Leerburg » Q&A » Predatory Aggression in Dogs
When dogs bite in many dog sports they are trained to bite in prey aggression
Untrained family pets can also bite in prey drive
I was reading your articles on the Internet this morning. We recently adopted a puppy (part lab - part boxer and currently 18 weeks old) from our local shelter. I took our children (14, 4, and 2) in with me to visit with the puppy prior to deciding to adopt to make sure there wasn't aggression towards children and vise-versa. We have had him now for a couple of weeks. He has really started to learn house training and a few commands in this short time (sit and drop). However, recently he has been, what we feel, trying to show our 2 younger children that he is above them in the pack. We feel this way due to nipping at them, humping them, and going potty in their bedroom as well as climbing up on one of their beds. After the 4th time of the pottying in their bedroom, and no where else in the house, we have made this room off limits to him. I understand he is a puppy and we have not been letting him up on any furniture but we are starting to be concerned with his behavior with our 2 youngest children. However, he will allow them to pet him while he is eating and drinking (which I am always in his view as well) and we have never left them children unattended with him as well. I have also noticed that he loves to lay down with the children on the floor in the evening for quiet time. I need to find out if this is a dominance issue we need to approach and/or how to curve him from this behavior at his early age? I need for our puppy (Tucker) to know he is the low one as far as the pecking order when it comes to the children (he doesn't seem to have a problem realizing this with my husband, daughter or I, just the young ones). Can you offer us any assistance? Through all the Internet research I have done, I have not found anything that really pertains to our situation as far as the kids having dominance over him. Everything I have researched have simply explained how the "owner" can show dominance over the dog. Any assistance you can offer is GREATLY appreciated. We have to make sure our children come first BUT would really hate to have to take Tucker back to the shelter. We really want to work with him and give him a chance and life outside a shelter. Thank you so much for your assistance.
I have a 6 month old GSD of sound breeding and temperament. He has been through a puppy obedience training class and a basic obedience class. He has done very well in both. The problems that I am having is that when someone comes in the door he wants to jump all over them and mouth them. I have put him in the down stay when company comes over and he does pretty good but he still gets to excited when I let him off. He also gets very agitated if my husband or I leave. He jumps at the door or the window and whines. I now have to crate him for fear he'll go through the window and cause himself serious damage. The trainer said that he is insecure. When she used Rkyer as a demonstration dog the minute she got him from me he started to whine. When she blocked his view of me he peaked his head around her body and whine. Help. I love my dog and want him to behave when company comes so that I don't have to crate him or worse yet hurt himself if I leave. I am wondering if you have a list of German commands that you use that you could forward to me. I am training Ryker in German and would like to know that I am using the right words. The ones that I am using has come from several different web sites.
My name is Bethany Hart and I am 12 years of age. My family has a 5 month old tibetan terrier puppy called Bodhi and he has been acting quite strange lately. My little sister is 2 years old and when ever she practically goes near him he tries to bite her. My father brought Bodhi into his work studio (he is a photographer) to give my mom some dog-free time because he thought that nobody except for himself and his assistant were going to be there. While my dad went to get lunch, he left his assistant to mind Bodhi and a client popped in for a while. The client was playing with Bodhi by lying on the ground and letting Bodhi run all over him. This was wrong of the client, so when the assistant saw, tried to take hold of Bodhi, but he had made a grip on the client’s nose and drew blood. It was quite serious and as my mother has informed me, the client could have gone to the police and Bodhi might have had to be put down. Lots of other incidents have occurred, and my parents have come to the conclusion of giving Bodhi away. I love Bodhi so much and I would do anything to be able to keep him. But at the same time I love my baby sister even more and I don't want her to get hurt. Please help me, I don't know what to do. Thank you so much for taking the time to read this, I appreciate greatly.
My fiance and I just got a 6 week old Pomeranian/Yorkie. She is my first dog, so I want to be sure that I do not do anything wrong in her training. She is very mouthy, and I see from your site that this is called prey drive. She bites pretty darn hard though with those tiny crocodile teeth and when she can't get my pants leg she goes for my fingers and toes, or if she's in my lap, my nose, Ouch.
I do not mind sitting through the bites if she will eventually grow out of this. But, my question is this: I have two cats and do not plan to do any protective training with the puppy (she will be a friend and family member, but not a guard dog) so should I do something about this biting now? I do not want her to bite the cats and have them scratch her (since she will never get as big as either of them), but as I said she bites hard and who can blame the cats for wanting to retaliate. Should I try to quash the prey drive since she will be expected to behave with other animals and not treat them as prey? She is a very good dog, very loving and snuggly, she just bites a lot when she gets riled up when we're playing (especially outside). Any advice you can give would be appreciated.
I am a huge fan of your website and products having bought many videos, and training articles to training my dog through your methods. Though I am unable to answer nor find an answer on your web pages for a question/problem my sister is having with her GSD.
Suzi has a working line female 4 yr old solid black GSD (Jessie) that is a great little dog, probably one of the smallest GSD I have seen, though perfect for my sister. Incredibly protective (not by fear) just pure protection of my sister, daughter and the property, I call her the pocket rocket, yet very social and no aggressive off the property with both people and other dogs. Jessie I would say to be soft nerve, a correction on your scale of 4 (ish) would be the limit.
The problem is at home - Jessie doesn't allow anyone or anything on or near the property without going into full "protection mode." With strangers this is very much OK as my sister is a single Mum and wants exactly that. Unfortunately this protection extends to and includes birds that land in the trees, cars that drive by and just about anything that comes within sight or hears. One would say the protection is over the top. Jessie's obedience is OK and will stop as soon as she is told "no" or "come" however when no-one is home it apparently goes on all day with the birds and cars from what I have observed and from the neighbor complaints she receives, not to mention the few council letters.
How do we correct the problem to get her to ignore the birds and cars as they are no threat but still to protect against strangers? I am afraid of over correcting the problem by way of her stopping the "stranger danger" as well. If that would happen I would end up on the end of the prong collar for a long long time with corrections of 20 plus each day as a reminder!!!!!! Many thanks in advance.
Please if you could help me. Eight months ago I lost my little girl to cancer. She was a 14 year old cocker spaniel. I have a lot of family and friends to support me but it didn’t matter all I was doing was crying, bad depression, and always going to the cemetery. So about six weeks ago every one thought it would be the best for another cocker. Her name is Noel. Noel was born January 6th 2005. She came from Texas, Noel was flown to me here in Florida at 7 weeks old, Noel became very aggressive at 9 weeks, for the past 5 weeks in a panic I have put her in classes at Petco, Had two trainers come to my house (100.00 dollars each) was given two different training skills and brought her to Dr's. Noel is very sweet and a little lover during the day but around night time she is very bad. My arms are all marked up as is my face. I DO NOT reprimand or hit her I don't no how or would not do that.
My other cocker was my life and a little angel. I’m in a very bad state of mind cause every one says you can't keep her. Please I can't take another loss. The trainers commands were working but stopped. My friend who lives with me has a 8 year old dog who loved my 14 year old very much. When she passed away he became my right hip. I know it was to soon to get another dog I guess I should have not listened to every one. But I did it and now she needs a lot of help. Noel and my friend’s dog play a lot but noel gets crazy and will attack and mark him up, could that be some of the problem? Also Noel goes to my dads during the day well am at work, she’s so calm there but when she gets home she starts with my friends dog playing and then she starts snapping at her dog and then she will come after me and growl and snap breaking my skin and making me bleed I taped her behavior and showed a trainer.
She looked shocked and said I can help her she stayed an hour charged 100.00 dollars and said I'll see you in 2 weeks! I called her the next day cause noel bite me really bad I told her she got worse with one of the commands and she said don't do anything till I come back! Time is not on my side I have been looking for help when noel was 9 weeks she is know 15 weeks and I'm really scared That I am not being told the proper training. And I am really afraid to go threw the pain of giving her back. Can my Noel be helped? and if so can you Please help us.
I recently was given this beautiful brindle boxer that is around 5 yrs. old. He is awesome and hasn't attacked my cat and usually halts upon command. They tolerate each other. I live on a 50 acre farm and every afternoon I take the dog out for a long run. He loves it. He is in a kennel all other times unless I am in the yard. He runs and plays without a leash with my little grandchildren. My husband and I took him out for his usual run and we encountered a possum that unfortunately didn't make it. He stayed in the tree and wouldn't listen to any command and we saw a side of just how strong and fierce he could be. Now that he has experienced blood do you think he is a danger to my cat or grandchildren? He ran almost 1/2 mile back home with the shredded possum in his mouth. He has been kicked by some of my 8 horses so he try’s to act big with them but that kick and bite too so he generally keeps his distance. Other than that he is most loveable and quite nice to have around. Now I just fear his personality may have changed. Please help because I would never forgive myself if he hurt someone or my pet cat. Thank you for your time.
I just happened to find your site tonight and have been reading it, somewhat amazed and not sure what to think. We adopted a 7 month old Golden Retriever/Cocker Spaniel mix from a shelter two weeks ago. He is a sweet dog that has some issues with fear, he is frightened of metal noises and loud sounds, also cars. We did a lot of research on trying to find a breed that would fit our family, but it never occurred to me that there would be instruction somewhere on introducing dogs and cats. The man at the shelter said the dog was young enough to be moldable. As you probably can guess, the introduction of the dog to my two 7 year old cats did not go so well. The dog was outside and I held the cats and let them see the dog through the window. The dog jumped up at the window and barked and the cats hissed and everybody was upset. I am using separate rooms and a baby gate to keep them separated in the house. The dog is very energetic and I know that is hard for the cats to feel safe with. I will try what you have said about the dog crates. Thank you for the advice. My unsureness is in regards to dog obedience training. I am a first time dog owner (except the family dogs as a kid that were never trained), and have recently looked at a number of books on training. They have talked about praise and clicker training, and one book, "The Dog Whisperer" is by a former dog trainer who in good conscience can no longer shock or jerk dogs and teaches clicker training as well. He says that many animal trainers do the same. They talk about understanding the dog, that needing to be dominant over dogs is a misunderstood and abused issue, and about working in cooperation rather than forcing dominance.
My question is this: after reading these books, the thought of a prong collar or electric collar seems cruel. I have read that you train police dogs and I highly respect that, and I mean no disrespect with my question. I am just trying to understand this whole issue and come to grips with it. I in no way want to endanger my cats, and don't think I would ever forgive myself if the dog hurt them. At this point the dog has barked and chased them about 3 or 4 times, particularly because the cats (especially the male cat) have hissed at him and continue to do so. However, this has upset me a lot and I don't like the stress the cats are going through. I don't think it is healthy for them. They are indoor cats who had never been around dogs until we stayed in a relatives home and another relative brought a dog for house sitting the dog chased them once and voila, they are now frightened of dogs. Oddly enough, though, they keep jumping over the baby gate when the dog is not visible. It seems they want to check this all out.
The dog is easily distracted from the cats (except when the dog jumped the gate twice in pursuit. The first time my husband kicked down the baby gate to get to the cats and protect them and shouted NO! which really got the dog's attention. The dog was so frightened of the noise he ran out of the room. The second time I ran into the room, grabbed the dog's collar and forcefully shouted OUT!, at which he turned and left the room knowing he had done something bad. That time I put him into his crate for 10 minutes. I think the dog wants to play with them, but I am not sure. He has attempted to chase them on a couple other occasions where the cat got over the gate into the room with the dog (and it is usually the male cat I guess he is trying to protect his territory?) and we weren't aware of it. Each time the cat has jumped the gate to safety and we have restrained the dog. I have read numerous web articles that talk about praising the dog when he is distracted from the cats, but none that talk about what the books' read term "violence" (prong or electric collars). I guess am trying to figure out why such strong measures are necessary if clicker training and praise supposedly works. I have not done enough training to know, of course, just trying to understand it all. I'm not a person who enjoys toughness or force. It may sound wimpy, but I believe in using love as much as possible. 'love my cats - they are brother and sister and were born in our home. We taught them to get along with our son's new hamster; they will even sniff each other face-to-face and then move on (when we are holding the hamster). And if the hamster runs into them in her ball, they just ignore it. We kept treating the hamster like a family member, petting it and making a fuss over it, and saying we have a rule that we don't eat family members. They now get along fine. (And it is helped that we have exceptionally good kitties.) We thought this would work with the dog also, but not yet. I like the dog, I understand he has drives and instincts, and I don't want to hurt him either, whether it be in training.
With the cats or in training to obey. I would rather give the dog away than hurt him, although it would be hard on my 11 year-old son who loves him already. Can you tell me why prong collars are necessary over clickers and praise? I will do it if it is necessary to protect the cats, but I feel really awful at the thought of it. My husband said the dog could stay outside, but our dogs were always family members and lived with us in the house. They were wonderful dogs, untrained, but wonderful and kind. They never bothered the cats they just got used to each other. I didn't realize owning a dog could be so difficult and emotionally painful ours were easy. Nonetheless, I really want this to be a positive experience and work out. I don't want to quit. Sorry if I rambled on too long. I surely appreciate your time and any comments/insight you can give to help me understand this. Thank you.
SITUATION
We have a 1 yr old dog that I got at 6 weeks old, for free, from a local person. The mother is a full bred huge mastiff and the father was a neighbor's german shepherd type dog. I knew when I brought her home that she would not be like the other dogs. She is very sweet dog and very much likes to be with me, my grown son and grown daughter.
I went to the internet and read as much as I could about how to train a dominant dog. I've read extensively from your website and consider it a resource. I've watched your puppy 8 weeks to 8 months dominant dog & basic dog obedience videos have a prong & dominant dog collar that I use when I train her (to come, sit, lie down, etc.). She's been through a 6 meeting obedience class She is a very co-operative dog, but she is very cautious about strangers. I take her with me on errands in town and socialize her at the hardware store, post office, farmers market. She has become more relaxed about being around people and she loves traveling in the car. Bella weighed 85 pounds at 7 months. She must be over 100 pounds now in October.
We also have a very old golden retriever and a middle aged cattle dog shepherd mix (Shep)- both very nice, easy-going dogs.
We have 3 pygmy goats, not confined by fence, that we've had for a couple of years to eat down grass, and we've been planning to sell them. Shep (our shepherd mix) will chase the goats to round them up to their sleeping place at the end of the woodshed. She has never been interested harming the goats, just rounding them up to their nest, but she does take a certain joy in doing this.
Bella (the 1/2 mastiff), since puppyhood was curious about the goats and the goats would threaten her with a butt of their horns, so Bella, always cautious, but playful and wanted to chase the goats. So the goats and the dogs are very familiar with each other, but shared the yard with a cautious respect for each other.
REAL PROBLEM HAPPENS
YESTERDAY, I was stacking wood in the woodshed and the dogs started chasing the goats into the woodshed. I threw a piece of wood at the goats to get out them of my stacking area. This happened a couple of times. Bella got serious about catching a goat and managed to get a hold of one of the goat's legs. She did no harm, but she turned into a dominant dog that I could hardly control - for the first time. I managed to get her & tie her up outside on a leash (around noon). Around 7pm, my son let her loose to take her evening walk and she went straight for the goats, determined to get one.
I managed to get her in the house and into her crate, but it was a real struggle. She didn't try to bite me, but for the first time I was afraid of her. TODAY, She is still crazy and determined to get a goat and I can barely handle her. I let her outside on a 2 leashes and tied her up. I will bring her in later today to her crate. She usually is a very well-behaved house dog, but since yesterday's goat incident, she just runs from door to door to get out. It's like she's turned into a crazy dog. She has never done this before.
I realize that I should never have let the goat interaction between the dogs develop, but for a long time, it didn't seem dangerous.
HELP
How do I settle Bella back down to the dog she has been for the last year? Do have any advice to train this terrible behavior out of her? I'm keeping her as calm as I can until hear from you. I will work as much as I can to restrain, but soothe her into her old self.
We have enjoyed her so much. She is a marvelous dog.
Predatory Aggression in Dogs
Predatory Aggression in Dogs
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When dogs bite in many dog sports they are trained to bite in prey aggression
Untrained family pets can also bite in prey drive
I was reading your articles on the Internet this morning. We recently adopted a puppy (part lab - part boxer and currently 18 weeks old) from our local shelter. I took our children (14, 4, and 2) in with me to visit with the puppy prior to deciding to adopt to make sure there wasn't aggression towards children and vise-versa. We have had him now for a couple of weeks. He has really started to learn house training and a few commands in this short time (sit and drop). However, recently he has been, what we feel, trying to show our 2 younger children that he is above them in the pack. We feel this way due to nipping at them, humping them, and going potty in their bedroom as well as climbing up on one of their beds. After the 4th time of the pottying in their bedroom, and no where else in the house, we have made this room off limits to him. I understand he is a puppy and we have not been letting him up on any furniture but we are starting to be concerned with his behavior with our 2 youngest children. However, he will allow them to pet him while he is eating and drinking (which I am always in his view as well) and we have never left them children unattended with him as well. I have also noticed that he loves to lay down with the children on the floor in the evening for quiet time. I need to find out if this is a dominance issue we need to approach and/or how to curve him from this behavior at his early age? I need for our puppy (Tucker) to know he is the low one as far as the pecking order when it comes to the children (he doesn't seem to have a problem realizing this with my husband, daughter or I, just the young ones). Can you offer us any assistance? Through all the Internet research I have done, I have not found anything that really pertains to our situation as far as the kids having dominance over him. Everything I have researched have simply explained how the "owner" can show dominance over the dog. Any assistance you can offer is GREATLY appreciated. We have to make sure our children come first BUT would really hate to have to take Tucker back to the shelter. We really want to work with him and give him a chance and life outside a shelter. Thank you so much for your assistance.
I have a 6 month old GSD of sound breeding and temperament. He has been through a puppy obedience training class and a basic obedience class. He has done very well in both. The problems that I am having is that when someone comes in the door he wants to jump all over them and mouth them. I have put him in the down stay when company comes over and he does pretty good but he still gets to excited when I let him off. He also gets very agitated if my husband or I leave. He jumps at the door or the window and whines. I now have to crate him for fear he'll go through the window and cause himself serious damage. The trainer said that he is insecure. When she used Rkyer as a demonstration dog the minute she got him from me he started to whine. When she blocked his view of me he peaked his head around her body and whine. Help. I love my dog and want him to behave when company comes so that I don't have to crate him or worse yet hurt himself if I leave. I am wondering if you have a list of German commands that you use that you could forward to me. I am training Ryker in German and would like to know that I am using the right words. The ones that I am using has come from several different web sites.
My name is Bethany Hart and I am 12 years of age. My family has a 5 month old tibetan terrier puppy called Bodhi and he has been acting quite strange lately. My little sister is 2 years old and when ever she practically goes near him he tries to bite her. My father brought Bodhi into his work studio (he is a photographer) to give my mom some dog-free time because he thought that nobody except for himself and his assistant were going to be there. While my dad went to get lunch, he left his assistant to mind Bodhi and a client popped in for a while. The client was playing with Bodhi by lying on the ground and letting Bodhi run all over him. This was wrong of the client, so when the assistant saw, tried to take hold of Bodhi, but he had made a grip on the client’s nose and drew blood. It was quite serious and as my mother has informed me, the client could have gone to the police and Bodhi might have had to be put down. Lots of other incidents have occurred, and my parents have come to the conclusion of giving Bodhi away. I love Bodhi so much and I would do anything to be able to keep him. But at the same time I love my baby sister even more and I don't want her to get hurt. Please help me, I don't know what to do. Thank you so much for taking the time to read this, I appreciate greatly.
My fiance and I just got a 6 week old Pomeranian/Yorkie. She is my first dog, so I want to be sure that I do not do anything wrong in her training. She is very mouthy, and I see from your site that this is called prey drive. She bites pretty darn hard though with those tiny crocodile teeth and when she can't get my pants leg she goes for my fingers and toes, or if she's in my lap, my nose, Ouch.
I do not mind sitting through the bites if she will eventually grow out of this. But, my question is this: I have two cats and do not plan to do any protective training with the puppy (she will be a friend and family member, but not a guard dog) so should I do something about this biting now? I do not want her to bite the cats and have them scratch her (since she will never get as big as either of them), but as I said she bites hard and who can blame the cats for wanting to retaliate. Should I try to quash the prey drive since she will be expected to behave with other animals and not treat them as prey? She is a very good dog, very loving and snuggly, she just bites a lot when she gets riled up when we're playing (especially outside). Any advice you can give would be appreciated.
I am a huge fan of your website and products having bought many videos, and training articles to training my dog through your methods. Though I am unable to answer nor find an answer on your web pages for a question/problem my sister is having with her GSD.
Suzi has a working line female 4 yr old solid black GSD (Jessie) that is a great little dog, probably one of the smallest GSD I have seen, though perfect for my sister. Incredibly protective (not by fear) just pure protection of my sister, daughter and the property, I call her the pocket rocket, yet very social and no aggressive off the property with both people and other dogs. Jessie I would say to be soft nerve, a correction on your scale of 4 (ish) would be the limit.
The problem is at home - Jessie doesn't allow anyone or anything on or near the property without going into full "protection mode." With strangers this is very much OK as my sister is a single Mum and wants exactly that. Unfortunately this protection extends to and includes birds that land in the trees, cars that drive by and just about anything that comes within sight or hears. One would say the protection is over the top. Jessie's obedience is OK and will stop as soon as she is told "no" or "come" however when no-one is home it apparently goes on all day with the birds and cars from what I have observed and from the neighbor complaints she receives, not to mention the few council letters.
How do we correct the problem to get her to ignore the birds and cars as they are no threat but still to protect against strangers? I am afraid of over correcting the problem by way of her stopping the "stranger danger" as well. If that would happen I would end up on the end of the prong collar for a long long time with corrections of 20 plus each day as a reminder!!!!!! Many thanks in advance.
Please if you could help me. Eight months ago I lost my little girl to cancer. She was a 14 year old cocker spaniel. I have a lot of family and friends to support me but it didn’t matter all I was doing was crying, bad depression, and always going to the cemetery. So about six weeks ago every one thought it would be the best for another cocker. Her name is Noel. Noel was born January 6th 2005. She came from Texas, Noel was flown to me here in Florida at 7 weeks old, Noel became very aggressive at 9 weeks, for the past 5 weeks in a panic I have put her in classes at Petco, Had two trainers come to my house (100.00 dollars each) was given two different training skills and brought her to Dr's. Noel is very sweet and a little lover during the day but around night time she is very bad. My arms are all marked up as is my face. I DO NOT reprimand or hit her I don't no how or would not do that.
My other cocker was my life and a little angel. I’m in a very bad state of mind cause every one says you can't keep her. Please I can't take another loss. The trainers commands were working but stopped. My friend who lives with me has a 8 year old dog who loved my 14 year old very much. When she passed away he became my right hip. I know it was to soon to get another dog I guess I should have not listened to every one. But I did it and now she needs a lot of help. Noel and my friend’s dog play a lot but noel gets crazy and will attack and mark him up, could that be some of the problem? Also Noel goes to my dads during the day well am at work, she’s so calm there but when she gets home she starts with my friends dog playing and then she starts snapping at her dog and then she will come after me and growl and snap breaking my skin and making me bleed I taped her behavior and showed a trainer.
She looked shocked and said I can help her she stayed an hour charged 100.00 dollars and said I'll see you in 2 weeks! I called her the next day cause noel bite me really bad I told her she got worse with one of the commands and she said don't do anything till I come back! Time is not on my side I have been looking for help when noel was 9 weeks she is know 15 weeks and I'm really scared That I am not being told the proper training. And I am really afraid to go threw the pain of giving her back. Can my Noel be helped? and if so can you Please help us.
I recently was given this beautiful brindle boxer that is around 5 yrs. old. He is awesome and hasn't attacked my cat and usually halts upon command. They tolerate each other. I live on a 50 acre farm and every afternoon I take the dog out for a long run. He loves it. He is in a kennel all other times unless I am in the yard. He runs and plays without a leash with my little grandchildren. My husband and I took him out for his usual run and we encountered a possum that unfortunately didn't make it. He stayed in the tree and wouldn't listen to any command and we saw a side of just how strong and fierce he could be. Now that he has experienced blood do you think he is a danger to my cat or grandchildren? He ran almost 1/2 mile back home with the shredded possum in his mouth. He has been kicked by some of my 8 horses so he try’s to act big with them but that kick and bite too so he generally keeps his distance. Other than that he is most loveable and quite nice to have around. Now I just fear his personality may have changed. Please help because I would never forgive myself if he hurt someone or my pet cat. Thank you for your time.
I just happened to find your site tonight and have been reading it, somewhat amazed and not sure what to think. We adopted a 7 month old Golden Retriever/Cocker Spaniel mix from a shelter two weeks ago. He is a sweet dog that has some issues with fear, he is frightened of metal noises and loud sounds, also cars. We did a lot of research on trying to find a breed that would fit our family, but it never occurred to me that there would be instruction somewhere on introducing dogs and cats. The man at the shelter said the dog was young enough to be moldable. As you probably can guess, the introduction of the dog to my two 7 year old cats did not go so well. The dog was outside and I held the cats and let them see the dog through the window. The dog jumped up at the window and barked and the cats hissed and everybody was upset. I am using separate rooms and a baby gate to keep them separated in the house. The dog is very energetic and I know that is hard for the cats to feel safe with. I will try what you have said about the dog crates. Thank you for the advice. My unsureness is in regards to dog obedience training. I am a first time dog owner (except the family dogs as a kid that were never trained), and have recently looked at a number of books on training. They have talked about praise and clicker training, and one book, "The Dog Whisperer" is by a former dog trainer who in good conscience can no longer shock or jerk dogs and teaches clicker training as well. He says that many animal trainers do the same. They talk about understanding the dog, that needing to be dominant over dogs is a misunderstood and abused issue, and about working in cooperation rather than forcing dominance.
My question is this: after reading these books, the thought of a prong collar or electric collar seems cruel. I have read that you train police dogs and I highly respect that, and I mean no disrespect with my question. I am just trying to understand this whole issue and come to grips with it. I in no way want to endanger my cats, and don't think I would ever forgive myself if the dog hurt them. At this point the dog has barked and chased them about 3 or 4 times, particularly because the cats (especially the male cat) have hissed at him and continue to do so. However, this has upset me a lot and I don't like the stress the cats are going through. I don't think it is healthy for them. They are indoor cats who had never been around dogs until we stayed in a relatives home and another relative brought a dog for house sitting the dog chased them once and voila, they are now frightened of dogs. Oddly enough, though, they keep jumping over the baby gate when the dog is not visible. It seems they want to check this all out.
The dog is easily distracted from the cats (except when the dog jumped the gate twice in pursuit. The first time my husband kicked down the baby gate to get to the cats and protect them and shouted NO! which really got the dog's attention. The dog was so frightened of the noise he ran out of the room. The second time I ran into the room, grabbed the dog's collar and forcefully shouted OUT!, at which he turned and left the room knowing he had done something bad. That time I put him into his crate for 10 minutes. I think the dog wants to play with them, but I am not sure. He has attempted to chase them on a couple other occasions where the cat got over the gate into the room with the dog (and it is usually the male cat I guess he is trying to protect his territory?) and we weren't aware of it. Each time the cat has jumped the gate to safety and we have restrained the dog. I have read numerous web articles that talk about praising the dog when he is distracted from the cats, but none that talk about what the books' read term "violence" (prong or electric collars). I guess am trying to figure out why such strong measures are necessary if clicker training and praise supposedly works. I have not done enough training to know, of course, just trying to understand it all. I'm not a person who enjoys toughness or force. It may sound wimpy, but I believe in using love as much as possible. 'love my cats - they are brother and sister and were born in our home. We taught them to get along with our son's new hamster; they will even sniff each other face-to-face and then move on (when we are holding the hamster). And if the hamster runs into them in her ball, they just ignore it. We kept treating the hamster like a family member, petting it and making a fuss over it, and saying we have a rule that we don't eat family members. They now get along fine. (And it is helped that we have exceptionally good kitties.) We thought this would work with the dog also, but not yet. I like the dog, I understand he has drives and instincts, and I don't want to hurt him either, whether it be in training.
With the cats or in training to obey. I would rather give the dog away than hurt him, although it would be hard on my 11 year-old son who loves him already. Can you tell me why prong collars are necessary over clickers and praise? I will do it if it is necessary to protect the cats, but I feel really awful at the thought of it. My husband said the dog could stay outside, but our dogs were always family members and lived with us in the house. They were wonderful dogs, untrained, but wonderful and kind. They never bothered the cats they just got used to each other. I didn't realize owning a dog could be so difficult and emotionally painful ours were easy. Nonetheless, I really want this to be a positive experience and work out. I don't want to quit. Sorry if I rambled on too long. I surely appreciate your time and any comments/insight you can give to help me understand this. Thank you.
SITUATION
We have a 1 yr old dog that I got at 6 weeks old, for free, from a local person. The mother is a full bred huge mastiff and the father was a neighbor's german shepherd type dog. I knew when I brought her home that she would not be like the other dogs. She is very sweet dog and very much likes to be with me, my grown son and grown daughter.
I went to the internet and read as much as I could about how to train a dominant dog. I've read extensively from your website and consider it a resource. I've watched your puppy 8 weeks to 8 months dominant dog & basic dog obedience videos have a prong & dominant dog collar that I use when I train her (to come, sit, lie down, etc.). She's been through a 6 meeting obedience class She is a very co-operative dog, but she is very cautious about strangers. I take her with me on errands in town and socialize her at the hardware store, post office, farmers market. She has become more relaxed about being around people and she loves traveling in the car. Bella weighed 85 pounds at 7 months. She must be over 100 pounds now in October.
We also have a very old golden retriever and a middle aged cattle dog shepherd mix (Shep)- both very nice, easy-going dogs.
We have 3 pygmy goats, not confined by fence, that we've had for a couple of years to eat down grass, and we've been planning to sell them. Shep (our shepherd mix) will chase the goats to round them up to their sleeping place at the end of the woodshed. She has never been interested harming the goats, just rounding them up to their nest, but she does take a certain joy in doing this.
Bella (the 1/2 mastiff), since puppyhood was curious about the goats and the goats would threaten her with a butt of their horns, so Bella, always cautious, but playful and wanted to chase the goats. So the goats and the dogs are very familiar with each other, but shared the yard with a cautious respect for each other.
REAL PROBLEM HAPPENS
YESTERDAY, I was stacking wood in the woodshed and the dogs started chasing the goats into the woodshed. I threw a piece of wood at the goats to get out them of my stacking area. This happened a couple of times. Bella got serious about catching a goat and managed to get a hold of one of the goat's legs. She did no harm, but she turned into a dominant dog that I could hardly control - for the first time. I managed to get her & tie her up outside on a leash (around noon). Around 7pm, my son let her loose to take her evening walk and she went straight for the goats, determined to get one.
I managed to get her in the house and into her crate, but it was a real struggle. She didn't try to bite me, but for the first time I was afraid of her. TODAY, She is still crazy and determined to get a goat and I can barely handle her. I let her outside on a 2 leashes and tied her up. I will bring her in later today to her crate. She usually is a very well-behaved house dog, but since yesterday's goat incident, she just runs from door to door to get out. It's like she's turned into a crazy dog. She has never done this before.
I realize that I should never have let the goat interaction between the dogs develop, but for a long time, it didn't seem dangerous.
HELP
How do I settle Bella back down to the dog she has been for the last year? Do have any advice to train this terrible behavior out of her? I'm keeping her as calm as I can until hear from you. I will work as much as I can to restrain, but soothe her into her old self.
We have enjoyed her so much. She is a marvelous dog.
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