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[quote=Anonymous]My own mixed breed dog just turned 2 and also recently developed aggression issues.  After 18 months of purely positive training—and we were fully committed, with lots of follow-up—I recently switched to “balanced” training.  Essentially, a balanced trainer uses not only positive reinforcement but negative consequences as well, e.g. with the use of an e-collar.

I was opposed at the start, but my dog, who could perform beautifully in all respects at home (tricks, commands) started going batsh*t crazy when people came over.  She developed protective territoriality issues concerned with protecting me and my DH.  The last straw was when, even while wearing a muzzle, she muzzle punched my brother and gave him a black eye.

I’m now working with an excellent balanced trainer, and in only 3 session, my dog is amazingly much better.  For our last session, our trainer had friends of hers come over to knock on our door, and then we worked on making sure our dog would bark to alert but then stand back and be polite.  She had to allow the person to be greeted by us and come inside, and we were able to hug and talk with the strangers.

This involved about 45 minutes of lots of positive training (verbal marking & treats for every time the dog focused on us), plus two instances of negative reinforcement (e-collar stims when the dog started to react and didn’t respond to “uh uh”).  The negative reinforcement was, “No!” followed by a stim.  After two times, she absolutely responded well and maintained her distance.  No more lunging at the door (or the stranger).

I was so thoroughly opposed to e-collar training that I feel I need to be an outspoken advocate now that I’ve seen its benefits.  There are lots of good YouTube people to watch.  I’ll go find a few of their names and report back.

Be sure, though, that you work with a trainer if you go the e-collar route.  It’s easy, I imagine, to train improperly or too harshly.  But a good trainer will demonstrate the e-collar on you and explain the best way to apply it.

I now have a dog who might soon be able to hang out in public spaces again, the way she used to before she hit her doggy teens.  Good luck![/quote]

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