 Barked: Mon Oct 11, '10 1:29pm PST |
 | |  | | Hmm, i see not a lot of recent activity, but i'll go ahead and do a write up anyway.
Missy is my DA little Terrier. Has been this way roughly since she was a year old when she charged over to another JRT and ( can't quite remember who started it ) they both got in to a scuffle/fight. Up until then she was quite pushy with her interactions but perhaps not any more pushy than other Terriers. She played rough, is/was very vocal in play and very confident. As a puppy she attended puppy classes at the vets for pups up to around 14 weeks and then went on to training classes, again a puppy class. In both situations Missy showed concerning behaviour as young as she was. She would play with 2 or 3 other Terrier pups in the vet classes and before you knew it both pups were screaming, hanging on to each other and rolling around. This was more than just normal puppy play. Both Missy and the other pups would have to be pried away from each other. They was issued regular time outs to calm down and i was told Missy would calm down as she matured and with the more socialization she got. Moving on to her actual training classes, she would "bully" new puppies to the group, cornering them, sometimes pinning them and making them scream if they moved. She would interact well with the bigger puppies and enjoyed rough and tumble games. At the same time we walked daily with a Yorkie male, Goldie male and Springer male who she adored! They were all very gentle with her and included her in their games. However, on more than one occasion Missy had a few rough encounters with adult dogs mainly older bitches who would pin her and growl at her. I believe i socialised her well and aside from the few rough encounters she had i see no other reason as to why she would have turned DA. I do feel that it's a genetic thing with her, in her from the very beginning and the fight with the JRT just brought out that ingrained aggression.
I manage Missy pretty well, yes accidents have happened over the years but i'm not here to claim i'm the perfect dog owner. I've worked with one behaviourist so far and will be working with a second in the next few months as we made little improvement with the last. We also had a few one-to-one sessions with a trainer at the club we was attending on the behaviourists advice. The trainer thought most of her aggression is normal, that dogs running up to her in her face is a rude gesture and she had every right to hate her personal space invaded. During this time she had one scuffle with a Lab bitch at the training class when she darted from the car ( trainer said it wasn't bad, partly normal) and she attempted to grab a Border Terrier bitch that ran over to her while we was training. I started agility training with her in a small group and the trainer encouraged me to have her off lead. He assured me she would not run for the other dogs and she didn't! She could run an agility course perfectly and ignore the other dogs. I learnt to trust her a bit more.
What i want is for her to ignore other dogs whether they approach her or not. Right now i truly believe Missy ( if left to her own devices ) could injure another small dog. I don't believe it's all show with her, i just think she hasn't been given the chance to do significant damage.
In all other aspects she is great, obediant, people loving, and a great little worker. |  |  | |  |
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The Dog Show: Who's Your Mama?
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