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May 18, 2011

I accidentally scared my 3 month ol Mal and she released her anal glands. Is she always going to do this? Will it affect her nerves?

Full Question:
Ed,

I recently purchased a Mal Puppy from John Browne on long island. I can't be happier with the pup. She has great prey drive, great nerves, and so far a great temperament. My situation is this; I have had her for about 2 weeks. She has been doing great with the crate training only one accident which was my fault. During this accident, I tried to stop her from going, so I screamed PHOIE grabbed her and brought her outside. I screamed way too loud, it was just instinct and she cowered and I am guessing from what I have been told released her 'Anal Glands'. I worked her through it with food and toys and she popped out of it really fast. For days after that we would go out on leash play with toys and each other with no problems. Then I went to go pick her up because I was going to introduce her to new people and slipped and basically grabbed her back and she screamed like I was killing her and released her anal glands again. Now I know you are going to say I shouldn't have introduced her to new people because you only believe in letting the Family Pack pet the dog, but growing up I didn't have the very social dogs and I am trying to avoid that situation as best I can, so lets look past that point if we can.

FYI

She is 3 months old

Questions

1) Am I right about this releasing of the Anal Glands?

2) Dogs do this when they are scared?

3) Is this going to be an on going problem that I caused and won't be able to fix?'

4) Will this affect any workings toward bite/protection work? i.e. Nerves'

Any suggestions to fixing this problem other than me just being clumsy or reacting out of instincts would be great.'

Also note I have purchased 'Raising a Working Puppy' and 'First Steps to Bite Training' so if these will help fix this problem let me know.

Thanks as always for listening.

Vincent
Ed
Ed Ed's Answer:
Well, Mals are not GSDs and you are finding this out. Some Mals are very sensitive.

We raise Mals as well as GSDs. In fact, I have a litter of 10 Mals in my basement that Cindy is raising from our house dog right now. She and I are going to write and article on the differences between the two breeds.

If I were you I would reverse your training. Slow it down and start to marker train. Learn how to do this.

I believe that she did express her glands in fear. I can't tell you if you can fix this. I don’t know your training level or skill.

If you want to do protection work – do the training in my BUILDING DRIVE AND FOCUS. This is a great program to rebuild the bond with the handler.

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