New Found Aggression

[araine]

Harley is now 3, and has always been a sweet, well dispositioned dog, allowing children of any age to crawl, pounce, and pull on her. As well with other dogs, she normally gets along with them as long as then dont jump in her face (she was bitten as a puppy), then she would normally bark...until now...

3 months ago, we adopted Molly....our now 5 month old beagle (who is being re-homed due to several reasons) and Harley, at first, was not too happy about it. She liked being the only child so to speak. A week later, they became best buds. Playing together, looking for each other, stealing one anothers' food and toys.

The last 2 weeks now, we have noticed a temperament change in Harley, which goes on with or without Molly. It first started with growling at other dogs, and we would yank the collar and tell her no! She would look at us with those eyes, "I'm sorry..." but then still keep an eye on that other dog. When I would see that she would remotely be looking at another dog and feel a rumble or have had a rumble, I would snap the collar to direct her attention.

Harley has also a weird way of checking things out...I have always been taught that when a dog is STILL and stares at you or another dog, that is an intimidating gesture, and should be stopped. Harley has always been a stopper and stare dog, towards anyone or anything. But never led to a fight, growl, or bark. It was always her way of reading us or the other player. But I tell my boyfriend that this intimidates dogs, and that's why they always jump on her, then she gets angry about it.

Now its gone to a whole new level. If a dog walks by, or even if she sees them through our screen door, there is no warning. No stare, no growl, no bark. It is now a FULL out lunge with a bark and growl, and its always 2 quick jabs with her jaw which I would assume would be a bite. She dented the screen and our gate by doing this, when we had another boxer over to play the same age (male). She however, keeps her feet on the ground.

I tell my boyfriend that this is concerning, but he pays no mind. Just says to smack her on the hind end to reinstate authority, but I don't think that does anything but hurt her pride. She is all about pride, and getting into trouble causes her to sulk and snort.

Your thoughts? Comments?

 

[SabrinaMN]

I'm by no means an expert, but I wonder if she's picking up on vibes from you. Our female that we recently lost was like this. She started around 2 years old, which I hear is very common for female Boxers to start at this age. I found that she was much better when with my husband because he was more relaxed. I was tense, so she would become tense and sense it in me. I would also make sure she's feeling ok.
It may be that you just need to take her to a trainer/behaviorist and have them help you with it. Our trainer was very familiar with this behavior and said they see dogs all of the time that do this.
GL!

 

[araine]

I'm by no means an expert, but I wonder if she's picking up on vibes from you. Our female that we recently lost was like this. She started around 2 years old, which I hear is very common for female Boxers to start at this age. I found that she was much better when with my husband because he was more relaxed. I was tense, so she would become tense and sense it in me. I would also make sure she's feeling ok.
It may be that you just need to take her to a trainer/behaviorist and have them help you with it. Our trainer was very familiar with this behavior and said they see dogs all of the time that do this.
GL!

It has happened with both my husband and myself. I am not tense over it, I have trained dogs over the years placing in obedience courses, just have never dealt with this before. Thanks!

 

[ouesi]

Harley is now 3, and has always been a sweet, well dispositioned dog, allowing children of any age to crawl, pounce, and pull on her. As well with other dogs, she normally gets along with them as long as then dont jump in her face (she was bitten as a puppy), then she would normally bark...until now...

Just a word of caution about dogs who "allow" kids to crawl, pounce, and generally mistreat them. Often times these dogs are throwing out calming signals and stress signals left and right that we humans simply don't notice. That stress can build and turn in to one of those "out of the blue" attacks, or it can transfer to other areas of the dog's life with seemingly unrelated lashing out. Are you familiar with calming signals or stress signals in dogs?

The last 2 weeks now, we have noticed a temperament change in Harley, which goes on with or without Molly. It first started with growling at other dogs, and we would yank the collar and tell her no! She would look at us with those eyes, "I'm sorry..." but then still keep an eye on that other dog. When I would see that she would remotely be looking at another dog and feel a rumble or have had a rumble, I would snap the collar to direct her attention.

Harley has also a weird way of checking things out...I have always been taught that when a dog is STILL and stares at you or another dog, that is an intimidating gesture, and should be stopped. Harley has always been a stopper and stare dog, towards anyone or anything. But never led to a fight, growl, or bark. It was always her way of reading us or the other player. But I tell my boyfriend that this intimidates dogs, and that's why they always jump on her, then she gets angry about it.

Now its gone to a whole new level. If a dog walks by, or even if she sees them through our screen door, there is no warning. No stare, no growl, no bark. It is now a FULL out lunge with a bark and growl, and its always 2 quick jabs with her jaw which I would assume would be a bite. She dented the screen and our gate by doing this, when we had another boxer over to play the same age (male). She however, keeps her feet on the ground.

I tell my boyfriend that this is concerning, but he pays no mind. Just says to smack her on the hind end to reinstate authority, but I don't think that does anything but hurt her pride. She is all about pride, and getting into trouble causes her to sulk and snort.

Your thoughts? Comments?

I am not a boxer expert, but IME they are not the most tolerant of dogs when it comes to other dogs. IOW, they are quicker than other breeds to react.
I'm of the mind that the best way to increase a dog's tolerance and decrease the dog's reactivity is by changing how they feel about the presence of the other dog. I could be wrong, but it sounds to me like Harley is actually fearful of other dogs and her actions serve to make the other dog go away. At the very least, she does not enjoy the presence of other dogs as she lunges, growls and snarks at them. This is not a dog who is happy to see another dog.
Correcting a fearful reaction *can* work in the same way you might stop screaming at spiders if I smacked you across the head every time you did. You might very well stop screaming when you see a spider (or you might smack me first), but I doubt you would stop being scared of spiders. On the other hand if I allow you to slowly get used to the presence of a spider by slowly introducing maybe a very small one that doesn't move and give you a soothing massage (or stiff drink), you might be able to progress to more and bigger spiders.

I would stop correcting Haley for reacting to other dogs. Instead keep her at a distance from other dogs where she does not react. If for whatever reason a dog gets in to her safety bubble, just calmly walk her away to a distance she can be calm. This is your starting point. From here there are a lot of exercises you can do to build Haley's trust in you and teach her to defer to you when insecure. But honestly, you really need to work with a trainer/behavioralist on this one. Please stay away from a trainer who tells you you need to correct this behavior. You really need to work on solid desensitization and counter conditioning techniques to have a long term solution. Research your trainer well

HTH

 

[johann]

First off....STOP CORRECTING with collar yanks or smacks. It is creating a bigger problem and has only taught her not to growl or stare and instead to just react by lunging. Reacting to aggression or reactivity with aggression (yelling, smacking, yanking on collar, etc) is going to create a much larger problem and ultimately a dangerous dog.

Dogs don't have "pride" and she isn't doing this out of lack of authority or pride.

Find a good positive reinforcement trainer and/or behaviorist in your area and enlist their help. There are some good posts on here if you search for leash aggression or dog reactivity that have good training tips to manage your dog in a safe manner. A reactive dog class or "fiesty fido" class might be very helpful as well (provided they use positive reinforcement techniques) to provide you with more training tools.

Good luck with your girl.

 

[johann]

Also wanted to add a bit more, had to feed monster boy earlier:

It is very possible to train a leash reactive or leash aggressive dog to be calm around other dogs. I've done it with Johann (reactivity created by a mean doggie daycare owner), I know larrygs has worked a lot with their girl, oxy's mom, etc....it is a common problem with dogs and there are good and bad ways to work on it. It is hard work and frustrating at times, but worth it in the end.

http://www.boxerworld.com/forums/be...y-just-registered-oxy-reactive-dog-class.html

http://www.boxerworld.com/forums/behavioral-issues/157472-leash-dog-agression.html

http://www.boxerworld.com/forums/behavioral-issues/153649-lunging-pouncing-leash.html

We personally used the "click to calm" method of dealing with leash reactivity. You start with the dog below threshold (for us, it was sitting about 200 ft away from another dog). Click and treat for calm behavior and not staring. Gradually move closer, clicking and rewarding for calm behavior. The trick is to always keep the dog below their threshold for reacting. Every time she reacts or aggresses toward another dog, it is becoming more of a habit and thus harder to break. When I'd push Johann too fast and he reacted, we calmly (but quickly and firmly) walked away.

It took a while, but he can now sit in a room with many other dogs, go on walks calmly, attend dog competitions and events with hundreds of dogs....all with no reaction.

Good luck with your girl.

 

[ELubas]

You should read the posts by Johann very, very closely. It is excellent advice. I can tell you without question you are making this situation worse and really stressing out your girl. Clicker training, redirection, working below her threshold-all things you will need to learn. As the Mom of one of the most reactive dogs you will ever meet (my darlin' Nysa), believe me, the sooner you start helping her navigate the world the better off you will all be. Your girl needs your help and it has nothing to do with "authority or pride". Best of luck with her. For what it is worth Nysa is going on six now and is a wonderful, wonderful dog.lovicon