Dale Atkin:

Have you talked to the SPCA at all since getting her? I know the
shelter here (Calgary) has a really great behavioral resource center
to talk to. At least around here, if you're willing to work with her,
they are more interested in helping you work with the dog, than see
her come back.

Yes. I decided to wait a while and see what happened. Things got a little
worse before they got better and I ended up ignoring her for 4 days which
seems to have provoked a big change in her behavior, she has been very
well behaved and hasn't nipped at anyone. We did have a visit with a dog
behavorist from the SPCA who showed us several things about bite
inhibition... namely that Polly does have it but we weren't reacting in a
way that she could understand. I've been around dogs my whole life but
none of them were biters. Polly has spent as much or more time with dogs
than with people so she is not as in tune with humans but she is very
bright and eager to please. At this point I think the worst is over.

Nessa:

wait wait wait the dog was just sitting there the kid was doing
NOTHING and the dog bit out of the blue while awake with no
provocation?

is that what you mean?

Yes, that is exactly what happened. My wife, daughter and dog were all in
the kitchen. I think the dog was trying to prevent my daughter from
getting to my wife, basically the dog wanted all the attention. I think
things have turned around, you can read my post to Dale for more info.

"Mac Cool" wrote in message
...
diddy:

Take her to obedience, and don't be bashful about addressing the
reason you are there. A competent trainer will help you fix it. If
they don't..... go find a keyword COMPETENT /keyword trainer.
[petsmart or petco will probably not get it done]

Thanks.


I read up on NILIF after seeing it another post. I started on this today
and she responded extremely well, only one minor incident where she
mouthed my daughter's hair. Basically we have taken complete control and
she is not allowed to eat, poop or play, nothing, without permission. I
thought it would be a big downer but it doesn't seem to phase her and her
behavior was better. We're still going to attend obedience classes. The
downside is I really am not the kind of person that likes to micro-manage
behavior.

Hi Mac,

It's a little late but with a lab mix myself, I have to say that mine also
responds very
positively to a strong dominance structure. It may be something in the
breed, oh
well. You will have to assume and continue to maintain the alpha pack
leader
position. Once that is established you can relax a bit and allow some
freedom and
you don't have to micromanage everything - but if she is anything like mine,
this isn't
going to ever be a dog that you can just turn loose and let her be
responsible for herself.

Ted

In article ,
Ted Mittelstaedt wrote:
It's a little late but with a lab mix myself, [ ... ]

Untrained lab mix, that you've really made a very minimal
effort to train.

One of the biggest problems with Usenet is that when you ask
for advice you don't know whether the answers you get are
coming from people with deep expertise and experience,
someone who read something in a book, or someone who came up
with an unverified crackpot notion of what's going on and
wrote it down.

To the original poster, take your dog to an expert and get
first person help from someone who knows what they're doing.
Ted's not competent to own a dog, let alone give training
advice.
--
Melinda Shore - Software longa, hardware brevis -

Prouder than ever to be a member of the reality-based community