I have gone through many of the pages here on Aggressive Dogs and I am still confused. I know I have made some mistakes but I like the blunt nature of your responses. I’d rather get it straight between the eyes than have to put my dog down unnecessarily.

We purchased our dog from an animal rescue in May of 2004. She is definitely part beagle and we were told that she was part Redbone. Although she is definitely a hound, (nose, ears and howl of a hound) she maybe Boxer instead of Redbone based on her bodily shape. She was about 6 months old when she came to us per our vet. We have had her for two and a half years now.

She was very dominant around the house and we did have an issue with her accepting her position in the pack especially with my youngest son who was 4 at the time. But I feel she adjusted after a couple months and she understands that she is below my son in the pack order. Since that time she has no shown any physical aggression towards any of my children.

I have not seen any aggressive behavior toward any family member since the first three months she was with us, only with other animals and most recently strangers.

She exhibits no sign of crate aggression. The kids crawl into her crate to say good morning. While she sometimes curls up into a tighter ball (clearly saying leave me alone, I’m tired) she never show any aggressive tendencies in these instances.
The kids can flip her on to her back and stare at her if she get out of line…I have no fear of this situation since she has not reacted negatively to this at all. She submits when they do this. But in reading the articles I will stop this practice. BTW, they have only done it once or twice each…..

We (and anybody including strangers) can touch her anywhere, give and take food away even if she isn’t finished eating it, strangers have even taken food out of her mouth before I could respond. She had no problem with that. She sort of looked bummed out and not mad…

She does respond to “drop it” from the entire family when playing with toys

We did the “dog park” thing with her…brought her to play in a fenced in tennis court with other dogs. I now know that was stupid. We also arranged “play dates” with a friend’s dog. She and the friend’s dog wrestle and play, run and chase each other. They seem to get along fine and are always happy to see each other (tail wags and general “come play” behavior).

But at the dog park she has gotten into several fights with specific dogs. There will be 5 or 10 dogs chasing and playing. Another dog will come towards the play area and my dog generally acts happy to see the other dog. But as the dog nears, my dog gets aggressive, howls and sometimes growls and bears her teeth. Her reaction varies from dog to dog. I have had to break up fights on several occasions. Several dog owners will not come to the park if my dog was there.

She seems to have a problem with Labs and Golden’s more than other types of dogs. When she sees them while we are driving, she will sometimes try to jump out (or through) the window of the car to fight. But until recently she never bit a human.

Recently (in the past 4 months) she started growling very quietly at my children’s friends who have animals (especially cats). I thought it was a scent thing. Not a bared teeth type growl but a low almost inaudible growl. We scolded her and it seemed to stop. Last weekend she lunged at a boy (who was a little scared of her) and nipped his nose. I unknowingly did the wrong thing and whacked her repeatedly with a rolled up newspaper and left her in her crate.

This weekend she lunged at an adult who owns a cocker spaniel. She was also a little scared before attempting to pet my dog. I can’t differentiate whether this was “fear” based aggression or “territorial” aggression. Both instances the person coming towards the dog had a fear of dogs. In both cases they owned dogs as well and smelled of a dog to her very acute nose. Since my dog is a hound, she lives through her nose.

We have also let her get away with other behaviors like:

She barks at people in the street and as they approach the yard. But once they approach or we tell her to stop, she calms down after about 2 minutes or less….

She goes outside and howls into the woods all the time (sometimes I think she is “hunting”, sometimes I think she is just announcing her presence.) This is territorial I am sure.

She chases deer like crazy. When we go on walks in the woods she totally freaks when ever she gets “on the scent” of a deer. She will run right through the electric fence it she sees another animal. She displays very aggressive hunting traits.
I tried to walk in the woods without a leash, but that is impossible. She runs away.

During our walks, I do let her “pull.” But I decide the direction we go. If I go on the other side of a tree, she knows she has to come around to my side. I am not going to her side.

We feed her from the table, but she also understands “Go to your bed” and she waits for us to feed her after we are done. The rule is applied very inconsistently, though.

She sleeps in her crate and we lock it or she would jump on to our bed at night (which we don’t allow while we are sleeping). We do let her up on the beds and sofas. But she is only allowed on our bed in the morning with an invitation of “Come on, it is OK.” She occasionally sleeps with the kids in their beds but never tries to control the bed….the kids can push her off without any aggressive response from the dog. I plan on preventing her from sleeping with the kids (not out of fear of her reaction, but to re-enforce her position in the pack).

We do say “Get it, Get it, Get it” but that was only towards toys when we threw them, never towards humans. We also say this about deer even though she was on the leash and we don’t want her to “hunt.” It was more that we enjoyed seeing her excited. This will also stop.

She does jump quite a bit….usually at us and not strangers. It is a “play” response usually. But recently she has lunged instead of a straight up and down jump.

She does know “come, sit and stay” but obeys them pretty consistently when not over hyped and very poorly when agitated.


In general, she tries to be good. She does want to please. She just can’t help herself when triggered. She has no issue with her place in the pack and I can not imagine she would ever be a threat to the family members. I could live with some of the bad behaviors like barking or jumping. I could live with aggression towards other dogs or animals (deer). We stopped taking her to the park about 3 months ago. But I can’t have her lunging/snapping at strangers.

The changes we intend to put in place are as follows:

She will never sleep on the kids’ bed again.

We will stop the “Get it, Get it, Get it.”

We are going to work on the jumping by forcing her to sit and stay before we give her whatever has excited her.

Should we stop the play dates with a dog she likes and gets along well with? If yes, they will stop.


I am at a loss as to how to curb her hunting instincts with deer. I am also at a lost on how to control her aggressive barking. I would also like to know whether you think she is displaying fear aggression or territorial aggression. We will read and attempt to learn how to do this. If you have any “prioritization” for us to follow it would help. Which behavior are the most critical to stop or alter? Is it an all or nothing? If so, then we are very willing to do what it takes to save this dog from ourselves….

I’ll order the DVD and continue reading this web page. But if you have any specific recommendations for my particular case, it would really be appreciated.

Mike

 Quote: Michael Lucas

The kids can flip her on to her back and stare at her if she get out of line…I have no fear of this situation since she has not reacted negatively to this at all. She submits when they do this.

Thank God you're stopping this!!! Majorly dangerous...it takes only once!

Sorry, this just jumped out at me! Make sure the kids know to stop doing this!!!

This dog needs TONS of exercise...controlled exercise. Sounds like there's a lot of pent up energy needing to be released.

1) Exercise, exercise, EXERCISE.

2) Obedience training and lots of it. Work on it constantly, during walks (teach your dog to sit when you stop), before meals (down and wait for release to eat), anytime you can. Sign up for classes. Work on obedience when she is on leash so you can control her and strive to better her obedience in situations with distractions.

3) LEADERSHIP. This should be number one.

Yes, I'd stop the interactions with other dogs. All her fun should come from people, not other dogs.

In addition to keeping her off the beds, keep her out of the bedrooms. As the lowest member of the pack, she doesn't have the same privileges as the rest of the family. When going out for walks, all humans go through the door first and she goes last. She must not be allowed to walk ahead of the people on the walk.

Get Ed's video on dealing with dominant/aggressive dogs, read the groundwork article, and also check out this link: http://www.germanshepherds.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=640483&an=0&page=0#640483
It's a good leadership resource. In addition to Ed's products and articles, Jan Fennell's book titled "The Dog Listener" is an excellent leadership book. She doesn't really advocate corrections so that's absolutely where Leerburg comes in, but it's a great resource for establishing leadership through lifestyle changes.

Stop feeding her from the table! That's very empowering. Enforce the rule that she doesn't get to go near the table, and feed her AFTER you're done eating. She shouldn't eat before or during the time the leaders eat.

Keep her on leash in the house and out of the house. She hasn't earned the privilege for off leash work nor wandering the house of her own free will. This will also give you an avenue of control.

Oh and NEVER alpha roll a dog unless you don't mind losing your face or a few fingers. Yes, accidents can happen even with a muzzled dog. Even Cesar Millan gets bitten when he tries these things, but that's his perogative. It's much better to enforce leadership through lifestyle than by trying to win fights.

In addition to all the other great advice on this thread, please stop taking her to dog parks before she seriously injures someone else's pet -- And PLEASE don't let the kids crawl into her crate (!!!) because it only takes 1 time for them to step on an ear & provoke her to bite them right in the face (she might honestly regret her reflex reaction, but the damage would already be done)...

A) What everyone else said.

B) I personally wouldn't let the dog near any children outside of your own until you have things figured out.

C) In the interim, would it help to get a muzzle to use while on walks where there might be a chance your dog would lunge at a passer-by?

Michael, that kids-crawling-in-the-crate thing really made me cringe too.

Good luck. There's a lot of great people on this board who are very knowledgeable and should be able to steer you in the right direction.

All of the above with the exception of always making the dog walk behind or beside you. If you teach your dog to heal then you can use a command that means your dog is free of that command. I use the obvious word FREE which means do what you want. Now when I do this they are still on a long leash and not allowed to let that leash get tight. Practice calling the dog back to you when it is getting close to hitting the end of the long leash. You will be doing two things, teaching the dog to keep the leash loose and working on your recall.

You can't let the dog on the bed sometimes in the morning and then get mad when the dog wants on the bed. Dog stays off the bed at all times.

I'm gonna hit this one again because it is very important. DO NOT let your kids roll that dog and stare into it's eyes. Make this very clear to your kids. Because if they have done it before, they will do it again. Same with getting in the dogs crate.

You taught the dog the Get it Get it Get it command now you have to teach the dog a Leave IT command. I teach this with a very highly regarded piece of food. Like cooked liver pieces or some left over chicken what ever.

(I am only giving a rudimentary example in teaching this, if you want the full version email me or private message me and I will go into more detail.) Basically you get the dog interested in a small piece of it and toss it or put it on the floor, then when your dog is going for it you command 'leave it' and cover it with your foot. When you dog looks at you, you give it a different piece from your hand and then pick that one you dropped, up. Practice this. You can use the dogs toys etc. Later you can move it over to other dogs and animals. You are looking for the dog to look to you when you command leave it and this is when you reward. Later when you are using the command on other dogs or deer, you will have a leash and a corrective style collar on the dog. The dog should know that the command means to look at you at this point, so failure of following directions will result in a correction. And then a reward when the dog complies.
Anyway that's all I have for now. Good luck and your on the right path to achieving your goals.

I agree with you Chris but wanted to specifically address the "Leave it" command you mentioned...it is probably one of the top 3 in my command arsenal in terms of being a huge help to me.

I use it for everything from something that is dropped on the floor, to roadkill he's walking by to a running squirrel right within striking distance for my dog. It's a very easy command to teach and is so very useful in so many circumstances.

I even use it if we're walking (on leash) on say a fairly busy Saturday where there are lots of passers-by. To clarify, when this happens, he's not in a heel, just a relaxed pace. Once in awhile there will be someone that is just about to pass us that makes him want to take a closer look (sniff). It's all extremely friendly on his part; it's almost always a woman he does it too . He thinks he's a ladies' man! Anyway I don't allow him to approach anyone on his own so if I see he's starting to stretch his neck a tad to get closer to the person, I say "leave it" and he'll then just keep on going and ignore them.

The leave it command works anywhere, anytime!

Folks,

Thanks for the great advice.

- Don't worry about the alpha roll. It has already stopped. As I said, they each only did it once or twice. I instructed them to do it before I ever heard the term. It just seemed to make sense to me based on my obviously lacking knowledge of dog psychology. The kids will never do it again. The kids will understand this rule and follow it 100%...not an issue.

Let me ask a question related to this position. When see is hyper, I say "Let me see the belly." She rolls on her back and I pat her belly. This calms her down. This is not an Alpha Role. It is a command that she likes to follow since it gets her belly rubbed. Is this OK or am I messing something up with this practice?

- Dog Parks are done! We were trying to get her the excercise she craves. But I understand we were doing more harm than good.... Humans will provide the excercise from now on.

- Exercise is for sure. We try for an hour a day. It works out to more like 40 minutes per day on average due to our busy lives. Some days more, some less.

- "Go to your bed" while we are eating... we need to start enforcing 100% rather than when she is just being a pain....She know the command and follows it when given. We just haven't enforced it 100%. We need to start.

- Crate crawling will also stop. I am 99.999% sure she would never hurt the kids. But you are right, why take even that chance.

- I love the "Leave it" command. It shouldn't be very hard to teach her. She learned "Drop it" very easily when we were playing with her. So this should be easy as well. The key to "Leave it" is if I can make it 100% iron clad. Then I think I will have 100% iron clad control in an outside situation.

The "not on the bed" rule sort of bums me out. I like to have the whole gang on the bed in the morning. Snuggling play time... But if everyone think this is a key driver towards the dogs aggression, I will stop it. I can certainly see where a rule that is "sometimes" enforced can confuse the dog. So in peoples opinions is this a "must do" or a "it will help" rule?

It will be easier to elliminate the sleeping on the kids bed. She only does that one night a week anyway.

So my questions:

1. "Let me see the belly" command...good or bad?

2. No Beds Rule.... Must follow or is it a "it will help" rule?

Thanks for the feedback. She is a good dog, but we have to make some changes. This escalation in dominance and aggression has to stop. My childhood dog was not very dominant at all, so we did not follow many of these rules and she was the sweetest marshmellow in the world. Dogs like people are different and it seems I can't expect to treat this dog like I did my childhood pal. I will not get the same results.

I don't want a military, "stand at attention and follow my orders" household dog. But it seems that much more structure is in order for this particular dog. Once she reacts positively to the new structure can we give her more freedom? Or does it stay black and white?

Mike

Mike, freedoms are earned, not given. Your kids wouldn't automatically get longer bedtimes or the privilege of walking to the store alone, they would earn those based on their character. It's the same with dogs. They must learn, know, and understand their place in the pack. Once that is rock solid, privileges can be given, but if things slip and the dog feels it can challenege, privileges must get revoked.

Let's talk about the bed issue. You keep your dog off all the beds and your dog ends up improving. You choose to allow your dog back on the bed, and soon after some behaviors digress. Logically, you would remove the privilege from the dog as this is one thing that is rank-empowering. If your dog settles back in, then it's clear that it cannot handle the privilege and still defer to your leadership.

Keep the dog off the beds and preferably out of the bedrooms, at the very least until you get things under control.

For me, "not on the people bed" is necessary with certain dogs, and from what you have said, you have one of those dogs who require this kind of pack structire reinforcement.

IMO, the "see the belly" exercise is fine.

May I add something about the kids crawling into the crate? Aside from the potential danger, I truly want my dogs' crates to be their safe space, where, among other things, they can go to be out of the way.