I'm glad I popped in.....

I have been having very similar problems to the ones reported in this thread and the one linked to also.

Dog is happy go lucky at any other time, very social and stable, good with kids, ignores other dogs for the most part and plays with me always, ignoring anyone else who is around.

If I tell her to "go see em" that means she can go to be petted and this is normally reserved for family members, but may also include people I know. The dog will go, tail wagging and get petted then come back to me for play.

Now to the problem.......

When I put her in her crate in the car and close or lock the door she goes absolutely NUTS, very aggressive, territorial, almost in defense (maybe actually in defence but I can't read it properly).

When I open the crate door again I have a different dog who can be petted as long as the door is left open and she has her head out. If I put my hand in while she is fully inside the crate and posturing up I WILL get bitten (and I have been, but not broken skin, just a warning shot). The dog is a decent Schutzhund dog and if she wanted to do damage she would have.

This only happens when I close or lock the door when I'm about to go, if I approach the crate on my return to let the dog out there is "normally" no issue. It's as if the dog has an objection to being locked up or left? But she does happily go into the crate on most occasions.

She is quite a dominant bitch, quite hard also and this is where the problem is. Nothing I do to correct her for this (including remote collar) has done anything to fix this behaviour.

Things I've tried:

I've tried the dominant dog collar, dragging her out and performing an alfa roll (not recommended unless you are quite strong), no bark collar on various settings and remote trainer on various settings, which the dog just fights through.

Mistakes I've made that I know about:

Put dog in crate when young with toys, then taking toys away.

Put dog in crate with food/bone/pigs ear and messing about at rear of car doing something else (thus I assume making the dog uneasy about my presence).

Making too big a deal of the issue losing temper/shouting etc. (not really a good idea as it solves nothing). I'd include corrections in this as well as my current train of thought is that conflict is making things a lot worse.

What I'm doing now:

Generally I'm trying to ignore the behaviour and make good things happen at the car.

Being more prepared at the car before I put the dog away i.e. having one door locked and the key in the other just waiting for a quick turn and throw the boot down. I also throw in a little treat to distract her while I lock up and close.

To be honest I think this is the hardest part for me as I feel I'm running away from the issue rather than addressing it. But this could also be part of the problem....it's not in my nature to allow that behaviour towards me or mine and "dealing with it" in my own special way has brought more trouble that I bargained for.

Ideas?

John

The Alpha Roll should be on your list of mistakes too. Not recommended, PERIOD. Don't care how strong you are.

Some dogs are crate aggressive, and as long as the dog is OK when you go to let them out, feed them, or other normal stuff, then I dont see a problem. I dont make it a habit to stick my fingers in my dogs kennels for no good reason.

My bitch will happily walk into the kennel, and even let me close the door, but as soon as that latch drops she's bouncing around the kennel making a huge stink about it.

I almost bought a GSD once that was very vocal and aggressive in his crate, but there was never any fear of getting bitten when letting him out, it was just in the box that he went nuts at everyone that walked by. I did have the dog in my house for a few days, and didnt see this problem at all while in my house -- so, maybe it was his previous environment that was causing the crate aggression.

When dealing with aggression, often the conflict with the handler makes things a lot worse. For example, take a dog that is dog aggressive (one that is trained properly) and let him go up to another dogs kennel. He'll probably sniff the other dog, stand there posturing a bit, and you can normally call the dog over to you in a happy tone and the dog will leave the kennel'd dog alone. Now take this same scenario, but instead of happily calling the dog over to you, yell at the dog and tell him "NO! Leave that dog alone!" and proceed to physically put your arms/hands around him in order to try and "pry" him away from the other dog in the kennel. Now there is conflict, and the dog will start growling and escalate his aggression toward the dog in the kennel.

A peaceful resolution to aggression is often the best way to condition a desirable response from a dog. The dog is crate aggressive, then adding anger, conflict and correction, e-collars, bark collars, dominant dog collars etc to the mix and you are giving the dog a reason to behave this way.

Heidi,

Is it only aggression when you close the door? Does he do this once he is secured inside and you walk by? Does he do this when it comes time to let him out?

I'm with Mike on this one but, if you really feel the need to fix this problem then I have an idea if it is only when the door is closed. If it is straight crate aggression at all times then I'd just ignore it.

Howard

I just realized this thread is 3 weeks old.

Heidi, I've had my own trouble with dog aggression. I followed much of the advice from Ed's video's and from this website, and have had great success. IMO, what Mike says about escalating aggression is dead on. It isn't in my s.o.'s nature to "just let things go" like a little growling around the food bowl, ect. But that's exactly where we ran into trouble. The constant battles at the food bowl (just one example) brought things from a puppy with some natural food guarding tendencies into full blown biting aggression to anyone who was nearby.

The best thing, as Mike pointed out, is to ignore and leave it alone. I make my dog sit and give me eye contact before releasing him to eat now, but I leave the room and don't mess with his food anymore.

If you didn't try ignoring the crate behavior for long enough, the other things you've tried have probably, IMO, contributed to the escalating aggression. Sometimes we as humans, in striving for the "perfect pet" have a way of medling with and causing an aggressive, neurotic animal. I know that's what we did. With some easy (and some not so easy) modifications of our behavior, we have been successfull in nearly eliminating our dog's aggression.

For any bad behavior in the crate, never ever ever use a technique that involves opening the crate door. Dog doesn't like being penned, up, makes unplesant noises, so you open the door to do whatever... Dog Won.

I use the process of opening the door as a reward. My puppy does not always settle in the crate, but if I come anywhere near the door, she sits down and shuts up, as she knows that's the only behavior that will get the door opened. In the begining there were long battles, as my hand constantly moved towards or away from the latch, or moved the door open or closed, but in the end we have a dog that will wait quietly in the doorway of the crate to have a leash put on before she is released. (Well, her tail isn't quiet, but the voice and the paws are under control.)

Heidi,

I am just catching up on reading some old posts & saw yours about your Lowchen dog. Since I didn't know what type of dog that was, I looked it up & saw that typically these are "friendly, happy dogs who make excellent house pets". Also known as "Little Lion Dog".

I'm just wondering if the vet has given him a clean bill of health. Maybe he has some physical problem that is causing the aggression. With the grooming issue, did he get hurt by the clippers at some point? Then I'm thinking that because he goes nuts when the crate door closes, did he perhaps have the crate door close on his foot at some time?

Just thinking out loud . . . I'm probably totally off base on this one.