There are no bad dogs.
Let me tell you about Logan. He is a jet black male Lab. 90lbs of ripped muscle and teeth. BIG square head and runs like no dog I've ever seen. He is amazingly fast. BUT-
He was mean. I mean REALLY MEAN. I saw him whip two German Sheppard's at once- and Logan started it- he wanted it. When I first ran across Logan, the kid down the road was whacking on him with a metal conduit pipe as he was chained to a tree. He has chipped teeth, two ribs that point the wrong direction, and a mess of scars on his face and legs.
My intent was to remove him from his current situation and find him a better place to live. we'll, he was too mean- nothing but a liability. I couldn't give him away- someone would sue me for sure. He had food aggressions, territory issues, dominance problems, and the list gos on. I called the Lab rescue- they came out, took one look at him and said no way. So I started working with him. He ran away, sometimes several times a day. He ate, humped, or whizzed on everything he could touch. He bit me- three times over the course of a year. We had our bouts, and more than once he was in the truck taking "the ride" to see the vet. Once he had the 12ga screwed into his ear in the back yard. My wife saved his life several times with her, "Honey, he's come so far. If you keep working with him, he'll be okay. Don't give up on him. You have to keep trying..." speeches. As usual, she was right.
Love, technique, patience, and persistence payed off. He is lying at my feet right now, looking up at me as if he knows I'm telling his story. Awesome dog. He is fully trained on hand and voice commands. Loves to play ball. Looses his mind for a car ride. Will gladly tolerate anything for a pat on the head and a good boy. I've put him in lay and made him stay while the cat rubbed all over him. He was glad to do, just for my approval. Now, if I raise my voice, it crushes him...
I have no problems with my 3 month old grabbing a wad of his ears and doing what a 3 month old does; and neither does Logan. He is truly a friend and I know he would lay down his life for me- probably just on command.
I'm no Caesar Milan (Dog Whisper), but I'm yet to run across a dog that cannot be rehabbed. The worse the dog is, the more it takes (time, knowledge, and attention), and you have to have some experience and education in what you are doing. Dogs have different personalities, and respond to different stimuli. They are also dogs. The same methods used on people usually are not the correct methods for dogs. I'm not saying the dog that started this post would be like Logan, but, in my experience, any dog can get to the point that they can be a productive part of a family and not have to be destroyed. Logan is not the first or only dog I've worked with. There have been other in the past, a couple I created because I didn't know what it meant to own dogs. There has been other since- the chow has a story, too.
