Bad reactions to other dogs
 but I could really do with some advice, so I hope you'll excuse me this once!  Dog issues are something I have never had to deal with before (Inca - my 4 year old bitch - loves everyone and anyone, 2-legged or 4-legged) but Saxon seems to be a different story - so I would really appreciate your insight/advice on what is going on and how I can tackle it. Bit of background that may/may not be important: Saxon broke his leg quite badly as a puppy (as I posted about at the time) and spent from 11 weeks - 17 weeks of age just in his crate with no real socialisation. He is now 13 months old and starting to exhibit some behaviour I'm not too happy about. I say started, really, it's just escalated recently, it probably started as soon as we began socialising him again at 17 weeks. It started out as an on-lead thing, he would bark and sometimes growl at dogs when we were waiting around (e.g., at the vets, or sitting in on Inca's agility class) but it wouldn't be all dogs, and it wouldn't happen everywhere. He was always fine out on walks, didn't even seem to notice other dogs that walked by, never a problem. Off lead was where it all started to go wrong. One of the classes we took him to at 17 weeks was a 4 week puppy socialisation course (where, of course, he was a giant among puppies), and when they were allowed off lead to play he didn't seem to know what to do (despite loving to play with Inca our other dog). When one of the dogs jumped on him to try and play something seemed to change, and then all he wanted to do was chase them, barking and barking, until they were all scared of him and hid under the benches. This happened week on week - and his style of 'play' seemed to be chasing and barking and the trainer was fine with this - however, we weren't, and even though we carried on in other obedience classes with the same trainer (probably carried on until he was about 6 months old) his behaviour never changed despite the size of the dogs he was 'chasing' - only if they stood up to him did he back down, and if they were submissive or scared of him, he did it even more  Eventually we thought the classes were counter-productive as this was the only place he exhibited these behaviours (he was fine on off-lead walks in the park when meeting other dogs - although he would never play with them, only Inca) and so we stopped going and we put it down to him being over-stimulated in those situations.However, more recently, he has started to exhibit these behaviours again in a number of situations. Off-lead in the park he will become fixated on anything that moves - particularly if smaller dogs begin to run - to the point where now I get him back on the lead as soon as I see a small dog because although he has never barked at/growled at/hurt a small dog when chasing, I don't perceive it to be very playful - he's very fixated and will not stop chasing no matter what (had to go and catch him mid-run.. never ideal..). With dogs his size he is more apprehensive (sometimes even nervous) and he usually sniffs them and walks off, or ignores them completely. However, just this past couple of days he has barked at dogs across the street when out on walks (e.g., a husky) and was very interested - without barking - in a shih tzu across the street (when normally he doesn't care at all). Also, we took him to meet a friend's puppy (9 weeks old) at the weekend and he growled and snapped at her when she approached him - which we were very concerned about. In all other ways he is a lovely boy and I just want to be able to help him be happy in situations when other dogs are around - I don't expect him to love playing with other dogs (although that would be great - and he does love playing with Inca), but I'd quite like him to be able to tolerate them without reacting badly. These are my thoughts so far - I think he's quite nervous/insecure and in situations where he doesn't know how to behave he reacts by lashing out. I know he is dependent on Inca (she wasn't there in the puppy meeting situation) and is a lot more fearful of everything when Inca is not around. I've approached a trainer for one-to-one help, and had already booked him up for more obedience classes that begin in June. However, as a more immediate plan I was thinking it would be beneficial to build up his confidence - so more time with us on his own and less time with Inca - which means single walks for each of them. He is currently intact, and I had always planned on getting him neutured - but I don't expect that to be a quick fix (or any kind of fix) - however, perhaps it's time to do it now? Any further suggestions/comments would be greatly appreciated! Many thanks, Nicola aka Inca's Human |
|
|
| I think you are on the right track, intially with individual training. Remember, you have are in important part of this too. If you are being upset with his behavior, it will not help his training. You correct and move on. Don't anticipate as that gets transmitted down the leash and he senses, "Oh, upright is nervous I better react." Once you can handle the situation, add Inca only if she is trustworthy around other dogs. If she becomes nervous, she will only help Saxon get worse. Forget Saxon had a broken leg. We humans try to explain away behavior. Don't. That was in the past and yes, it might have influenced the present, it must be forgotten. Dogs live in the present, so must we. Deal with today, not the past. Neutering may help. But even an intact dog needs to be trustworthy around other dogs....look at dog shows. All those boys are undercontrol even if an in season girl shows up.......OK there might be some "oooo I smell something interesting" reaction, but the who auditorium doesn't dissolve into horny males. Remember with dog trainers, they must work on your reactions as much if not more than what the dog is doing as ultimately you are and will be the boss. Saxon must trust you and learn from you. Be the leader, be a dog mother, not a human mother. yeah, you will be the head bitch of the pack......it's a good job. |
| This is my second attempt at a reply because the first one seemed to get lost before it was submitted Anyway, I totally agree I need to be calmer and more confident too. I am capable of doing that when it's just me and him training/walking - but I do get anxious when we enounter other dogs (not openly, but I'm sure he can pick up on my vibes). I even thought about not going along when meeting the puppy because my partner is much more able not to worry in those situations... but I guess it's a learning curve for me too (Inca has always been perfect around other dogs, so it's something completely new to me). Understand what you're saying about not living in the past - I am very cautious about trying to make excuses for his behaviour - and that wasn't my intention in the original post, just thought it might help in understanding where we've come from and how we may have got here. But I suppose we'll never know whether that had an impact or not, and it's not like we can change it now, so we do need to just deal with the present situation regardless of how we got here. I do think he believes I am the boss - I learned the hard way with Inca who was a bossy teenager, and I feel much more in control of Saxon than I ever did with Inca at this age. However, I do suspect that although he believes the humans (and cats) are above him in the pack hierarcy, that he believes Inca is ultimately the leader. It's not that she dominates us at all, it's just that he defers to her on most occasions (e.g., I ask him to come, he starts moving towards me, he looks behind to see if Inca is coming too, and if she isn't coming he turns around and goes back to her). I was hoping that more individual walks and individual training (although I've always trained them individually) will help to overcome this - but I'm open to other suggestions (and maybe my assumptions are entirely wrong!) Thanks for the reply  - really appreciate any help/advice! |
Didn't find exactly what you're looking for? Search again here:
Custom Search
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|