Here is a person who is doing almost everything wrong and is going to get bit.

Hi Ed,

My name is Niamh and my husband, Glen, and I own a 70 pound neutered bitch named Sena. To explain our situation I will give you a little background on us. I had a previous dog, Grady a male neutered black lab/rottie cross. Grady was a huge dog and at age 12 and at 120 pounds he had to be put down. Grady was put down quite suddenly due to failing organs. He was a gentle giant who in his senior years didn't want to do anything but lay at your feet. My husband and I went out two weeks later and bought Sena. I believe now that we shouldn't have done this so soon as we were so emotional still. Especially for me as I don't think I was ready to be "strong" toward a new dog.

We bought her at 6 weeks of age in a private sale, from (I hate to say it but) what seems like a puppy mill in retrospect. Sena responds perfectly to my husband from the puppy stage to today. As a puppy I'm afraid I made the mistake of being very soft with her. (Looking back I was so devastated over Grady that I let Sena walk all over me). I would carry her around and let her knead on my hand. At the age of 5 months we enrolled her in Obedience School. I was her handler through all the training and she has graduated levels 1, 2 and 3. The trainer was the same for all levels and she did say several times that Sena was one of the toughest, most stubborn dogs that she has ever worked with. Getting her to do the down command took weeks. We also got her neutered at 6 months.

Sena gets along very well with people and other dogs. My sister and her boyfriend have house/dog sat while we are on holidays, (as long as a month), and they have had little trouble with her. No aggression toward them. As a puppy I dog sat the neighbors puppy (an Oz shepherd/rottie cross) and they played together very well. When I take her to the dog parks she plays well with all other breeds of dogs and is never the aggressor. She learned how to approach and greet other dogs. I have noticed at the dog park when she sees new dogs that she will sit down, ears back and wait for the other dog to come over and sniff her. Sena know all her commands; come, sit, down, off, stay etc. She will stay in a sit/down position for as long as you tell her when a treat is in sight. When there is no treat her attention span dwindles.

Our problems began several months ago with Sena. She started showing aggression toward me that is slowly getting worse. I have tried to step up my handling abilities but I am not sure what to do at this point. I found your website in a search for dog aggression and read your article on the 4 types. Sena doesn't seem to fit into any of them completely. It seems that I have been in a direct fight with her for rank in the pack. During this time I tried putting her down on the floor and laying over top of her. I would always hold her eye contact until she looked away. I also wouldn't blink during these times.

The problems began to increase when my husband started an out of town job. He is gone for a month at a time and then home for a week and away for a month. When he comes home Sena is his shadow and she pays little or no attention to me. There are no shows or aggression at all when my husband is home. I am the one that feeds, grooms, medicates, brushes her teeth and walks her. I try to feed her after I eat but I sometimes don't eat till 8 or 9pm at night and I try to keep Sena on two feedings a day: 7am and 5pm. I am able to take away her food and water bowl even if she is eating. She will also sit and wait until I tell her its okay to go for her food. She sleeps in the kitchen, but not in a crate. (My husband and I couldn't handle the crying and whimpering as a puppy and gave up the crate after a week or so). When I leave for work she is put in the back yard for the day. She has a large covered patio to play and a dog house there as well. (Sometimes I bring her to work with me or drop her off in daycare. There have been no reported problems in daycare but it is run by the trainer from obedience school.) When I come home she is very happy to see me and I get lots of licks and kisses.

Her aggression seems to be centered around toys or areas of the house. Sena has been allowed on the sofa in the past and I am trying to take back control and not allow her on it anymore. When I tell her "off" she sometimes won't respond and I will try to push or pull her off. This will sometimes lead to her snarling and baring her teeth to me. If I reach for her she has tried to snap at me. I usually try grab a hold of her collar from the back and then put her outside. Last night she was asleep in her usual spot on the floor of the dining room at the entrance to the kitchen, when I tried to wake her for a final pee break and to be put in the kitchen for the night she again snarled and bared her teeth. This has never happened before. She rolled on her back, paws in the air so I couldn't grab her collar and I had to grab her back paws and pull her the two feet into the kitchen, where she got up and went outside for a pee. She didn't seem to want to come back in but did and went to her blanket and laid down. This morning when I let her out of the kitchen she went directly to the couch, when I tried to take her off she again snarled and snapped at me. I pinned her down on the couch and yelled NO while keeping eye contact with her. She looked away first but continued the snarl. When I released her she wouldn't get off the couch, I grabbed the rolled up newspaper and gave her a smack on the hind and yelled "outside". After the second smack she went to the kitchen and went outside. I left her there with her food and water.

The couch issue is a new show of aggression in the last week. Our previous and ongoing problem is forbidden items. Sena has always been wilful about letting go of things. She will play ball and fetch in the house and allow you to take these things out of her mouth, but will not let you take bones, rawhide or stuff she knows she is not supposed to have. As a puppy she began to try and swallow anything that she had before she would let go of it. This lead the trainer to advise us to swap whatever she has for a treat. This I believe has lead Sena to learn that if she picks up something she knows she is not supposed to have (i.e. socks) then she will get a treat in return. I stopped giving her treats and tried dominance in getting to let go of things but this now leads to the growling and teeth showing. Sometimes our battles will last 10 minutes or more with her holding whatever she has in her mouth and growling and me saying "drop it" many, many times.

Recently there have been two incidents that never happened before. They happened in the same weekend and have not happened since. On a Saturday I brought her to the vet for her booster shots and deworming, after wards I brought her to Petcetera for photos with Santa. We stood in line with my friends (who had a pug and a mastiff) for twenty minutes or so and everything was fine. When Santa appeared in his red suit, Sena went nuts. She didn't lunge for him but wouldn't stop barking and wouldn't go near the chair he was sitting in. Santa had to hide in another aisle while I sat in his place and got our picture taken. I put this down to a one off, maybe a side effect of the shots that morning. The next day I had Sena in a friends house when her grandson came over. The grandson has been around Sena before and even stayed with us the weekend we bought her. Granted it has been several months since Sena has seen him. I had her on a leash as we were leaving. When Sena saw the little boy she again started the same barking like crazy at him. Just like the day before with Santa.

I am not sure what to do now. I am going to contact the original trainer and get a private one-on-one session with Sena to see what we can do about this, but any advice that you could offer would be most appreciated.

Thank you so much for you time.

Sincerely,
Niamh
Surrey, BC, Canada