While visiting friends, one of their neighbors brought over an 8 month old Aussie Shepherd .... she was sweet and gentle as could be. Miss eLlIe turned into a (http://smilies.vidahost.com/contrib/edoom/Wizard.gif) I mean she really turned to FULL ATTACK MODE. It was frightening. There was no stopping her .... SCREECHING barks, teeth , growls, lunges Thank goodness the other dog didn't seem to have an agressive bone in her body.
I have seen eLlIe bark at "Big Dogs" but nothing like this. As a matter of fact she has always been quite summissive. Her usual reaction to a new dog is to roll over and show her belly.
How do I teach her NOT to do this??
How old is she?
Quote from: Dee Dee and Hallie on June 11, 2006, 12:19:08 PM
How old is she?
Hi DeeDee,
eLlIe is 3 ......... She is around quite a few dogs .... but all of them are pretty much her size, except for her buddy Grady who is a large dog BUT, eLlIe knew him as a puppy when he was smaller than she was.
Ruth, when you find out how to stop this behavior, please let me know! Kirby has been dubbed "Viper Dog". My usual sweet tail waging pup turns NASTY when other dogs (big or small) or anyone under 4 ft shows up.
Smootches to Ellie, she means well I bet! :wink:
Yep, I'm in the same boat with my Hooligan Dolly. She HATES big dawgs and dslikes most little dogs, especially white fluffy ones. She is sooooo obnoxious, it's downright embarrassin'. HOWEVER.....if BIG dawg sees her bluff and gives her the BIG DAWG stare, she cowards right down and can't get behind her mommy's legs fast enough or can't jump into any available lap quick enough.......ask Nikki. :idiot:
How was the dog presented to her, was she in the house, yard? And what was she doing at the time, did the dog come racing in and surprise her or did she see it coming?
Also does Ellie know any basic commands...sit, stay, down?
What I do in a situation like this is have plenty of training treats handy. Have her on a sit stay next to or in front of you (on leash). Someone else should have good control of the big dog, also on leash, and bring it in to Ellie's sight. What I would have done before this, but it's an extra step you may not want to take, is I would train the "watch" command which means when you say "watch", the dog looks into your eyes and does not look away no matter what the distraction (I trained Hallie with this for her obedience exercises). But lets say Ellie doens't know the watch command...then I would have her next to me, and with the dog quite a distance from her, (again in control of a handler) tell Ellie to "sit" , you can help her, but you want her to be sitting and to be quiet. The reason I would have her "sit" is because it's harder for her to flip out physically and go wild if she is thinking about sitting.
The second she is sitting and quiet, even for a brief second, immediately tell her "YES!" and give her a treat bite. Timing is really important, for her to know what it was she did "right". You need to help her understand (by always being consistant in your timing) that whatever she was doing at the moment you said "YES!", was the desired behavior. Follow it immediately with the treat and praise her. If she "goes off" on the dog again, repeat, you can do a light scolding at first, (you have to keep in control yourself) if she is barking you can say "Ellie "no bark!" but always say the same command each time, you want it very simple and clear to her, so the less extraneous words the better (i.e. don't go on with "Ellie you be a good girl and stop that and listen to your mother..." all those words blur together to her and she doesn't know what they mean so just use the word or words you choose for each behavior, such as "no bark" or "quiet"....pick one and stick with it). Your goal is to redirect her attention from the negative (dog) to the positive (Mom has treats!)
This will get easier as she catches on, she will realize a treat will be coming if she settles and is quiet and doesn't go off on the dog. If it is too hard at first for her, have the dog be farther away and as she gets better, bring it closer and closer as she can handle it. And always praise her when she's near the dog and being quiet, you want being close to the big dog to always be a positive thing for her when she's quiet (so when she's close and being quiet, don't say things like "now Ellie don't you be a bad dog", keep it positive so she relates being near the big dog with good things).
It takes some time and committment but it will pay off. Hallie doesn't normally have a problem with big dogs but I will do this with her sometimes when someone comes to the door for instance, I'll have her sit and "watch" me while somone is knocking and then have her "sit-stay" while I open the door. Doxies are so smart, they catch on to anything which ends with food, really fast. :thumb:
Rudy is friendly with some dogs and some not. I never know when he may not "like" them and go into the I own this street, yard, town - whatever mode !!! Ususally he smells them first and I guess then is when he decides if he likes them or not. DD has posted a lot of good information on controlling puppers......Guess I had better get to work !!!! Smoochies to Ellie !
Libby HATES all big dogs. She acts like she is going to tear them from limb to limb. We call it her Napoleon Complex. I have not put her around a small dog, other than dachshunds, which she gets along fine with. She just does not like anything bigger than her.
Commands? What is a command??????? Sometimes when Mama gets really scarred and she yells S-T-O-P ! I hesitate for a nano second. .... Gee maybe that's why I am always on a leash when we go outside our fenced yard ????? :angel12:eLlIe :angel12:
Quote from: Sandishooligans on June 11, 2006, 07:14:54 PM
Yep, I'm in the same boat with my Hooligan Dolly. She HATES big dawgs and dslikes most little dogs, especially white fluffy ones. She is sooooo obnoxious, it's downright embarrassin'. HOWEVER.....if BIG dawg sees her bluff and gives her the BIG DAWG stare, she cowards right down and can't get behind her mommy's legs fast enough or can't jump into any available lap quick enough.......ask Nikki. :idiot:
That is why I call her Dolly the Chicken!!! LOL!
My Rudy was about as aggressive and napoleonic as you could get. What I found was that once he got through his first minute or two of acting big and bad, he would then just simply ignore the bigger dog. Of course, sometimes the bigger dog would take a paw and slap Rudy on top of his head...I've seen enough dogs do this to know that it wasn't an accident, and that would just send Rudy into orbit.
Then there was the one time he decided to tangle with a Greyhound. 2 days, one operation, 15 stitches and $800 later he came home.
Max would have his moments, but he was much more mellow than Rudy. These days, he's almost completely submissive, though. Every once in a while he strikes his aggresive dog pose and lets out a deep bark.