Aurelius, the aggressive dog who came from Texas
Aurelius was a 2 yr old black German Shepherd who was majorly aggressive, needing behavior modification, leash training and socialization. His owner drove him from Houston, Texas, to Gainesville, Florida, for us to rehabilitate his dog.
Here are safety protocols for dealing with dogs with aggression issues:
SAFETY protocol – Do you like your face? When collaring up a dog, make sure your face is above their crate. That way, if they do lunge at you, they get the crate and not your face.
SAFETY protocol – We asked his owner to muzzle train Aurelius before he came to us. While Aurelius didn’t love his muzzle, he knew what to do. This allowed us to safely work him. For some dogs, kissing is a contact sport that they like to win.
For the first 10 days, Aurelius was muzzled before we got him out of his crate, and the muzzle was taken off after he returned to his crate. As his trust in us grew, we muzzled him less and less. Unless we put him in a new situation, then we muzzled him for the safety of everyone – and every dog – involved.
SAFETY protocol – Make sure all other dogs are put away. Only get one dog out at a time. Our personal pack dogs were locked in another room when we first started working with Aurelius.
SAFETY protocol – Have a plan! We had a plan in place for taking Aurelius out of the car that very first time. Richard and I (Victoria) were there and each had an important job to do. Even everyday things like taking him for a walk involved a quick plan. Who would take him? What equipment would they use? Who would he walk near? When we challenged him – with socials, vet visits, acupuncture, greeting dogs – we spent more time assigning roles and neutralizing distractions. While we did not have a firm plan for weeks in advance, we knew what we wanted to do with him, where we wanted to get him, and were able to do it when he was ready for it.
Accept it, things will go wrong. You may take two steps forward and one step back. We were not shy about sharing some of the things that pushed Aurelius too far. Try to reduce this happening as much as possible.
He is a dog who craves that dopamine hit, and would look for something to set him off. Like a leaf. Yes. He would see a leaf and go crazy because there was nothing else around to give him his fix. So we taught him tug. Wait we taught an aggressive dog to tug? Yes we did! Won’t that make him more aggressive? Nope! Done our way, this is an excellent way to build pack drive, teach him what he can and cannot put his mouth on, and give him a legal way to get that dopamine kick that he craves.
We taught Aurelius Conditioned Relaxation / Perception Modification, to empower him to manage his emotions and cope with stressors. While this was not the keystone for his rehabilitation, it did play a part.
He socialized with other dogs during the week he spent boarding with one of our trainers while we were at Disney World (a pre-planned vacation that his owner knew about prior to scheduling with us). This was a game changer for him. When I picked him up afterwards, he came running to greet me, so happy to see me again. This was the first time he was actually EXCITED to see one of us. A week of socialization, dirt and grass and sand under his feet, the fresh country air, structure and training were exactly what he needed. We started him with our pack ahead of time so he had friends when he went to boarding.
We taught Aurelius to walk on a treadmill. This works better for him because he can concentrate on the walk and is automatically corrected if he doesn’t pay attention (by the treadmill itself).
Is he done yet? Nope. A dog like Aurelius will require a lifetime of training and structure. He will be happiest when he has a daily routine consisting of treadmill time, place time, and tug time. Do this in the morning and evening. Find a knowledgeable trainer who offers large field socialization, which we found for his return home. And possibly an IPO group for bite work.
