How do I deal with agressive behavior???
Her confidence has grown loads since we collected her, she used to cower and hang her head low and also when recalled drop to the floor and show her belly. One of the problems that we have with her, is that in certain situations she approaches people and other dogs agressively. When it is a person she cries, growls, lunges towards the person & barks. She will only do this if some makes her jump or is heavy handed with her, as an example, she fell asleep on my friends knee, my friend moved suddenly and jerked and Taffy woke suddenly cried, growled and went as though she was going to bite her. She has been close enough to people and other dogs and has had the opportunity to bite but never has. Her problem with other dogs, is jealously, if me or my partner are showing her attention and another dog approaches, she again, goes to chase them growling, making alot of noise, but never actually biting, also if human food is present when another dog is there she again does the same. When she is out with other dogs or as long as attention or food is not on offer, she is a little moody but gets on fine with other dogs, playing and running. Apart from this she is a loyal, loving, easish to train dog. I am trying to find out how to stop her, so she knows that her actions are wrong, people have told us to turn our backs, which we have done on several occasions to no avail, also we have just started to make her go down straight after the event, but have not been doing this long enough to see if it is effective. As it seems that human food is the problem we have also stopped feeding her any human food and also we are praticing the dominance training. I wondered if she growls at people because she has been mistreated, as her reaction to people is fear and then attack, although niether actions is acceptable and I wondered if anyone has any advise that may help us resolve this issue. |
|
|
I just need to jump in and say WELCOME to the forum!
 |
good question i had a boy about 1yr. and all of a sudden he is starting to growl but we have found it is due to pain agression..my trainer said to talk sweet to him and get his mind off of that moment he wants to get agressive, last nite derby didn't what to get up to go out and he growled when we moved him so i then instead of yelling  i called him in a sweet voice when he came gave him a treat.. all here will give you some good advice, i could use the help too |
Quote: last nite derby didn't what to get up to go out and he growled when we moved him
You might consider picking up a clicker... our local PetSmart had some pretty cheap. To load the clicker... Get some super tasty treats and hold them in your hand. Click the clicker and immediately give a small treat to the dog. Click, treat... click, treat... click, treat. Repeating this 12-15 times should be sufficient. Periodically call him to you using the clicker and reward him so he remembers what a click means. Next time you need him to go outdoors but he's being stubborn, try this... Make sure you have a treat in your hand. Call him and click the clicker... he should come running. |
| It can take a long time for rescues to come around... especially dogs that might have been abused or harmed in some way by humans. It sounds like you've done a great job in helping Taffy become a more confident dog.
I would recommend the assistance of a humane trainer to help you one-on-one. Below are just some things you might consider if she won't bite and with the understanding that I am NOT a professional trainer... Quote: as her reaction to people is fear and then attack
It makes it difficult not knowing a dog's past. There's most likely something there that explains this behavior. I don't have a whole lot to share other than to keep her on a lead when out if public so she's not allowed to act out this behavior. It sounds like she's at least felt that she had to call on her "fight or flight" responses in the past and found what she's doing works. If you can build on positive experiences out in public with dogs and people, maybe she could learn that no one will harm her and she doesn't need to lash out. This is just an observation but... When we got our Old English Sheepdogs they seemed to teach our other two dogs what normal dog behavior was. Maggie, who was terribly shy of people, later cried to get out to meet people who came to the house. Meesha who's a little brat loosened up some too. Is there an easy going dog that she might be able to hang around with that will show her the way to be a more relaxed dog? I've got 6 dogs... if one shows any jealousy or growls for any reason, I immediately stand up and leave. They've learned that NO one gets my attention and petting if they act this way. It might help to observe her a few times... see if you can tell what signals she's sending out before she challenges another dog or a human. Watch for any tensing, stares or a stiff leg stance. What I would consider is telling her to "leave it" before she can even get to a challenge and get her focus on something else. If you can make a correction before she lunges, maybe it will help. I guarantee this will NOT correct the entire problem but maybe it will at least help a little. One of my dogs arrived with food aggression. She would lunge at any of the dogs if they came near her while she was eating... if a piece of food hit the floor she would nip them and make them yelp. So each night before we went to bed, I worked with her for maybe 5 minutes. I would take a bland treat and drop it on the floor and say "leave it". If she went for it I'd again say "leave it" and put my shoe covered foot over the treat so she couldn't get it. I'd then say "look at me" and bring a SUPER tasty treat up to my face. If she looked at me, she got the treat. I'd pick up the treat an repeat the thing again and again. She now knows that if food hits the floor, she can always look to me for more. I don't know if any of this will help but good luck to you! |
| Jaci,
I just love reading your posts, I always pick up a great piece of advice. Thanks! |
Hey... that's really nice of you to say.  I know there are times people roll their eyes at the length of my posts   I just want people and their dogs to be able to stay together and live in peace.
I just... woof!... live with... bark! bark!... dogs... yap!... almost 24/7. 
Anyone living with a pack "learns the beast" a little quicker. And I lived with a supreme-alpha, dog-aggressive, regal sheepie-mix for 11 years who was a loose cannon waiting to go off at times. I had to find ways to MAKE it work until the day she died of cancer almost 4 years ago. The last 5 years were difficult because we brought in two other dogs. She was my first pup (a rescue) as an adult... I know there were things I did wrong in raising her. You couldn't force this dog to do anything but you could bribe her to do everything except roll over as submissive. So I've been there and just try to help others possibly find a faster solution than I ever did. It's interesting... most people with lots of interaction with dogs will probably feel the same way but what's second nature to me NOW was completely unknown 8-9 years ago... some of it even 1 year ago. |
Quote: You couldn't force this dog to do anything but you could bribe her to do everything
This is the same with Taffy, she does not become agressive but it is difficlut to get her to do anything without offering a treat first, she is so stubborn, if a treat is on offer she will do most things easyily but if you ask without showing a treat she is so hard work and sometimes will just turn a deaf ear until either you force her or show a treat. If anyone knows the solution to this, let me know please???? Or maybe most dogs are like this??? |
stacyntaff wrote: Quote: You couldn't force this dog to do anything but you could bribe her to do everything This is the same with Taffy, she does not become agressive but it is difficlut to get her to do anything without offering a treat first, she is so stubborn, if a treat is on offer she will do most things easyily but if you ask without showing a treat she is so hard work and sometimes will just turn a deaf ear until either you force her or show a treat. If anyone knows the solution to this, let me know please???? Or maybe most dogs are like this??? Great questions. I have just posted something in the "Training" area of the forum on this. |
Didn't find exactly what you're looking for? Search again here:
Custom Search
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|