Full-on Scary Puppy

[fainty_girl]

As for snapping and biting - I used the dog whisperer "poke". If he snaps at you, poke him firmly and tell him NO. My puppy and I had an instance of an issue over a chew bone - he wouldnt let me take it off him without growling and trying to bite me. So I poked him, and took the bone. Gave it back to him. He wouldnt give it back. Poked him and took it. Repeat repeat repeat. It took 15 minutes before I could take the bone off him without any protest. And he's never barked, growled, snapped or tried to bite me since.

I'm a big fan of Cesar Millan and i've never seen him repeatedly poke a dog over a bone... . I've seen him claim a bone, but not poke a dog.

My dog Jessie was protective over her bones when we first got her and still is a little bit. If I had tried to poke her and take her bone there's no doubt in my mind that I would have been bitten. If I need to get a bone off her or move her to a different area to eat her bone (say that she had snuck it into the house) then I ask a family member to help and distract her by calling her for a treat into another room. So I would only ever touch her bone if she was a good distance away from it.

If either of my dogs are eating decent bones (like lamb shanks), I separate them in the yard. Tilly eats her bone in the pool area and Jessie will eat hers on the deck and in the garden. I like to give them both space when they are eating bones, and don't want to make them feel like their food is threatened. Quite often Tilly will sneak in small pieces of bone into the house, that she will end up sharing with Jessie. They are always supervised and if one dog is munching on a small piece of bone, then the other must give them space.

[Clyde]

Some of the advice on here has been quite scary

I know dogs where you would definitely lose fingers or noses if this was tried.

Pleased the OP is following up Jane Harper over regular obedience classes. She has a great reputation.

[corvus]

Some of the advice on here has been quite scary

I agree! I think people should listen to poodlefan. Glad it looks like they have this time.

You can really get caught up in some horrible situations when you try to physically punish a dog that's willing to bite you. It's so easy to just kinda justify their aggression by meeting it with some aggression of your own. And when a dog is already so prompt to be aggressive, more aggression from you can just make them up their own ante, sort of thing. You HAVE to win the encounter or the dog is just going to get harder to manage and more aggressive. Big danger sign to me.

That's why my motto is "First do no harm." One of my mottos.

[poodlefan]

I wonder how DCR and Justin got on?

[Jed]

PF

Dachshunds are terriers

I hate to disagree, but in the interests of veracity ----

Naw, they're terrorists, but they are hounds. Dacs = badger : hund = hound.

(thought we'd sorted the badger bit ;) just need to sort out the hound bit )

This is typical hound behaviour - independent, forceful, keen to have his way. Normal dacs behaviour, needs standing on, and a firm, consistent manner.

[mindura]

Agree with the other posters. You need professional help and now. Don't call Bark Busters.. go with someone recommended here.

Dachshunds are terriers... quick to react, quick to chase and not renowned for their tolerance of children. In addition to getting profesisonal help you need to ensure that Justin is never put in a position where he needs to defend himself from your grandson.

He should be supervised or separated from him.. always.

Poodlefan

Dachshunds are Not Terriers..I can assure you as a breeder and show of jack russell terriers, I have never seen a dachshund in the terrier group!!lol

Dachshunds belong in the hound group 4...

[poodlefan]

Agree with the other posters. You need professional help and now. Don't call Bark Busters.. go with someone recommended here.

Dachshunds are terriers... quick to react, quick to chase and not renowned for their tolerance of children. In addition to getting profesisonal help you need to ensure that Justin is never put in a position where he needs to defend himself from your grandson.

He should be supervised or separated from him.. always.

Poodlefan

Dachshunds are Not Terriers..I can assure you as a breeder and show of jack russell terriers, I have never seen a dachshund in the terrier group!!lol

Dachshunds belong in the hound group 4...

Yep.. lesson learned. They hunt above and below ground. I still wonder what happened to Justin.

[mr.mister]

I hope all goes well.

My previous BC was dominant by nature, however he became a loving, devoted and wonderfully behaved animal just by showing him that we were the leaders.. not him.

I wouldn't suggest poking.. I can only imagine that would escalate the situation?

We always made sure we walked through doorways before him (taught him the command 'wait' and then called him through after us), he wasn't allowed in our bedrooms let alone on the furniture (but I guess that all comes down to personal preferance) and here was the one that really worked wonders:

In a wolf pack, the alphas always eat first. No questions. After they have had their fill, the subordinates may eat. So, everytime we gave our dog his meals we did this: After preparing his food on the bench and in plain view of him, we would either hold up a cracker that we'd had from behind the bowl (thus looking like it had come out of his bowl) and very obviously eat it, or just hold up the bowl and make fake 'munching sounds' as if we were eating out of it. We then made him sit and told him to wait while we put the food down. Only when we were satisfied (he sat there, frozen, looking at us waiting for the go) would we give him the okay (it could be something like 'go eat'; ours was 'lucky') - it was only then that he tucked into his food. These gave him clear signals as to who was the alpha and supplemented with other 'body language' that we displayed he became a content, happy dog - he wasn't food aggressive, either.

Anywho, that's just what worked for us. It's natural for dogs (some more than others) to regularly test who really is the alpha - that's why we always have to stay on top of the game. It's simply survival instincts - if the alpha of a wolf pack came back from a hunt badly injured and unable to properly care for the pack as he once did, the pack would test him and discover this, and quite quickly out him and a younger, healthier wolf would take up the position.

[poodlefan]

In a wolf pack, the alphas always eat first. No questions. After they have had their fill, the subordinates may eat. So, everytime we gave our dog his meals we did this: After preparing his food on the bench and in plain view of him, we would either hold up a cracker that we'd had from behind the bowl (thus looking like it had come out of his bowl) and very obviously eat it, or just hold up the bowl and make fake 'munching sounds' as if we were eating out of it. We then made him sit and told him to wait while we put the food down. Only when we were satisfied (he sat there, frozen, looking at us waiting for the go) would we give him the okay (it could be something like 'go eat'; ours was 'lucky') - it was only then that he tucked into his food. These gave him clear signals as to who was the alpha and supplemented with other 'body language' that we displayed he became a content, happy dog - he wasn't food aggressive, either.

Anywho, that's just what worked for us. It's natural for dogs (some more than others) to regularly test who really is the alpha - that's why we always have to stay on top of the game. It's simply survival instincts - if the alpha of a wolf pack came back from a hunt badly injured and unable to properly care for the pack as he once did, the pack would test him and discover this, and quite quickly out him and a younger, healthier wolf would take up the position.

In some wild dog packs the pups eat first. Injured pack members are not excluded but are cared for by others. The alpha role is far more flexible.

Personally I think the whole "alpha wolf" comparison has limited application to an inter species relationship between man and a domesticated animal.

What matters to a dog is consistency, routine and boundaries. Personally I don't think it matters when your dog eats provided you control the food.

[Aidan]

In a wolf pack, the alphas always eat first. No questions. After they have had their fill, the subordinates may eat.

Something worked for you, but I doubt this was it. It simply isn't true. You know what else? Beta wolves are allowed to growl at alpha wolves if they approach their food, too.

[mr.mister]

To be honest I'm not entirely sure what to believe anymore as that info has remained consistent in sources I've seen it in over the years, and assumed to be reliable. Myself providing my dog's food whilst showing him I have the right to 'eat it' first displays and reiterates my control of the food.

Young pups will be the exception as they are the livelihood of the pack and for the pack to continue on, they must survive. After that, the alphas - the most intelligent and capable, and also key for the pack's survival, should feed first.

Have been searching to find where it is that Alpha's don't feed first, and can't seem to find it anywhere; sorry, Aidan.

And, indeed it is in the best interest for the survival of a wolf to defend their meal - this however doesn't prove that Alpha's don't eat first and if that Alpha really wants that Beta's meal, well, he's going to have it isn't he? I don't think any amount of growling would perturb him and if the Alpha is a capable leader, there shouldn't be any bloodshed (doubt it would happen anyway as the Alpha has already gorged himself). Remember that in a wolf pack it's all about body language and less about drawing blood.

Have a read of this website, and also scroll down to 'The Attack'.

http://www.wolfcountry.net/information/WolfHunting.html

by no means do I know everything - far from it. Just pointing out a couple things.

Not really wanting to turn this into a debate, just saying what worked with my dominant dog.

[corvus]

I take anything L. David Mech says on wolves as law. He has spent most of his life studying them in the wild. He has some of his papers free on his website in an attempt to shake the alpha wolf/dominance hierarchy thing.

ETA linky: http://www.mnforsustain.org/wolf_mech_domi...lpha_status.htm

He explains where dominance occurs in wolves and why.

Edited September 14, 2009 by corvus

[Jaxx'sBuddy]

dogs are not wolves. maybe you just lucked out with the food routine

[Aidan]

To be honest I'm not entirely sure what to believe anymore as that info has remained consistent in sources I've seen it in over the years, and assumed to be reliable.

Yes, fair enough too! Perhaps my "it simply isn't true" was a bit misleading, too, I should have made more of an effort to clarify. This is an extract from http://www.wolf.org/wolves/learn/basic/res...tus_english.pdf :

"As for high-ranking animals asserting any practical control over subordinates, the nature

of the interaction is highly conditional. For example, with large prey such as adult moose

(Alces alces), pack members of all ranks (ages) gather around a carcass and feed

simultaneously, with no rank privilege apparent (Mech 1966; Haber 1977); however, if

the prey is smaller, like a musk ox calf, dominant animals (breeders) may feed first and

control when subordinates feed (Mech 1988; National Geographic 1988).

Similarly, pups are subordinate to both parents and to older siblings, yet they are fed

preferentially by the parents, and even by their older (dominant) siblings (Mech et al.

1999). On the other hand, parents both dominate older offspring and restrict their food

intake when food is scarce, feeding pups instead. Thus, the most practical effect of social

dominance is to allow the dominant individual the choice of to whom to allot food."

Not really wanting to turn this into a debate, just saying what worked with my dominant dog.

Sure, I respect that. We tend to repeat that which works for us.

Edited September 14, 2009 by Aidan

[mr.mister]

Thanks for the clarification, Aidan. That makes perfect sense.

And thanks for the useful link, Corvus.

Jaxx: Dogs are descended from wolves and despite being domesticated, still share many similarities with the wolf including the 'pack mentality'. That's kind of like saying cave men aren't humans (sorry, bit of a big generalisation there). I'm pretty sure I haven't 'lucked out' with the food routine as it's been embraced by a highly regarded trainer and has worked on many dogs. If it works on an animal, doesn't harbour aggressive behaviour and makes for a happy dog, I can't see anything against it. I know hoards of people who flatly disagree with Cesar Millans (sp?) techniques whilst embracing another and vice versa. It's always going to be a hot topic (training methods) and people will almost always have differing opinions. Again, what works for you.