Reactive and aggressive dogs arent without hope, with the proper training, discipline and understanding of an animal, you can at least make a dog safe to be around, though some might not enjoy being a family pet. it takes an educated experienced dog trainer for that kind of shit though, and you need the time to take them on a walk for at least half an hour every day for 60 days strait for the discipline to stick
My dogs have 3 hours exercise each and everyday, off lead for 95% of it. The rescue we had was also well exercised.
Rescue dogs really can't be trusted 100% around young children(I wouldn't ever trust any dog 100% around children), children can be little shits where dogs are concerned and a close eye has to be kept, I caught one of my grandchildren(3 ) pulling one of my dogs ears when she thought no one was watching, short sharp shock for her with a loud deep shout, made her shit herself basically (dog didn't react to her) but knows not to do it again. I've been around dogs and horses all my life and have a good understanding of both.
the 30 minutes isnt about excursive, its about an on leash training regiment that shelter dogs could use. For 60 days, its like doggy bootcamp where they are not left alone and they are not allowed to get out of line without receiving more training. During this time, they should not be at dog parks off leash. I'm thinking of a specific training program i heard from a professional dog trainer
If you have good dogs, offleash stuff is good, the more excursive and fun a dog has the better! I have two dogs, medium and large, and I always watch my kid around them since he can be obnoxious to them. I teach him all about good manners with dogs. I strait up tell him if he hurts or scares the dog they might bite him on the face and give him a big ouchy. I don't really see my dogs ever doing that but it's not impossible and its definitely a possibility with other peoples dogs. either way, good for kids to have good manners and respect all dogs' spaces.
There are many differing types of training, various approaches, some work with some dogs and some work with others, we can all talk about differing methods, sadly most shelter/rescue dogs will never ever get this specialist training, dogs are individual and some things work for some others need different things. Most people taking a rescue don't really have the kind of time/experience that is needed to try and make a sound dog, you cannot train for every situation. Things could have happened to any dog (especially rescues) that you will never ever know about, all the training in the world won't take away that 1 trigger that the dog has learned to respond to a specific way because it's how it gets out of the situation or removes the threat, you can argue until you're blue in the face, there is no response you can give to equal that because we just don't know, that's kind of my point. No fool hardy way of proving the dog is completely safe.
I am not trying to argue with you, it's basic logic. My point about exercise is that many years ago so eone said to me " a happy dog is a tired dog" , that's very true, my dogs 1 is extremely active and loves nothing more than physical exercise, solves mental dog puzzles very quickly and is highly intelligent, the other a retriever is not as interested in the physical, loves to go sniffing around, digging holes and also having a good ole play with other dogs. I have never had a dog with a nose as good as this one, both of them have training specific to them and both have rewards of physical and mental exercise. They have both been around every dog they can be around since 12 weeks old to instill sociability In them. In my experience this is how we have made every dog we have ever had happy and healthy in every respect. They are both very well adjusted and are a massive part of the family, they know their place in the pack and are very content, they're both physically exhausted twice every day, they come home , playfight for 30 minutes at night then sleep until 7am and the whole thing starts over.
If you have did with a rich variety in life you have happy dogs, there is always going to be a niggling don't in the back of your mind with a rescue because as I have said you don't and can't know every scenario.
Thanks for the reasonable discussion.
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