This is a new topic. Dear Trainers out there i'm in need of some advise. My husband and I got a terrier puppy two weeks ago. The little guy is adorable. We have taught him to sit and he is doing better in the housebreaking dept. He is 12 weeks old and we got him from a rescue organization. Before he came to the rescue organization he was in the animal shelter and the shelter called the rescue organization to see if they would take him because he was not doing well in a shelter. What we have learned is that the shelter had a big puppy room and let all the puppies out together, some were large puppies, our little puppy is a small dog. I don't know what happened exactly, but they said and I quote, "he was so scared in the shelter he tried to protect himself" but since at the rescue organization has done well and gets along with all their dogs.
We have an older dog(1 year) who loves him and has adopted him like her own puppy. they get along fine, but here is where the problem is, they get along fine until they play. I have to really watch the little puppy, he plays and then out of nowhere becomes very agressive and if you can believe it in a 12 week old puppy, kinda freaks out and attacks the older dog. I have had puppies before and have never seen this behavior, it is not regular puppy play. He is being extremely agressive with her. I always intervene. Once he has stopped he goes back to regular play.
Tonight my husband had to intervene. My older dog had had it, but never did anything to the pup, but you could see it in her face, he physically hurts her. Not with regulary puppy nipping, but hard agression. As a result we are considering taking him back to the rescue organization and suggesting they only let him go to a family where he is the only dog. I work with him every day and he is coming along fine, this is the only problem we are having with him, but we feel it is a serious one. We also know that we have a responsiblity to our older dog (1year old) and to this little pup. We don't know how to stop this behavior premanently and not just during each play session. We have let him know we are not happy with the behavior, but snatching him up by the nape of the neck and giving him the stare,he doesn't avert his little eyes for quite a while. That tells me he is strong willed and may be a dominate dog. When he freaks out while playing with our one year old dog ( who is also small and very gentle with him) it looks like he just snaps.
We are thinking of returning him. however we want to do whatever we can to be responsible owners. does anyone have any tips or training advise? we want to do something to help the little guy. And if we found a solution, we would be happy to keep him. Have you heard of other puppies that had this problem?
Any advise is appreciate.
God bless you
Sharon Empson

Hi Sharon. I am no expert here but I too have an aggressive little terrier, Jack Russell Terrier. I actually just posted about her aggression and got some good replies, check out the post called Aggressive JRT under this Puppy Training forum.

One thing I have noticed about my Terrier is the more she plays and gets excited....the more aggressive she starts to get. I use a squirt bottle with cold water and when she gets to worked up she gets a squirt to the head. Seems to calm her down for a bit.

Sorry I don't have much more information for you, but I am learning about Terriers too right now (mine is 5 months old). The one thing I have learned is they can be a handful and will test you non-stop. Only reason I got one was because I work from home so I can spend a LOT of time training her. I actually just ordered the Basic Dog Obedience video and am hoping this will help some, even though my pup has had 2 classes I am not 100% sure I am doing everything right. The classes have a bunch of crazy dogs in them so it is hard to stay focused on correcting and learning.

Hope this helps, and Good luck.

http://www.leerburg.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=161039#Post161039

Above is the link that Matt was talking about.

Dear Carol and Matt: thank you for your help. It is a relief to know that the behavior we are seeing is normal Jack Russel behavior. We were worried the little guy was ruined. Today I kept him and Bindi from playing. THings were very peaceful. Cody was an angel. He even walked into his crate when it was nap time and I said time to go to bed, nap time. He went right in.
I like the water sqirting idea. We were also wondering if we are letting our older dog (1 year old) play too much with the little guy. When apart he cries to play with her. But when he is tired, I always tell Bindi to rest and she does. He never acts afraid of her. Today when they were unable to play together they laid down together and even kissed.
I have been training cody in little bits because he is so young. I am working on eye contact and coming when called. He is doing very well. This is the only problem we have with him. We don't want to fool ourselves but want to use our heads not our hearts about keeping him. So, we are taking it slow until Sunday, and hope we can begin to work on the problem a little. Today was fine. Their leashes get tangles sometimes, but all in all they did well today.
Your help has been greatly appreciated. My husband and I want to be good and responsible dog owners, and really are appreciative of any advise given. Our older dog is wonderful. She is so smart and quick and loves to be taught. She loves to play too, and has mountains of energy so they seemed to be a good match and liked each other right away.
Any other advise I hear I will pass on to you Matt.
God bless you
Sharon Empson

I read the link, thanks alot. I also looked up on the web info about Jack Russels and they say not even to play tug of war with them and start teaching them early to release a toy, by giving them another toy immediately as they release the old one. They were saying Russels can be very possessive of their toys. We take all toys up now. They will be only playing with me and my husband individually from now on.
Thanks again for all you help.
God bless you
Sharon Empson

Yea, i was glad to hear there are other crazy JRT's out there and I am not alone =) They are defiantly something else. When I first got Pele we played tug-o-war with her all the time and she would growl and snarl and go nuts when we pulled on her tire. We thought it was so cute at the time not knowing we might have created an aggressive dog. Needless to say we stopped that as soon as we found out.

Funny thing about Pele is she is in love with a 60lb Pit Bull in her training class and they will play all day long. Put a Yorkie near her and it is attack city.

If you hear anything else on how to deal with this Sharon...yes please, pass the info on.

Thanks,
Matt