April 26, 2011
I have a 10 month old Rot that always grabs the leash and acts threatening when I try to stop it. What should I do?
Full Question:
We have a male Rott that is ten months old, he has one annoying habit. When on the leash he will periodically bite at the leash and we have tried everything to try him to break this habit, he seems to do it to get something going and then he gets feisty and argumentative. If you try to use force, it gets worse. The Alpha roll does not seem to get it. He is better with my wife, he really tries to get something going with me. Looking for help, we would like to break him from this and we do not want it to grow into something more serious. Do you send videos to Canada?Thanks ......concerned L.S.
Ed's Answer:
There are a couple things to talk about here:
- Stop this “Alpha Roll” stuff right now before you or your wife are seriously hurt. You SHOULD NEVER alpha roll a dog without a muzzle on. More people are bitten on the face because they jump on top of a dog because the dog slips the grip and bites the face. I shake my head at so-called knowledgeable trainers who tell new people to alpha roll the dog to teach him who the boss is. Read the article on my web site called Dealing with the Dominant Dog.
- When a Rot is 10 months old it’s not a small animal. It needs to know the meaning of the word “no.” This should have been done at a young age. I also have a training article on this. I would get an inexpensive muzzle, (like the plastic ones I sell), and a prong collar. The dog needs to learn that this is in appropriate behavior and these 2 items will allow you to correct the dog without being hurt. When you correct him, do it with a level 10 correction. I always feel that in cases like this, 1 good correction is better than 1,000 nagging ones, (and you have been nagging him so far).
- Something like this also requires obedience training that is balanced with proper praise. We can’t just take our dogs out and beat them up all the time. We need to use motivational training that is balanced with praise, (and corrections). You can learn how to do this with my video Basic Dog Obedience.
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