Hi there-
It sounds like your dog has developed some fears. A while ago I stumbled across this website: http://www.thebalancedcanine.com/
You may find it helpful. Best of luck!
When I take Holly to be groomed or to the Vet and lift her onto the table, not a peep out of her. However when she asks to be lifted onto the bed(she sleeps with me) she growls like mad. Why is this when she so obvously wants to get up. She can jump up when it suits her.
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my dog ( 1 1/2 year old small mix terrier) is a sweet guy when it comes to humans and dogs he is familiar with. sadly, he has picked up aggressive behaviors from my brothers large dogs. He will growl at people he is not familiar with on the street and when they enter the home. he will growl at outside noises and also at other unfamiliar dogs. he doesn’t bite people he just growls and when they try to pet him he runs away and gets shy. minutes will pass and he will warm up to people. he does fine at the dog park, when a dog approaches he smells the dog and runs away( which makes sense, he is a small dog) i’m more concerned when we go on walks. i’m looking for advice and tips i can do to help me and my dog work on his excessive growling. i would love to be able to go on a walk with him and be able to pass people without him growling and he can just keep walking.
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My puppy is 13 weeks, for the past 2 weeks he has been very good! Training well and just being a very good puppy, but the last 3 days he’s been really bad, he’s starting to pee inside again, chew up carpet, growling barking and biting, and just not listening to me and my parter! Is there any reason or anything as to why he’s all of a sudden acting like this?
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My dog has been with me for over a year now and he still barks and growls at my family. He sometimes lunges too. What can I do? He’s also terrified of everything. But he loves me. Im out of ideas. Please help.
Three weeks ago we adopted a 4 year old female dachshund/beagle mix. She’s very sweet and loving toward everyone in the family except my younger son. He is 17, a gentle animal lover, and has never done anything to this dog. She barks at him, growls at him, or just runs away from him. It makes him very sad. Can we get her to warm up to him?
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I have adopted a dog from the pound about 4 or 3 moths ago, he is a very good dog but when someone enters my room, my dog starts growling and he won’t stop. The behaviour has gotten worse when my fathers partner hit him with a leash with a metal spring on it, now whenever he hears someone walking outside of my room (going upstairs or to the bathroom) he immediately starts growling, his growling got more loud and now when someone passes him, he’s scared and walks away. Another thing is when I leave the house, he starts howling and it’s annoying my father he wants me to sell him but I still believe there is something to help my dog. He is a sheepdog collie mix and 2 years old, he is a very good dog and I presume his previous owners must have been abusing him since he’s scared of everything. Is there a way to teach him not to do it?
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Anonymous Have you spoken with a trainer yet?
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Alex Nic Conmara No, there isn’t any trainers around where I live so it’s hard
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Lisa Pfab Well hitting has made it worse. Your dog has several anxiety/fear issues. you can teach a dog confidence but it
takes time and dedication. Start by always having your dog on a leash with you. when he lays quietly, tell him good dog. start teaching him to sit on command. then start teaching him to sit in place on a carpet or matt. All this will teach him proper behavior, and make a bond. once he and you have developed a bond, start asking a friend to come over to help work with your dog. Put a bowl of treats outside of the door, have your friend come to the door, your dog on a leash, you ask your dog to sit, treat him. the friend comes in, no eye contact, talks to you, if dog stays sitting, no growling treat him. Once dog accepts friend, let friend treat him.
Start teaching your dog that all good things come from you when he listens. Get what we call High value treats, something he ONLY gets during training, cheese, chicken, moist dog treats, whatever, but he only gets it during training.
Collie and shepherding dogs have such a strong desire to be with their people, to please them, that you should be able to train him.
As for crying while you are gone, he should be crated, with a cover over the crate, and give him a large Kong to work on while you are gone. He only ever gets the Kong in the crate. Fill it with dog food, and mix in some peanut butter, plug the whole over with peanut butter and freeze, give it to him when leaving, but make sure you feed him less so he doesn’t get fat lol.
Take time, he will be a good dog, dogs know when they are rescued.
Good luck!
Someone left their jack russell terrier (Jaz) on my street two days ago and I took her in. I currently have a 5 year old pitbull mixed with a chihuaha(Taco) taco is little bit bigger than Jaz. Every time Jaz sees taco Jaz snaps and growls at her. We give them both attention I don’t think it’s a dominance or jealousy issue because taco doesn’t fight back, Jaz would wait for taco to be vulnerable and then try and bite her. For example today we took them both walking both were fine and we both went inside and taco looks at me not paying attention to Jaz and then jaz tried to bite Tacos leg. Taco stays with me and i have jaz in a room she listens good with everything. she doesnt leave her room even if we leave the door open and she doesnt have a leash on. She just cant be around taco. I’m not sure what to do or what’s wrong, we want to train Jaz so she can be part of our family. Any suggestions?
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PK Dennis This is MOST definitely a dominance issue! Jaz is telling Taco that Jaz is the person in charge of this new house! And while Taco may not be fighting back, Jaz is going to continue this behavior until she is satisfied that Taco understands the situation. It is your job to help them get on an even keel. Is Taco a male or female? Jaz is more likely to settle down with a male (females tend to rule the house and males usually let them).You need to go back to square one. Put Jaz in a room where Taco can not see Jaz. This could be a guest bathroom, or mud room, etc. You want a closed door between the 2 dogs for the next 3-4 days. Give each dog their own time with you – but separately. This allows each dog to become familiar with the smell of the other dog. They get to know each other this way – but without any confrontation.
On the 4th day, pick up all toys, balls, bones, and put them up out of reach of the dogs (and keep them up for the time being – this prevents fights over these resources. The toys belong to you, and the dogs only get access to them while you are there to monitor things). Then take the dogs on a long walk together – put leashes on them and then right out the door, don’t allow them to sniff each other or anything – just “let’s GO – walking here!”. By the end of the walk they should be more comfortable with each other.For the next few weeks keep a short leash on Jaz at all times – let her drag it around the house and yard (I like to attache the leash to a harness for this). This allows you to step on the leash or pick it up to get Jaz away from Taco. Monitor their activities and head Jaz off at the pass when she is paying too much attention to Taco – you might want to teach Jaz ‘leave it’ and tell her to ‘leave it’ when she is looking at Taco, etc.If the days of separation, and then the walk don’t solve the problem you will need to find a behaviorist or trainer that can come to your home and work with you – after all, Jaz is a terrier, and a Russell to boot. My experience is that Russell’s can be very challenging!Other ways to fix in Jaz’s mind that she is not in control of the house is by not allowing her up on any furniture. Taco can be up, but not Jaz for the foreseeable future. Not on the sofa or especially the beds. Control food – make Jaz work for every meal and treat by sitting nicely, or by doing a trick. She also has to sit nicely to get access to any toy, and she can only play with the toy with you – when you are done playing the toy needs to go back up out of reach/sight.These are the things I do with fosters when they come to my home – some respond quickly, others take months to decide they will settle into my pack. Give things a good 4 to 5 weeks before you give up on this girl!, but get some help if you feel things are not improving.Good luck! -
Erica Bowlen Thank you! They are both female. Taco is spayed and Jaz is not we are taking her to the vet soon to get her spayed.
So lately I’ve been thinking about getting another dog. My current dog is a Chihuahua and possibly Rat terrier mix; he’s about 13 years old. Before I got him he used to have another chihuahua he always hung around with, but that was when he was around five. He only barks when there is someone making noise outside or that get too close to our fence, the same goes with barking dogs or ones that pass by our house. Other than that he is very friendly with strangers, especially when they come into our yard. He does however, have an issue if dogs come onto his territory, like most dogs do. He has never been to a dog park and has gone to a pet store a couple times, either for shopping or to be groomed. Our neighbors have a dog who barks at everyone and everything, even if I open the back door for a second. My dog occasionally fights with him through the fence, and by that maybe every few weeks. My dog doesn’t bite, growl, nip, scratch or anything at strangers when they come over, even if it’s our pest control. I’m not sure how he will react when we bring another puppy home? We’re either thinking of getting a border collie, lab, doberman pinscher or possibly an italian greyhound. Any tips on what to do when they first meet? Do you think he’ll be alright with another puppy? Any advice helps, thank you!!
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Anonymous Has he ever been around a puppy? Are you willing to separate the dogs and rotate which is out, if things go south?
A warning about dobes, because I have one – they are NOT gentle with littles. You’ll have to work very hard on teaching a dobe puppy to be gentle with smaller animals – our girl is nearly three and still occasionally stomps my cat. They’re also tough puppies and are quite literally a full time job until they’re around 2 years of age…I’ll happy talk more about the breed if you want, but I don’t want to flood this particular answer with my babble. 🙂
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PK Dennis This is how my rescue recommends you introduce a new dog to your home (and I do this with all fosters coming to live with my pack of 4 terriers, one of which is a Cairn/Chihuahua mix):
Before the new dog arrives pick a place in the home for him to live most of the time for 3 days. I use my guest bathroom some times, and other times I use my craft room – both have tile floors so it is easy to clean up any accidents that may occur with the new dog. Inside that room I place a dog crate appropriate in size for the new dog/puppy.
For the first 3 days after the new dog arrives, we play musical crates and/or rooms. I do not allow the dogs to see each other, they only smell each other on me, and under the door, etc. When my dogs are loose, the new dog is in the prepared room. When my dogs are crated or in their kennel the new dog is allowed to be out of the room, in the yard, or house with supervision. There is ALWAYS a closed door between my dogs and the new dog.
I spend time playing and training the new dog each day, and will crate my boys for an hour or so in the evening so I can just plop on the sofa with the new dog for cuddles. With a puppy you will need to be spending a lot of time with it as you will not be able to resist! Spend an equal amount of time with the older dog. One of the activities you want to focus on with the puppy is learning to walk on a leash – this is critical for the 4th day.
On the morning of the 4th day, put leashes on both dogs and immediately go out the door for a walk. Don’t give the dogs time to sniff or eyeball each other – the job is to walk together with you for at least 10 mins. If the puppy is older keep walking (5 mins. per month of age is a good rule of thumb – too long a walk puts too much stress on the bones and joints of a puppy).
Once we have finished the walk I take all the dogs into my fenced yard, drop the leashes and allow them to sniff, play, ignore each other as they see fit. Dragging the leashes allows you to step on a leash or pull one dog away from the other if things get hairy.
I have had 99% success with introducing dogs this way. The only exception was a foster that decided my smallest dog was prey – good thing I had that leash to grab! It saved my dog’s life.
We believe the reason it works is that it allows the dogs to smell each other without any misunderstandings of body language. In the wild a lone wolf will spend weeks haunting a new pack’s territory. They stay mostly out of sight, but scent mark in the territory. Then they start showing themselves to the pack from a distance. Finally they approach members of the pack. If the pack wants them they are welcomed (usually by the female members of the pack). So while our dogs are no longer wolves – smell is the first thing they pick up on. First scent, then sight, then hearing. So this 3 day of separation, but crossing each other’s scents helps the dogs get to know each other without confrontation.
With my dogs it works so well, they don’t even sniff each other’s butts once we are done the walk.
Since your dog is used to fighting through a fence I caution you to make sure that he and the new pup never see each other through a fence or crate during those 3 days. Keep that solid, shut, door between them.
Your 13 year old dog may never want to play with the puppy – but the puppy will want to play with him! Be sure your older dog has a place he can escape the puppy – such as a dog bed or crate, maybe in a different room. When your Chi is getting too much attention from the pup, tell the puppy to “leave it” and ask him/her to play with you. This will help the puppy learn to leave the older dog alone when he is in his quite place.
An Italian greyhound is a better size for your current dog, and they generally are ‘softer’ dogs. The other 3 breeds you mention will be a real challenge for you, and will overwhelm the Chi. It is a giant leap going from living with a Chi to living with these 3 other breeds. They all are high energy, need WAY more exercise, and a lot of training to become good canine citizens. The Border especially, will need a job. Borders are scary intelligent.
All that being said – give your dog a month with the new pup before you decide if it is going to work or not. Good luck!
He has never actually bitten anyone but he growls, snarls and snaps as if he is going to. This behavior seems to have gotten worse over time and I am afraid he may end up biting someone.
We have 2 male and neutered cats, and one female spayed dog. One of the cats (we aren’t 100% certain which, but are setting up video cameras to determine which) is peeing on the dog beds. It started a year ago and would happen for a couple of weeks, then stop for a few months, start over again, repeat repeat. It happens mostly on the dog’s various beds, but has also happened on plastic shopping bags full of clothes. Comfy, soft things.
We took both cats to the vet when it first started and they didn’t find anything wrong… Just a few tiny crystals that most likely formed because they had to wait 2 days between the samples being taken and being tested, so all three of the vets said they were normal. We are taking them both to the vet again next week to do more testing (or just these guilty one, once we discover which one is doing it).
We have multiple CLEAN litter boxes, both open and closed top. One is even self cleaning after use, and my husband empties the others very frequently and cleans/washes them evey week. They have various bathroom and liter options, so I’m sure that’s not the problem.
We have tried cleaning the dog beds with all the appropriate cat urine cleaning solutions, but the second time we threw them all out and bought new ones. We did that the third time too. Now our poor dog has no beds until we solve the problem.
The dog is not a fan of the cats. She growls at them a lot, and is very protective of her food, “spaces,” toys, and bed. The cats don’t seem to mind at all, and act as though she’s not there, although I know sometimes cats don’t show when they are stressed. We know this is an issue, but she has been this way her while life. We not getting rid of the dog to solve the problem, not an option.
We of course will do all the tests at the vet (and do any surgery, take any medicine, or perform any procedure he needs), but we are worried that the poor cat is doing this due to a behavioral or dominance problem. If this is the case, does anyone have any recommendations about how to change his behavior? We will not be putting him in a shelter, we will not be re-homing him (unless we discover that he needs to be in a single pet home, in which case I will be heart broken but we will find him the perfect family), and no way in hell will we be putting him down. We will keep him even if he pees on my favorite rug or couch or carpet every 2 days. But I would obviously prefer if that weren’t the case… We have a baby coming in 6 months and I am hoping we have the issue mostly dealt with by then (although I realize long term behavior may take longer than that to change completely). Please help if you can. I feel like I am losing my very hormonal mind.
Have you mentioned this to your vet? It may just be the way that you happen to,lift her, but there also may be an underlying cause. It also may be an unwanted learned behavior that you need to un-teach. I would first talk to the vet and rule out anything from that perspective. After that, if all,is well, I would start to retrain for a more desired behavior. Good luck!
Many thanks. Any tips to help me retrain her re this?
Hello,
I always suggest people go back to the very basics with training. Make sure you are both communicating in the same way and understand each other. And also understand that she is trying to tell you something. Some part of this routine causes her pause and hesitation. You may need a trainer to come to the house. Or video tape the occurrence and go over it with your trainer. Often I find clients don’t see the situation the way I do and often they are unknowingly and unintentionally part of the predicament. Find a poster reinforcement trainer and start over again. Gently and patiently and positively. Good luck