Ummmm hello?

Okay; I am just back from the parks. First I took the girls out for their ever so slow walk; then Luke and I went on our speed walk. Sometimes life gives me blog topics on a daily basis; nice. So today's topic is where to train aggressive dogs. When I was at the park with the old ladies this morning I heard some yellling; nosey that I am I watched to see what was up. There was a woman maybe in her late 50s sitting watching a dog leap up and nip a jogger. As I continued to watch my immediate concern was Jessie; if that dog comes my way it is not going to be good.

Then the lady sitting on the bench called to the leaping dog; it was her dog? Then some people who were playing out in the field yelled at the lady on the bench and she yelled back that she was training her dog. Hmmmmmmmmm. He then responded by "take your dog somewhere else." And I had to agree with the guy in the field. Okay; so you have a dog that chases and nips at strangers and you bring it to the park to practice? No, you do not.

Throughout my training career I have regularly been contacted with aggression cases; all sorts of aggression. And my typical response to the guardian is a referral. If your dog has issues with strangers; you most definitely need to work on that issue. But; you cannot use the general public as your guinea pigs, you just can't. You need volunteer guinea pigs for the job. That is why I always referred issues like this to trainers who had a large facility with lots of employee guinea pigs. They know that they are used for and are fine with it; plus they get paid.

You all know I am all about "off-leash" but if you have a dog that is, let's say nippy, aggressive, obnoxious or annoying then keep that leash on. Do your training and behavior modification in a facility where there are people who raise their hand to be your guinea pig. In the long run it will save you a crap load of money because the risk of being sued is pretty huge.