This is going to be a long winded post. I have a male 1 yr old Bichon Frise/Coton de Tulear mix. This is the first time I've ever had a male dog and he is a handful. He is a very hard dog, very hyperactive and flighty and easily distracted. He will jump and run at sudden noises. He is best described as the perfect circus dog.

Problems: 1. He is very dog aggressive. This is a huge problem when I'm trying to walk him, everyone in the neighbourhood has a dog.
Far as I know he's never been attacked by another dog. It really doesn't help that he's such a small dog. I need to walk him daily otherwise he gets into all sorts of mischief. I have tried to distract him with food, but he wouldn't eat! This surprised me since he loves food. He doesn't growl or snap. I just see him become really alert with his tail up and then he barks and lunges.

2. When walking he is distracted by everything; he pulls, tries to sniff things and of course people too. He doesn't listen to commands unless I call his name like I do in marker training and even then its a momentary look at me and then back to what he was doing.

3. This is tied into the dog aggression problem. He has his designated kennel area where he eats and sleeps etc (Its joined so that you must go through the kennel to get to the front door). My mother is handicapped so she can't walk the dog (When I'm home this isn't a problem because I can walk him). So we let him run in the yard which is well fenced off. The huge problem is that there is a dog next door. So our dog just sits at the fence and barks his head off at the dog next door for the entire time he's out there.

4. He marks on everything. I mean EVERYTHING. The car tires, the washer machine, his own water bowl. The thing is I never catch him doing it. I've heard that neutering him at this age won't change anything.

5. When I'm around, he will come and bring toys for me to play. I've heard that this is a dominant sign. I don't usually take him on when he does it anyway. That and when we do play, he always tries to play tug with me. Even when we're playing with a ball. It's an intense game of keep away and tug. I never try to let him win but he is rather strong for a tiny dog.


I'll try to explain what he can do and what has been done in the home already.

1. He knows the basic commands except for down. (Weird but he has problems with learning down)
2. He can sit and stay for about 10 seconds or so with me walking around him in his kennel area.
3. He sits and waits before eating/going out/coming in/getting pet.
4. He isn't allowed inside because of my mother, so therefore he has no access to furniture or the bedroom.

I'm not sure what else I can do at this point. The only thing I know I have to do is move his toys away as I saw in the articles written here. I really need to walk him though, so if there are any suggestions on how to curb his dog aggressiveness I'd be very thankful.

Oh, and I have a question about collars. Right now he has a flat buckle collar. I don't access to a prong or dominant dog collar now, but i will in the near future. Which would be more appropriate for him since he is an easily excitable dog.

I'm not experienced enough to succinctly answer all your questions, but I don't read dominant here.

I think you will serve yourself better to not think about this as being dominant behavior. Simply think of it as a dog that doesn't know how you WANT him to behave. Not a bad dog, you just get to start today learnin' him how to act.:smile:

Right now you are making several little mistakes that are all adding up. The experts will be along shortly to help you adjust the way you live with this dog and make everybody's life happy.

Sounds like a great little dog to me. Ton's of enthusiasm that you'll be able to use to your advantage.

Welcome to the forum! When you get time, post an intro to let us know who you are! We always enjoy links to pics, too.:smile:

He is bringing toys to you because he can. Pick 'em up! YOUR toys.

I agree that you may be using language that I'm not seeing any signs of. I'm not seeing dominant or aggressive so far. I'm seeing reactive and maybe under-exercised, though.


This is going to be a long winded post. I have a male 1 yr old Bichon Frise/Coton de Tulear mix. This is the first time I've ever had a male dog and he is a handful. He is a very hard dog, very hyperactive and flighty and easily distracted. He will jump and run at sudden noises. He is best described as the perfect circus dog.

What does "hard" mean to you? (Often misused term.)

Problems: 1. He is very dog aggressive. This is a huge problem when I'm trying to walk him, everyone in the neighbourhood has a dog.
Far as I know he's never been attacked by another dog. It really doesn't help that he's such a small dog. I need to walk him daily otherwise he gets into all sorts of mischief. I have tried to distract him with food, but he wouldn't eat! This surprised me since he loves food. He doesn't growl or snap. I just see him become really alert with his tail up and then he barks and lunges.

He's reactive. How much have you read here, if anything, about de-sensitizing? Those threads are also going to explain that the food (the marker work) starts outside his reactive zone, not right in the middle of it.


2. When walking he is distracted by everything; he pulls, tries to sniff things and of course people too. He doesn't listen to commands unless I call his name like I do in marker training and even then its a momentary look at me and then back to what he was doing.

First, how fast are you marching along here to get that edge off?

3. This is tied into the dog aggression problem. He has his designated kennel area where he eats and sleeps etc (Its joined so that you must go through the kennel to get to the front door). My mother is handicapped so she can't walk the dog (When I'm home this isn't a problem because I can walk him). So we let him run in the yard which is well fenced off. The huge problem is that there is a dog next door. So our dog just sits at the fence and barks his head off at the dog next door for the entire time he's out there.

This is a pretty bad set-up, IMO. Bad for him, bad for neighbors, just bad. JMO! How much walking does he get from you? (Trying to assess the necessity of the "alone in yard" time, at all.)

4. He marks on everything. I mean EVERYTHING. The car tires, the washer machine, his own water bowl. The thing is I never catch him doing it. I've heard that neutering him at this age won't change anything.

I'm going to let others speak to the neutering thing. My own experience is that intact males mark a lot more, but I'd probably be leaning towards tethering the dog to me so I could address it directly. You're letting a habit get really entrenched, and you don't want to. How long has he been with you?


1. He knows the basic commands except for down. (Weird but he has problems with learning down)
2. He can sit and stay for about 10 seconds or so with me walking around him in his kennel area.
3. He sits and waits before eating/going out/coming in/getting pet.
4. He isn't allowed inside because of my mother, so therefore he has no access to furniture or the bedroom.

I'm not sure what else I can do at this point. The only thing I know I have to do is move his toys away as I saw in the articles written here. I really need to walk him though, so if there are any suggestions on how to curb his dog aggressiveness I'd be very thankful.

Oh, and I have a question about collars. Right now he has a flat buckle collar. I don't access to a prong or dominant dog collar now, but i will in the near future. Which would be more appropriate for him since he is an easily excitable dog.

Maybe after these questions are nailed down, a prong might be addressed. I can't see a reason here for a DD collar except as a backup for a prong, in case it opens.

Nothing sounds unworkable! The commands you have worked on -- this is marker training, right?

All JMO! Others will come along and help too.

... I don't read dominant here.

I think you will serve yourself better to not think about this as being dominant behavior. Simply think of it as a dog that doesn't know how you WANT him to behave. Not a bad dog, you just get to start today learnin' him how to act.

Right now you are making several little mistakes that are all adding up.

Sounds like a great little dog to me. Ton's of enthusiasm that you'll be able to use to your advantage.


Big ditto!

Thanks for the quick replies. First of all he shrugs off any correction I give him and goes back to doing whatever he was doing.

When I walk him its usually at a brisk pace. He's very spritely so I try to walk fast enough to wear him out.

My mom lets him out for an hour or so. He only barks if the dog is around. Unfortunately its either he runs in the yard or doesn't get walked sometimes. A behaviorist told us to use a super soaker to wet the dog, but I'd rather have a second opinion before doing that.

I'll make sure to check out the threads about desensitizing him. And yes I'm working on marker training with him. He seems to be responding well to it. He's picks up on things pretty quickly.

We've had him since he was a puppy. However, I'm always between two places because I'm in college. I didn't meet him until he was about 6 months old. The same behaviorist told us to scrub down the areas with disinfectant so that he wouldn't smell where he marked and to put citronella to deter him.

I'm working on walking and keeping my dogs attention myself. She's only 8 months and I've learned (thanks to a very helpful DVD) that she needs to be more interested in me than the surroundings. Now when we walk we don't really walk. It's for short distances and I take her favorite tug and lots of treats. My neighbors think I'm nuts, but we really don't walk, we play. Every time she gets distracted I stop and become more interesting by running, tossing the tug, waving it in front of her face or ask "what do I got?" That little phrase makes her immediately turn and focus on me because she's either going to get a treat tossed to her or a game of tug. I usually come home dirty and bruised (she is almost half my weight) and she comes home exhausted and both eyes on me. Just have fun. Make it a game. Forget the "formal training" until you get her giving you her full attention, then get back to your serious stuff. I hope this helps

I like your idea alot Dayna. I'm going to try it with my easily distracted girl. She just turned 7 months so I've still got a chance. Which DVD are you refering to please?

That idea does sound interesting indeed especially because he appears to be more prey driven than food driven these days.

I have a question about the desensitizing bit. I was searching through the forums for tips on how to desensitize the dog and I've picked up bits and pieces but not enough to say that I'm completely sure of what I'm supposed to do.

When we're walking say he's on my left side, if there is a dog on the opposite side of the road he won't care too much (on good days). But if he happens to be on the right side of me he'll lunge at the other dog. Also, once he spots a dog within 30 feet he'll tense up and start barking. I do remember successfully getting him to sit-stay before he spotted a dog walking towards us.

The DVD is "The Power of Training Dogs with Food." I had a training question and Cindy was sweet enough to answer me and direct me to that DVD. I have to say l am a Leerburg addict and this is site and their DVD's are terrific.

I don't want to distract from the original post but I have to tell a story that saved my puppy. We have a "work out bag" that has her tug, dumbbell, ball with string and her "spot" so that we can go anywhere and have all the tools we need to do a little training session. When my Shiloh sees this bag, the energy that I see in her eyes is amazing! I use to start our sessions with " you want to play?" then when she would get distracted I would say "what do I got" and it would get her attention back on me. One day I took her out the back door down our back steeps and the leash slipped out of my hand and she got about 10 ft away and realized she was free and bolted. I took off after her, flip-flops flying! I chased her all the way around the house into the front yard (un-fenced yard next to a busy semi busy street where people drive like their hair is on fire) and as I came around the house I saw she had her butt tucked and kicking up grass. There was no way I was going to catch her. Just as the tears started my brain started working and I stopped and started clapping my hands and started yelling "SHILOH! WHAT DO I GOT! WHAT DO I GOT! she turned on a dime, ran back to me and quickly figured out I had nothing and took off again. I didn't raise no dummy, canine or human. I dove for her leash, missed it and ended up face first in the grass. Well, she thought that looked like fun and came running back to play and I grabbed her leash and disaster diverted. Now, needless to say. I make sure I have a secure hold on the leash before we leave the house and wait at the bottom of the stairs before we walk onto the lawn. That is an example of what Michael Ellis talks about when he says that getting your dogs focus on you first is most important, then training the sit, down, stand comes easy.

I can't offer any advice because I'm learning myself, but I can share my experience with my dog where the marking is concerned.

Ollie was adopted at approxiamtely 9 months. No background, but had more likely never been in a house and was not neutered until I adopted him. He marked EVERYTHING! He never fully relieved himself totally but just marked a little here and a little there. Thanks to the wonderful advice on this forum, I started from day one tethering him to me and he didn't have a lot of opportunity to mark in the home. After a few months, the leg lifting stopped and he marked less and less. It was two years almost...just recently that he was aloud to have free reign in the house and has had no accidents. I did try this earlier on and it was too soon. At that point, he had accidents and we started back at square one. We are now experimenting with leaving him out of the crate at night in an area in our home and so far so good, but it has taken a LONG time to get to this point. Good luck!