Fear based aggression

[Guest MOLLY]

Nell is an outgoing lunatic at home or in places she knows. So its not that she is a nervy dog. But i went to meet a lady yesterday, she has 3 lurchers and a terrier, met her outdoors all dogs on leads when she approached me, Nell arched her back like a cat, hair up, wet herself and proceeded to growl, if the dogs came remotley near she snapped at them. Went into the lady's house, she put the dogs out of the room Nell settled immediately, playing, eating a chew no problems, as soon as the dogs came back in she would growl and snap at them, the dogs were brilliant and just kept away. She met one strange dog on Sunday and was the same....any advice what to do?

MOLL.

[skycat 6,173]

Get her to puppy socialisation classes right away: pups often feel less threatened by strange dogs if they are puppies too. If you can't do that make sure to expose her to non threatening well behaved dogs EVERY DAY, even if it is a hassle for you: if you don't do it know you'll never do it. Also, at 14 weeks old the pup is in a critical period of its development where it is very aware of who is 'it's own pack' and who are strangers. This is why pup socialisation classes like to start them off younger before this phase kicks in.

Obviously not all pups show such a strong reaction to strangers, and some not at all: like my over frinedly Salukified pup: totally the opposite of what this type are normally!

Just keep exposing her to nice dogs and good luck.

[Guest oneredtrim]

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Edited January 13, 2008 by oneredtrim

[Guest MOLLY]

Will do Sky, ive never had this problem before, but of course im now living rural, to be honest apart from the farm dogs (would never intro pup to those!) i never see any dogs at all, and will literally have to do a 60mile round trip to somewhere i know.

 

ORT, that is not possible in this scenario but i know exactly where you are coming from. There is no way i could get the pup anywhere near another dog to sniff, she is literally too terrified to go anywhere near, it would traumatise her too much to try to force her.

 

What should i do when she shows this behaviour, ignore it, reasure her, verbally chastise?

MOLL.

[Guest oneredtrim]

[.

Edited January 13, 2008 by oneredtrim

[Guest Ditch_Shitter]

Moll; Don't Ever 'Reassure' a pup who's showing unwarrented aggresson. That's just 'reassuring' the bugger that all's fine; 'Go ahead and keep doing what ye doing, with my blessing'. Ye'd effectively be encouraging the pup to behave so.

[madmac 0]

I know its a pain cos you are so remote but if you can't do classes take her where all the 'pet' dogs are walked. As often as you can and let her see them charging around.

My D/H lurcher was terrified at 1st and I got her at 2 yrs but if they can watch other dogs interacting it does help.

Also find some friendly folk she can walk along side so she learns other dogs not part of her pack are ok.

Build her up and say hello to strange dogs as well in front of her cos if the pack leader thinks they are ok...........

 

I was determined to not let my pup pick up on the D/H fears so he goes to the local dog walking area every day, I know thats easier for me as its local. Now at six months he will greet any dog and knows his manners and how to behave.

 

Couple of months effort would be worth it, otherwise coming to the shows with her when she is older could be traumatic for you and her.

[Simoman 110]

Hi Moll,

 

Skycat is right, get her down to a lcal puppy class, you may not want to absorb the training but it will be invaluable for socialisation. The worst thing you can do is to try and reasure the pup as this will confirm the reasoning that somethings "wrong", much better to ignore it, this is a very common problem that causes stress to the owner but usually reduces quickly with a training program and development

[Guest MOLLY]

There are no puppy classes anywhere near when i looked on the internet, the only thing i could find was a trainer charging £100 per hour Anyway i drove today to where i used to live to a park i occasionally went to, always full of people and dogs....not a bleedin dog in sight But it showed me just how much she is missing.....children on swings etc, she stood and watched for a while, she has never seen her reflection in a car, that spooked her. With my other dogs i lived in the town and took it all for granted.

Ill call into the nearest town and ask at the pet shop if she knows of any puppy classes.

Cannot walk her at the mo due to an injury.

MOLL.

[T.F.Student 0]

With regard to puppy/training classes they may not be the solution. I know a dog that behaves perfectly for its owner in puppy classes, but when out and about, its a totaly different matter. This dogs problem is the situation it's in with other dogs rather than just other dogs. The owner has made this worse by avoiding other dogs. As skycat said put the dog in the situation it doesn't like as often as you can.