Aggressive Shiba Inu

[Lamanna]

Hi all,

We've got an 18 month old Shiba Inu that has some aggression issues. We've had Rico since he was 8 weeks old. We took him to puppy school and he got through that without any problems. We used food to teach him how to sit, drop, play dead, roll over, hi-five, 'hi-ten', bow and a few other tricks. He pretty much does anything we want when we have a treat in our hands (read: treat, not his dog food in the bowl). We feed him twice, not sure when to reduce it to once a day.... I guess that'll make him more hungry.

Anyway, what we've noticed is we can't go outside without Rico following. If we walk towards our back door he'll jump out of his skin and bolt to the door. Sometimes we sneak out and lock him inside.... he goes completely crazy, starts punching the door and doing this really high pitch yelp with a bit of a cry thrown in. When he's outside he's less controllable, he just gets way too excited. One thing that he loves is when we pick up grass and throw it in the air. But the problem is when we bend down he goes for our hand. If we have grass in our hand he will go for the grass and not the hand, he acts as if we have food in our hand. The real problem is though when we bend down to grab grass with our left hand and try and hold him back with our right. He starts with that high pitch yelping sound and latches onto my arm like those attack dogs. I can literally pick him up and swing him around. He has bruised and drawn blood pretty much every time I try it. He'll do this to anyone who tries it.

He never bites like that for anything else. What he does a lot though is gets his mouth around our hand but doesn't actually put put pressure and bite. He'll do it when we pick him up or sometimes go to pat him... or even when we walk past him sometimes(rarely). He gets aggressive when we tries to hump our leg(he has been desexed) or even when we play with him and walk away fast(he bites the back of our legs). Up until last week we used to play tug of war with his toys, he'd drop it, stand over it and every time we went to grab it he'll try and bite our hand. I worked with him for a few day and he doesn't do it anymore, anytime he tries we yell NO and he backs off. But, if we go outside it's a lot hard to get him to do it, he's just nuts outside.

Apart from the aggressive issue there are other things I don't want him doing. We have him in our back room and he's blocked by two doors leading to the other side of the house. Most of the time he won't listen to our sit/stay command and just bolt through the door as soon as it opens. He also does the lead pulling when on walks. He'll rear up when we see other dogs but never barks at them. If they come close he'll wag his tail and do a bow thing where he sticks his butt in the air. When the dog comes close he usually smells their butt or touches noses. He has never bitten or barked at dogs we see when walking. However, my uncle brought his dog over and they never leave each other alone. I'm sure they're fighting but they're so bad at it that everyone thinks they're playing. Apart from those 2 or 3 times he's seen my uncle's dog, the few dogs we see on walks and puppy school over a year ago.... that's the only time he has been "socialized" with dogs.

I think it's safe to say there isn't much I can do for him without professional help. I'd prefer to have someone that comes to my house so they can see exactly how he is. I've looked around and found these businesses.

http://www.ausdog.com.au/

http://www.allpawsforward.com.au/

http://www.dogtraining.com.au/

http://www.wagalotpetcare.com.au

http://www.onsitepets.com.au

http://www.fourpawsk9training.com.au

http://www.barkbusters.com.au/

Is there a business list or one that you recommend that I could use? I'm in the western suburbs of Melbourne so if they can come to me out here it'd be ideal. Also, feel free to post any suggestions or tips... I'm pretty sure I need professional help though.

Thanks for your help.

[huski]

There are some excellent dog trainers/behaviorists here on DOL and there a some based in Melbourne. From memory Erny is a trainer in melbourne, she gives some excellent advice here:

http://www.prok9.com.au/

I also think Cosmolo works in melbourne, this is her website:

http://underdogtraining.com.au/

(Hope you guys don't mind me supplying your websites btw )

[Erny]

(Hope you guys don't mind me supplying your websites btw )

Not at all, Husky87. Thank you for the kind words.

If Lamanna would care to contact me (website link is also at the foot of each of my posts) I'd be happy to have a chat with her and sort something out.

Lamanna - as you're already aware, you have some issues here that are going to escalate into more serious behaviour unless they are specifically addressed. Shiba Inu's are great dogs but are willful little characters - some one-on-one home advice I'm certain is going to set you on the path to righting your dog's behaviour and setting a more harmonious relationship that you can BOTH enjoy.

Edited June 10, 2007 by Erny

[cromwell]

Hi Lamanna,

We have a 12 month Shiba and I can identify with some of your problems Yoshi also does anything you want when you have food, take away the food or praise him instead and he refuses to do it. Very frustrating! He is a bit crazy when he comes inside, we are trying to get him to sit on his mat when inside, but we say he has ADD as he has to smell everything, hunt for socks, jump on the couch when you aren't watching etc. He doesn't bark at other dogs, more of a lover than a fighter. Love to play fetch but never wants to drop the ball and when we does you have to grab it quickly otherwise he will take it again. Walking on a lead is slowly improving. Dog obedience suggested turning and walking the other way when he pulls, or stopping walking completely. But I'm afraid it doesn't work, he doesn't mind stopping and being able to sniff everything around him.

I'd be very keen to hear of any suggestions you receive, we love Yosh and he is a very, very funny dog. Always making us laugh, he is never really naughty or destructive, but sometimes its like he is saying 'stuff you, i'm not stupid, as if I am going to do that if you don't give me food' Some things however, I unfortunately have resigned to the fact that Shiba's take more time to train than other breeds as they have such an independent nature. Probably the wrong approach I know, but we are slowly improving.

Good Luck, hope to hear about Rico's progress!!!!