Thank you so much (from the bottom of my heart) to everyone, especially 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] Chance, who has taken time out of their lives to reply to my cry for help, you really do not know how much I appreciate it. I am sorry for my late reply but I only come into town about once a week to use the internet. I posted on two other forums and even though had over 30 replies in total, none offered any practical advice, only negative comments from very condescending people, such as we are idiots that shouldn’t have dogs and the mastiffs should be re-homed immediately as they are dangerous and aggressive. I have made a commitment to all of my dogs, they will not be re-homed (surely that should never be the first thing that springs to mind??), and I am 100% committed to working through this problem.
They are only puppies, they never even drew blood, just got a good hold on one of the goats. Perhaps two puppies at the same time was a bold move, but we have plenty of space and plenty of time to dedicate to their training, and there are two of us. I never planned to have 8 dogs. Here in Ecuador there are a lot of poorly street dogs and we have been “gifted” two of them. We trained all of our Chihuahuas and the two that have been here for months behave perfectly well around the livestock. I certainly don’t think that little dogs should get away with murder! The two we brought over recently from the UK have never encountered goats or horses and so yes, I should have perhaps thought about how they would react to them, but had no reason to think that they would cause any problems, let alone with the mastiffs who have lived and played next to the horses and goats since they were 7 weeks old. The funny thing is that the mastiffs (who are now restricted to the Fort-Knox like garden) even once they started their chasing the livestock hobby, were still quite happy to ignore the horses and goats who are in the paddocks surrounding the garden 90% of the time. We used to have the horses water butt right on the fence line and the dogs would ignore them. We have now moved all the animals so they do not share a fence line with the garden and pretty much the mastiffs cannot see them, or do people think we should leave the animals sharing the fence line with the garden ?
I have emailed about ten trainers that I eventually found in Ecuador and no one would travel to see us, so this forum is truly a god send. I have trained Dobermans and Rottweilers (and the Chis) with positive only methods (not positive punishment!) and they worked out really well, the Mastiffs have been too, but up till now, none of the dogs I have trained have ever done anything really serious, so this is my first time encountering any real problems that I need to address. I am not adverse to correction training, I simply do not know that much about it. Could anyone post some links that would point me in the right direction? What methods do people use with success? I must admit I was at a loss of what to do when one of the girls had bitten down on the goat and wouldn’t let go. I used a stern voice and we had her by the scruff of the neck but not much worked. What should I have been doing? When the horses were surrounding the garden, occasionally, the mastiffs would just sit and bark at them, not making a move towards them really, just barking. Is this the type of behaviour that should be corrected? If so, by saying “no” in a stern voice (or other word of choice!) or should I also be doing something else? I was not that bothered about it as they were around the horses when I was grooming them etc. with no problems at all. If they are not on a lead (which they won’t be most of the time in the garden, I guess a choke chain (or prong collar) will be no use, so what methods does everyone use?
One of the mastiffs especially barks a lot when strangers come into the garden (we never let this happen unless we are there), she stops eventually but should we also be giving her a correction for letting this continue more than a few barks? Also, sometimes when I am walking the girls, one or the other decides they don’t want to go any further and just sits down, no matter what cajoling we try, she won’t move unless towards home. What should we do under these circumstances? Corrections?I just assume she is not in the mood and shouldn’t force her. I am also going to try and find out where I can get a muzzle from, it might have to wait until we have visitors from home.
Thanks so much again everyone, you have made my day. I feel so much happier about the situation now; they really are good and (generally!) obedient little girls, not aggressive killers. I will try and get some photos of all the animals being happy together soon (fingers crossed) and we are going to start work straight away J or should I leave the goat training for a while so the excitement does down? So many questions…………….
