Growling Doxie

[im rapunzel]

Hi- I'm having yet antoher problem with Wobbles.

In the past, once in awhile Wobbles would growl at us when he was being scolded. The growling has gotten worse. For example, sometimes he gets a hold of something he's not supposed to, and runs under the bed. When we go to get him, he growls.

A couple of days ago Rich went to bed before me. Wobbles and Velvet joined him. When I came to bed, I gently reached to pick up Wobbles and put him in his crate, and he started growling at me. Even when I had him in my arms, he kept on growling.

This morning, Wobbles did not go to the bathroom when I walked him. I was aggrivated, but I did not yell at him or anything. The rule is that when the dogs don't go, they go in their crates. When I did so, he growled at me again.

He also will growl whenever he's bad and gets yelled at. His new trick is to jump up on the dining room chairs and snag food off the table. He will also walk on the end tables and coffee table in the living room. We always yell and tell him no, but he just won't listen. At first we thought it was a puppy thing, but he is an adult now and still stirring up trouble. It's like we fight over who is boss.

Another thing to note - part of the reason we got Velvet was because Wobbles was so demanding of us. We could play with him for hours, but whenever we tried to settle in front of the TV and relax, he would climb up our chests and bark in our faces until he got attention again. He was a bully!

At first, he was very nice to Velvet, but now he is bullying her too. We give them each a toy, and he takes both. He chases after Velvet snarling until she rolls over on her back in submission. He has not bitten her, but at times his snarling sounds like he will. He has not bitten either of us yet.

This situation is starting to scare me. Can someone please help me - what should I do?

Cindy

[wireweiners]

First of all, is Wobbles neutered? If not, I'd do it pronto. Second, Wobbles is having dominance agression problems. It's not uncommon among adolescent males. If there were an older male in the house, he would be letting him know who's boss. This is what you need to do. No more sleeping in human beds for Wobbles. Make him sleep in his crate. Dogs that think the human bed is theirs lose bed priviledges. When he growls, give him a sharp rap under the chin with a very firm NO! Don't feed him from the table, you eat first, then feed the dogs. If you hold him on your lap and he starts to growl or become demanding put him in his crate. You have to let him know you are boss.

[Mom of Freddie and FG]

Oh man Cindy, I really feel for ya! I think it's time to get serious. Have you contacted a behaviorist? I would first try to show him that YOU are the boss. I agree with everything said below - NO sleeping in your bed, etc. I get the feeling Wobbles (cute name!) does NOT growl at your husband, right? Is he firmer with Wobbles?

Try holding his snout or flipping him over and pinning him down. Hopefully Velvet someday will get tired of his bulliness and "put him in his place".<IMG SRC="http://dachsie.org/ubb/cwmsmilies/cwm9.gif" border=0> I hope this problem can be corrected as I'm sure it totally sucks for ya.http://dachsie.org/ubb/smilies/frown.gif Good luck!

Susan

[wireweiners]

I would also look into obedience school for Wobbles. There is a book by Carol Lea Benjamin called Surviving Your Dog's Adolescence that you might want to read. I have read several of Ms. Benjamin's training articles and she has a very common sense approach to training and behavior problems. She has also written a book, Second Hand Dog, about the problems of dealing with rescue dogs, if anybody out there is interested.

[im rapunzel]

Wobbles is a year and 3 months, and was just neutered 10 days ago. I wish we did it sooner!

He does also growl at my husband, he has no preference! When we "growl" back at him, he only gets worse. It definitely is a battle for supremacy.

In the past, whenever Wobbles was bad, we would put him in his crate. We stopped doing it because he has to be crated when we are not home, and were afraid of making going in the crate a negative thing.

It's unbearable when the dogs are crated and we are home & active. They cry so loud, a few times we thought they actually hurt themselves!

I have not contacted a behaviorist, but I want to try and handle this myself first. I will attempt to hold his snout and scold, but I'm afraid I might get bitten......

Let me tell you though, whenever things are Wobbles way, he is such a sweet dog. It's like Jekyll and Hyde lately!

Any more advice that anyone can give will be greatly appreciated!

[MARTHA]

All the advice that everbody has given you has been great. The one thing that I would like to add is DO NOT let Wobbles think that you are afraid of him. That will encourage him in his quest for being the alpha. He is not sure at this point how far he can push you and he is testing his limits. If he does actually bite you, try to remember not to jerk you hand back, that will just increase the size of the wound, if there is one at all. Research on pack behavior and that shoudl give you someunderstanding on what he is doing and how you should react. Good luck! Keep us updated.

Martha

[Mom of Freddie and FG]

Just thought of this, check out www.drdog.com (http://www.drdog.com) Dennis Fetko is a specialist in behavior and so forth. He also has a morning Talk Show where you can call in with questions. Anyway, you'll find all of the info on his website. I think he also has audio tapes on various subjects that you can buy.

Susan

[dutchman]

I guess I'll add one more voice to this issue. First off I'll let you check out Dr. Clarks web site http://www.k9shrink.com/ . She does believe in positive reinforcement as her primary training approach. That said here are a few things I remember from her talk at the fist day of obedience class I took from her and a co-trainer about a year ago. Fist she considers approaches such as alpha rolls, neck scruff shakes and time outs as pop training that will more often than not only lead to prolonged or increased problems. She would also be very opposed to the growling back at the dog. For aggressive behavior and a challenging growl could be considered early aggression she would recommend the chin bob combined with a loud NO. She also recommends NO be a reserved word and only used when correcting aggressive behavior. If NO already has too many other meanings at your home I suspect you could substitute some other word.

I'll try to describe the chin bob. I know others here have used this approach with good success (I have used it with Tanner my shy aggressive dog). If anyone else can give a better discretion feel free to drop in. Mark, I know you have given good disruptions of the chin bop before. Make a fist with your hand curling the last joint firmly into the palm of your had then keeping the middle joint of the thumb flush with the side of the index finger then wrap the end joint of the thumb down along the middle joints of the other fingers. This fist achieves two goals. First it offers a rather fleshy surface to use when delivering the chin bop and secondly by having the fingers tightly clinched it minimizes the change of getting bit. The idea is at the same time you are giving the command NO you deliver an upward blow to the lower jaw with the flat surface of the hand (near your thumb). The blow should be hard enough to clack the jaw but not so firm as to cause any injury to the animal. Some people will ask what if the dogs tongue is out? According to Dr. Clark that can sometimes give even better results. She had one owner of a GSD with behavioral problems who would only remember about a day after a chin bob correction but after getting his tongue bit one time he remembered for more than a week and future corrections were also longer lasting. I have personally observed Dr. Clark using the approach with large dogs who were causing problems in class. About 805 of my class was aggressive dogs since Dr. Clark has a very good reputation of being able to correct such behavior. She would first give the owner the opportunity to correct an animal but if it was endangering another dog or person she would step in and have it in a sit stay in a second or two. The tow worst dogs in the class were a GSD and a large adult Lab. I know this approach sounds harsh but it's hard to argue with success. I know Tanner has responded well to it and while I have never had any problems with him being aggressive with me I can't see where this technique has made him any less affricate towards me.

I am starting to make myself use the chin bob on Frank part of the time. While frank is a very outgoing happy boy he has a bad habit of loosing control of himself when he meets a large dog. He gets excited and wants to play. The problem is he starts to vocalized so much and in typical dachshund fashion will run toward if he has a chance them want to jump up to bounce off it's from shoulder to play. The problem is many owners and some dogs do not recognize this as play and consider it an attack. I try to watch him and he is never allowed out without being on a leash but some people let their larger dogs run free or approach without asking (also bad when you have a aggressive shy boy like Tanner).

Good luck,

Tom and the boys (Frank and Tanner)