Hi Guys,
Today was good, well as good as it could be in the circumstances.
I liked the behaviourist
, she told me right at the start she would be totally honest and would not offer me any false hopes. What I would hear would be her honest opinion and not necessarily what I may want to hear.
She undertook a very detailed questionaire going right back to the day we first went to visit Billy at the kennel. His surroundings at that time etc etc how he reacted with us, we covered absolutley everything.
She is a member of the association of pet behaviour councellors and said in her years of experience and knowledge she is 90% + certain that Billy does not have rage syndrome
. As she does not know the full details of the cocker case of rage with Billys great grandad she cannot really take that into acount. In her opinion some cockers have been PTS having been diagnosed by the vet as having rage. In her opinion vets are not the ones to make the diagnosis, it needs to be carried out by a experienced behaviourist. Some cockers PTS with rage may therefore not have been rage may actually have just been agression and dominance problems.
Billy has typical cocker behavioural problems which she has seen over and over again in her years as a behaviourist and nothing out of the ordinary or to be overly concerned about. She said she could see by my answers given in the questionaire that Billy's dominance has slowly crept up over his young years and has gone unoticed by us. She is sending me a full typed report and a programme to follow for a minimum of 6 weeks but didn't go onto too much detail as to what it entails. It could take months to see an improvement or it could be weeks but there is no overnight cure.
90% of the dogs that she sees for agression problems are cockers. She said when you compare the number of cockers that are sold each year to the number of cockers sold by responsible breeders who only use good lines the difference is astounding. This is why there are so many cockers out there with problems which is giving the cockers a bad name. She said because cockers are such a loving and cute breed often owners treat them like humans and pamper them, this can later cause aggression problems.
Action Plan :-I have to buy billy a house line which he must wear whilst in the house except at bed time. He must have no access to the furniture. If he gets onto the furniture we must command him once and once only to get down, if he does not then we gently take the end of the line and lead him to the floor whilst giving no eye contact.
We must completely ignore him as though he is not there when he demands attention. Only when he is quiet with all four paws on the floor can we command him nicely to come. He must come straight away and during this time we can give him attention and cuddles etc for a few moments and then walk away. If he does not come straight away then he has missed the boat, he gets nothing, no attention.
Any growling must be totally ignored and walked away from and under no circumstances must we raise our voices or give him eye contact during this time of growling as this will be misinterpreted by Billy as an invite to confrontation.
We have to buy him an exciting new toy. We must play with billy three times a day for 5minutes with this toy and then put the toy away when we decide. No amount of demanding from billy must alter them amount of time we play for. We must always be in control , never Billy.
I must never put myself in a position where my safety may be at risk. Billy must not be fed at the exit door of the kitchen door anymore as then if he starts i have no exit. From now on i will be feeding him outside.
She did say in her report she will be strongly recommending that I have billy castrated
. she said I have to consider this option and discuss with my vet. This will not change billy and will certainly not fix his problems but it may take the edge off any aggression that is building up inside him. She said an entire male has more testosterone in his body than a male stud.
When we are frightened we release feremones (sp???). These can be picked up by Billy straight away and this will make me look weak and give billy a sense of achievement that he is succeeding in being dominant with me. It is very important that I overcome my fear of him asap.
So its boot camp for Billy. Its only day one and i am finding it hard already. He is begging for attention.
She gave me some leaflets and a small book to read. I should receive my report in the next day or so.
Many thanks for your replies, i will keep ypu updated of my progress ( I hope!)
Sorry for the long waffle!!!
