Hi Everyone
I hope someone can help me and or reassure me that I don't have an aggressive dog. I have a 6 mnth old shih Tzu x collie called Loki. Generally he is very lovely, lovable, friendly, playful dog. However he has started to become snappy and some times it seems it is for no reason.
On some occasions he attacks you if he has a chew such as a pig’s ear and you go too near to him (this can be growling, lunging to attack your feet or hands usually without a warning growl). Which is a problem if I needed to take it off him. However if he was to have a large bone shaped rawhide chew he will quite happily let you hold it to chew it. He also gets defensive over things that you pick up off the floor if he thinks it’s his, such as mud or bits of fluff.
He has more recently attacked us for what seems like no reason, stroking him for example if he decides you touch a bit he doesn't like (I have checked that he doesn't have a bit that’s hurt).
I think we have possibly made situations worse as we tried to isolate him when he did it by picking him up and shutting him in the kitchen, but this became such a struggle its probably more like a game to him. He has now started running around as fast as possible when he does it and you say NO. We have also tried barking at him to shock him which does stop him momentarily. He does know bite inhibition as when his teeth touch us during play and we say careful he stops.
Last week we had him castrated, I hope that this may help calm these tendencies, which it did at first but now seems to be going back the same way. He is usually so friendly with everyone and thinks that everyone is his friend, however I am so scared that one day he will bite someone and that will be it.
I wonder if this could be a dominance thing?
I hope someone can help me. There is a few times he has scared me and me being weary of him doesn’t help me to be top dog.
Thanks
Miranda
Help with Biting
Moderators: emmabeth, BoardHost
I don't have answers, but when my 1 year old was a pup, as soon as we brought her home, every single time that she ate, I made sure I stroked her, touched her head, took her bowl away from her, put my hands into the bowl while she was eating, and I taught her "leave it" command at 9 weeks old, and she never ever growls or snarls or bites regarding food etc - and she quite happily shares her food with her 4 yo mate.
have you done training/bonding with him?
I'm sure someone with experience such as Aidan, Patch or Emma will be able to provide an indepth helpful solution!
xo
have you done training/bonding with him?
I'm sure someone with experience such as Aidan, Patch or Emma will be able to provide an indepth helpful solution!
xo
Hi Leigh
Thanks for your advice. We do take him training and he passed his puppy certificate and is taking his bronze soon. We do food aggression training with him and have always been able to take his bowl away mess in it and fuss him whilst he is eating. However tonight he did show signs of agression when we tried to do this.
He knows how to leave it when it comes to other things but treats are a real problem. The only thing i can think of that may have caused that is being around my brothers puppy as they did once fight over a pigs ear.
Thanks again for trying to help
Miranda
Thanks for your advice. We do take him training and he passed his puppy certificate and is taking his bronze soon. We do food aggression training with him and have always been able to take his bowl away mess in it and fuss him whilst he is eating. However tonight he did show signs of agression when we tried to do this.
He knows how to leave it when it comes to other things but treats are a real problem. The only thing i can think of that may have caused that is being around my brothers puppy as they did once fight over a pigs ear.
Thanks again for trying to help
Miranda
Hiya Mazzle.
I dont think this is a dominance thing at all, my own personal belief is that dogs DONT think of us as 'pack members' for various reasons. One is that dogs dont have the same pack structure as wolves do, another is that wolf pack structure is not nearly as well understood as we once thought it was, the rules are far more fluid (for instance, alpha male does NOT lead, he does not take the best of everything either).
The other big thing is, that dogs dont see us as other dogs, they arent daft, they know a cat is not a dog, a horse is not a dog, a sheep is not a dog, why would they think we are dogs?
Anyway, that part over. You are partially right though, he IS dominating you - not from a desire to be top dog though.
He is dominating your lives because he has found that being aggressive is rewarding - he snaps and snarls, you back away OR a great game of chase ensues.
Dogs repeat behaviours that are rewarding, if obnoxious behaviours are rewarded, then those are the ones they will repeat. Our aim in training is to make sure only the pleasant behaviours are rewarded and thus repeated.
With his attacking you over the pigs ear but not the rawhide - i would expect that the pigs ear is the more valuable resource there, and if he is snappy and horrid over them you probably give them less, so they become even MORE rewarding to him.
Somewhere along the line, he has learned that if he doesnt defend the things he finds valuable, they will be removed. It doesnt really matter how thats happened now, what you do need to do is, if you are still 'stealing' his stuff, you stop now as there is a very real risk he will bite someone other than yourselves.
I believe that, once you have given a dog something, it is his (and your dog firmly beleives this too). So, DONT give him something you will need to take away again, and dont give him something if you need to walk by him whilst he is eating it.
For now, id only give him those things he finds not especially rewarding. Then teach him a 'leave' command by offering him a tiny tasty treat as a swap. Then give back the boring chewy or toy.
Practice this all over your house and garden, when he is hapy with that, practice swaping a slightly nicer item for a tasty treat.
I would do something with his food too.
Whatever you do, DONT take away his food bowl, even if its too put more food in it. He cant reason that you will give back, he just registers the taking.
Also, NEVER punish him for growling, its his warning, if you take it away he will just move to biting. Punishing a growl doesnt stop him feeling the need to growl. Set things up so that you dont ever have to put him in a position where he might feel the need to defend his food (so, feed in a place where you neednt walk past him, etc).
Instead, to show him that people near food = good, set up four or five food bowls.
Leave them empty, set out as far apart as possible. Walk around the bowls and drop a treat into one, as he eats that, drop a treat int he next one, etc etc. He should learn that you being near a food bowl means you put food into the bowl.
If you want to give him a time out for some reason, if his behaviour is offensive, since he has learned that you ptuting him in a room is a great game you can do one of two things here.
Either put a trailing lead (one without a loop at the end) on him, and use that to take him to the other room, so you dont ahve to chase him around, or, get up adn walk out yourself.
This will only work if he is trying to get attention from you in some way though.
As far as being unwilling and aggressive over being touched - try and reason out why this might be. Think back and see if anything unpleasant has occured, perhaps he was groomed and someone caught a knot and it pulled, perhaps he was sore once and he growled adn the person backed away and hes laerned that growling or snapping means people back off.
What you need to do, if you are 100% certain (vet checked preferably) that he isnt currently in pain, is to desensitize him to being touched.
Make ebing touched really nice, start off with praising him and rewarding him for touching places you can already touch. Then praise and reward for somewhere hes just a little unhappy with etc, build it up until hes finding you stroking everywhere a fantastic thing.
Keep the sessions short and end on a high note each time, when hes happy with being touched with your hand, move to a comb but dont actually comb him, just run the back of it along him and reward that.... until hes happy to be groomed and touched all over. Dont try to force him, or to prove to him that it really wont hurt, all that will happen there is you'll teach him he does have to snap and bite to make you leave him alone.
Be aware that having him neutered may mean his confidence levels drop a little (or even a lot). Set him up to have lots of rewarding experiences , avoid scary things or very stressful things. Even one bad experience can really take a lot of undoing.
Hope that helps,
Em
I dont think this is a dominance thing at all, my own personal belief is that dogs DONT think of us as 'pack members' for various reasons. One is that dogs dont have the same pack structure as wolves do, another is that wolf pack structure is not nearly as well understood as we once thought it was, the rules are far more fluid (for instance, alpha male does NOT lead, he does not take the best of everything either).
The other big thing is, that dogs dont see us as other dogs, they arent daft, they know a cat is not a dog, a horse is not a dog, a sheep is not a dog, why would they think we are dogs?
Anyway, that part over. You are partially right though, he IS dominating you - not from a desire to be top dog though.
He is dominating your lives because he has found that being aggressive is rewarding - he snaps and snarls, you back away OR a great game of chase ensues.
Dogs repeat behaviours that are rewarding, if obnoxious behaviours are rewarded, then those are the ones they will repeat. Our aim in training is to make sure only the pleasant behaviours are rewarded and thus repeated.
With his attacking you over the pigs ear but not the rawhide - i would expect that the pigs ear is the more valuable resource there, and if he is snappy and horrid over them you probably give them less, so they become even MORE rewarding to him.
Somewhere along the line, he has learned that if he doesnt defend the things he finds valuable, they will be removed. It doesnt really matter how thats happened now, what you do need to do is, if you are still 'stealing' his stuff, you stop now as there is a very real risk he will bite someone other than yourselves.
I believe that, once you have given a dog something, it is his (and your dog firmly beleives this too). So, DONT give him something you will need to take away again, and dont give him something if you need to walk by him whilst he is eating it.
For now, id only give him those things he finds not especially rewarding. Then teach him a 'leave' command by offering him a tiny tasty treat as a swap. Then give back the boring chewy or toy.
Practice this all over your house and garden, when he is hapy with that, practice swaping a slightly nicer item for a tasty treat.
I would do something with his food too.
Whatever you do, DONT take away his food bowl, even if its too put more food in it. He cant reason that you will give back, he just registers the taking.
Also, NEVER punish him for growling, its his warning, if you take it away he will just move to biting. Punishing a growl doesnt stop him feeling the need to growl. Set things up so that you dont ever have to put him in a position where he might feel the need to defend his food (so, feed in a place where you neednt walk past him, etc).
Instead, to show him that people near food = good, set up four or five food bowls.
Leave them empty, set out as far apart as possible. Walk around the bowls and drop a treat into one, as he eats that, drop a treat int he next one, etc etc. He should learn that you being near a food bowl means you put food into the bowl.
If you want to give him a time out for some reason, if his behaviour is offensive, since he has learned that you ptuting him in a room is a great game you can do one of two things here.
Either put a trailing lead (one without a loop at the end) on him, and use that to take him to the other room, so you dont ahve to chase him around, or, get up adn walk out yourself.
This will only work if he is trying to get attention from you in some way though.
As far as being unwilling and aggressive over being touched - try and reason out why this might be. Think back and see if anything unpleasant has occured, perhaps he was groomed and someone caught a knot and it pulled, perhaps he was sore once and he growled adn the person backed away and hes laerned that growling or snapping means people back off.
What you need to do, if you are 100% certain (vet checked preferably) that he isnt currently in pain, is to desensitize him to being touched.
Make ebing touched really nice, start off with praising him and rewarding him for touching places you can already touch. Then praise and reward for somewhere hes just a little unhappy with etc, build it up until hes finding you stroking everywhere a fantastic thing.
Keep the sessions short and end on a high note each time, when hes happy with being touched with your hand, move to a comb but dont actually comb him, just run the back of it along him and reward that.... until hes happy to be groomed and touched all over. Dont try to force him, or to prove to him that it really wont hurt, all that will happen there is you'll teach him he does have to snap and bite to make you leave him alone.
Be aware that having him neutered may mean his confidence levels drop a little (or even a lot). Set him up to have lots of rewarding experiences , avoid scary things or very stressful things. Even one bad experience can really take a lot of undoing.
Hope that helps,
Em