I guess you
can’t reason or guilt a dog into good behavior. Recently, our sweet Toast has
shown a few signs of teenage defiance (in dog years of course). On three recent
occasions our normally docile dog has show the first signs of aggression we
have seen in the year we have known her. On a side note, it is hard to believe
we have only had this little pup in our lives for a year. At times she seems
like the best friend we have had all our lives, and at times she is so quiet we
forget she exists… hmmm… But recently, she has been a total brat. She has
snarled and snapped at three dogs (two puppies) on walks and at the dog park,
in the last two weeks. We can attribute her behavior to three things:
1.
Our
next-door neighbors have their in-laws come by at least a few times a week to
care for their young daughter and with them they bring Titus. Titus is an
asshole dog. There is really no other way of putting it. He is a total
aggressive asshole. This dog barks at every living creature (human, dog, cat,
whatever) that walks near the house. When I go out to my car he charges the
fence and snarls and barks at me like I am an evil, threatening criminal. I
hear him as early as 6 in the morning when the parents come over because they
let him out in the yard instead of keeping him inside where he would be less
aggravated. Anyway, since our fence butts up against theirs Titus and Toast
have been “fence-fighting”. When our little guard dog hears Titus, she runs
outside to the small section of chain-link fence that adjoins our neighbors and
those two go at it. I hate that she has become so aggressive in reaction to
this other dog. When yell at her to stop she comes in but she is super
agitated. I can only imagine how she feels when she is at home alone when Tim
and I are at school. Poor pup. The long overdue solution is that I need to talk
to my neighbors. Maybe we can coordinate different times when the dogs can be
out in the yards or erect some barrier or something. In any case, I bet the
fence fighting has contributed to her bad behavior.
2.
This is an easy one. Exercise. More, more
precisely, lack thereof. We have been lax about taking this dog out for walks
and jogs. She is young and super athletic and needs to get out and run. We were
good about taking her for regular walks when she was a puppy but schoolwork has
gotten the best of us and we have been seriously negligent. I think a few weeks
ago she went a whole week without a proper walk. I can only imagine that her
pent up energy contributes to her recent aggressiveness.
3.
Dominance. We have to remind Toast who is
boss. I can’t say I prescribe fully to the Cesar Milan theory of dog training
but I do know that when I show Toast that I am the pack leader she is much
better behaved. When we went to dog training we learned a bunch of things to do
to assert human dominance that, frankly, we have been slacking off on. For
example, the humans are always supposed to walk in the door to the house before
the dog barges in. When we give her a command she is supposed to obey
instantly. We must invite her up on the couch before she is allowed to jump up
herself. In the past few weeks we haven’t been asserting these rules and I
think that her behavior suffers as a result. So we are cracking the proverbial
whip with this dog. The technique that has been working the best has been
putting her down. No, not putting her to sleep. Just forcefully rolling her
onto her back and holding her there for a moment. Dogs do this to each other to
assert dominance and it has been very successful, especially when we put her down
immediately after she has shown any signs of aggression. Interestingly enough,
the skills necessary to get a submissive dog are the same that Tim is
practicing in his classroom with his students. He has been told he needs to
work on his classroom management (I can only imagine that he is too rational
and forgiving). It appears that in order to have consistently well-behaved
puppies and teenagers, it is important to be consistent, assertive, disciplined
and firm.
Anyone
out there have any thoughts or experiences with working with suddenly
aggressive dogs (or impudent teens?)?
