Little Miss Attitude!

[Legz]

Hey all just in need of some advice, we have a 10week old Cairn terrier that is attitude on legs when it comes to taking her to puppy school! She wont really play or run around tail wagging like the other puppies, she either lies at our feet/lap and when she is down she stalks the other puppies! Like stiff legged, tail strait up not wagging and follows them pushing her chin into their necks/faces/backs and she will growl at them. She wont really play at all and she has seriously fired up at growled a lot at the other pups for no reason it seemed. They don't gang up on her at all but she seems either not interested in them at all or trying to be little miss dominant.

At home we have an old 15yr maltese x and a 6 month old westie female. She LOVES my dogs and the westie and her play all day, they can be quite rough and if we hear the occasional growl (usually from the cairn) she gets a firm NO and gets lifted for some calm down time.

What more socialization can we do? My westie LOVED puppy school and is such a gorgeous little social thing but the cairn seems to hate it! She doesn't seem scared at all, she will sit/lay quietly while the others are around her so we dont know quite what to do. We really dont want her growing to be dog aggressive so any advice please!

[W Sibs]

Sometimes it takes some puppies to get use of puppy pre school. Give it time

When Charlie went.. the first night he mostly stayed under my chair and just to watch what was going around him. The second week, he was brave enough to to venture out to play with other dogs. He stayed away from the hyperactive dogs though. He is a sweet and gentle boy.

Oh, then there is Miss Emmy... first class, she shocked the hell out of me when she was so good, sweet and on her best behaviour. Second lesson, her true colour showed! She was rough housing with all the dogs in there, beat them up if they didn't let her get what she wants She and another staffy played together and sometimes it got rough, that they were separated.

If you are in Sydney... we can let our pups play together. Emmy plays rough though, she growls when she plays too (nothing aggressive though.. she growls when she digs on her bed, growls before she jumps off the couch, growls when she plays).

Charlie puts Emmy in her place when she gets to much... a warning bark from Big Bro stops her in her tracks and settles her down. One time, she was too much for him, he sat on her!!

Edited June 10, 2010 by CW EW

[lanabanana]

Just wondering why you tell her off for growling when playing? Is that something everyone does?

My dogs are extremely vocal when playing....lots and lots of growling. SOme people probably think its aggressive but it's totally different to an agro snarl.

Pups can be funny at puppy preschool huh. When my wee pippi (foxy/shih tzu mix) went, she acted all tough when we first got there and was barking and growling with her little hackles up and tail all stiff. Then th eminute the leads came off she scampered behind my chair and stayed there pretty much the entire first lesson. The second one she came out in the second half and the third one she was right into it.

My big boy was the same....only be the last lesson was he willing to play with the other pups - before that he would run if they sniffed him. What made it really funny was he was 19kgs and the next heaviest pup was about 6 LMAO

[Cosmolo]

What does the trainer taking the class say about the behaviour? How have you reacted to the behaviour at class?

[Legz]

CW EW thanks for the offer but i live in SA so just a wee bit far away

Lanabanana I guess we thought she was winding herself up to much, she has growled at us of picking her up while she has been playing and doesn't want to stop and has growled when she was lifted onto our laps when she was tired and obviously didnt want to be picked up. They arent usually vocal, my westie doesnt make a noise and we let them go at it pretty hard but when the cairn seems to get really wound up she starts growling and trying to shake the westie. Should we ignore it all?

Yeah puppy school she is pretty funny, its when she is off the lead she stalks them. The instructor hasn't said much, just separated them when she started having a serious go at another puppy. And she has growled whilst being held by someone else (they make us handle others puppies) She just kept going, the person thought it was funny and was winding her up so she just kept growling, i was not happy and told her NO and told the person shes not allowed to do that.

Now im not sure what to do! Ignore the growling while playing but don't let her growl with us? She really is a sweet, independent, loving puppy and we want the bring her up right lol

[Cosmolo]

It is very possible that it is NOT play growling and without seeing the puppy its impossible to know for sure. Puppy behvaiour like this needs to be dealt with quickly and effectively. Stiffly stalking other pups is not something i would allow at a pre school of mine, nor would i allow someone else to handle the puppy and wind them up when they're growling.

I would suggest two things- go and see Mark Singer, he will be able to let you know what socialisation and training is required for your pup if indeed it is not play growling (and having 'a go' at another pup is unlikely play- inappropriate at best) Get yourself a copy of Control Unleashed by Leslie McDevitt and pay particular attention to the "Look at That" game.

[Greytmate]

I agree with Cosmolo. You do need to have a professional look at this. Aggression needs to be taken very seriously.

It seems possible that the puppy school you are attending maybe staffed by people that don't have any experience in this sort of thing. I would be asking for a refund after the incident where somebody else handled your dog. If for no other reason but to let the school know how wrong it is. You don't join puppy school to have your dog upset and your dog's behaviour deteriorate.

Cairns are funny little things. You may have to change your expectations somewhat. Miss Attitude will always have an attitude. But you can learn to bring out the best in her and keep her out of trouble.

Good luck.