violagirl
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Post by violagirl on Feb 28, 2014 21:32:51 GMT -5
I know some of you are experienced dog owners. I was just looking for some success stories about inter-dog aggression.
My older female started attacking my younger female dog this weekend. Everyone is now kept separate as we work on getting them to like each other again. My boy dog thinks all these training sessions are fun because he just gets thrown treats randomly to get him out of the way.
How long did it take before you started seeing some progress? I'm basically having to train 2 dogs. One - the older one to think happy thoughts about the younger and for the younger one to be less nervous upon entering a room.
Once again I ask myself why I didn't just get a Lab. I had to have the Jack Russell mixes.
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Cass
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Post by Cass on Feb 28, 2014 21:52:51 GMT -5
I'm only experienced with males, but I'll give it a shot.
How old and how big (or small)? Breed type?
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mmhmm
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Post by mmhmm on Feb 28, 2014 21:57:15 GMT -5
What is the younger female doing to set off the older one. Females are tough. They have the alpha mentality and it's a power struggle. We dealt with it briefly with our older female and a stray female we just took in. Our oldest female passed away this week so we don't have that issue anymore. . The males are dopey and love able... I much prefer the males. We did have an issue with a younger male we had rescued and our female... They both went after each other so we had to do dominance training with the male to show him the female was alpha. We establish pecking order according to age/and addition to the family. Youngest/newest is at the bottom. I'm so sorry for the loss of your oldest pup, MM. How sad.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 28, 2014 21:57:24 GMT -5
If it's over food, the best thing to do is to keep them separate whenever you feed or give treats. Our youngest goes in the crate at those times. We'll still do it because she does have the alpha mentality and I think she'll bully the boys. Never mind the boys are about 5 times her size...LOL! My 55lb male dog established dominance over my older, 110lb female dog almost as soon as I got the smaller dog, at 10 months old. They never actually fought about anything and didn't like being seperated. Since my dogs established their pecking order quickly and without major incidents, I don't have any useful advice viola. I think dramaqueen had to get some extra training for her dogs because they were fighting, but I could be wrong about the reason.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 28, 2014 21:59:08 GMT -5
I missed that one of MM's dogs passed away recently. MM.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 28, 2014 21:59:14 GMT -5
I have two black male lab mixes (one I think is 100% lab and the vet thinks the other is 1/2 lab and 1/2 golden.)
My dogs were a year old when I got them after they had been dumped in the woods to fend for themselves. One dog is clearly alpha and the other is very submissive.
I have had one actual fight with puncture wounds and bleeding. It was over food, so they are now fed on different sides of a door.
My dogs were not socialized and were likely abused. From day one I have handled them with love but with understanding that I am the alpha in the house.
I am in charge. Period. Not in an abusive way, just clearly in charge. This allows me to better control the more alpha dog when he gets a bug in his butt and decides he wants to pick on his brother.
We are now at the point where we can all sleep in the bed together, but they each get their own side of the bed or there is grumbling in the night...
Most amazingly, I think I have now finally convinced them not to jump my fences and roam around after all the other dogs in the neighborhood that run wild.... As soon as they learned "get in your yard" then I started rewarding them for staying in the yard. It seems to be working.
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mmhmm
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Post by mmhmm on Feb 28, 2014 22:29:12 GMT -5
I'm so sorry for the loss of your oldest pup, MM. How sad. Thanks mmhmm... It sucks losing them. It sure does! They're family members. Their loss always leaves a hole in our lives.
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raeoflyte
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Post by raeoflyte on Feb 28, 2014 22:40:01 GMT -5
Sorry mm. Between dogs in the house we've had very little aggression, but every one of ny dogs has had some kind of aggression issues that we've spent years working on. What kind of trainer are you working with? We moved away from all food based training especially when we had to deal with aggression. Lots of physical and mental exercise, along with clear rules will help just about every dog issue. Couple seemingly random things we do that really seems to help is We don't allow the dogs to pass through doorways or to eat their food until we say its okay. We also don't support any animal over any others which can be hard sometimes. I'd recommend talking to and better yet watching several dog trainers in action to find the best fit. The most important thing I've learned is that any dog can bite at any time. I will never "trust" my dogs not to bite. I work to set up their environment in a way to reduce the possibility of aggression but know that I can never eliminate it completely. Sent from my ADR6410LVW using proboards
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violagirl
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Post by violagirl on Feb 28, 2014 22:51:30 GMT -5
Older one is 4, younger is 3. Both are Jack Russell mixes. Anybody who has had terriers may know what I'm talking about, but both of them are quick to go "high". As in, they could be laying there sleeping, I say in an annoyed voice to cat "Get off the counter!" and they go from sleeping to ballistic. Just from my tone of voice. Older one will bark at airplanes or a crow sitting at the top of a tree.
Younger one has always deferred to the older. Never had any issues over food or space or anything. In December during all the cold weather, I was using frozen Kongs to keep everyone busy. I put 2 on the floor and I don't know who went for what, but there was a brief fight over a Kong. Like as in a 5 second fight. I separated them, everyone calmed down. Everything proceeded as normal.
My older dog over last few months has started to be shorter with other dogs - as in ready to bite and shake. She's never hurt anyone she's done this to, other than psychologically, but she has been increasingly aggressive with outside dogs. We know she is reactive to dogs she doesn't know and have worked on it in the past, but generally we can keep her separate from unfamiliar dogs.
Last Friday night, there was a dog fight on my bed - it truly sounds terrifying, i mean they are small dogs, but the noises that come out of them, you think someone is being killed. My husband tried to separate them - bad move, he got his hand bitten. His expletive seemed to halt the fight. For all the noise and screeching they weren't hurt at all. Then Sunday, there was a BIG fight. Once again, lots of noise etc. You know the books say "get a hose and douse them", well, I don't know where people store their garden hoses but I certainly didn't have one available in my bedroom the other night and the glass of water I managed to throw on them did absolutely nothing.
Now they are TRULY separated at all times. Generally the older one is crated if the younger is lose in the room. The younger one is nervous about entering any rooms. So not only do I have to condition the older one to relax around the younger, I have to convince the younger one she doesn't have to enter a room ready to fight.
I'm training the older to accept wearing a muzzle for when we actually do reintroduce them. I did have a local trainer come to help me with a plan. I know this is not an easy fix nor a quick one.
We have established that there is some resource guarding going on - me and my husband being the resource. Food can be an issue, but it seems mainly to be us.
Took her to vet to see if there was anything wrong physically - $300 later diagnosis is she is just cranky. lol
i joke about wishing I had a lab. I love my dogs but man terriers just are a LOT of work. Mine in particular are a handful. I range from despair to hopeful. Sometimes I think it would be so much easier if the oldest just .... wasnt' here. But she really CAN be a sweet dog. I was kind of surprised that when my husband and I discussed "alternatives", I was not totally against euthanasia. The thought was upsetting but also kind of relieving at the same time. Not sure if that makes sense.
We do know we are not willing to live with animals all segregated forever. We also wouldn't want to rehome her with someone who wouldnt' understand her issues or be willing to work with them - namely no kids, no cats, no dogs and she only likes some people. And frankly, I"m not sure it would be humane to take up a home when there are plenty of dogs without her issues who need homes.
I was already under stress from it being busy season at work, now I have to become a part time dog trainer.
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raeoflyte
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Post by raeoflyte on Feb 28, 2014 23:15:06 GMT -5
One of ours is a 15 year old rat terrier and he's my lost cause. There just isn't room for brains in that dogs head! I will.miss him when he passes (because like you said he can be a sweet heart), but I will breathe a sigh of relief too. Keeping him relatively happy and comfortable and not causing tons of problems for me and the other dogs is exhausting.
I'd kick them all out of the bed though. I did that but dh would let them all back in bed when I wasn't home, until it became obvious that there were far fewer issues when I was around. The dogs listened to me and would get puppy crazy excited to see me (while trying to maintain a sit or down) but ignored dh. Once he got on board of at least enforcing manners with them things got better too.
Not sure where you live and what weather is like but daily leash walking on heel with additional training during the walk helped mine. It's not a leisurely stroll where they get to smell the roses but they all turn themselves inside out when we grab a leash so I think they enjoy the work too.
I know I'll get flamed but I wouldn't attempt to rehome an aggressive dog, and would euthanize if I couldn't find a way to work/live with the dog. More fair to the dog imo than upheaving their lives and making aggressive behavior even more likely.
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stillmovingforward
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Post by stillmovingforward on Feb 28, 2014 23:41:58 GMT -5
After many dogs, all rescues and living the rest of their life at our house, I would give the following recommendations; 1) GET THEM OFF YOUR BED! (yup, yelling, but these are terriers you have and terriers are inclined to push the limits of being alpha) Having the pups on your bed encourages them to believe they are equals and encourages arguing between them for your affection. In your room is fine. Put a crate on your side and a crate on DH's side. Each one of you 'gets' a dog. You may invite the dog on your bed WHEN YOU WANT, one at a time and then back to the crate for sleeping. Eventually, they can both be on the bed but should always be put off the bed at when you sleep. 2) Work strongly on the obedience. It will build your young dog's confidence back up and remind your older dog who is boss.
KUDOS to you for taking the older dog to the vet! That would have been my first suggestion but you were kind enough to think of that already.
I kept a couple of mine separated by a baby gate for a while until I could teach both dogs to ignore each other. The aggressive one never really did like other dogs and I couldn't let him alone with other dogs unattended. Actually, he never liked anything but me. Later, when my life's circumstances changed, I made the very painful decision to have him euthanized as he wasn't safe to rehome.
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violagirl
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Post by violagirl on Mar 1, 2014 0:10:11 GMT -5
They are definitely relegated back to crates. The older one slept with us for years while the younger ones preferred their crates at night. Occasionally they would sleep on the bed, but generally jumped down to their crates. But at this point everyone is crated and will remain that way at night. Did I mention we also have their little brother? Who also is reactive, but he is super submissive and the older one has no problems with him. I can work with their reactivity to other dogs, and actually had them pretty good until I stopped training and just started walking them all together again. When I walk with only one they are quite well behaved and I can see that the hundreds of dollars I have spent on dog training classes and hours training them has actually helped. Walking with all 3 - i call them my Cerberus.
I will say I'm not a strict rules oriented person. So it is difficult for me to remain strict with them. However, this is a do or do not, there is no try kind of situation. Either I WILL be able to rehabilitate the older dog, and I would like to see significant progress in 6 months, or I won't be and we will have to decide what to do at that point.
Like raeoflyte, I am not in favor of rehoming an aggressive dog, and since the two younger ones are very close, I would not separate them. Unfortunately, as much as I fiercely love my animals, I am the pragmatist of the family and my husband has a really hard time even contemplating not having her. When she was a puppy, he seriously lay awake one night thinking that someday she would die. Who lies awake thinking that about their new puppy? I noticed he didn't lay awake thinking that perhaps I could kick the bucket...haha
I would do so many things differently with her if I could redo her puppyhood. I would not let her "play" with friends dog, in retrospect, I believe she wasn't so much playing as thinking she was fighting for her life. I would be more on top of the training and would not have adopted 2 more like her. I have recently come to some conclusions though, that I need to get rid of the guilt of "leaving someone out". Dogs dont' think life is fair so if I can only take one along on a walk, then the others will get over it. That just because I think they should enjoy a situation, doesn't mean they actually do. That is, some dogs love playing with other dogs - some dogs do NOT and that is ok. I don't need to try to force them to have fun playing with other dogs because I think they should like it.
I talked to the trainer about what we have been doing the last 2 weeks and she said it was the older dogs week from hell. Lots of interactions with all kinds of dogs and people and excitement. All things that she really didn't like and didn't want. If I had of thought less with my guilt brain, I would have let her stay home or crate her in another room with a Kong and just let her chill out without adding stress.
I have started videotaping the training sessions so I can see what i'm doign wrong/right and the hope is in a few weeks I'll be able to see some clear progress.
The weather this winter has been miserable for dog walking. Judging from the wind today, that stupid Polar Vortex is back. We've been having some nice days and have been able to go for some long walks, but dogs don't want to even pee outside when it is this cold. I think also it might help them to get out and walk together in a non stressful environment.
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grits
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Post by grits on Mar 1, 2014 0:38:53 GMT -5
I was talking to a guy today that has a Jack Russell. The dog is wired beyond belief. He even had it neutered hoping it would calm the dog down. Nothing has worked. They own 6 other dogs, and every one minds but the Jack Russell. The little booger is mean, and torments the other dogs. One day, the bulldog or Great Pyrenees may be his demise. I hope you can get yours calmed down, and tolerant of others.
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Cass
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Post by Cass on Mar 1, 2014 8:47:10 GMT -5
I agree with MM, you're on the right track. Stop feeling guilty, dogs are not people. My advice would be to get them out of the bed and work on establishing your dominance. For example, sit and wait for food, go to your bed, etc. And continue walking them separately. You are the boss, you just need to convince her now Edited to answer your original question: My Dane attacked my Dobe over his bed the first night I took him in. There was blood. The Dobe got his bed back and the Dane spent the night in another room. Yes, I'm a meanie. Never happened again.
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ginpin
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Post by ginpin on Mar 1, 2014 9:52:20 GMT -5
I don't have much to offer, but I feel your pain. I put my Akita bitch down in 2012 because she broke through the fence to get at our new neighbor's dog...which is bad enough itself, but their toddler was next to their dog. My dog didn't actually get all the way through to the dog and child, but I made the decision based on what-if. I still feel really bad to this day, but I was never able to cure the dog-aggression. Akitas are known for that, and most terriers too. Just make sure that you and your hubby are always alpha. Choose which dog is the 'second in command', and support her. Make them work for what they want, i.e. they want outside, make them sit (or lay down) before letting them out. Same with food. Some people also 'eat' before they feed their dogs, like eat a cracker or a piece of cheese before letting the dogs eat. This is because the alpha (you and/or hubby) always eats first. I like the book 'The Dog Listener' by Jan Fennell, which shows ways of becoming the alpha without being mean. Good luck on what you decide. It sucks to have a mean dog.
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violagirl
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Post by violagirl on Mar 1, 2014 10:31:41 GMT -5
I love terriers, but years of breeding them to think for themselves makes dogs who are generally not Biddable. I have to convince them that doing what I say is in their best interest. Which is one reason aversive techniques don't generally work with them. Like living with a bunch of Wall Street traders. Slightly psychopathic.
I liked the book "when pigs fly", it describes their personalities. I used some techniques from it in their training. The younger female is very "operant". I mean if I am standing there just holding some treats, she is going through her entire repertoire of tricks to see what is going to work. The other day we were just looking for her to look at the other dog calmly, but she threw in some tricks I had been teaching her namely the play bow and go sniff (calming signals), then she decided I must want both at the same time. It was funny to see the wheels in her brain turning.
My only consolation in this is that at least they have quite a bit of training already and I am familiar with reading their body language and interpreting. I guessing thats this is an ideal opportunity to put my money where my mouth is in the Cesar M vs positive reinforcement debate.
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stillmovingforward
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Post by stillmovingforward on Mar 1, 2014 13:02:55 GMT -5
Violagirl- that sounds like a good plan. Could it be that your older dog has too much time on her paws? Maybe find some additional tricks to teach her?
I currently have a young pitbull that is scary smart and wants to do SOMETHING! So he is learning to do agility. Yup, a pitbull in with all the terriers, border collies, etc. And he LOVES it! He is so more settled at home, his confidence is going up, and his aggression is gone. He doesn't like other dogs (most pits don't). He doesn't want to play with them but he is safe around them until they try to force him to play (run into him, bark at him, etc.) then he wanted to attach. If they ignore him, he's good with it. He now enjoys limited encounters with 'polite' dogs.
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Spellbound454
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Post by Spellbound454 on Mar 1, 2014 13:11:07 GMT -5
Could the younger one be coming in to season?....they get a bit grumpy around that time.
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violagirl
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Post by violagirl on Mar 1, 2014 14:57:57 GMT -5
All my animals are spayed or neutered. I know I read stories of people who have 2 female dogs and say they dont' get along, but I have never had any problems between my dogs before. As snarky as the older one could be to OTHER dogs, they never fought. While the females never were best friends, they tolerated each other. No fights over food or beds or toys ever. Until a couple of months ago.
Even then, I would consider a slight scrap over a food treasure to be in line with dog behaviour. Generally my dogs give quite a few signals before they ramp it to the next level - enough so that an approaching dog decides it isn't worth the fight. So if they all have something to chew and one decides they will like the others stuff better - they get the eye, the freeze, the lip curl..that usually is as far as it goes and the interloper backs off.
First tiff was over a kong, next came a few weeks later over a bullystick they both went for at the same time. i'm not even certain the fight would have happened on Friday night if we hadn't done a few things. It was pouring rain, the youngest was lying on my bed where the oldest usually sleeps. The oldest took longer to pee outside so she was soaking, she ran and dove under the covers. I objected to having a wet dog in my bed. My husband went to get a towel and reached under the covers to get the dog (she is kind of grumpy when he moves her generally) and she came out from under the covers very unhappy and saw the younger dog in her spot and just went for her. So I conclude it was part resource guarding and part redirection.
There was some tension between them the next day and both were kind of wary of the other, but I figured they would be getting back to normal. In both cases, the trigger for the aggression seemed to be - a person reaching for them. So when I saw them stiffening beside each other on Saturday I left the room and tried to diffuse the situation by pretending to find something incredibly terrific in the kitchen. But then my husband reached for them and the fight started.
For all that it sounded like they were killing each other, they really weren't hurt much aside from a slight nose bleed in the second fight. Probably more psychological damage than physical.
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973beachbum
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Post by 973beachbum on Mar 1, 2014 19:50:59 GMT -5
Violagirl I used to have a jack russel terrior. All I can say is after a lifetime of labs it wasn an experience I will never forget. First off I would like to explain one thing. Jack russels can't be obedienced trained the way other dogs can. Just get that thought out of your head! I'm pretty sure it is impossible to train a dog that is smarter than the people in their life and mine was definiately smarter than anyone I had ever met. Eventually he figured out that chewing a brand new paid of designer pumps or DH's new boots was more trouble than wanted. There was probably at least once where if DH, myself or the other dogs could have caught him we would have killed him. The only thing that saved him was he was impossibly cute and sweet. He did learn the obedience that the other dogs did he just only did any of it when he thought it was in his best self interest. So the best I could do was try and "set things up" so that it was in his best self interest to do what I wanted him to do. As far as the noises we used to refer to that as "talking". Jack russels are really apt to talk like this. It doesn't necessarily mean what it would mean in other dogs. If one of my labs had growled at me I probably would have fainted, but with him it wasn't actual aggression so much as wanted to get his opinion heard. I will add that when we would do things he didn't like like clipping his nails he would curl back his upper lip and growl to the point that a passerby would have been justified in breaking in the house because they thought we were being mauled. It would start out small and work up to a crescendo, that sounded like a lion, to the point where we thought he has to bite us or something and he would actually start kissing. Not that I am advocating that you stick your head next to a grwoling dog! I just want you to know that even though every other dog on the planet does things the same way sometimes jack russells don't. In your case I think two dogs probably is one to many in the bed at once. If they are crate trained I would keep on in the crate while the other is in bed. The other thing I would do is instead of spending time on teaching them tricks, I would spend that time trying to figure out how to herd them into doing what you want them to do. As long as the aggression hasn't been toward a person I would try and work it out. I also wouldn't worry as much about rehoming them. People aggression is totally different IMO. But in this case I think they can and would work it out with no bloodshed. The key is to get them to do it in a way that doesn't put you on blood pressure or ulcer medication. Good luck!
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violagirl
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Post by violagirl on Mar 1, 2014 23:33:23 GMT -5
I have friends who complain their dogs bark too much. I wish that was the extent of my dog worries. They do need to have their brains exercised though, as much as they need a good run outside or a long walk, taking the time to train the dog to do something - in my case since they are hair trigger dogs, I work on teaching them patience by putting them in a down stay, or making them wait for food. I'm not so good at waiting before going outside, but could get them to do that. Since they are reactive to other dogs, I have been working on teaching them calming signals - like the bow, or sniffing the ground. It helps diffuse tension in them as well as other dogs and is useful to put on cue.
My friends labs were "sent' for training with the guy who uses electronic shock and are great dogs. If i tried something similar with mine there would be mutiny in the house.
I'm actually seeing some progress after only a few days, so probably the biggest hurdle is my trust issues. Not theirs.
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motherto2
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Post by motherto2 on Mar 2, 2014 12:41:20 GMT -5
I had a Russell/beagle mix years ago. She was so sweet, but didn't like being crated or even put in a bathroom. I could be gone for 15 minutes and I'd get back and she'd poop and smear it all over. I also had motion detectors on my home alarm system., and can't tell you how many times I'd get a call from the police. They would go to the house to check on things, and "see a small dog running around" she was a Houdini. I finally put a large fence around the back yard and a small dog house, and leave her outside when I was gone. She loved it. She also loved to go for rides, so when she would manage to get outside there was no getting her back, until I opened the car door and she'd come running.
I don't have any help insight, just empathy. She never had issues with other dogs, but she was definitely strong willed. I'm running into dominance issues at my house. I have my little guy (4 yo Bichon) and DD's 7 month old female labradoodle puppy. The lady told me she'd be the dominant one because she's a female, but he's not giving up without a fight. It's funny to watch the two of them. They know how to play it. He cries and whines, knowing we'll get after her. She loves to pull his tail (like it's a fishing lure) and then act like she didn't do anything. No real fights yet, but she will lay down behind me when I'm at the counter so he can't get near me. I've even seen her blocking his way to not let him out of the half bath or laundry room. Still not sure who will win this battle.
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Wisconsin Beth
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Post by Wisconsin Beth on Mar 3, 2014 12:07:46 GMT -5
Ok, this thread is helping me in that it's reminding of how much work dogs can be and how I don't have room in my life for one. So while I'm sorry viola is going though this, thanks for posting!
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Post by Deleted on Mar 3, 2014 12:12:55 GMT -5
Awww....I am sorry to hear about your doggie, @missmargarita.
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NomoreDramaQ1015
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Post by NomoreDramaQ1015 on Mar 3, 2014 12:14:56 GMT -5
We've worked with a trainer with our dogs. We've got it to the point where we can control fights and avoid damage.
Since we have a child we keep them separated in the house. Our trainer supported us doing that b/c you can train dogs but you'll never be 100% sure something won't happen. We'd rather not take the risk.
Our house is one floor so one is in the kitchen with a baby gate, one is in the living room. We rotated thru the day who is where. A side bonus has been it's really helped with dog/kid relations because they have a safe area she can't get into. Whenever we feel a dog has had enough we switch spots.
My best piece of advice would be get a trainer ASAP. DH refused to cooperate and lived in denial for a really long time. The longer the issue goes on the longer it takes to resolve it, if you ever do.
ETA: you also need to make sure you find a trainer that deals with behavorial modification and one that has extensive knowledge of inter-dog aggression. Your routine PetSmart type training will not cut it.
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violagirl
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Post by violagirl on Mar 3, 2014 14:55:37 GMT -5
My consolation is my dogs are small and the fights they have had have not yielded extensive damage.
I sent an email to my trainer at 12:30 Saturday night right after the last fight. I have worked extensively with her since I got these dog as they have not been easy to deal with just because they are highly intelligent - well the girls are anyway - and extremely reactive to stimulus, high energy too.I have done puppy classes, and older adult classes, and tracking classes, some agility, some rally-o (which my dog absolutely hated).
She is CPDT-KA certified, also APDT etc.
We are working on behaviour modification, desensitization, counter conditioning..all that jazz.
I'm a bit more hopeful now as I have seen improvement even over the course of a week. I wish my husband was a bit more involved, but he thought dog training classes were boring so he only went to one. Yes they are boring, but what can you do? He is also not as attuned to the dogs body language as I am. Maybe just because I'm with them more, but he tends to be kind of oblivious up until the last second. And even after living with dogs for several years now, he still does silly things with dogs he doesn't know - like scratch their belly when they are eating a bone..I don't touch a strange dog when there is food, even if it is a perfectly well behaved dog.
I have been videotaping my training sessions and uploading them to a dropbox where the trainer can watch them and give me pointers so I don't spend a week doing things wrong.
I have probably spent almost $1,000 this week, including the vet visit, on my dogs. I was not planning to spend that right now, but the way I look at it is if she needed surgery, we would spend a few grand without blinking, so I guess it is similar. It is not an issue I want to tackle with only Youtube videos showing me how to do it. Some of the training involves real concentration and skill on watching both dogs body language.
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Abby Normal
Senior Member
Joined: Dec 22, 2010 12:31:49 GMT -5
Posts: 3,501
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Post by Abby Normal on Mar 3, 2014 16:31:46 GMT -5
It sounds like you are doing everything you can. There is a reason their nickname is Jack Russell Terrors.
You will not be able to train out of reactive behavior, but you can manage it. But the reality is, you will likely always have to keep them separated to ensure that nothing happens.
I have a reactive dog, and our phrase is "constant vigilance" because you always have to be aware of what they are doing. When we were going to adopt a new dog, I was very specific on my rescue application as to what I wanted, because I knew what type of dog would do well with him. The more training/classes you take the better, because you learn as much as the dog does.
We had an incident a couple weeks ago at agility. One of the other dogs (who my dog always notices ) walked into the ring right in front of him (while he's running full speed towards the obstacle she happened to be next to. Thankfully I saw her, and was able to turn him away from her (verbal commands are awesome). My trainer scolded the other handler because her dog should not have been there. But two years ago, it would have been a really bad incident. Other handler said, "but he's never done anything"- yeah- that's because I watch him like a hawk.
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