[matese]

Cody Loves all ppl, when it comes to dogs, he is totally out of control. Lunging, barking, growling. My vet visit last Friday was horrific. There’s no way I can stop his behavior. I am embarrassed, humiliated, I have no control over him. Some lady carrying a 2 lb yorkie was laughing at his insanity, when she turned to enter the vets door, (I was standing outside the office due to Codys aggression at the other dogs in the waiting room) behind her back Cody leaped into the air to ????? I don’t know if he wanted to bite the lil yorkies butt that you couldn’t even seen. I take him to Pet Supplies, put him in the basket, he is fine until he sees a dog, then all hell breaks loose, he tries to climb out of the cart, I am so embarrassed. I have never had a dog with these issues. All my past pups I got as babies I socialized them with neighborhood dogs, I had 3 at one time, all 3 y/o apart they all got along great, never ever a growl between them, they loved all dogs, always wanted to play with any dog they met. When I was at the groomer last week, they run a doggie day care also. I wanted to enroll him, but told them of his issues, Said I didn’t know if it was fear aggression, or over excitement to play, or his protection over me. A lady came in to pick up her lil Shih Tzu, Cody went nuts, the gal that works the day care gave me “the look” as if to say “I don’t think so” but never said it. She told me I have to speak to the person in charge, they would TRY putting him in with one dog to see how it would go. I wasn’t comfortable with that. His action at the vet sealed it for me, for his own safety he needs training. Where I live there are not many dogs that are leash walked, they are back yard dogs, I know the technique of how to distract your dog when another is on a leash and approaching you, how ever, there are no dogs here to do that training. Last week I called an obedience school that was referred to me , explained to them about Cody, asked if they had trainers that worked with dogs like this, Yes they did. The owner told me to bring him in for an evaluation that afternoon. When I took him in they had a 5 month old border collie they used for this evaluation. A very well trained 5 month old. One of the trainers took Cody’s leash and walked several times past the Border Collie. Cody had his eyes fixed on me as I was standing against a wall watching the trainer & him. He looked at the dog once, then focused back to me. The trainer walked several more times, each time went a little closer to the collie, Cody’s eyes all the time fixed on me. Trainer said nothing wrong with this dog. I told trainer Cody's eyes were fixed on be, he cannot be 2 feet away from me. I asked if I can do the walking she just did. When I did the walk, Cody gave an example of what he does. Not the totally crazy lunging, the Border Collies was being distracted by treats being given to him by another trainer, so that dog never even looked Cody’s way. The trainer pointed out to me the way I was holding his leash, when Cody saw the Collie he turned to look at him and gave a tug to get closer, and he was growling, I tightened up on the leash and held him back, the trainer said by me tightening up on the leash, preventing Cody to get closer, I was sending Cody a message this Collie was danger. 40 years I hold a leash the same way, I have to train myself to change the way I hold the leash, I know you first have to train the trainer before the trainer can train the dog iyiyi. They are putting him in a beginners class, just him and one other dog, depending on his progress they will add another dog, then another, 3 dogs total, I was told all dogs will be bigger then him, I’m not happy about that, I would like to see him with dogs a little closer to his size, he is close to 13 lbs, he has average size body, but longer legs, The goal is to have him in a group of dogs and be relax among them. I hope we can get this aggressive behavior out of him. To me this is a safety issue to him. I want a happy, relaxed, stress free lil boy. I have a late afternoon appointment today, have delicious fresh cooked chicken cutlets for reward treats, it will be close to his dinner time, he will be hungry, he loves food, I feel he is food motivated. I just hope Cody and I will not be kicked out of class because of his behavior. Keeping fingers