Hi all,

Sorry I haven't been around for a few months, have had some personal stuff going on that unfortunately has meant me not being online hardly ever. I'm looking for some advice for a friend please.

She has a five year old red setter that has started attacking black dogs & is stuck with what to do about it, she's very upset & is even thinking about having him put to sleep as the most recent case was a labrador he attacked & the owner said she needs to control him & called him a dangerous dog that she cannot control. She presently has two setters & has always had setters. He is the first setter to behave this way & she's at her wits end at what to do. He's a strong dog so she cannot walk him purely on lead as he's too strong for her. She's tried the extendable leads, but he's broken them every time as he's too strong when he runs. Her other setter is seven but has a disease that makes her an old dog before her time, so walks are a struggle & she finds it hard to breathe. This is a problem due to the time it takes her to run to the dog as he doesn't listen when he has his sights set on another dog with the bitch with her on her lead.

She paid a lot of money for a lady to go to the house to help, but the lady said it was all about dominance & he needed to learn he was bottom of the pack, she told her to make sure he's fed last of all. This though did nothing to help the problem of him attacking black dogs when on walks & she felt it had been a total waste of money. She has bought him a muzzle now for when they are out so even though he will run at the dogs he cannot hurt them as he's muzzled. She's very upset as she loves her boy dearly, but doesn't know where to turn or what to do about his behaviour. Can anyone offer any advice or ideas at what else she can try as she is very worried it cannot be stopped & her only option is going to be to put her boy to sleep. Thankyou all in advance.

Anyone?

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(30-05-2010 02:50 PM)Midnight Moonbeam Wrote:  Hi all,

Sorry I haven't been around for a few months, have had some personal stuff going on that unfortunately has meant me not being online hardly ever. I'm looking for some advice for a friend please.

She has a five year old red setter that has started attacking black dogs & is stuck with what to do about it, she's very upset & is even thinking about having him put to sleep as the most recent case was a labrador he attacked & the owner said she needs to control him & called him a dangerous dog that she cannot control. She presently has two setters & has always had setters. He is the first setter to behave this way & she's at her wits end at what to do. He's a strong dog so she cannot walk him purely on lead as he's too strong for her. She's tried the extendable leads, but he's broken them every time as he's too strong when he runs. Her other setter is seven but has a disease that makes her an old dog before her time, so walks are a struggle & she finds it hard to breathe. This is a problem due to the time it takes her to run to the dog as he doesn't listen when he has his sights set on another dog with the bitch with her on her lead.

She paid a lot of money for a lady to go to the house to help, but the lady said it was all about dominance & he needed to learn he was bottom of the pack, she told her to make sure he's fed last of all. This though did nothing to help the problem of him attacking black dogs when on walks & she felt it had been a total waste of money. She has bought him a muzzle now for when they are out so even though he will run at the dogs he cannot hurt them as he's muzzled. She's very upset as she loves her boy dearly, but doesn't know where to turn or what to do about his behaviour. Can anyone offer any advice or ideas at what else she can try as she is very worried it cannot be stopped & her only option is going to be to put her boy to sleep. Thankyou all in advance.

Hi there,

This may seem a little out of the blue but I am a researcher for a company called Maverick Television and we're currently scouring the nation for problematic animals and pets to feature on our brand new Animals series for a Channel 4 prime-time slot.

This sounds like it could be an interesting case and we may be able to help. Do you think your friend may be interested in having their dog appear on our show and be looked at by our team of expert vets, specialists, and behaviourists?

It'd be great if you could contact us on 0121 224 8314 (ask for Tom) or email us your contact details to animals@mavericktv.co.uk

I look forward to hearing from you soon,

Tom
Junior Researcher
Maverick Television[i]

Have you thought about possibly having it trained? If you can not afford training the dog you could read some tips online and watch some videos of how others might train their dog. Training is really the only thing that I think might help because it has to learn what is wrong and was right for some dogs, that takes serious 101 training.