Newspaper Lady
went to the newspaper lady and she was petting him, I thought it might be a good idea for winston to see his best friend ok with her, so I let go of him and he ran to her and started jumping up at her face, I went to him and he had her pants in his mouth, I got him to let go. When I asked her if he had bitten her she said, he had nipped her on her bottom. The next day we waited for her and I had him on leash, I left a bag of treats and asked her to throw one at him, and that we would try doing that for awhile to see if he could handle that. Its only been a few days, and each day seems worse, he seems to turn into cujo, snarling and growling, lunging at her. I'm not sure I should continue with this , or just have her put the paper in the mailbox and he doesn't have to deal with this. We have worked with a behaviorist for a year in the past, and he always encouraged me to deal with the situations at hand, and not ignore it. Another thing is we pass this newspaper person alot on walks. He never reacts to her on walks, I'm not even sure he knows its the same person. Its only when she's bringing the paper to the house. |
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| My dogs don't like the mailman. My girl is the most vocal and lets out low growls, but she's never been out of the house when he comes. My dogs also growl when there are people crossing the street and they are in the car. I don't know if it's their way to protect their territory. I'm sure he didn't mean to hurt the person, he just may not understand why this person keeps coming into his territory daily. Maybe someone on the board has a better explanation. |
| Is Winston a rescue?? The reason I ask - could he have been struck with a newspaper in his past? It's curious because he doesn't react to her on walks. Chauncey loves our mail lady, when she brings a package to the door she always leaves a treat or two even if we're not home. Jake our OTB lab loved her a little too much, he'd jump in the mail truck every chance he got. She took him around the block with her on occasion.   |
| No, he's not a rescue, we've had him since he was 13 weeks old. We've had lots of problems starting at 6months, it seems he doesn't like certain people, one is my niece, one was one of the trainers at class, and the other is the paperlady. This is our 1st dog ever, and we love him to death and we are trying everything, most of the time he's the perfect dog, very laid back, rarely barks, listens fairly well to someone who has never had a dog before and didn't know anything about training. We worked with a behaviorist for over a year, and he did well with the training, and we worked with him on resource guarding, thats was the main reason we got the behaviorist, because at 6month he had a bone, and my 20 year old son and his girlfriend, who has known him from day one, while he had the bone, she laid down in front of him and asked him for a kiss, and he bit her in the face around her mouth. I wasn't home at the time, so I didn't see it happen, but was so shocked because up untill this time he was great, she didn't require any stitches or anything. We see some improvement, and continue to work with him. |
| Well that blows that theory. I thought maybe the newspaper could have been the problem since he doesn't bother her on walks. Do you think he may be guarding you? We had issues with Chauncey guarding Bobby, all 6'3" 240lbs of him, even from me if he was laying down ( on the couch, floor, bed, asleep or awake ). This started at about a year for us. He would try to grab me, and did bite me twice, when I was going to bed. It took us a few months to work through this  Bobby usually takes Chauncey into the BR to watch TV for a while before I'm ready to go to bed ( I'm a bit of a night owl ). Chauncey stills stands up and walks around on the bed between us until I get into bed, then he snuggles with me and finds a spot on top of me to sleep  I do think that the incident with the bone was him guarding the bone. Is there anything in common with the paperlady, your niece and the trainer? BTW, how old is Winston? |
| Winston will be 2 in May. He may very well be guarding me, or think he's protecting me, because I get very nervous in certain situations with him, and I pull on the leash, my behaviorist thought that it had something to do with that. I do not understand how to let the leash loose when he's around my niece, or other situations. After working with the behaviorist, I decided to join a training class, we had to try out, and he did very well and we were able to join the class. 1st class he did great, 2nd class, he started snapping at one of the dogs, and when introduced to one of the older ladies who helps with the class, he acted funny with her, he turned his head quickly and it looked like he was going to bite her hand, but didn't. By the 3rd class I was a nervous wreck and so was he. He was snapping at all dogs, and I had the leash all the way up to the collar. When the same older lady came around, he went for her, and she grabbed him by the scruff and said no. I talked with the main trainor who wanted me to continue, but we weren't getting anywhere, he and I were both a nervous wreck. |
| Have you talked to your breeder about this? You'd be surprised how many of them have good solid suggestions or may see things that you aren't thinking of. |
| No, I haven't talked to the breeder, I wanted to but felt like she would take offense. We found him on the internet, and he ended up living within 10 miles of us, on a beautiful house and farm. I met his mother, and the other litter mates, Winston was by himself, never came over to us or the other litter mates, the other litter mates seemed to pick on him, and he was the smallest. My heart went out to him because I thought the other litter mates were mean to him. I know now that it wasn't the wisest choice in picking a puppy. |
| I also suggest talking to the breeder- they should be fine with discussing this with you. Other than that, how about getting a behaviourist to help tackle this specific problem. You will work through it- don't worry. |
| I would like to work with a behaviorist full time forever, my husband thinks Winston is just fine (he's never seen any of his bad behavior) because he's away alot. We have 3 boys going to college this year, and the behaviorist is very expensive. The way that I've dealt with alot of these issues, it to have winston stay at my sisters when my niece is at my house. I try to avoid all situations where he might not do well, even though my behaviorist says to confront all issues. With the resource guarding and the bone, I can take it away and my boys could take it away, but if I went to give another dog a treat and winston saw, he would go after the dog. It always seems we cure one problem and another one comes. |
| hmm - have you tried another trainer? Maybe one who specializes in agressive dogs? And no aggressive doesn't mean bad, or unworthy. Some dogs are more in your face than others and don't respond to some of the training that is popular now. One thing to keep in mind - training should be clear, effective and immediate to be fair. If you are working on training something and it isn't working - don't keep at it. Change tactics. When I was working with a behavorist and things didn't seem to be getting any better after months, I stopped going, kept my dog home away from all things that upset her (she needed time to relax) and after about 6 months found a new trainer. We resisted their behavioral training for a while (we were going for agility and some fun) because I wasn't sure it was consistent with what is currently en vogue. After three months we went to a training seminar, the trainer fixed my dog's issues in one night. Of course we had to continue to work on it in other situations - but honestly I can go anywhere and do anything now and my dog is relaxed (mostly) and happy and we have fun. |
| I just want to say thank-you to all who responded and gave advice, sometimes its just nice to have someone to vent to who understands what your going through. Its funny how I thought how hard can it be having a dog, I raised 4 kids and did a good job, but I tell everyone I know that it was much easier raising the 4 kids than this one dog.... Thanks Again |
| Is the newspaper woman okay with you using her as a training tool? I gotta say, if I got bit, I don't know if I'd be too into it! |
| Well I didn't hold her down and make her throw a treat at my dog, I asked her very nicely if she would mind tossing a treat to him. Did you have another suggestion or were you just trying to make me feel worse..... |
| This is a wonderful, funny, and loving breed. However, the first 3 years, until they find their brains can be difficult. A behaviorist at least for a limited time may be of help. He probably is feeding off your fears and anxiety. A behaviorist should show you how to correct this pretty quickly. Do you mind telling us ( generally ) where you live. Kathy |
jody92460 wrote: Well I didn't hold her down and make her throw a treat at my dog, I asked her very nicely if she would mind tossing a treat to him. Did you have another suggestion or were you just trying to make me feel worse..... That wasn't really my intention. I was more thinking about being careful about being sued and making sure this person was 100% onboard. My suggestion would be to make sure he wasn't ever running loose and only kept in a fenced-in area or inside the house when he isn't on lead so he's never in the position to get in trouble. It's too dangerous for dogs and people otherwise. Even the best dogs can be obnoxious or jump and hurt someone by accident. I would only deal with a situation head on if it were important. If it was a person that he had to have a relationship, sure, I'd put forth the effort but if he doesn't have any interaction with the newspaper person other than when he's on lead with you and she's dropping off the paper for a few moments, it it worth a lot of rehab? Or is she a friend that comes in and hangs out, too? Does he have that reaction with other people as well? That would be another thing to consider. Or I'd switch to reading the paper online and really simplify the whole operation. |
| I live near pittsburgh, I 'm going to tell the paperlady to just put the paper in the mailbox, and then winston doesn't have to see her. Whenever an incident happens, he acts really funny for about a week, his best friend came over yesterday, and he was excited at first and then he just laid down and didn't want to play. He did eventually start to play, but he's just not acting like himself. He seems nervous, always looking over his shoulder on walks, my behaviorist use to always call him soft, he would say he's a really soft dog, he didn't think he was aggressive, he thought he was fearfull of alot of things, scared and nervous, not alot of confidence. |
Guest - and why not join the forum so we can call you by name  - have you ever had his thryoid tested? Has he had a thorough check up recently? You say he is not acting himself and not interested in playing suddenly....My dog was acting like that, and beginning to "act up" a bit and we found his thryoid was out of whack. Even though he is only 3, the numbers were borderline and we decided to try the meds a while. WOW! What a difference the meds made! Within a few days, and more so after a few weeks, he returned back to his normal self and seemed less "agressive", more playful, more focused. A totally different dog.You might want to get him checked.... |
Ashley wrote: Guest - and why not join the forum so we can call you by name - have you ever had his thryoid tested? Has he had a thorough check up recently? You say he is not acting himself and not interested in playing suddenly....My dog was acting like that, and beginning to "act up" a bit and we found his thryoid was out of whack. Even though he is only 3, the numbers were borderline and we decided to try the meds a while. WOW! What a difference the meds made! Within a few days, and more so after a few weeks, he returned back to his normal self and seemed less "agressive", more playful, more focused. A totally different dog.You might want to get him checked.... That's a good suggestion. It's always good to start with the medical stuff first and rule any of that out. |
jody92460 wrote: Well I didn't hold her down and make her throw a treat at my dog, I asked her very nicely if she would mind tossing a treat to him. Did you have another suggestion or were you just trying to make me feel worse..... Maybe he doesn't appreciate having things thrown at him?  |
| Call the breeder, and have the medicaltesting done, that should be a good start, hope everything works out well for you |
| In my simple observation of this topic I would suggest that maybe your nervousness is being transfered to Winston, and he is acting accordingly, maybe being over protective in some circumstances on your behalf. You need to be positive when handling him, obvious this is easy to post on a forum, it won't be easy changing the way you are with him. How much exercise does he get a day? if you bring his energy levels down he'll be easier to control, what sort of feedback have you had from the trainers, positive/negative? did they say Winston was uncontrollable? My daft hound can really rough house with me but when enough is enough he knows it just from the tone of my voice. My wife doesn't allow him to rough and tumble and he knows his boundaries with her, and reserves his crazy time for me. Depending on the weather and how long his walks are daily and how much mental stimulation can show a marked change in his energy and excitement levels, so he has to be tired out into a more placid state. But all this requires us to be in control, if we are not confident and in control our dogs will pick up on it, even if we don't realise it. |
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