My Dog and Me

Ulrike · Post by **Ulrike** » Sun Feb 08, 2009 3:00 pm

Hi @ all,

I am from Germany - so sorry for my bad english

.

I have a french bulldogg since July 08. Aaron ist almost 7 yrs. old.

He is a maltreated dog. His first owners kicked him, beated him with broom, wet towels and hands.

He bitten me and still bites my kids (17 up to 23 yrs.). He guards me - especially my food and stuff like shoes and clothes = dominance problems. We practice with the theory of Jan Fennell and it works.

I love my poison dwarf and I believe that he deserves that love.

Take a look:

Many greetings from us.

Fundog · Post by **Fundog** » Sun Feb 08, 2009 9:02 pm

Hi Ulrike,

Welcome; it's nice to "meet" you. You're right-- your doggy doesdeserve love! My family just adopted a second dog this weekend. She is an English Setter, and she also had been abused, neglected, starved, and then abandoned, chained up! She has a lot of fears to deal with, but we know we can work through it and help her become a happy girl.

Paul&Muttley · Post by **Paul&Muttley** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 1:59 am

Welcome, Ulrike, to a nice group of people. I am also new on this forum, and I first posted about a new anti-pull harness for my dog, and also in response to the thread about the terrier who bit a neighbor unprovoked. I had a somewhat similar experience with my dog Muttley, although he really was just being protective, and he also came from an unknown background where he was running wild and may have been abused. Later he attacked a young dog in obedience class, but it was taught by someone who believed in forceful methods and prong collar corrections, which did not work and only made my dog frustrated and aggressive. The instructor advised me to euthanize him, but I persisted and now he is a real sweetheart of a dog.

Your English is very good, certainly much better than my German! I wish you the best of luck with your little dog. I'm sure he will become a loving and pleasant companion once he learns to trust you and other people, which may take a while because he probably has a lot of fear.

Sometimes I call my dog "Muettlich", from "Gemuetlichkeit". Does that make any sense or does it sound funny to a German?

emmabeth · Post by **emmabeth** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 3:23 am

Hi and welcome to the forums. Im moving your post to methods as it may get more responses there (and keeps the forum tidy).

How long have you been using Jan Fennels methods? Im curious that you say its working but then say your dog is still guarding and biting.

Could you outline roughly what you do and in what situations Aaron guards and bites... and what you do about it when he does this?

BTW - your English is excellent!

Ulrike · Post by **Ulrike** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 3:50 am

Thank you for the nice welcome.

A big problem with Aaron is: he bites not one time he bites and makes "bite bite bite bite bite" (hope you understand what I mean) he is very aggressive. I can stop him -before he starts to bite - with OUT sometimes unfortunately really sometimes. But if he bites an OUT is not enough he even increases his aggression. His bites bleed, theyÂ´re really deep and the bitten parts swell and get blue.

He lived in a garden with very few contact to humans for many years. Then he lived in a own room. The preowner told me that he was beaten by his girlfriend after I decided to keep him even though he had bitten me. My big daughter said that I need a muzzle for him, but I dont think so. I hate muszzles and also thorn necklaces stuff like that.

He wanted not to be caressed (hope its the right word) at the beginning. Now he needs it.
And he is anti-social towards other dogs. But thats okay I think. Other dogs are not in our pack.

Gemuetlich - muetlich sounds funny and cute. Synonyms are Ruhig, bequem, can say - but its a harder word - faul (lazy -> Fauli).
I call Aaron sometimes Tinkiwinki, Stinker, Bobobear...

Ulrike · Post by **Ulrike** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 3:50 am

Thank you for the nice welcome.

A big problem with Aaron is: he bites not one time he bites and makes "bite bite bite bite bite" (hope you understand what I mean) he is very aggressive. I can stop him -before he starts to bite - with OUT sometimes unfortunately really sometimes. But if he bites an OUT is not enough he even increases his aggression. His bites bleed, theyÂ´re really deep and the bitten parts swell and get blue.

He lived in a garden with very few contact to humans for many years. Then he lived in a own room. The preowner told me that he was beaten by his girlfriend after I decided to keep him even though he had bitten me. My big daughter said that I need a muzzle for him, but I dont think so. I hate muszzles and also thorn necklaces stuff like that.

He wanted not to be caressed (hope its the right word) at the beginning. Now he needs it.
And he is anti-social towards other dogs. But thats okay I think. Other dogs are not in our pack.

Gemuetlich - muetlich sounds funny and cute. Synonyms are Ruhig, bequem, can say - but its a harder word - faul (lazy -> Fauli).
I call Aaron sometimes Tinkiwinki, Stinker, Bobobear...

Ulrike · Post by **Ulrike** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 3:51 am

double post

Nettle · Post by **Nettle** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 4:41 am

Ulrike, double post makes you a proper member of the forum - we have all had them

What makes your dog bite you? We may be able to help.

Ulrike · Post by **Ulrike** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 5:13 am

emmabeth wrote:Hi and welcome to the forums. Im moving your post to methods as it may get more responses there (and keeps the forum tidy).

How long have you been using Jan Fennels methods? Im curious that you say its working but then say your dog is still guarding and biting.

Could you outline roughly what you do and in what situations Aaron guards and bites... and what you do about it when he does this?

BTW - your English is excellent!

I was desperated with my dog, so I posted my problems in a german forum, a dogtrainer (she wrote that its danger to train withoit a chilled dogtrainer, but she wanted to help me) told me about the book of Jan Fennell. I ordered the book a few days ago.

He guards and bites: when someone enters my room, touches my stuff, when I have some eat, when I cook an heÂ´s near (now we ignore him when we come home, he may no longer be in the kitchen, we ignore him when we enter my room...). He guards when someone enters the room when he eats, touches his foodcans. To give him a bone is impossible, he guards the bone by biting - even me. He never growls before he bites. I can see it by his way to walk, so I can stop him by OUT. He also guards and want to bite when someone talks loud to me and moves arms.

ItÂ´s much much better than in the beginning.

My big mistake was: I thought that my dog is thankful for good living without beating, sleeing in my bed and sitting with me on the couch, but he thought that heÂ´s the leader and that stressed him (he even started to scratch himself bloody). He sits beside me on the floor and crys for cuddling. He crys when I leave the room, Jan Fennell says: ignore it - and so do I, itÂ´s hard but I do.

When he bites I say OUT (when he makes out immediately whitout biting I say "good boy" and cuddle him) and tell him to go to his place, he have to stay until I call him. If he come by his own I send him back to his blanket.

I believe that he thinks that I am his wife and that heÂ´s the alpha.
We are only at the beginning. But I can see first success.

I am open for advice.

My english would be nothing without google translator. My grammar is horrible, I know

.

Mattie · Post by **Mattie** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 5:44 am

Welcome to the forum Ulrike

Can you tell us what you are doing when he is biting please? The more information you can give the better, don't worry about the post being long.

As for Jan Fennell's book, either using to to prop furniture up or throw it away, your dog is still biting and I suspect worse than he was when you first got him.

Ulrike · Post by **Ulrike** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 5:56 am

When he bites I say OUT (when he makes out immediately whitout biting I say "good boy" and cuddle him) and tell him to go to his place, he have to stay until I call him. If he come on his own I send him back to his blanket.

emmabeth · Post by **emmabeth** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 6:12 am

I suspect from what you say so far, that he has been punished heavily for growling... which is why he bites without warning. Some people think that punishing growling will stop a dog feeling the need to growl - unfortunately what happens is they still feel threatened or fearful (of pain or of losing a valuable resource such as a bone or toy).. but go straight to biting because growling clearly doesnt work.

Have a read of the sticky threads about dominance, theres two 'stuck' at the top of this area of the forum.

Theres a big difference between being a respected mentor to your dog, and being a domineering bully - unfortunately some trainers feel we have to be the latter where actually.. being more like a teacher or parent is more appropriate.

YOu are definately right not to want to use a collar designed to hurt him, and I think a muzzle would be difficult to fit and not really solving the problem even if you could fit one on his face shape.

He needs to learn some confidence and trust I think, the behaviour you describe is that of a very insecure dog who doesnt understand much of what goes on around him but has, before he came to live with you, been taught that humans dole out pain and aggression and that to survive.. he must do the same back. Like begets like after all!

Ulrike · Post by **Ulrike** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 6:55 am

Aaron lives here since July 2008. Since heÂ´s here he was not beaten. He has family connection. How long will it take to him to learn that nobody beats him again?

He peed when I came from work in the first two weeks. I did nothing but clean, no argue, just said "itÂ´s okay" when he got nervous. He stopped peeing. His preowner came to visit after a while, Aaron peed again. The preowner told me, that he pees often.

Aaron is really really very good educated. He follows by hand signal and words. First he understood russiancommands now german.

When it snowed here, I wanted to clean his paws with a wet towel. Aaron had panic, his eyes wide open, he shivered, moved slow and wanted and not wanted to bite me. I put the towel away and calmed him.

Here in germany you can buy muzzles for FBs, but I think itÂ´s his only way to express himself, and I dont want to take him his last possiblity to express. I want him to learn, that there is no need to bite.

I donÂ´t want to dominate him, I want to be his confident owner, he should keep his lovely personality.

Ulrike · Post by **Ulrike** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 7:24 am

Important Question: may he lay next to me on my bed and on the couch or is it a mistake to feel okay with that?

I LOOOVE it and I miss it.
Because the german dogtrainer told me not to allow him to lie on my bed or couch. He lies between my knees when I go sleep and next to me in the morning.
And we have a good night ritual: when I lie down he comes to my headend sitting on the floor and I ruffle him, every evening.

Mattie · Post by **Mattie** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 11:11 am

Ulrike wrote:Important Question: may he lay next to me on my bed and on the couch or is it a mistake to feel okay with that?

I LOOOVE it and I miss it.
Because the german dogtrainer told me not to allow him to lie on my bed or couch. He lies between my knees when I go sleep and next to me in the morning.
And we have a good night ritual: when I lie down he comes to my headend sitting on the floor and I ruffle him, every evening.

I have 5 dogs sleeping on my bed with me, there isn't room for my Greyhound so he sleeps on his bed next to my bed, I can put my hand down to stroke him. When I sit in an armchair, I have 3 dogs on me, the other 3 can't fit on.

Go with what feels right to you, my dogs all do as I ask, they can be a bit lively at times but are still obedient.

It is still very early days for Aatron to trust you, it took my Greyhound 3 years to completely trust me after his treatment in his racing days. Some dogs never learn to completely trust.

Many of us have dogs that had a bad start, they are all lovely, confident dogs now so stay with us and ask as many questions as you want, your English is excellent.

Drying his feet was a new very frightening experience, unless you have to do this I would leave it until he is more confident with you. You can work on him to allow you to pick his feet up at first but take it slowly. Once he is happy with this you can then move on to drying his feet.

He will learn there is no need to bite but it will take time, he needs to trust you, once you have his trust the need to bite will go away.

Follow your instincts and what his body language, don't be frightened to back away from him if it upsets him, try and find another way to get what you want even if you need to work on it gradually.

From my experience with my abused dogs I find that managing some problems gives them confidence and takes a lot of the fear away. Dogs like a routine by using management in the routine they learn what to expect so the fear starts to go.

It could take years before he is fine, he may never get right but he will teach you a lot on the way. The biggest thing we can do for a dog like this is to listen to what they are telling us in their body language.

You are doing a good job at the moment, you want little steps forward, these eventually become big strides.