May 20, 2011
My boyfriend's Rottie recently bit me because I was trying to teach him not to get into my cats' toys. Is it too soon?
Full Question:
My boyfriend has a 2 yr old male (unaltered) Rottie named Bones. Recently, he bit me because I was trying to teach him not to get into my cats' toys. Now, I had only known him for less than a month, do you think that it was too soon for me to be correcting him? Also he has bit two other people after me for the same reason of trying to correct him. He also is constantly after my cats, not aggressively but very excitedly and it scares them. Will he ever get over this? The problem that I am having is getting through to my boyfriend. He absolutely refuses to neuter him and he thinks that his dog is the greatest dog in the world. And for the most part that is true, he is a very sweet dog, very loving and playful, he for the most part listens well to my boyfriend, but he really doesn?t like anybody other than my boyfriend telling him what to do. Do you think neutering would help? And how do I get Bones to listen to me and realize that I am dominant over him?Thank You,
Stephanie
Cindy's Answer:
Trying to correct any dog without a bond or leadership established is dangerous (as you have found out). Neutering may or may not help, this isn’t an issue of hormones but an issue of pack structure.
Please read this article about becoming an effective pack leader. This article was written for people like yourself, people who have great intentions but not enough knowledge of pack structure. There are links within the article that will take you to other articles on my web site.
You will need to establish yourself as a leader for this dog and you will need your boyfriend’s cooperation. He will need to allow you and Bones to work out a relationship between the 2 of you.
Pack structure and how to live with a dog in your home are the first issues to deal with whenever you add a new dog to your family or have problems with an existing dog. We just finished a new DVD that extensively covers the way Ed and I live with dogs in our home, called Establishing Pack Structure with the Family Pet.
I would use the groundwork program and watch this dvd, and once that’s going well work on some basic obedience yourself with Bones.
I hope this helps.
Please read this article about becoming an effective pack leader. This article was written for people like yourself, people who have great intentions but not enough knowledge of pack structure. There are links within the article that will take you to other articles on my web site.
You will need to establish yourself as a leader for this dog and you will need your boyfriend’s cooperation. He will need to allow you and Bones to work out a relationship between the 2 of you.
Pack structure and how to live with a dog in your home are the first issues to deal with whenever you add a new dog to your family or have problems with an existing dog. We just finished a new DVD that extensively covers the way Ed and I live with dogs in our home, called Establishing Pack Structure with the Family Pet.
I would use the groundwork program and watch this dvd, and once that’s going well work on some basic obedience yourself with Bones.
I hope this helps.
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