Offtopic: Aggressive Friendliness and roughhousing...help
She is quite gentle with people, quiet and friendly. However, she has what our vet called a pattern of "Aggressive friendliness" whereby she still sees herself as a pup and behaves like one. She is not violent or tempermental at all but she approaches other dogs with what could be considered as "bad doggy manners" i.e. she charges at full speed, tail high but wagging and attempts to engage in play right away. We try our best to get her to sit and stay, but sometimes if we get caught off guard, she would either rile other dogs or their owners. Our vet says it is hard to curb, though using haltie or pinch collar/leash "might" curb the general charging, it would not correct her overall behaviour and how other dogs percieve her manners, he also mentioned that if she doesn't grow out of it by one, she would most probably retain that trait. Now onto roughhousing and bite inhibition... FanFan loves to roughhouse, and when she is with other big dogs, we usually let her do so, however she doesn't seem to discriminate against size. In our neighbourhood, most toy dogs tend to be walked off leash and many of them tried to instigate play with fanfan, a few months ago it was quite ok but recently after hanging out with other big dogs she attempts to roughhouse with the little 'uns 
and while nobody's been injured -- yet -- a few have yelped out of pain, fan fan would stop right away but would also instigate play the next time the meet. We are embrassed and Neighbours are obviously NOT HAPPY. What to do? Should we muzzle her when we see toy dogs around? Should we keep her away? How could she learn? Would obidence training help? thanks in advance! |
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| Well, if you haven't done any obedience training yet- I'd highly recommend it. The teachers can probably give you some good advice on how to get FanFan to "play nice" with the smaller dogs. I'm not sure what training techniques are taught overseas though? It seems to be that some methods of teaching are more prevalent in certain areas rather than others... Maybe someone with more experience can chime in?
Karen  |
| I am not an expert in this area at all - but - this behavior probably has something to do with her breed (most likely the Aussie part). I wouldn't recommend muzzling her - it may effect her negatively (especially if she isn't being aggressive - but just playing rough). It probably also has alot to do with her first few months of life - she probably didn't have the interaction with her littermates that would have taught her proper play, etc.
I agree with Karen to enroll in an obedience class (if you haven't already). By the way - Sydney loves Aussies - she immediately wants to play with them - and can come on a little "strong" too). You may want to see what the Aussie people have to say - they may be able to help with the right corrective action to take. Kristen |
| Henry is "the dog who loves too much." He also had no manners and no bite inhibition when I got him. Now at 3 he still approaches other dogs like a puppy. He loves other dogs, he is so excited to see them he becomes desparate to greet them.
The only thing that seemed to improve his behavior was to allow him to play with larger and tougher dogs who have put him in his place with a well timed growl or nip. Fortunately, he is not alpha and submits immediately. He can under no circumstances greet another dog if both are on leashes, his poor manners immediately escalate the encounter to a fight. I am sorry to say that training did not really help. He learned to meet the other dogs in the class nicely but I never successfully translated the lesson to the street. |
| IMO, you mentioned you usually let her roughhouse with the dogs her size. It sends the wrong message if you're in the training stage and you say "it's okay" ....oh wait, now it's not okay. Until she learns how to play nice or at least approach other dogs in a calmer manner, she should always be on a leash and not allowed to play in such a manner.
I wasn't positive if you mentioned you already always had her on a leash, but I was concerned when you said toy dogs would approach her to play. I don't know what the laws are where you're at, but if you're in the U.S. ...even if someone does not want to press charges, if that dog goes into a hospital for a bite injury, the veternarian is obligated to report it. From there you may be fined or worse... A dog in most states is allowed to be off the leash if and only if they come on command and they do not show aggression towards other people or animals. I know that's crazy esp. if you go to a dog park where you see all the dogs running w/o a leash, but the law will apply to them if someone gets hurt. :/ On the brighter side, it's cool to know your dog is so happy go lucky in a sense that all your OES wants to do is play, play, play.  |
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