biting? scared?
He is normally very friendly to people, but sometime he would get upset if certain individuals want to pet him. I can't figure out what they have that he doesn't like, and I am scared he would hurt someone one day. He started to not to like kids, although he was never traumatized by any little ones. He snaps and make a bite gesture (never goes after them, though) towards them. Sometimes he does that with his head swing upwards. Two (adults) got hit on the head because of that. Thank god he hasn't hurt any little kids yet. I told kids not to come close, but one time this little one sneaked on us and tried to pet him, and he snapped at him. On Saturday, I had a house warming party. I am not sure of it's getting too much (or too many people), but as soon as a friend of mine showing up with his 2 teens, my dog started to barked. He then bit my roommate when she was petting him (he never did that to her). Do you have similar problems? What's wrong with him? I socialize him all the time with other dogs and people, and he never does anything bad in the dog park. |
|
|
| If you haven't already, your first stop is with the Vet, and a general check-up and then tests for thyroid levels.
If everything is normal with the vet, perhaps your need to re-assert dominance with your dog, he may be challenging for alpha... You should perhaps go to the NILF "Nothing in life is Free" approach. You dog must perform for anything. He must wait for his food, and be fed last. He must sit and "leave it" before he gets the food. He must never get scraps from the table. No treat, no toy, nothing is given to the dog without his first obeying a command. No up on the furniture. No humans down on the ground at his level. No sleeping in bed with you. Humans go though the door first, and dogs sit and wait to be invited through the door. (For safety, unless Harry can perform a sit/stay reliably, it may be best to enforce "dogs up/down the stairs first", rather than have 100 pounds of fur hitting the backs of your legs on the stairway.) Never play tug-o-war with your dog, and CERTAINLY never allow him to win at that game. I'm sure others will chime in with their thoughts and opinions. I wish you the very best of good luck, and tell you to stick around and register here (it's free!) to get all the benefits of membership. |
| Thanks! I never thought of checking his tyroid level.
I have been reading posts here, starting from your stories about Winston. I will register and chat with you all! Karole |
| While you are trying to figure out what the triggers are, and why, you need to keep everyone safe, at all times. It is important that you read your dog's signals that will tell you he is feeling threatened, or scared, or whatever, and remove him from the stimulation or remove the stimulation from him. A long, cold stare, any lip-lifting, a low growl, stiffening up etc. will let you know that he is not happy. It is important that you do NOT correct him for growling. A growl is a good thing, as it is his way of saying "I am not happy, and if things don't change I may need to be more clear". Read a growl as you dog saying "I am scared, so please make that scarey thing go away". Your goal is a nice, calm dog. If you handle him roughtly in any way it will only agrivate things. If your dog does not feel like you will protect him, he will feel that he needs to defend himself from scary things. The NILF program is a subltle way of getting him used to looking at you for leadership, and you need to do your part and respect his needs, at this time. Something is going on and you need to find out what it is. First eliminate any physical problem, and then you are on to do some detective work. You may need to hire a behavirist to assess him, sooner that later, before things get worse. Let us know how things progress. |
| I watched him everytime someone is petting him, and he seemed fine. He does this leaning thing against other people's legs ane seemd to enjoy the rub. Then he did a quick bite with his head swinging upwards. I will pay more attention to see if I can see any signs you mentioned. Thanks. But first stop, the vet!!
He had a personal trainer before, and I was told he is the most stubbon dog he has ever met. As for eating, his eating behavior changes, too! He doesn't want to eat his food right away anymore, even his treats. He would still sit for them, but he just takes them away and drops them somewhere else for a while before eating. It's not normal, is it? Karole |
| Hi. Just want to let you know that you aren't alone. My dog Annie does the same thing with snapping at kids and dogs. We got her when she was 6 yrs old so I'm not sure why she does this. She isn't malicious or vicious about it, she just does it. I was wondering if it could possibly be a strong instinct to herd. You need to be very careful around kids and other alpha dogs who will fight back. We don't have kids, but any child that comes into my house knows that Annie must have a toy in her mouth in order for them to pet or play with her. Otherwise, she will snap at them regardless of what they are doing. Maybe she thinks they all have food for her??? My little nephew who's 3 picks up a stuffed toy. He holds one end, Annie the other, they walk around like that for hours. I guess we'd all love to have a dog that loves EVERYONE and EVERYTHING, but that's not the reality. |
Welcome to the forum 
I don't have a lot of advice in this area, but there are a few suggestions to start off with. Good luck! |
| How come there is a word under peopel's username? Can you change that? Mine said shaved.... maybe I should go shave my dog just to match the word haha.
I made an appointment with the vet for this afternoon to check his tyroid level as Ron suggested, as well as his not eating problem. Keep your fingers crossed..... Phlufie cross his arms all the time, so I count that as fingers crossed LOL. Karole |
| Yeah, the eating thing is probably another indicator that something isn't right. I'm glad you're going to see the vet.
GOOD LUCK, and please let us know what happens. |
| I just joined this forum a week or so ago. It has been very helpful. Please keep posting about your dog. I have my second sheepy. The last one was over 20 yrs ago. She loved every one, kids,dogs,people did not eat dirt(mine looks like a meatball some days at least he is good to bath) no aggression and she was a pet store puppy! My new guy was a rescue at 14 weeks and we have had him about a month. We have three other large adult dogs (two labs and a german shepherd) and I hope this new guy dosen't start with any problem behaviors I have started him in training and he is doing well. He will be a big boy maybe 100 lbs. I have some joint problems so I need to be able to handle him.I just never knew all this about sheepdogs . Every one just loves him. Hopefully as you learn with your dog I can learn too. Again all the info on this forum is very interesting and every one has been great
Thanks to all the sheepy lovers!!! |
Phlufie's mom wrote: How come there is a word under peopel's username? Can you change that? Mine said shaved.... maybe I should go shave my dog just to match the word haha.
I made an appointment with the vet for this afternoon to check his tyroid level as Ron suggested, as well as his not eating problem. Keep your fingers crossed..... Phlufie cross his arms all the time, so I count that as fingers crossed LOL. Karole As you post more the word under your name will change. |
Bosley's mom wrote: It is important that you do NOT correct him for growling. A growl is a good thing, as it is his way of saying "I am not happy, and if things don't change I may need to be more clear". Read a growl as you dog saying "I am scared, so please make that scarey thing go away".
What an interesting explanation of a growl. Every once in a while, Chumley growls at the cat. I'm never quite sure how to address the situation. Mostly, I look to see what is happening and then ignore it. Sometimes I tell her "no." Cat is never doing anything. Mostly they are just sitting near each other. Perhaps Chumley thinks the cat has designs on her bone? (The cat does not actually want her bone.) |
| Perhaps Chumley thinks the cat has designs on her bone? (The cat does not actually want her bone.)
I would hazard a guess that you are absolutely right. She is resource guarding, and telling CAT to keep her distance. Of cource, being of the feline race, CAT may not understand "dog" ( except by association by experience...e.g. if she growled before, and CAT ignored, then she chased her away. Now CAT understands what a growl means.) Dogs resource guard toys, food, people and just because they guard one, they may not guard another. This can be trained out of them by counter-conditioning. Say, for example, anytime CAT cat came near Chumley with a bone, Chumley got a piece of cheese tossed to her BEFORE she could react by guarding. Eventually Chumley will expect the cheese everytime CAT came near her and her bone, and would start to WANT CAT to come near her and her bone, so she would get some cheese. Growling stops because the guarding no longer occurs, because Chumley get rewarded when CAT comes around her bone. |
| Fascinating. Mostly Chum growls and cat (he is named Miles) ignores her and nothing happens. Chumley is not fast/energetic enough to actually get up and do anything about it. Never thought to reward her when Miles is near. I will try it. It is a worthwhile idea. And Chum *loves* treats! |
| Make sure she is rewarded BEFORE the growl, or she will interprete it as "see Miles, growl at Miles, get treat. Oh, I understand. Growl at Miles and get treat."
What you want is "see Miles, get treat" instead. Timing is everything. If there are any growls, or stares, or tenseness, no treats. Only when she is in a relaxed state when Miles is near does she get rewarded. But no more "no" or any kind of correction from you. That will give her mixed messages of what to expect when Miles is around, and she will not be able to rely solidly on her experience. But this all takes a long time to develope, and if she remains calm when Miles is within a few feet of her and her bone, then Miles can be removed so she remains successful. Little by little she will gradually be more comfortable with him coming closer and closer, but she needs to build up her own comfort level. It will not happen overnight, and will occur in thresholds that Chumley determines. Good luck! |
Annie's Mom wrote: ........We got her when she was 6 yrs old so I'm not sure why she does this..........
It's not my intent to offend anyone, just don't know how else to word what I'm going to say. I'm also not picking out any one race, just the one I've seen this with, so please don't be offended. I live in and have lived in areas where the population is probably 98% white. Because of this, my dogs never seen black people or much of any other race. When a person of color would come around they were very skiddish. They would back off and stare at the person, but would not want them coming close to them, they were afraid. This is horrible! I'm sooo sorry. 
But, what I'm getting at is that they not only need to be socialized with people and kids, they need to at least see other races as well. We finally had a couple (I say couple only because they had no kids) move in down the road so they got to see her when she came over and that helped the situation. But, its embarrasing. How do you explain to your neighbors that you gotta give em' time, they've never seen a person of color before. I've seen this happen with other people's dogs also. (Why didn't I take mine somewhere to socialize like this - it would've been a 100 mile round trip, and I didn't even think about something so stupid.) Dogs - gotta luv em', but sometimes they can come up with some of the craziest things to put us through. But, there's usually a good lesson to be learned from it so its worth it. Kids are the same if a dogs never been with them. Plus they're about the height of the dogs which puts them eye level with the dog and the dog can see this as a threat. 
I think the leaning is partly a dominance issue. |
| I too have a cat! Phlufie just wants to jump on him to play. Too bad he is all but 7 lbs cat, and he hates that. I have never thought of giving him treats for not jumping on the cat (which never happens haha). I will have to try it. Thank God Phlufie is getting older and clamer (just a little), and the cat let him know who the boss was when Phlufie was a lot smaller.
Karole |
Bosley's mom wrote: Make sure she is rewarded BEFORE the growl, or she will interprete it as "see Miles, growl at Miles, get treat. Oh, I understand. Growl at Miles and get treat."
What you want is "see Miles, get treat" instead. Timing is everything. If there are any growls, or stares, or tenseness, no treats. Only when she is in a relaxed state when Miles is near does she get rewarded. But no more "no" or any kind of correction from you. That will give her mixed messages of what to expect when Miles is around, and she will not be able to rely solidly on her experience. But this all takes a long time to develope, and if she remains calm when Miles is within a few feet of her and her bone, then Miles can be removed so she remains successful. Little by little she will gradually be more comfortable with him coming closer and closer, but she needs to build up her own comfort level. It will not happen overnight, and will occur in thresholds that Chumley determines. Good luck! OK good advice! Mostly they are calm near each other. It is only once in a while that she growls (I've heard it a handful of times in 3 months). In fact, once I was sitting on the floor petting Chumley. We were both under a blanket. Miles came up onto my lap and then actually walked across and stood on Chumley's back. Miles had no idea. But Chumley looked a bit bewildered. No growling though. I thought it was very funny. Anyway, I will try your suggestions and let you know how it goes. . . |
| Because of this, my dogs never seen black people or much of any other race. When a person of color would come around they were very skiddish.
This can happen with men with beards, people with glasses, wheelchairs, large hats, bald folks. We need to be quite the detective to see why our pets react the way they do. Ihear so often that a dog is afraid of men, when perhpas it is jsut that thye are not used to the big, gruff voices, if the dog has normally been with women. And it can happen with dogs, too. They can be quite predudiced, if they cannot "read" another dog. For example, black dogs' have no visable eyebrows, and the facial expressions are harder to read. Furry dogs too, can have problems comunicating, as can dogs with cropped or short tails liek a boxer or OES. It is often not your own dog's fault, but its appearance can set off another one..or vice versa. Which is why puppies who have spent enough time with their siblings usually relate well with others of the same breed. And of cource dogs who have been around other breeds when young and being socialized, generally do not react as much. |
| Daisy also reacts to people differently. We live in an area with a lot of blacks and people of mixed race, and generally she does not register a difference. There are several black children that she looks forward to stopping to "visit" with during our walks and has never shown any agression. However, sometimes on our walk, particularly at night, she will occasionally growl at or become nervous if there is someone (gennerally a black man) walking in our direction or that comes up behind us - but not all of them.
Also, yesterday while in the car and stopped at a traffic light, she started growling at a black man standing by the side of the road waiting for a bus. nothing unusual about him and something she has never done before. While I think that this is a protective (of me) jesture, I haven't figured out what the trigger is, just respect that maybe she has a little better judgment than I do. When she does react to someone I try to calm her and keep her on a close leash and as far from the "offender" as possible. |
OK, Phlufie got a clean bill from the vet  . So now we can ruled out medical problems. I guess everyone is right, he sees children as threats because they are at the same eye level. I aslo don't have too many friends coming over, so he got too stressed out last Saturday when I did just that  . Come to think of it, he really only does snap when there are many new people and he is not free to get away (my house, on the leash, etc). He has no problem (yet) at the dog park, where he can run away if he doesn't want to be petted.
How do I work on that? I am afraid to take him to a place with too many people, but I can't get him to get used to too many people if I don't do that. Would asking him to sit help? He also gets scared so easily!!  If I move something out of place, he is afraid to walk by it.
Thanks! |
Glad to hear that Phlufie got a clean bill of health!  Is all of this behavior completely new and very recent? Has he been comfortable around other people before and just started being scared and snappy? If it's not his health I'm wondering if something else has changed in your lives to make him uncomfortable. The other thought I have is that maybe he's not scared, he's decided that he's the alpha and he's trying to protect you from other people. Could that be possible? |
| Forcing him into a situation where he does not feee safe will not help, but it will make things worse. You can destract him with something to do like "sit" or with treats, but I would not let anyone touch him if there was a chance he would not like it. And yes, being loose does make a difference, but you don't want to let him loose where he could go after anyone, either. Imagine you were tied to a chair, in a room with someone with a blow-torch, and they kept coming near you say "It won't hurt, honest. It's no big deal". That would probably not make you like the torch any more. But if it was laying on the floor, not doing anything, and you were not tied to a chair but free to go touch it at your leisure, you may be able to eventually get more confortable about it. If it is serious enough for you to be concerned about safety I would recommend a behaviorist. It may cost a few hundred dollars, but could make an immencse difference. Something that has the potential to cause harm needs to be assessed and dealt with in person. Without seeing the whole situation, which would include your reactions to the dog's reactions, a diagnosis cannot be done. If you are certain it is fear-related, and not playful nipping, then you need to keep everyone from being harmed. If people come over you can put Phlufie away, or have everyone IGNORE him. Your comment about his being scared all the time kind of clinches it for me. He needs to build confidence in himself and also be assured that you will keep him from being harmed. ou need to be on his side at all times, so manage the people around him until he feels better about his surroundings. |
| Well,
I did move twice in the past 12 months, do you think that did it for him? He has always being scared of things.... When he was little, he was so afraid of cars that he refused to go out for a walk (ran back really fast, dragging me with him). I had to hold him and kept on telling him it's OK for a while.... he finally got used to the cars (doesn't go after them, thank god). No he is not trying to protect me in this case. Normally when he gets afraid, he runs to hide behind me (what a good guard dog - a light joke here). He still loves people. He would sit and wait for them to come over. The dog park is off leash, so he is free to run around. People don't go after him trying to pet him, they would just extend their hands when he walks by. If he ignores them, they just move on to different dogs. Eventully when he wants attention, he goes to people, then they get to pet him. I have never see him approaches people first then snaps at them. The times he snapped people came to him first. I think I will ask his trainer. His trainer did tell me that my dog is very nervous and submissive. I have never hurt him or threaten him. As far as I can tell, his breeder was very nice to him as well. He came to me all happy and..... happy! I took him out with me everywhere, so he could get used to people and other dogs. So I don't know why he is this way. He only became like this about 6 months ago, when he first snapped at a kid in Petsmart. He just barked once, but it freaked out the kid. Good thing the dad saw the whole thing and said it's OK. Then he did it again when a kid sneaked up on him. Again, he didn't bite the kid, but I didn't want to take chances, so I stopped taking him to the stores. In the dog park, he has no problems with kids (not very often do they have kids there. And parents know better than let small ones run after big dogs there). He doesn't do this all the time, but for a few times he did, it makes me worried. Thanks for the advice and I will work on him. I think at the mean time I would just tell people to wait for him to come to them, like one suggested in the forum. It would be hard because sometimes people don't even ask before extend their hands to his head! Karole |
Didn't find exactly what you're looking for? Search again here:
Custom Search
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|