Attached Dog?

Question

We got a mixed breed puppy for our daughter last year and for the most part he's a good dog except he's grown so attached to our daughter that he gets very aggressive if you go into her room barking and growling. He tries to get into her room at night and if we go to chase him out he'll get very aggressive and it's starting to worry us that he'll end up biting. There are times when he'll even jump etc if we give her a hug. Outside of that issue he's otherwise a pretty good dog. He'll be a year in November and he's a mix of several breeds including lab, sheppard and I personally even suspect perhaps some chow.
My question is how can we get him to calm down so that he's not quite so overly protective?

Answer 1

HOLY CRAP!!! This needs to be put in check NOW!!! Go to www.APDT.com and find a trainer to come out to you. You have a Pack Leader in your daughters room. So you go to give your daughter a hug, he growls, you step away from her, and your daughter tries to calm him down by petting him.He wins!! All of you are allowing him to do this. Your daughter needs to step up and learn to be Pack Leader as you guys do. A trainer will help you do this. This needs to be stopped now before somebody gets hurt. He needs consistant discipline for this. And can never be nurtured for this. And your daughter touching and talking to him in that state of mind, shes telling him its ok to do that. When he does this, she needs to get up and lay him down on his back firmly and tell him EH EH!!! EVERY SINGLE TIME!!! This behavior cannot be tolerated. EVER!!!

Answer 2

I'm guessing your daughter doesn't deter this behavior by the dog. In most situations like this the owner (in this case your daughter) is spoiling the dog and the dog believes that it is the "pack leader".

What will help is your daughter teaching the dog that she is in control and that this negative/aggressive behavior is not acceptable. This can be done through not picking up the dog, ignoring him or removing him from a situation when he gets aggressive. Any attention from her while he's being aggressive is what he wants.

Your daughter has to learn to be in control of the dog and not allow this behavior.

The best thing you can do is to not show fear towards the dog. Be confident and reward the dog for any positive behavior. It'll be important for you and the rest of your family to bond with the dog in a positive way and not just show him attention when you want to take him away from your daughter.

And i'd recommend getting in contact with a good training in your area.

Goodluck

Answer 3

Try this:
Do not let your daughter feed her dog. You do ALL the feeding. Then, every day offer the dog a treat. Over time, go to your daughter's bedroom and offer the treat. Gradually the dog will begin to associate your presence with the pleasure of the treat and will not bark at you.

When you give the treat, talk with the dog and say his name and say"Good boy".

If this doesn't work after a month or so, try obedience training.

Good luck to you and him!

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Answer 4

It sounds as if he has developed strong protective instincts for your daughter, which is not necessarily bad as far as strangers go, but it is not good for him to be aggressive with family.

One good way to deal with a jealous animal is to remove all attention from them for the behavior you are trying to avoid, and to praise and reward them for when they act the way you want-- just like training a child :-)

For example, when he gets upset when you try to hug your daughter, and tries to get between you and her to "break up" the hug.

What you do is, have both you and your daughter turn your back to him and ignore him. No petting, no eye contact or anything.

He may try to runs around to the direction you are facing to reestablish contact with you. Just turn away again and ignore him until he calms down.

Once he is calm, reward the behavior with a treat and positive attention. If he goes back to being jealous, remove that attention again, until he calms down.

In the situation with the room, it is more difficult, because he may be wanting to stay in her room to protect her, and the more you try to remove him the more upset he will be, especially if he starts to feel cornered.

Have your daughter (if she is old enough) remove him from the room. Basically, have her walk to the door of her room like she is leaving and call him out. Use a specific command for him to associate with leaving the room like "OUT" and combine it with a gesture toward the door. Use a firm clear voice but do not yell.

Remember the command is supposed to be "OUT" not "out, out, come here boy, out, out, out"-- you are not begging the animal, you are giving a command.

Once he is outside the room, have him sit and stay. (hopefully you have taught him to sit and stay already)

Give him rewards (lots of attention and praise and the occasional treat) for doing as instructed.

Start with just getting him out of the room, then combine it so that he comes out of the room and sits/stays.

The goal is to eventually have him leave the room to go sit in the hall when he is told "OUT".

Hope this helps.

Pure Chows do not make good pets. In my opinion they are a bit crazy. You may be ok with a mutt, lets hope there is plenty of Lab in there to calm this dog down some.

Answer 5

Your first step would be to contact a trainer/behaviourist. And you need to make him see that you are the dominant one not him. He is showing his dominance over you. Most dominance issues can be fixed easily, but a trainer would be needed in this case.

Answer 6

Chow-chows are very possessive, thats why they are used for security in china. She is his now. She needs to tell him not to growl. He will listen to her before he listens to you.As long as he's house broke, let him sleep in her room. She'll be the safest kid in town at night.

Answer 7

I am the dog whisper so first right a note and i will come to your house and train your dog fare well