Aggresive
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| Have you gone through an obedience program? |
| Yes, a couple of times. I even had the trainer come to my house, and she left bleeding. Duchess can be very loveable, but you always have to watch her. She hates other animals also, and makes things quite difficult. |
| Sounds like you have a serious problem.
I am assuming that you have had her to the Vet and there is no physical reason for her aggression. You need intensive training, perhaps a dog behaviorist. An obedience program only works if you are consistent and put time into training daily. There are no quick fixes. I suggest you read a book, The Dog Listener by Jan Fennell. Perhaps your Vet can recommend a GOOD trainer to help you deal with this. If you find it necessary to lock her up when your Grandson is visiting you have the potential for a very serious problem. You will/can get lots of good advice here but the bottem line is that you need a GOOD trainer to evaluate the situation. |
| I tried everything I can think of. My vet is also leary of her and we've tried several different kinds of medications to calm her down ( thinking that might help).
Don't get me wrong, I'm not giving up. I love her and she adores me. Which makes me think it's a jealous issue. Cause she's fine when it's just us. Would love to figure out something before my next Grandson arrives. I'll try to post pic's of her later. She's quite big and I've been told extra large for a female OES. I've watched the dog whisper on TV and prayed that maybe he would visit. I've read so many books and sites and nothing seems to help. I think she just likes to get her way. Doesn't like hair grooming, hates it when someone leaves the house. Basically it's her home and we only live there. LOL |
| This sounds almost identical to Walter! I used 4 different trainers before I found one that worked (and we still have a few problems). I would recommend finding a positive reinforcement trainer asap, using rewards might help you curb the aggression.
What happens when you try to leave the house? Does she go after you aggressively? |
| Usually she tries to block the door and then she starts jumping and I can hear her barking while I'm driving away. I can deal with that, cause I figure she has separation anxiety. My main worrys are the aggresion.
A couple of weeks ago she snapped at my Grandson, but, then in the back of my head I thought if she really wanted to she would have? Do you think she's too old now to learn different ways to control her behavoir? |
| Dogs, aggressive or not, should never be "trusted" around children. A dog with proven aggression shoulds not be second guessed, it should be assumed that she is dangerous.
I know you love her and because you love her you need help fast. It is quite possible to rehabilitate an aggressive dog so all is not lost. You do however need lots of help. Yea, we all wish Cesar would come visit us and turn us into trainers but unless you think that is likely to happen I would find a good trainer in your area, keep trying til you find one that will work with you. |
| Thanks. I am so happy to find this site. I've wanted to talk to someone for the past five years that have a OES. Duchess is the only one in the area that my vet is aware of.
Sad to say though, she'll probably be my last one. |
Welcome to OES.org. 
Where are you from? |
| I live in Blacksburg, Virginia. Got Duchess from a breeder in SC. |
| I'm sorry you're having problems with your sheepie.
So, has she been aggressive like this her whole life or is it something relatively new? And is it the same in intensity or has it been getting worse? How old is your grandson? Has he spent much time around her? Do you think he might have done something unintentional to provoke her (like pulling himself up using her hair)? Sorry for all the questions! And welcome from Virginia! How come you think she'll be your last sheepdog? |
| She's always been like this. And I've learned how to live w/ her.
Actually my grandson is older and I've had him almost every weekend since I bought her. No he wouldn't do anything to her. He knows how she is and he trys to avoid her. No worry's about all the questions. I should say that she is also loveable too. She's not all bad and I hope I haven't gave that impression. She has had a lot of medical issues too. I guess theres several reason why I wouldn't get another one. And I didn't think I would ever hear myself saying this. A OES was my dream dog growing up and I was thrilled when I could buy one. However, the medical issues have about broke me. When someone visits I have to make accomdations for her. I would never have a guest come into the house w/ her there. She wouldn't be aggresive at that point, she would more than likely knock them down. Which is strange, cause my best friend has MS and she's very good around her. Trust me I could write a book and life w/ Duchess. It would fall on the lines of Marley and me. |
| What sort of medical issues does Duchess have? Could these be part of the reason for the aggression? Also, how does she behave if you are not there? My female OES tends to "guard" me, and for some reason only me...although not anywhere near as intensely as what you are describing. |
| She's had about 15 urnary tract infections and it finally came to surgery. Her privates were growing towards the inside instead of out and that seems to have helped. She only had one infection this year.
My daughter says that she lays in my bed while I'm gone. And she does protect me. But, I do have to say that she thinks it's funny to try to knock me down in the back yard. Trust me, Duchess is a trip. Spoiled also. I can't imagine not having her. And then I can't imagine getting another one either. |
| Welcome to the forum,
It's never too late to teach a dog new tricks! No, really it is never too late. However, you probably cannot overcome this problem without help from a professional trainer. Not all trainers are the same. I recommend you go to a trainer that is certified and will sue postive reinforcement. You can go to this site, its the association of professional dog training, and put in your zip code and the names of trainers and addresses will come up. www.apdt.com I think both you and your dog will enjoy the training. It certainly will help. if you are worried about costs, group classes are not as expensive as you may thing and if you need private, talk to the trainer. they may work something out for you. Good luck. |
| Please do contact a trainer. You can hope and pray that the dog whisperer will pay you a visit, but in all honesty, you need to take some action to make your hopes and prayers for Duchess to come true.
Duchess sounds like an intelligent and perceptive dog. The fact that she's good with a friend who has MS is a good sign that she is able to understand others limitations. This means she's very trainable! The fact that she thinks she owns the house and only lets you live there tells me that perhaps she has you trained really well and that perhaps you need someone else to train you to be the one in charge. I don't mean it in an unkind way, but she seems to have realized that she can push you around and so she does. I know that it's amusing in some ways, but it sounds very inconvenient in other ways, and even dangerous if she's aggressive towards your grandchildren and other visitors and knocks you down. I'm not suggesting that you be mean in any way or agressive. That would be a mistake. But you can decide that humans are the ones in charge and quietly assert your authority. It can be as simple as ignoring unwanted behavior. Example: right now, my two 11 month old puppies (who are enormous by the way) are still learning the ropes. They are convinced that they don't get enough physical affection, which for them, means being petted or scratched oh, say, 23 hrs a day. Sophie will come over for affection, which is freely given for a while, but then I'm ready to stop scratching behind her ear. She puts her paw on me. If I scratch her behind her ear again, she learns that putting her paw on me is a way to get what she wants: a scratching. This will continue for ---well, I don't know how long she'd keep it up, but a lot longer than I want to scratch her! If I ignore her paw, she will move on to some other behavior to try to get what she wants. She'll rub against me or perhaps quietly bark. I ignore that. If she lays down quietly next to me, she gets what she wants: some more scratches and praise. But she wants me to continue even when I am ready to stop. I am easily sucked into giving in to the paw, but it is a mistake, and I know it, so Sophie and I are both being trained by me as to the right way to get affection. I know that I have to train myself--and Sophie about the right way to get what she (and I) want. It doesn't happen immediately but over time, it does happen. Sophie's learned to go quietly to the back door and wait (she does look mournfully at us over her shoulder) if she wants or needs to go outside. It took a while to get her to do that instead of barking at us, but she's learned patience. But that was partly growing up some, and partly us ignoring the barking. Sherman, her brother, and Archie, her oldest brother, are more content to simply wait for our schedule to take them out, almost all of the time. I'm happy enough with Sophie's signals and since she's had some problems with urinary incontinence, I accomodate her if I think she's being reasonable. Can you walk Duchess on a leash? It really does help for a dog to have at least one good, long walk a day. This burns off extra energy for the dog, and also reinforces that you are in charge, and helps you act as the leader, as Cesar Milan would put it. You can start off short and sweet, with just a 10 or 15 minute walk and build from there. It can make a tremendous difference. Grooming is the same thing. I don't show my dogs, so my goal is to have my dogs reasonably clean, reasonably neat and presentable, and not matted. I brush them at the end of the day, usually while watching television. I'm willing to make it a brief brushing most of the time, because my goals are modest--I don't need them to look like show dogs. Grooming is a way that I not only keep my dogs presentable, but also share affection, assert my authority over them, and very important: check them over so I can be aware of any small bumps or lumps or possible problems. I start with just a few minutes (and one small part of the dog) at a time, and gradually, work up to longer periods of grooming. But I do it at the end of the day when I know and they know we are all settling down for the night and I do it when I feel calm and relaxed. Do they like it? Well, Sophie actually does, but Sherman and ARchie would just as soon skip the grooming part of our day. But that's ok. I'm in charge. |
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