My 3 year old toy poodle, bailey, is currently having behaviour issues. He is well trained and we have even had a trainer not too long ago but despite all of this he is continuously going through phases a misbehaving/reactivity. These phases started to occurred since he was about 1. During a phase he typically gets very possessive aggressive, temperamental, reactive and starts to ignore all of his commands! Does anyone have any tips to help or stop these phases all together?
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Good morning. One of our shepherds used to get this way from time to time. It turns out that even though we are consistent, with him we had to be extremely diligent and consistent. Any change in routine would set him a little off. So for us it was a long road of patience and repetition. And walks. A LOT of walks. Going for a leashes walk where you are in charge is like a reset button in my humble opinion. It reminds them that you are higher in the pack order. The key is to catch the unwanted behavior… Read more »
Hiya, thanks for getting back to me! I have started to get a really good routine since I got back to work. He has also started to only be allowed on the lead as I’m starting to see a more reactive/aggressive side to him and he is usually at heel to walk until I let him sniff about. I have been referred to behaviourist from the vets but I have to wait til I get my own house due to my living situation the now, unfortunately.
In the short term, look into Nothing In Life is Free (NILF). I agree with Sarah, there’s likely something setting this off. Try to keep logs of what happens to cause these relapses, so you can figure out how to avoid them in the future. I’d also love to know more: -Do you have any other animals in the house? How about children? -Is he intact? -What sort of training do you do on a regular basis, beyond basic commands? -What sort of grooming routine do you have with him? -When was his last bloodwork done, and when you had… Read more »
Hiya, thanks for getting back to me! I’m going to get that sorted tonight as I’ve just had a look into it and it seems to be really good. I have to keep a log of his food he eats, how much and if he’s had a good or bad day with his pancreatitis, I have noticed with that log that he acts out when he’s having good periods with his pancreatitis. I have a guinea pig but he seems to have a very good bond with him, he also has daily contact with dogs as family members own dogs… Read more »
What’s your normal training routine? And you’ve gotta advocate for your dog – he’s very small, children are usually larger than toy poodles and often don’t respect their space. Eventually chances are he’ll bite one of the kids if they aren’t respecting his space.
This might mean separating him from the kids. It might mean crating when you can’t be there to supervise 100% of the time.
Well he’s never in the house now when I’m not there and if he can’t come with me I get other family to watch him. We usually do 2 sessions morning and night, for about 10mins. He unfortunately had a seizure today when we were out so I think his behaviours more than just acting up. He will have a vets emergency appointment tomorrow morning so I will hopefully know more then.
Oof, yeah. That may explain quite a bit. Is this is first ever seizure? I hope you get some answers.
Yes, me too but I’ll let you know what they say tomorrow!
Definitely let us know. I’ll keep you guys in my thoughts.
At the vets today they took blood but all his vitals were fine and the only thing wrong with him physically was he was a bit sore on his spine, which we believe that’s due to hurting himself during the seizure. If the blood tests don’t come back with anything he will go and get a head scan.
Did they do a full thyroid panel?
Hiya, his blood results came back clean but I’m going to need to look into something else to do more tests as since he had the seizure his behaviour has became more aggressive rather that reactive.