I have a 9 month old mutt great with our family but fearfully aggressive with starngers never bitten anyone thank God but we are afraid. Groomers won't even take her she is shepard, lab pomeranian mix I need her to be less fearful. I have watched 10,000 dog whisperer shows and still can't help her......
2006-08-02 22:17:53 · 7 answers · asked by mschievous163 1 in Pets ➔ Dogs
It is more difficullt to chance a learned behavior than to prevent, this is the difference between trainers and behaviorists.
A trainer is generally a group class and alot cheaper,. they will help socialize and train you dog, this will prevent these behaviors. If you try to take your dog into a training class, she will be over stimulated and the problems will become worse. She needs to be introduced to what frightens her slowly, at her own pace.
You are trying to change the dogs view of the world that he has already established, therefore talking to a behaviorist is the best idea. She needs to learn to make positive associations to what frightens her.
She is still fairly young, great time to start working on her.
There is not alot we can speculate about how to train her, with limited information and without seeing the dogs reaction.
You do need to take leadership over the dog to make him feel more comfortable, there is an article about dominant dogs, it is a passive eadership program.
http://www.joycefay.com/articles/dominantdogs.shtml
However there is one very specific way that well meaning owners worsen or sometimes create this behavior.
When your dog sees a stranger and becomes afraid or starts to growl, alot of owners will "comfort" him by stroking him and saying "its ok"
Generally we do this because we would comfort a human child, this "comforting" actually reinforces the behavior and tells the dog that is is right to feel afraid and the growling, barking or aggressive behavior is good.
Do not feel bad if you are reinforcing your dog in this way, in almost every fear aggressive dog I have seen, the human is displaying this behavior.
The dog also feeds off your anxiety, at this point when you know the dog is going to react, you will tense up and send a message to your dog.
It is very tricky changing this behavior, the dog needs to associate a reward with the stranger without being rewarded for bad behavior.
She also needs strong leadership to change his view of the situation, which is also difficult because you would have to learn to change suddle behavior that you may not even know is a problem.
Im afrad the best thing you can do, if only for one session is contact your vet for a good behaviorist.
Read up on Fear aggression,since the session is expensive with a behaviorist, do not be afraid to interview him first and see if you agree with his technique after your research.
Shpherd/Lab/ Pom! that is quite a combo!
Good luck!
2006-08-03 00:27:18 · answer #1 · answered by Pro_Dog_Trainer 3 · 6⤊ 1⤋
the best way to over come fear aggression is to stop your dog being so nervous of things. you need to socialise her more with people and diff rent situations this should be done as slowly as you can as going to fast will only make the situation worse. have you tried looking up local dog training classes as this would be a step in the right direction also your trainer would give you tips on how to over come the aggression. when strangers visit your house put your dog in another room give the visitor a treat tell them to LET THE DOG GO TO THEM DO NOT OVER CROWD HER THIS WILL MAKE HER WORSE when she feels comfortable she will go to the stranger in her own time. also you need to be aware if you panic or feel nervous the dog will pick up on your emotions and will be worse again.
2006-08-02 23:55:18 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
An excellent method of working with a shy dog is to teach self control and steadiness. Lynda Oleksuk from our old usenet days used to post "NILIF" for shy dogs from time to time. It means "nothing in life is free"
You can read one version of it here (my fave version):
http://www.goof.com/~pmurphy/NILIF.html
It also works with dominant dogs, small dogs and big dogs; dogs that need to learn self control. It helps to develop elements of trust, leadership and partnership in the dog and human team. :)
I'm sure there will be other good answers for you, but I highly recommend NILIF. It has worked to rehab many rescues and confused dogs that I've known about. The dog will learn to look to you for steadiness and leadership.
Trust and respect can help us work through a lot of 'issues' that dogs can have.
2006-08-02 22:43:50 · answer #3 · answered by Cobangrrl 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If you dog is aggresive you should talk to it or train it (even though you did alredy). You should bring her outside and let her see how the world is a nice place. If that doesn't help then maybe you can go to a professinol dog tamer =)
2006-08-02 22:58:37 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
It could be due to her past experience with humans.. try to "open" her up to more friendly people, with you beside her of course. It will help to ease her fear for strangers in time to come.
2006-08-02 23:39:25 · answer #5 · answered by blossomteo 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Ignore her fearful behavior and force her to face it. If you can provide leadership, your dog should respect you.
2006-08-02 23:23:12 · answer #6 · answered by Dogs Mom 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
have you tried taking her to a park and hanging back from people.. just letting her sit and watch people coming and going?
or is she fine with that.. just aggressive with strangers who try to interact with her?
2006-08-02 22:37:04 · answer #7 · answered by LstCaress 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋