Need Advice with Prince - Page 4

Have his eyes checked, a dog with limited vision may get around fine
cause they have good noses,
 

Personally, I don't think there is a physical issue. (And no, I was NOT one of the ones to press the 'dislike' button!) I think people (and that's 'people' in general, Ruger, not you specifically) are far too willing to blame aggression on physical problems, because it lets them off the hook. No, it doesn't hurt to check...

But Prince has had aggression issues in the past. So, if you hear hoof beats, I'd tend to think horses, not zebras! 

Kudos to you for sending him on 'vacation' for a training refresher course, Ruger!

As for the Xanax, I'm not a fan of giving dogs tranquilizers. To me, it smacks of humanizing our pets, which is the cause of a LOT of behaviour problems. If he has issues with the blood draw, slap a muzzle on him, and let him deal with it. He needs to know humans are above him in the pack structure.

As proof of this, read what Kelly had to say after meeting Prince for the first time:
 

VonIsengard on 21 July 2012 - 22:46

VonIsengard Posts: 3734 Joined: Tue Feb 01, 2005 03:48 pm

For the love of God, do NOT put an e-collar on him until/unless you see me, please. What a thing to tell someone. I should have taken video of Prince working with me as I intended do before he went home, as proof of what he is capable of, but Deanna, you know what you saw. You know how he can behave. You saw the way he behaved at the kennel, in your home with me there, and the pet stores we took him out to with me present. His age, however, means that window of resolution we discussed is closing rapidly, and the window to get some time with me is closing just as fast. For the record, he is not shy. He also does not have a low threshold for pressure, in fact, quite the opposite. For those wondering- in a matter of a few weeks, I could (and did) take Prince anywhere, he came to my house on my days off, and behaved beautifully with my dogs, and my family. I could have him sit politely and have anyone pet him. He was not aggressive in my yard when people would walk by. He could work off lead in any training class and calmly ignore all dogs and people in the room. It was not easy. He did challenge me and I had to back him down, but once I earned his respect we were fast friends. He does not dislike people, he likes bullying them. I think those who give training advice to novices on this and other boards should think long and hard about it. I know you mean well. Keep in mind you are trusting an owner's take on what/why something is happening, which is often off base by at least a little, and often a lot. You base your advice on what the owner *thinks* they see. Then they take what they *think* your advice means, and apply it in a way they *think* is right. The advice Deanna got with this dog the first time around was horrendous, and it led to her being afraid of what her dog was, and a fearful handler is destined to fail. Between the PDB and the godawful excuse for a trainer she had in her first class, I had to cajole her just to get him out the truck when I met him.

I can't figure out some of the dislikes either some people just get automatic dislikes. If you get dislikes it generally means you made a point someone is unable to refute.

LOOL...so the plan is to cut off his balls and put glasses on him...that would change any male in a heartbeat...LOL (sorry, thats just funny..)
i think neutering him will make a big difference...wish you all the best with Prince.

P.S.
in life we get dogs we need, not the ones we want....(i read that somewhere on here when i first joined the "club") and it made perfect sense....there is a reason for everything.
 

Neutering may help, but it is not the answer.   Neutering alone will not correct this issue.   Prince needs a consistent firm hand and hard and fast rules.  These rules must be observed and followed by everyone in the family that deals with this dog.  Prince must earn everything he gets, including affection.  Keep the dog off the bed, stop treating him like a child and take charge again.  Going to Kelly is a great idea. But you must take over after that.   You are going to need to change how you interact with him and change the rules fast.  Then when you are ready you pick the time and set up this behavior to happen and have a "come to Jesus" meeting with Prince.   Be prepared for him to be aggressive, be mentally prepared to win at all costs and have the deck stacked in your favor.   It won't be anywhere near as bad as you think and I'm sure he will comply pretty quickly.  

Pm, email or call me for more detailed advice.  I'm glad you are sticking with him and I am very proud of you for not giving up, realizing there is a problem and taking charge.   Other folks would have been afraid and probably put a dog like him down a long time ago.  As always I'm here to help you.

Jim

Deanna - I would guess that no one on this board understands what it's like to own a dog like Prince better than Martin and I do. Bosco is way more dog than we would have chosen to own at our experience level. He is a strong dog that is also very dog and person aggressive. I'm sorry to be unkind but there is simply no short-cut when you own a dog like this. You have to regularly obedience train and expose the dog to situations where he is told that he MUST tolerate things he would prefer not to. Of course, we are super busy - we're moving to Alberta this month from SW Ontario but we just get up earlier to work with Bosco every day (sometimes at 4:30 AM to fit in his training). Sending Prince to Kelly won't really fix your issues anymore than having Bosco's breeder train him would have worked for us. Bosco greatly respects his breeder and would never pull the crap that he's pulled with us- most of the training that we did focused on us learning to handle Bosco. I don't think Prince requires drugs at the vet; with patience, I think he can be taught to obey a "stand for exam" command with/without a muzzle depending on the vet. I said it before in my earlier post but the biggest thing we learned is not to let what Bosco wants limit our expectations for him. Martin showed Bosco in a SV show in June to demonstrate that he had control over Bosco; they'll also try for their BH fairly soon. It's been a crazy amount of work but we've also had a lot of fun and learned a lot.

If you ever want to chat then PM me and I'll send you my phone number. Sometimes it helps to know that someone has been in a similar situation and had success. I'm not qualified to give training advice but I can share the program that we went through with Bosco's breeder. I gained a lot from your Prince threads and would be pleased to contribute to your success in a tiny way.

I agree with much of what has been said by Sunsilver and Slam.
LOL......come to jesus.

Sigh,
Zanex, Ativan, maybe a little medical marijuana.