été 2014: Coffee with a Canine

I recently had the wonderful opportunity to guest on Coffee With a Canine. It is a great blog that features owners and their fur babies. I was super excited to have the opportunity to put their cute little faces out there in the internet-sphere. I do have very handsome fellas.

Scrolling through the posts, you can read about other owners and their dogs. Some are authors, some are bloggers, some are just awesome dog owners. I personally love to take a peek at pet owners and how they interact with their babies. I love to hear the stories of how they came to be together and what their idiosyncrasies are. You never know you may find a piece of advice that could help you out.

Roscoe

My Roscoe is a really sweet guy (inside the house). Affectionate, a snuggler (inside the house). But as soon as we step foot outside our front door, he is in aggressive, overly-anxious mode. His hackles are up. His ears are forward. He is ready for any dog to come his way. And when a dog does finally cross our path, Roscoe is growling and going crazy. Walks are really tough for us. Hopefully our patience and the implementation of an e-collar will help us work this out. He responds well to the vibrate mode and we really refrain from zapping him unless it is necessary. If he gets to worked up, however, he might as well not even be wearing the collar. It has no effect.

One day we will get this right. For Roscoe's sake and for the sake of my poor hand and arm which takes quite a beating from a 80+ lb. dog going ape shit. He has been to socialization programs and done puppy/beginner classes. He can not relax enough to play with any dog. I don't think I've ever seen him play past 8 month old. I feel so bad because he can not socialize with his own kind. Play rough, chase, nip.

Please advice would be great! If you have experience with an insecure aggressive dog, please let me know your story. I need all the help I can get. We really love Roscoe, but walks are NOT FUN but he needs them badly.

Check us out at Coffee With a Canine!

Riley