I have a 5 month old male Rottie. He is absolutely fabulous 95% of the time. However, when we try to cut his nails or tape his ears (they are "flyaway" and the breeder suggested taping them) he becomes the demon dog. He snarls (lifts up his lip and bares his teeth) and snaps and tries like hell to bite us. The first day we did the taping he bit both me and my husband. When we tried it again last night - he reacted the same way but we were able to avoid the bites. Should we just not do things that bring out this reaction in him? Or should we be forcing the issue because we are his pack leaders? He does let us touch his feet most of the time and clean his ears without incident. This snarling and biting really scared both of us. I am also scared because now I don't know what may be a "hot spot" for him and set him off - what if a neighborhood child does something that sets him off? I feel like he is unpredictable. I have emailed his breeder for advice but have not gotten a response.

Are you familiar with marker training at all? You should be able to use it by breaking down the steps of taping and trimming and marking the good behaviors when they occur. Start working with just having the tape and marking or just the nail cutters and marking and move to a touch, etc when he has becom comfortable. Chances are he will start getting super excited when he sees these things come out because good things always happen when they do.
Don't "force" the issue with a pack leader mentality, help him through his sensitivities to make him more comfortable. He's still so young that these things are easily workable and he has no other ways to tell you he doesn't enjoy what you are doing. Don't give up! Start some positive training with him

Hi Amy,

He just graduated from puppy training where we used a marker type of training. Your advice is a great idea for the nails. Unfortunately, his ears must be taped before 6 months old and I started late. I don't lnow if we will have time to use the positive approach. But, who knows - he loves food and he responded very well to the training so maybe his attitude will improve after just a few days of working up to it. Definitely worth a try. Thank you.

Do some research (reading) on LB about marker training, make sure it's the same thing you used in your class! Many formal OB classes don't use marker training in the most beneficial way.

Will he let you handle his ears at all? Mark it! Slowly increase the expectations on time, etc.

Make sure he's not scared of the tape/other items you're using to tape his ears, and the same with the nail clippers/dremmel. Ask him to look at the items, and mark. Slowly make your way up to asking for a nose touch on the offending items.

Have you tried using a dremmel on his nails? Often, this is not nearly as scary for dogs, once they are desensitized to the sound and vibration.

Not sure what fly away ears are, but if that is how he was born, I would leave it like that. Anyway...

Erika>> Here is my opinion. And if I had a dog with this problem , here is how I would approach it.

There are two parts to dealing with this behaviour and both are necessary. (as long as you are sure that he is not in pain due to this ear taping / nail clipping thing and he has tried to show you that he is in pain and you did not respond and he is using aggression as the last resort).

Part 1: Marker train him to accept you touching him anywhere and every where. Eyes, ears, nose, tongue, toes etc. Marker train him every day. Unless you get to touch his ears, he cannot have his dinner. Unless you get to touch his ears he does not get to hop on the bed. Unless you get to touch his ears, you don't give him affection. You can marker train for any reward, not just food. You touching his nails and ears should become such a common experience for him that he should think that it is boring. That is the academic answer to the question.

But what to do AFTER he has growled at you?

Part 2: If any of my dogs ever growled at me , I would correct them immediately. I would not wait till it escalates to a lip curl or baring their teeth at me, leave alone snapping at me. Once my dog shows aggression towards me, I will deal with it right there in a way as to put an end to it. You are his boss and his leader and that is unacceptable behaviour. If I make my dog physically uncomfortable, the acceptable way of showing that is by squealing or crying or yawning or squirming etc. and not growling. If you let this persist, I would think that the problem will only grow. You have mentioned that you are a bit concerned when you touch him. You can rest assured that he is picking up on that nervousness.


In short, I would never create a situation where my dog shows aggression towards me. I would always keep it positive and reinforcing for him to do the things I want him to do.

But that will take you only so far.

When a situation arises where my dog shows even the slightest bit of aggression towards me, I will correct him for that in way that extinguishes that behaviour.

He's 5 months old, make him deal with it.

Here's how I do it : the start is my wife squishes hot dogs in her hand and I do their nails, then after awhile they just let me do them and I give them a food treat after we're done, use a dremel stylus model , here's a video of my KC getting his nails done http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TmZu9Ec8lE

If your pup growls at you make him knock it off and continue on, DON'T stop because he dislikes it. If my dogs growl at me for anything I make it really clear not to do it again. I would do nails everyday 2 or 3 times till he accepted it if he was my dog.

I'm all for the marker training answers - I think they make alot of sense. And I agree with giving him lots of yummy treats for nail trimming and trying to use a Dremel so it's less traumatic. We will definitely take that advice.

So growling is one thing I can handle - I'm not new to dogs - I've had many over the years - but he is snarling and then BITING us.

I'm not picking on you - but you are the second person to say that they would (in essence) "make them knock it off" - what does that mean? How would you do that? How on earth do you stop a dog from growling? If I had that answer, he probably wouldn't escalate to biting me. Do I give him food? Then I'm rewarding him for growling. Do I beat the crap out of him? That's kind of extreme. What are you recommending?

It depends on your dog's temperament. For some a verbal "BAD BOY!!!" in a deep voice is enough, for others , it may be a hard stare into their eyes and a deep growling "NO" , for others it may be a leash pop with a flat collar, for others it may be a prong collar correction. You need to know your dog.

Your dog is entering adolescence, so you might as well get used to dealing with fearful reactions to unknown things. When I first pulled out the nail clippers, Jethro would jump up and run away from me. I started out by leaving them lying around at his level and gradually moving them closer and closer to his favourite resting spots until he was comfortable lying beside the clippers. Then I started clicking and treating him for letting me touch his paws with the clippers. He will let me trim his nails with the clippers now, not willingly, but because I am going to do it no matter what and his discomfort level is not so extreme that he feels he has to escape. Plus, there are treats and affection afterward, so the combined forces of persuasion, implacability, and desensitization work together.

I would think of the biting as a last behaviour after many indicators that your dog is getting upset. Start to get better at reading your dog's expression and see if you can get better at predicting his tension. What facial expressions or body posture precede the growl? I would not punish the growl, it is a very useful indicator that your dog is getting upset enough to bite. You don't want a dog that suppresses its need to growl, only to bite unexpectedly.

Also, I would read up on John Bradshaw's theories of dog development. In his book, "Dog Sense: How the New Science of Dog Behavior Can Make You A Better Friend to Your Pet" he explains the sensitive period and the fear period of dog development. As you say, you have left the procedure (ear taping) until now you feel under the gun to get it done before 6 months. Well, it might also be too late developmentally for your dog, because he is forming a fearful attachment to the ear taping procedure. If it was me, and it wasn't a health necessity for my dog's ears to be taped, but rather an aesthetic human preference, I would spare the dog, knowing I was going to have my hands full with other fearful reactions for the next 1 - 2 years. On the other hand, if you can use ear taping to build your bond with your dog, and help him overcome fear reactions to unknown things, then it could be a positive.

There are many people more experienced than I am on these matters, I just wish I had known more about these aspects of bringing a reactive dog through to maturity when my pup was 5 months old. Particularly the part about building my bond with my dog, not mistaking the idea of leadership as meaning it is my job to force my dog to do what I want him to do no matter what.

 Quote: ramachandran subramanian

It depends on your dog's temperament. For some a verbal "BAD BOY!!!" in a deep voice is enough, for others , it may be a hard stare into their eyes and a deep growling "NO" , for others it may be a leash pop with a flat collar, for others it may be a prong collar correction. You need to know your dog.

Thank you, but none of these work when he is in this frame of mind. Either it doesn't affect him, or it makes him more upset. He is a very hard dog.