Cooper
Angel
I walked in – and immediately a fight kicked off.
The two dogs wore no collars and there was nothing to grab hold of.
Their young lady owner relies on shouting at them to break them up – and that may work so long as she catches things soon enough.
The fight kicked off off very quickly. They have had quite a few full-blown fights, causing injury to Cooper (left).
While she tackled Angel, I called Cooper into the kitchen. Fortunately, due to our stepping in before it went into the red zone and also due to my novelty value, he came with me. I threw a treat that I had in my pocket across the floor and quickly shut the door on him! WHEW.
Excitable dog
Young Cooper is a ten-month-old Staffie Cross.
He was persistently jumping up at me, and there is no other word for it, biting me. It was biting without aggression – more grabbing because he’d not been taught a more rewarding way to get my attention that he understood. Because of the hot weather unfortunately I wasn’t wearing my usual thick sleeves.
Cooper’s manic behaviour stirs 8-year-old Angel up and she will then go for him. There are many potential kick-off points for a fight both at home and out on walks, all caused by over-arousal.
Their lovely young lady owner is quite an animated person and I showed her just how much more settled the dogs can become if we ourselves are calm, slow and quiet. The first thing I did was to have her put on both dogs’ harnesses and leads. We needed something to get hold of to avoid shouting and panic.
Positive reinforcement
For quite a while Cooper leapt all over us both. He eventually gave up with me because, simply, he got nothing out of it.
Soon the time came for me to show him how best to get my attention – by having his feet on the floor and his mouth shut. We got a handful of his dry food and began to feed him all the time he was restraining himself from leaping up at us, from nipping or grabbing.
Very soon he was lying peacefully either on the floor or beside the lady. When we got up and walked about this temporarily fired him up again, but he was learning quickly. He was becoming focused on being calm! It was wonderful. As a consequence Angel also was happy and relaxed.
I have already received a message, ‘Thank you so much for today, I loved it’.
So did I.
A couple of months later: Thought I would send you a quick update. All is well here. Angel has seemed more relaxed lately. Cooper has settled down a lot, he still has mad moments, and tries to get the better of Angel, but the good thing is they’re a lot more responsive. The dogs no longer fight.
