Hello, My GF has a japanese Akita, 2 years old, beautiful and protective, but extremely aggressive towards most other dogs, cats and other animals. She understands the meaning of "no" which is told to her when she sees other animals, but once that happens she's completely out of control, she lunges, barks and growls while her owner can barely hold her. She doesn't respond to any command, like it's just her and the "prey" and nothing else. Since I've never had experience with training dogs that are in this state of aggression, I was hoping to get some tips here. What are the steps she should take in order to prevent this? Thank you
Is it outright aggression though, or is it coming from fear or frustration? Telling her "no" is not going to do a lot of good. No to what? In any case... you need to get to some serious training and management. If you know she's going to react, catch her BEFORE he gets himself into that state and keep her attention. The dog needs to stay under her threshold for any form of proper training to occur.
Have you tried exercising her in a headcollar, (Halti or similar), which would allow you to have more control over her head and neck. This should be used with care, and is better paired with either a normal flat collar, or a harness. Use either a double ended lead, or a pair of leads, and check her forward motion with the collar/harness, while directing the head and neck with the Halti, without any snatching. When you are out, allow plenty of room for other dogs to pass by. Don't meet head on, but take her to one side and check her impulsiveness by telling her to Sit and Wait, - remember to reward her when she does get it right. It could also be worth teaching her the Watch Me command. Not easy with this breed, so train it as a game at home, rewarding her with small tasty treats for making deliberate eye contact with you. If you are able to spot a cat, or whatever, before she does, Watch Me, can help her to stay calm by focusing her attention onto you. Try to be consistent and patient with her, she has been getting away with it for two years, and will not be able to change overnight.
Temperaments vary depending on breeding and environment but they are by nature a dominant breed with high prey drive and known for being aggressive to strange dogs. They need a confident and firm hand, it sounds like your girlfriend is out of her depth. I would recommend you get a good trainer/ Behaviourist with a good working knowledge of the breed. As an aside akitas are prone to thyroid problems, over active thyroid can cause aggression, and could be worth a blood test?
I'm an novice Akita owner myself, but it does sound like she didn't get enough socialization as a pup. From all the reading I have done this is one of the most important aspects of raising an Akita. Maybe walking her around the "outside" of a dog park for a while just to have her in the company of other dogs but without any actual contact, might help. A month or two of having a fence between them might soften her opinion of other dogs when she she's them playing and not fighting, monkey see monkey do, ya know?. However as GsdSlave said, the thyroid could be the root cause here, and if she is super aggressive for basically no reason at all, a blood test is something you should definitely consider doing. What kind of food do you feed her BTW?
My female was extremely animal aggressive as well. It tends to be a part of the breed. We had her in puppy classes and the adult classes with her still being a puppy and then in show classes. It didn't matter. She killed wild rabbits that got in the yard if she could catch them and fought with dogs that people carelessly let run wild if they got too close. She even once brought in a grouse which she then dumped on the floor and took off. However she was also so friendly with strangers and people in general and the best dog I've ever had.
