really do,
that you
will find rehabbing Jinx to accept unknown
dogs, and getting Isis to accept unknown
humans will be pretty successful, even though,
their living together, does complicate their picture as they can feed off of each other. And i do think you will also successfully be able to reduce both dog's overall aggression, as well, i do have huge hopes for your progress and success.
and yes, good point, my dog never growls at squirrels, he just chases them.
Buddy's approach to a squirrel,
and what he does to an unknown german shepherd,
do not even remotely resemble each other.
His attack on the squirrel, is sometimes begun with a brief silent freeze, a stare and crouch, and then full speed run, never ever growls at the squirrel, never. sometimes, it is an immediate full speed run, and no silent freeze/crouch first.
his attack on an unknown dog,
is chockful of so many escalating warnings, it is almost a dance.
There are multiple warnings, which escalate as he gets nearer and nearer to the unknown dog,
from crouching, lip lifts, growls, hackles up, hard eyed stares, postures, changes in ears, i hear even changes in their whisker positions and nostrils, but i can't spot those.
Never, ever ever
have i ever once ever seen Buddy just spot a dog and silently run at it full speed the way he does for squirrels.
Most shy dogs also give off some signals, that they are uncomfortable, even if they are not aggressive shy dogs...but, if the shy dog has been repeatedly corrected for growling, it may just bite rather than growl.
I really agree, prey drive, and what a dog chasing prey looks like,
and dog-aggression,
are two different things.
Yes, recall is a VIP thing to work on, good plan. buddy's recall is awesome, but Buddy and i have settled on, he will freeze for me, but will
not turn his back on the unknown dog and RUN to me. But Buddy WILL freeze, and wait for me, and allow me to releash him, and lead him away. Everytime.
Asking
my particular dog, to turn his back on an unknown dog, and
run to me, is asking too much for *my* particular dog, and Buddy running, after he has sent his "evil signals"
over to the unknown dog,
may even ignite a chase from unknown dog and full on attack/fight.
For a normal dog, it'd probably be fine if they turn their back on an unknown dog and run to their owner, as they have not been crouching and hard staring(or worse) at the other dog first, but, for
buddy,
not a good idea. I'm happy with his "freeze & wait for mom" thing.
PLus, Buddy has always HATED having the uknown dog
behind him, really bothers him. Now, Buddy and i can
follow a dog he dislikes on a walk, but Buddy prefers to be the one in the back, not the other dog.
i don't necessarily think it has to be holding a perfect sit for prolonged periods of time, etc.
and if possible let him run on into a fetch rather than stopping. I'm also (like Tigerlily suggests) working on a "down" or "wait" that I can use to anchor him if necessary.