Meet Kronk! We adopted him ~3 years ago, after being given up on by 2 other families. When we adopted him, it was clear he was never socialized and is very reactive to other dogs and some people (Specifically men, which makes me wonder what kind of life he had as a pup). We’ve been working with a specialized Vet and Trainer for 2 years now, and he’s on some anxiety meds. He’s improved quite a bit, but he’s also gotten quite protective of my wife. So while I can walk him with only small reactions, my wife cannot. He’s very reactive and is a bite risk when someone gets close. And since he’s a cutie black lab, everyone wants to get close to pet him even when he’s actively snapping at them since they’re “Good with dogs” 😑 Anyways, we found a place that does a 3 week board and train to work with aggression, but I’m not sure how effective they are. I don’t think he’s going to get much better with us, since we have to focus on safety instead of training. And since he’s been given up on twice, I don’t want him to think we’re abandoning him since its a long program. Does anyone have experience with these type of training programs?
YouTube is full of trainers, many of them are horrible, but some are actually good and they’ll answer questions, or schedule web consults.
Find a good one, and ask them.
My suspicion is that any behavioral training that doesn’t involve you, and everyone else in your household, will be all for naught.
Effective training might require some boarding for the trainer to get a handle on the issue, and then then working with his immediate handlers on how to solve the human part of his behavior equation.
Get multiple opinions from different trainers, see if they overlap, and then move forward.
Here’s one example of a good trainer with a YT channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6vdCX3-G6oDGajvQFreLLA
He also runs boarding, training, and web consults.
But, please don’t just take my word on his credibility. I’m just someone who’s watched some of his videos, and liked what I saw, that’s it’s. I’m not a dog training expert, or a shill, so take my opinion for whatever you feel it’s worth, or don’t.
Thanks for the advice! I agree, the best training would involve us which is one reason why I’m hesitant on board & train. But he’s stagnated for a while on his current training plan, so trying to find new options.