A Happy Ending..

I received some feedback on a dog i helped with a few years ago, it was a cross breed (some GSD in it i think) it had ran into a garden chasing a monkjack deer and the owner of the garden hit him over the head with a plank of wood, since that attack he had become frightened of the outside world, I showed the owners a few things that in my view would help him over come it, mainly them letting go of what happened so the dog could move on and showed them how to correct the dog as he in my view had developed fear aggression, after doing what i had told them they told me today that he is 95% the old dog he used to be and far less stressed and doesn't want to attack people anymore and had learnt to trust people again, I know its only one dog, but its heart warming to know that there are at least some people out there that will listen and will step up to the plate to help their beloved dog.

To give you some idea how bad he was, I gave him a slight correction (sideways jerk of the lead, which represents a bite as they do in the wild) while on a walk and he cowered to the ground, fortunately as dogs seem to be able to move on much quicker than humans and live more in the moment i was able to recover the situation and gain his trust and respect which in turn enabled me to help him on his road to recovery.

He was showing a lot of aggression, but after he cowered to the ground with my slight correction I then knew it was not really aggression but all based on fear.

To prove to the owners that he had really moved on I took the dog along with them to the house where the attack happened, I gave the owners strict instructions not to think about what happened in the past and they must just remain calm no matter what happened, as luck would have it the guy who attacked the dog was in his garden....the dog did not bat an eyelid or react at all whatsoever.