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All behaviour problems

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A bit like a teenager that has got in with the wrong friends, I feel that much of William’s behaviour has been influenced by them. He has not been learning polite dog-to-dog language and behaviour. He has not practised normal polite interaction and play with other dogs.

The owners’ dream is to be able to take William for walks in the park and go on holiday with him, but when he sees another dog he is so wild with excitement and fired up with anxiety, made worse by the reaction of the humans, that he is rearing, lunging and screaming. He has never attacked another dog, just been pushy and over-excited. Never aggressive.

The most shocking thing is that the lady, in her very best efforts to give her Battersea dog a good life, has had three people in to help her with her lovely dog. One gave her a prong collar and the other an electric collar. I’m relieved that she never used the e-collar, but just imagine the prongs of the other collar on a skinny Greyhound neck.

The way to reverse a particular behaviour is to get to the cause of it and deal with that, not to inflict pain or fear.

William isn’t an aggressive dog but he just lacks manners and experience. He needs working on, alone. Much of the human response when he’s been confronted with another dog will have made things worse. It is tragic, because a dog owner who wants to do the very best for their dog has in good faith called in ‘experts’ and basically been told to torture him. I feel that they are now very relieved.

Gradual but controlled exposure to other dogs at a comfortable distance, with owners who react appropriately, like proper Leaders and not bullies, will bring things around for William and his family, but it could take quite a long time.

In the morning when her lady owner comes downstairs, Mia will open one eye and beckon with her paw as if to say ‘You may come here’!

The lady will then go over to her, get down on the floor and make a big fuss of her.  Homage! People often just don’t realise how much their dog controls them until they see it through the eyes of somebody objective like myself.

Mia is adolescent.  She has just had her first season and she is becoming a bit of a bully with some other dogs, especially smaller, less confident ones.  This has escalated and for the first time she has bitten one.  Her owner is devastated, because she has put a lot of effort into socialising and training Mia who has been very popular in the area until recently.

In the nicest way possible Mia needs to be brought down a peg or two without the use of confrontation. If a command is used and she is defiant and refuses, what next? If they back down they have lost, and if they try to insist they risk making her angry. She needs to be eager to cooperate.

At present every resource belongs to Mia, and it’s obvious she considers her lady owner to be a resource also. She objects when one of the young daughters wants a cuddle. She will grumble when one of them walks past her bed. Depending upon her mood, she may grumble when someone comes near her while she has a chew.  She has become very touchy when one of the girls grabs her around her neck to cuddle her.

I suggest that now nobody invades Mia’s personal space, either upon her invitation or not, but that she also is encouraged to respect the personal space of her humans. We don’t want to reduce her confidence in any way but she is beginning to show some instability.  She is too powerful to be allowed to rule the roost. For her to become respectful and controllable out on walks with both people and dogs, she needs to be respectful and controllable at home.  In many ways Mia is a credit to her owner, but this goes a lot deeper than ‘training’. Knowing what is required of her is one thing, but whether she willingly does it or not is another! She is a teenager after all.

Once again, it’s about parenting and leadership.  In Mia’s opinion, just who is the real leader and decision maker in this family? I think we know!

She has landed on her feet with a lady who is very empathetic to her needs and who instinctively understands the balance between loving Rosie and giving her space.

Previously Rosie had been living much of the time in a crate, muzzled. Because of how she drinks water in a strange way with her head on one side, she must have worn the tight muzzle for a long time.

She is an extremely well-behaved little dog when not stressed. She’s not demanding, she is polite around food, she doesn’t bark at passers by, she can be left alone without crying, she never damages things, she never toilets in the house and, as you can see, she is beautiful!

However, she is very scared of people. She barks frantically at anyone coming into her house and has now nipped a guest. When I arrived she was barking and growling from behind the gate. We worked on this until, by the end, I was walking around the room without a reaction. You can see she was now quite relaxed!

She needs to be gradually desensitised. They need plenty of callers who are willing to behave exactly as requested, friends popping in for half an hour whilst the lady follows our plan. There is a thin line between pushing Rosie beyond what she can cope with, whilst stretching her a little. I know her new owner will be getting this right.

Rosie has similar problems when encountering people out on walks, and dogs. She’s not consistent however. She is worse at the end of a walk – an indication that the walk is too stimulating or too long.

With work, patience and given sufficient time, I am sure that Rosie will eventually be happy for people to come into the house and that outside she will not react adversely to people and other dogs.

Here is an email I have recived two days later: ‘Now, a remarkable walk this morning.  I put Rosie on a long lead like the one you showed me.  I held it loose and Rosie did not pull.  As we got to the end of the Chinese Bridge we were approached by two people and two greyhounds.  Still on the loose lead Rosie did not show any calming signals.  As we got nearer she did then prick up her ears and so I did the arc movement.  Amazing, she then walked past the dogs without looking at them!!  … I kept her on the loose lead whilst we walked.  Two dogs in the distance both on long leads.  She showed no interest.  When they had gone, I let her off the lead and we played with a frisbee type toy.  … as you suggested I called come and each time she came I rewarded her for the ‘come’ rather than asking her to sit.  It works!!  Heading back home we came across two more dogs, both on long leads.  Rosie seemed calmer and only ‘looked’ and as she moved forward again I used the arc movement.  Miraculous.  I know it is early days, but I cannot even explain how much better this makes me feel.  It is so demoralizing to have an aggressive dog, but today was a pleasure’. I replied to be prepared for there to be many lapses. It would indeed be an unusual miracle if a permanent corner were turned quite so easily, but you never know, a combination of appropriate strategies and the lady’s own karma may be the perfect mix!

First of all, my arrival stirred him up.  He did a lot of jumping up.  Then he started looking for shadows and reflections and was obessively chasing them barking and growling at them.  He was very restless all evening. He even had to be held still so I could take a photo of him.

Charlie had always been a rather highly strung little dog but a few weeks ago his behaviour took a turn for the worse.  He started to behave in a very agitated manner.  He also felt threatened when two people had leaned over him to touch him so he bit them.  This was entirely out of character.

It seems that the main change in his life was that instead of being shut safely in his crate during the day when they were out, and during the night – something he had been used since he was a puppy, they decided he would be happy with more space, so gave him the run of much of the downstairs.  During the day he was now very likely to be watching out of the window, barking at birds and cats and getting himself into a state. Very likely he no longer felt safe.

Looking back couple of months earlier, he had been encouraged to chase a laser beam in play and this could well have been the start of his obsessive behaviour. It is surprising just how quickly a dog can start something like this.  As his general stress levels had been rising it manifested itself in shadow chasing.

Most dogs need 17 to 18 hours sleep a day.  Imagine that the little dog now is on patrol for most of the day and then, when the family comes home, he is wild with excitement and only settles in the late evening. We know how we ourselves feel when we are sleep deprived, don’t we. He is much more likely to be touchy and scared when someone looms over him and puts their hand out on top of him, something which to a dog can seem like threatening bad manners. We also forget that a little dog only sees somebody up to about knee level and so they will be relying upon their noses, and the first person he bit smelt of cats, one of Charlie’s pet hates.

So they will now reintroduce the crate. I’m sure when they reduce his stress levels the shadow chasing will stop, meanwhile they will use distraction and maybe brief time out for the peace of his crate where he loves to be.

Human visitors will need to be taught how to touch him and not to loom over him.  I am sure this is just a temporary thing.  When a dog bites and is met with anger, which to the dog must seem like unreasonable aggression on our part, he is much more likely to bite again.  I know that to us it seems like we are condoning the behaviour if we don’t punish the dog, but it is far better to keep calm and simply remove him from the situation. Then try to get to the bottom of what is really happening.

The underlying problem needs to be sorted if the matter is not to escalate. In any sudden change in behaviour, a vet needs to be consulted to make sure there isn’t physical problem.

They are both very good little dogs as far as obedience is concerned, but both, Jack in particular, is troubled. Although both dogs have a very good life with a loving and sensible owner, it is possible that something in the past is overshadowing their present life, because their change in behaviour coincided with that particular time.

Jack is unsettled and this is manifesting itself in regularly marking and peeing indoors, in growling when he is made to do something and by compulsively licking himself. There are one or two people he is scared of to the point of aggression.

He looks relaxed on the right, as he was when I took the photo, but one can see his red and sore front due to the obsessive licking.

Jill also is stressed but to a lesser extent. They may be left alone for a long time and bark and cry intermittently throughout the day.

We looked at all the possible causes of stress in the little dogs’ life at the moment – and this includes anything that stirs them up in any way, and the list can be surprisingly long. Here are some of them:  being left alone, post coming through the door, scolding, being told off and commands, humans being cross, Jill obsessively licking Jack, Jack persistently licking or humping Jill, Jack chewing and licking himself and being told off, behaviour of visitors and family, going to other houses, vacuum cleaner, excitement before walks or going in the car, discomfort and tension when being walked on lead, agility classes, obsessive ball play, barking itself increases stress, constant jingling of collar tags.

So we are finding ways of reducing stress in every way possible. Being consistent is essential. Using encouragement and reward rather than commands and scolding is also key.

There is the dear little Jack on the left, and lying in their bed with Jill below.

Hardy is still only ten months old. He flies all over the place, he pulls badly on lead and may be unpredictable around other dogs – largely I believe because he picks up on the anxiety of his lady owner.

He is very open to encouragement and reward. It works so much better with him to call him away from something and reward him, than to command him Down or Off. He needs to be shown what he should do, not only what he should not do.

One problem is that Hardy doesn’t really know what is expected of him, because the rules are not consistent and the boundaries blurred. He has a very empathetic owner who was already learning quickly while I was there, and two lovely children who will help her.

Already Hardy was learning some impulse control.

She is particularly ‘too much’ for their other, older Staffie Marvin – age 9.  She constantly pesters him to play, she humps his head, she sits on him.

She is also ‘too much’ for the family when she flies around the sofas and launches herself onto people. When the lady is reclining on the sofa watching TV Bella jumps onto her, and when she is told to get off she curls her lip and snaps.  She is also ‘too much’ on walks! Despite being quiet a small dog, she pulls like a train.

Bella didn’t have the best start in life, having been separated from her siblings at five weeks of age. Instead of learning how to play nicely and to be gentle with the other puppies, it was up to her new human family and poor Marvin to teach her, and they weren’t giving her what she needed.

Bella also has too much in the way of stimulation. It is like she is being fed rocket fuel. They feel, like many people do, that lots of play and exercise is going to tire her out and make her quiet, but the opposite happens. She has been taken for four mile runs in a field to save them from lead walking. While out in the field she will plague poor Marvin by hanging onto his face and going for him. Apart from anything else, it’s not good for a young dog’s joints to be over-exercised.

I didn’t see Bella at her worst because already for the past few days the lady has been acting upon my telephone advice and she was generally calmer. This evening while I was with them, apart from a bit too much playing with Marvin to the point where they needed to be broken up, she was a good little dog.

This is another case of leadership/parenting needed. Manners and rules need to be established around food, jumping up, excitement before going out and the pestering of Marvin. They need to be consistent, avoid confrontation and be encouraging, use rewards and stick to their guns.

Her people have been pulled over, and uncontrolled she is a danger to dogs and people that she feels she needs to ‘see off’.

Giving her no walks, even if she has lots of exercise and a large garden, creates another problem. One sees city dogs who are so habituated to people, noise, traffic and other dogs that they ignore them completely. Outside the gate Olive will be on sensory overload with all the smells, sounds and passers-by, both humans and dogs. However much preparation is done beforehand at home, it would be unreasonable to expect Olive to be calm without a good deal of desensitisation.

The family will need to tighten up their leadership skills in the house – there isn’t much to do because Olive and her companion, an Akita called Tokyo, are very good dogs. She needs to have faith in her owners as the decision-makers and protectors. The technique of loose-lead walking will need to be perfected in a safe and non-stimulating environment – the garden. Olive then needs to be no further than just outside the front, standing still, sniffing, watching, with a handler who knows exactly the best way to react as soon as something starts to upset her.

She will need lots and lots of very short exposures to the outside world, very gradually increasing in intensity only as and when she is ready, with the support of a person who knows exactly how to react when a dog or person approaches.

Olive’s life will then start to become more fulfilling. Bless her.

I can help you, too, with these problems or any other that you may be having with your dog. Please just check the map and contact me.

Heather, probably a cross between a Collie and some sort of Retriever, really is the model dog most of the time. It is her behaviour outside which lets her down. At home she is a polite dog, not pushy but not wanting too much touching and cuddling, but in a subtle way she rules the roost. She is, understandably, adored. Four young adults live in the house and all pay her homage! She has her owners working for her – doing things her way. They need to start to get her working for them instead! So long as dogs know what is required of them, they love this.

I demonstrated in the house how to get Heather following or walking beside me all over the place, longish lead completely loose. She was very happy with it. This exercise demonstrates the kind of relationship between dog and handler better than anything else. Initially most dogs will do this calmly for me but not for their owners. It is to do with how I have been behaving towards the dog from the moment I entered the house. She wants to work for me. This is the reason the owners need training as much as, if not more than the dog!

If they apply themselves Heather will soon be walking beautifully - relaxed and happy. They will know exactly how to react when they see another dog – but only if they need to. They will also work on Heather’s recall – and this will improve if in the house when they ask her to do something they only need to ask once - and they follow through. They should be sparing in their demands on her, but when they do ask her to do something, mean it.

If she ignores them at home – is it likely she will take note of them when they are out?

I can help you, too, with these problems or any other that you may be having with your dog. Please just check the map and contact me.