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(Page 5 of 5: Viewing entries 41 to 49) 1 2 3 4 5 
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Spike
You mean I can't- put it in my- mouth |
 | | Barked: Tue Jan 6, '09 2:55pm PST | |  | |  | | Hi I'm Spike,
I'm part rottie/ mountain dog mix; my family adopted me when I was six months old. I came from a high kill shelter, and it is not really known how much time I spent there before I came to Boston to be adopted. At first I was very fearful of everything and aggressive toward people, other dogs, inanimate objects. Today i am less fearful of everything ( although i am still a scaredy pup) I am less aggressive toward people and dogs than I used to be, but my family and I start a new program tomorrow to help me be come a more confident, happy socialized, well mannered dog that I know I can be. I will keep you guys abreast of my progress. |  |  | |  |
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Charlie Pete
Nope....not- me....I didnt do- it! |
| | Barked: Tue Jan 13, '09 8:15am PST | | | | | | HI everybody
I'm Charlie-Pete (CP) and my mum adores me even though (or maybe because) I'm a special needs child. I'm a boxer greyhound mix. I moved into my home as a too young pup...about 6 weeks. At that time there were two other older females in the house. All started out well. Ate together played together. No problems. As I got a bit older and bigger, started running into trouble.
Okay....this is CPs mum. I can't continue the talking in the third person thing.  I know that Charlie's problem are entirely my fault. I take full responsibility. So I now need to sort out how to fix the mess I have made. I have always had at least two female dogs together in my adult life and have never had any behaviour problems. Believe me....now I know this was sheer luck and not through training. I was raised that a dog was part of the house, but no one walked them, just played with them on the property and let them live with you. Since I've always had multiple female dogs, I've never run into trouble with this approach, which, knowing what I know now about dogs, I think is probably a bit of a miracle. Then came Charlie Pete. He is high energy, full of life, hilarious and extremely affectionate with people. Overexcitable at first to see them, but then very calm and sweet. All went reasonably well with him and my other dogs until he got bigger than the dominant older female in the house. My take on this is that she is generally a passive dog, didn't want to risk taking him on to put him in place so she started being quite pushy with the younger female who had chronic ear infections (weak link in the pack..that didn't help things). My approach (wrong approach I think) was to let them work out pack issues. So at first when it was grumbling, mounting, I just let them work it out. I didn't intervene. This make Charlie very nervous and anxious. He got a bit more hyper overall. Things escalated. Finally we had a HUGE blow up. He attacked the dominant female, she attacked the non-dominent, then he attacked the non-dominant. Horrid fight. Finally got them separated. somewhat back to a routine. Managed sort of reasonably well but with occasionally mild struggles for a year or two (actuallly now tthat I read this, not really, it was horribby stressful), then another big blow out. At the end of it, I couldnt get the retriever (dominant female) back in the same room with either of the others and for everyones safety had to rehome her. Sad day. She was lovely.
So now down to CP and JessAnneMarieLouise (JAML). Jess is generally quiet, placid, gentle. But will defend herself if needed. Most of the time they co-exist well. Charlie occasionally bosses Jess around in body language. I call him on it, it is over. Maybe once a year they will have a fight at the door, competing to get out. Mostly they get along....I can manage their behaviour although its a bit stressful and it is "managed". I make sure the environment is structured between them to take away triggers. I still cannot walk them on lead together (I would love suggestions on this). He gets anxious, she reacts to him, he then reacts more to her. Chaos.
CP does not cope with other dogs. He is like a lot of descriptions I have seen here. ON leash, when he used to see another dog he would go ballistic.....SCREAMING, not barking, and pulling at his lead. Cannot even consider the dog park....I'm sure we would have mayhem and a lot of blood shed. The dog trainer took him once and said, yup...not a good idea. I know this is my fault. I always thought he had plenty of socialisation with the other two dogs. But know now that wasn't good enough. He needed to be around other dogs early on. I think he also doesn't trust me to protect him since I didn't intervene with the retriver picking on JAML. So he doesnt have confidence that I will protect him when we are out and that translates to putting him on the defensive.
We are slowly working on it. We can now cross paths with another dog on the other side of the street without an attempted attack or yelling. He is tense but under control. If we pass the same dog two or three times in th same day (training exercise) we can get about a meter away from that dog and stop to talk and he can control himself and actually appear quite calm. This week he actually laid down with his back tot he dog about a meter away and went to sleep. I think that once he knows that dog is not going to hurt him, he is fine. But walking him is still very stressful as there are other dogs in the neighbourhood that walk around off leash. So if they approach him we are in big trouble. So I am anxious. He is anxious. We are all anxious. Not good.
He goes once a week for day care to a small fantastic kennel. Small number of dogs. The owner is a retired police dog handler and knows him well....just adores him. So he is around dogs, separated by fencing and handles that very well now. He exercises in the big paddock with only his sister though. Keith says that when the fencing is not between him and other dogs, he is in attack mode.
I'm starting a new trainer for new ideas. We are thinking of trying some agility training. I saw in another post that someone tried this with good effect. CP is a smart pup and wants to please. I think the mental stimulation would do him well. But of course this would need to be done in carefully controlled situation. Any thoughts on this?
Charlie boy causes me a lot of grief, but I love him dearly. Poor boy, it appears his role in life was to teach me how to be a better dog mum, bless him. I have made big mistakes and I feel very guilty about it. So please don't beat me up. I do that enough myself. I just need support in fixing it.
Sorry this is so long...thanks for listening | | | | |
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Hunter
run and you'll- only have teeth- marks! |
| | Barked: Sun Jan 25, '09 3:21pm PST | | | | | | I have a purebred Dutch Shepherd puppy. His breed is aggressive by nature. I hate to use that word in some circles because people automatically assume that means vicious and he is not. He is a social butterfly and loves to get/give attention. He is happy-go-lucky and pretty much like any other 4 month puppy, just with a few special needs.
He does not always understand that biting is not the right way to give attention. We are working with a trainer that has extensive history with Dutchies and trains with them on a regular basis. These are generally K9's and need specialized training.
He is doing so well with his traning that his trainer wants him! I'm proud of him but he is not going anywhere, he has so deeply entrenched himself into my heart. We bonded from moment one!
It is a challenge to have a dog like this but if we can survive his first 2 years (he is 4 months now) he will be an outstanding dog. The biggest trick with Hunter is keeping him physically and mentally stimulated. If he gets bored he gets aggresive and starts biting and trying herd the cat (these were herding dogs once upon a time and have not lost that) and even will occasionally try to herd me. That does not go well for him but I give him points for trying. Silly puppy  | | | | |
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Biff
Squeaky squeaky!- Woof Woof Woof! |
| | Barked: Mon Jan 26, '09 1:43pm PST | | | | | | My dog Biff is a shepherd/black lab mix. We got him from the SPCA when he was 10 months old. When we first took him home, he was super sweet but we could see that he had some issues. Never aggression, but if he got too excited he would start chasing his tail obsessively. He didn't know how to calm himself down and we didn't know how to help him. He was our first dog.
Still, we were able to take him anywhere and he was nice to any person/animal we came into contact with.
I was walking him one day when he was about 1 1/2 yrs old when a german shepherd came running at us out of nowhere. I started screaming, trying to keep Biff behind me and the other dog away. I didn't know if the dog was just coming to greet us or if he was coming after us, but I was going to do anything to keep him from hurting my dog.
Unfortunately, ever since I flipped out on that walk Biff has reacted the same way towards any person/animal we meet. He will do anything to keep them away from us. He barks and lunges viciously. Everyone we know is afraid of him.
His issue is all in the greeting. I am learning how to calm him down and once that is done, he has no problems with anyone or anything.
I have so much guilt because I know that this is all my fault. I went from being afraid that another dog would hurt him, to being afraid that he will hurt someone else.
I have been working for the last 2 years on letting go of the guilt so I can help him show the outside world the sweet, fun-loving boy he is with me and my husband. It's a slow road, but I have finally forced myself to stop being afraid on our walks and be in control. He is slowly (very slowly) but surely coming around.
We still have our problems. I am nowhere near ready to bring him around other dogs. But seeing the progress the 2 of us have made helps keep me trying to move forward.
I just want to fix what I broke and give him confidence so he can live a happy life, not a fearful one. | | | | |
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Laila
I'm just a big- silly pooch! |
| | Barked: Sun Jun 14, '09 3:32pm PST | | | | | | So Hi, this is Laila 
Laila spent the first year of her life living outdoors on a farm, left to her own devices. she was never socialized to other dogs that first year, though she was bitten in the face by a dog that lived there.
she's becoming increasingly dog-reactive.
Just today at the DP she became extremelly stressed out by 2 other dogs fighting, she went after one of the dog and had a scuffle. I grabbed her collar, but she kept growling, lunging. she had a hard time calming down. I took her away and calmed her down. We walked back to the dogs. When I released her, she went back to the other dog (walked over), stared at her and froze beside her and, as soon as the dog snarled, attacked her. I managed to get her off but I was really riled up (holding on to the other dog's scruff, freaking).
The main thing that sets her off is when she meets and greets a dog that is tense and anxious or if a dog growls in her face.
A lot (most) times upon meeting and greeting, if she shows that she am stressed and worried, she manages to not get triggered and to walk away. Sometimes not.
With the relaxed dogs she is also pretty relaxed. she is not leash aggressive. when she fights she never bites or punctures or anything. She scares the crap out of many dogs though, and stresses herself out a lot. But I think to her it is self-reinforcing. I think that it is a strategy she has developped and she switches to that because she feels it works.
I am getting tired and scared. I am blaming myself right now. I am getting a TTouch practicionner to come work with her and me. I hope it works cause I'm pretty stressed out. I choose my times for visiting the dog park (quiet times) and I fee that it is still somewhat enjoyeable to Laila when it goes well (she plays quite a bit), and I don't want to deprive her of pleasure and social interactions.
Thanks for listening! | | | | |
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Cody- Alexander
live ur life you- may not be there- tomaro |
| | Barked: Tue Jun 16, '09 11:02am PST | | | | | | well hi everyone my name is Cody im a pure bred australian shepherd and truth is even though my mommy likes to think im the best in the world im noti have problems. a few months ago mommy took me along with her father and step mother and step sister to the dog park there were 3 other dogs from the family going to my brother copper and new sisy abby. abby was perfect shes too playfull to notice the bigger mean looking dogs there but copper my blood brother and i well it was about an hour before we could even go in. you see my mommy got me from a hobby breeder and her step mom got copper from there to and my mommy tried very hard to socialize me well but i guess not good enough and copper his mommy never took him walking or anything so hes not social at all. but on and off leash i have an aggresion problem with other dogs actualy mostly just males i did make a friend at the dog park mommy called her my new girlfreind.
one time about 1 year ago mommy was walking me and herstep sissy was walking abby and a little itty jack russel terrier came running you see i know how annoying those dogs are there was one in our house for a while. and well it went right for abby it started biteing her so i grabbed it by the skin on its back and threw it i dont know why i thought it was good to help abby but momma yanked me up for it cuz apparently it was a bad thing than the jak russels momma came running to get her dog and momma told her that i grabbed it the lady said the dog probably deserved it and she appolagised for his actions.
but as you can tell i need help and my momma can use all the advise on how to get me non aggressive cuz we can rarely wallk much anymore because i start barking and lungeing at dogs. shes used a harness and the halter but nothing seems to keep me under control. | | | | |
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Summer
Mommas wrinkly- little piglett |
| | Barked: Mon Jul 27, '09 2:08am PST | | | | | | Hi All
I was referred to this site by a friend.
Summer has just turned 1 and we are working to fix her aggression. They say it takes a village to raise a baby....well, its taking an entire dog training club to help my dog Summer.
We dont know why's, hows, when's of why she is this way but Ill move mountains to help her to be a happy balanced dog as she has her whole life ahead of her.
I read with interest your journeys and am so happy I have found you all.
Julie & Summer | | | | |
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