11 mo old female doensn't like hubby

[Jatie74]

I recently aquired an 11 month old female Boxer for the most part everything is going well. She gets along good with my 2 yr old male, they're having a ball! The problem is with DH, she doesn't want much to do with him. If dh is laying down or sitting down she will reluctantly come up to him for a treat or a quick pet. If dh is standing or walking she will not come within 5 feet of him she will just stand there and bark and growl at him. Not sure if this is a men thing?

What can we do?!?

 

[ELubas]

I assume she is a rescue? Do you know anything about her background? Is she like this with all men? Hard to know what is up without a little more info..

 

[Jatie74]

She's not a rescue, we got her from another family that were unable (or unwilling) to keep her anymore. The reason they gave me that they couldn't keep her anymore was that she was to hyper. Now that I have her home I don't think she's very hyper, she's a puppy.
She's not been around very many men in close proximity since I brought her home mainly my husband. What makes me think it's a male thing is that she will run right up to my female neighbors to meet them. The male neighbors she barks at.
Other than that I don't know very much about her background.

 

[Jpep]

My personal opinion and not sure if its a popular one or not but dogs liking men or woman is a myth. Dogs may be smart but to know the sex of a human is beyond there realm of thinking. Now there could be another type of association, Like may be she was abused by a guy that wore hats, or a guy with a beard, but liking or disliking all men is not likely. There has to be something else there making her feel uneasy, my bet it will just take time. How long have you had her?
If I was your husband I'd just vontinue to do my thing, give off good vibes, be authortive, make sure hes practicing NILF with her and she'll eventually respect him and soon will have no problems with him. He can't try to hard praising her, and treating her when shes nervous can have an opposite effect. I'm sure if hes like me he wants to hug, play, treat dog. But those things will all come once she gets comfortable. But when she is uneasy, or doing a low growl at him and he goes and gets a treat to try and coach her towards him its rewarding her behavior of growling, and sending mixed signals. Goodluck

 

[Jatie74]

Thank you for your reply. Hopefully time will be the answer. We've only had her about a week now. I'm porobably just freakin because I want it to work so badly!! She is such a sweetie I already love her to death (so does my 2 yr old!).

 

[meliss&kash]

My 2 cents... I would make sure that all experiences around your hubby are just fantastic for her so that she makes the association hubby = great things for me (and you can do this with other men too, your friends, family members, neighbors, etc the more the better). I would suggest something like, hubby enters the room, toys and/or treats come out (use something she goes nuts for here, like a treat she loves but hardly ever gets, or a toy that you only use on special occasions). When hubby leaves, toys and treats stop. Repeat, repeat, repeat. You can start this with him just entering the room, not too close to her, and then gradually work your way to having him closer and closer, and having him dole out treats and toys at some point too. This will teach her an alternate behaviour to *stressing out* when your hubby is there - she'll gradually become more relaxed around him when she sees good things happen when he's around.

Good luck.

 

[IluvLucy]

My personal opinion and not sure if its a popular one or not but dogs liking men or woman is a myth. Dogs may be smart but to know the sex of a human is beyond there realm of thinking. Now there could be another type of association, Like may be she was abused by a guy that wore hats, or a guy with a beard, but liking or disliking all men is not likely. There has to be something else there making her feel uneasy, my bet it will just take time.

I don't agree with this at all. While it may not be the case here, there are cases of dogs being afraid of men. And yes, I think dogs can tell the difference. It's well known that men give off different pheromones than women and it only stand to reason that a dog's nose is sensitive enough to be able to tell the difference. I believe a lot of rescues will get in dogs that are fine with women they have never seen before but a man will make them cringe. True, some will be very specific and only be afraid of a man with a beard or a hat or whatever but some will also be afraid of all men. I think it really depends on their experiences.

 

[Jpep]

I don't agree with this at all. While it may not be the case here, there are cases of dogs being afraid of men. And yes, I think dogs can tell the difference. It's well known that men give off different pheromones than women and it only stand to reason that a dog's nose is sensitive enough to be able to tell the difference. I believe a lot of rescues will get in dogs that are fine with women they have never seen before but a man will make them cringe. True, some will be very specific and only be afraid of a man with a beard or a hat or whatever but some will also be afraid of all men. I think it really depends on their experiences.

Like I said its my opinion I stand by it, to give a dog that much credit that it smells pheromones of a person to know whether they're comfortable around them is giving them too much credit unless they've specfically had training in that deptartment like a search and rescue dog but again I could be completely wrong. My true belief is that a dog doesn't know whether a human either sex, its not like they are sniffing our privates and butts, I've seen many of dogs afraid of different sexs but most times its the energy the different sexes give off not what literally between their legs, again I welcome all critics I never said I'm right it is just my opinion this is a great debate to have and may help Jatie in the end

 

[Murp.mm]

I will give you my experience with a rescue (not a boxer) that may help or not the situation. We adopted a beautiful black lab/mix from the rescue about five years ago after my little poodle died. To make a long story short we went to get her and when she saw Dale (Nicole's new husband) she really got worked up. The people at the shelter told us it might be his hat so we brought her inside and he took off his hat and she settled down. We played with her and made her feel comfortable before taking her home. We walked her and she was a jule. That night all hell broke lose when Nicole picked up Dale from work. Zina sat in Dale's lap for the short run. Then as they walked into the house Dale went to take Nicole's hand and Zina went into vicious mode. She went for Dale and Nicole had to drag her away. When I heard the uproar I went to see what had happened and Dale was in one corner and Zina was showing teeth by this time. Nicole was trying to keep her away from him. We managed to get Dale out of the house and get Zina somewhat settled. My brother happened to come by at the same time and she made a rush for him. We calmly took her and settled her down. The next day I brought her back to the shelter crying all the way. I wanted this to work but for some reason this dog didn't like men. Maybe she was mistreated. A young couple had owned her. She had been spayed. So the rescue people figured she had been mistreated by a tall young man with a deep voice. We will never know but I know one thing for sure some dogs act differently around men. I think men's energy is different from ours and dogs pick up on that. Hope all goes well for you and your new addition.

 

[Murp.mm]

I will give you my experience with a rescue (not a boxer) that may help or not the situation. We adopted a beautiful black lab/mix from the rescue about five years ago after my little poodle died. To make a long story short we went to get her and when she saw Dale (Nicole's new husband) she really got worked up. The people at the shelter told us it might be his hat so we brought her inside and he took off his hat and she settled down. We played with her and made her feel comfortable before taking her home. We walked her and she was a jule. That night all hell broke lose when Nicole picked up Dale from work. Zina sat in Dale's lap for the short run. Then as they walked into the house Dale went to take Nicole's hand and Zina went into vicious mode. She went for Dale and Nicole had to drag her away. When I heard the uproar I went to see what had happened and Dale was in one corner and Zina was showing teeth by this time. Nicole was trying to keep her away from him. We managed to get Dale out of the house and get Zina somewhat settled. My brother happened to come by at the same time and she made a rush for him. We calmly took her and settled her down. The next day I brought her back to the shelter crying all the way. I wanted this to work but for some reason this dog didn't like men. Maybe she was mistreated. A young couple had owned her. She had been spayed. So the rescue people figured she had been mistreated by a tall young man with a deep voice. We will never know but I know one thing for sure some dogs act differently around men. I think men's energy is different from ours and dogs pick up on that. Hope all goes well for you and your new addition.

I don't mean that your baby is any way like my rescue was. Your baby sounds like she just needs to learn to trust your hubby and I'm sure in time she will be fine.