Scout is a beautiful full blooded black lab that had issues with manners and mild dog aggression. Scout was rescued by Kelly Ratcliff who volunteers with Forever Home Canine Rescue to find Scout a new home. Kelly worked on basic obedience for Scout and then followed up with an in-kennel stay here at Highland Canine Training to work on the dog aggression issues. Scout made tremendous progress and his new owners are doing a great job maintaining his training and exposing him to new things gradually to keep control of the aggression issues. Here is what Scout’s new family had to say about him!

He is such a great dog! He has just melted right into our family. He is house trained, sleeps all night on his bed. He’s wonderful with my son and the kids in the neighborhood. And we couldn’t believe how fast he is! We took him to Fisher Farm in Davidson, there is about 5 acres of open field there. He can flat out fly after a tennis ball!
He heels off leash with me now (in controlled environment only for now), sits, stays, goes to his place when told, still loves to shake paw. We’ve taught him to sit and wait for the ‘ok’ command before eating, getting into the car or going in/out of the house. We found that he was just so excited that he often knocked into our son but he got the command after the first day of training.
He goes to work with me everyday and has a bed in my office. He is doing great with the socialization training. Rarely now do I have to leash correct him, he seems to respond better to verbal commands now. When he gets “that look” we give him his verbal cue, he relaxes and we praise him for relaxing. Afterwards he seems to be ok. It’s almost like he’s just really insecure and needs to be told that other dogs are ok (after he’s correct for the inappropriate response).
Anyway,,,, probably more than you wanted to know but we are just so happy with him. What a GREAT dog he is!
I’ll attach a couple pictures for you guys.
Thanks again for taking care of him all that time so he could get to us.
-Aimee

We are so excited to hear about the great outcomes of our Second Chance Program through the hard work of our Shelter/Rescue groups…Keep up the good work guys!

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

However, it’s best to start at an early age if at all possible but if you decide to adopt or rescue and older dog, you can teach an old dog new tricks!  Let me give you a few examples of some experiences we have have personally encountered that has had a happy ending! I recieved a phone call from a client in Huntersville, NC who had explained to me that his dog was agressive and growled at any dog and most new people.  It was to the point where the owners were very paranoid to have take the dog out in public and mostly hid him from the outside world.  The straw that broke the camels back was that he had Max out in the yard on leash, but Max had gotten away from him by accident and ran over to a neighbors house and “loaded up” on the neighbor barking and growling…very scary for this dog owner.

After speaking with Max’s owner, we decided that our in-kennel training, or Boot Camp would be the best program for Max.  This would give us 6 weeks of diagnosing and rehabilitation with Max.  The day Max dropped off at our facility we didn’t quite know why Max was growling at anyone that made eye contact with him, he also growled at our 12 year old German Shepherd, Cyrus that wouldn’t harm a mouse! Max’s owners were very helpful and honest, which is huge in helping us understand what’s going on with their dog.  The owner’s admitted that Max was not socialized very well as a puppy and as his behaviors grew more cumbersome they began hiding him from the outside world, which is a typical method in these situations, since liability is a big factor in today’s society.

The first week with Max was very difficult for both the dog and our trainers, Max was terrified of everything and everyone.  His aggression grew worse as we were slowly putting more pressure on him to interact with us.  We actually had to feed him the first few days with a bite sleeve for our protection.  Slowly Max began to come around and trust us, everyday he got better it was even emotional for our trainers to see him actually start enjoying life again and trusting his surroundings!

By the time Max was ready to go home, he was interacting with strangers and new dogs, was he a social butterfly yet?  No, but the foundation was laid for his family to continue working with him and for Max to get better everyday.  Max is very fortunate to have such dedicated parents, after we gave them advice and steered them in the right direction for his continued success with rehabiliation, we recieve emails that Max is still improving! In fact the last email I recieved from his owners, was that they had began taking Max to a dog park and cutting him off leash with other dogs and people with no incident!  We are very proud of Max and his owners!

With that said, professional intervention with puppies may also be helpful for socialization issues.  We recently had a 4 month old puppy named Ginger that was highly food aggressive, and had no manners when it came to meeting new dogs at such a young age. Ginger’s owner also saw this to be a little too much and brought her to our in-kennel training program for obedience, socialization, and behavior modification.  Ginger would bark and growl at new dogs she met no matter how big or small they were, we worried about the safety of Ginger just as much as the safety  of other dogs that encountered her!

Our trainer Bobbie, worked with Ginger very consistently and by the end of her training session had Ginger learning to greet and play with new dogs of all shapes and sizes!  It’s crucial to understand how much to expose  a dog that has not been socialized properly, for what ever reason, and not shut them down.  Ginger is a very sweet puppy and will be a nice dog as long as the owner continues to expose her to new things and has a structured lifestyle!

Highland Canine Training offers several different dog training programs to help out with any issues you may be experiencing with your dog.  Our pograms include; inkennel training, private lessons, in-home training, group classes, and custom training.  Please contact one our trainers to see which program best fits the needs of you, your family, and of course your dog!

Bookmark It

Hide Sites