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Mt new rescue hates other dogs. :(


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This totally shocks me. She was fine around all the dogs at the rescue I got her from. She was the ONLY dog who could tolerate my obnoxious other puppy. We got her home and she LOVES all my other dogs. There were four at the time but I recently had to put my rat terrier down. :crying:

 

I took her to the beach a month ago and she was fine with the other dogs, but MAN does she have a fierce bark! It is all bark no bite as she is a huge, loving mush. :001_wub:

 

I took her to a friends house and she barked uncontrollably, and meanly, at friend's dog! I was shocked.

 

I took her back to the beach n Friday and there were a TON of dogs and she growled and barked at them!

 

Thus is the easiest, most gentle and loving puppy I could ask for - WHILE AT HOME. I want two big, powerful dogs for guard dogs, but I also want to take them hiking as dd12 and I love to hike. She is WONDERFUL with people, but I have GOT to get her better with other dogs!

 

We have taken a serious financial hit recently. I am hoping I can work on socialization without obedience classes right now. Maybe that's unrealistic. Any tips or advice? I have done some reading on this.

 

By the way she is a mastiff mix. We adopted her at three months of age and she is now 7.5 months old.

 

FWIW, she came to us very sick. She had four homes by the age of 3 months. :sad: she came from a very rough, high kill shelter. i also believe she was abused. After working with her these few months, she completely trusts me, shows no fear, and is so easy going, calm and lovable. So this behavior away from home SHOCKS me but I think she has some baggage.

 

I want her to be ok with other dogs, not necessarily LIKE them. I wonder if having her around other dogs along with out other puppy would help? He LOVES other dogs.

 

Anyone ever BTDT?

Edited by Denisemomof4
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Our golden was great with other dogs as long as she wasn't around us. At the kennel, they said they had never had a dog as sociable with others as she was. She never once growled at any of the other dogs. When she was with us though, she always felt like she needed to protect us. She growled and barked at other dogs even when they were still a half-block away. She would even growl at dogs being walked on the other side of our wooden fence from inside the house.

 

The first time we took her to the kennel, we warned them that she was not good with other dogs at all, so we were quite surprised by their report that she was so wonderful with them when we weren't there.

 

She never had a problem with cats.

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she always felt like she needed to protect us

 

This is what I'm wondering about. Mastiffs are guardian breeds, after all. So it really isn't surprising at all (or shouldn't be) that she's displaying some of those traits. My guess is it's much more likely the inherited guarding instincts than it is related to any kind of early abuse/trauma. Also, she's an adolescent in dog terms. Which may at least partially account for her change in attitude in a fairly short period of time. But it's still something you need to work on and nip in the bud. The longer it goes on the more ingrained it will likely get.

 

How old is your other puppy, and what breed/mix? What kind of training do you do with them? Has the Mastiff mix been spayed yet? Your friend's dog that she growled at -- is that dog a male or female?

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I would try without the other puppy first. Could she be being protective of him?

 

No. He is definitely the dominant alpha male with her. I haven't brought them out together yet because the other pup, 10.5 months, SOOOO loves other dogs thay he's almost too obnoxious around them! He wants to play and play and play.

 

Our golden was great with other dogs as long as she wasn't around us. At the kennel, they said they had never had a dog as sociable with others as she was. She never once growled at any of the other dogs. When she was with us though, she always felt like she needed to protect us. She growled and barked at other dogs even when they were still a half-block away. She would even growl at dogs being walked on the other side of our wooden fence from inside the house.

 

The first time we took her to the kennel, we warned them that she was not good with other dogs at all, so we were quite surprised by their report that she was so wonderful with them when we weren't there.

 

She never had a problem with cats.

 

This is very interesting. Our rescue did SO well with the dogs at the shelter, and so well with our four dogs!

 

This is what I'm wondering about. Mastiffs are guardian breeds, after all. So it really isn't surprising at all (or shouldn't be) that she's displaying some of those traits. My guess is it's much more likely the inherited guarding instincts than it is related to any kind of early abuse/trauma. Also, she's an adolescent in dog terms. Which may at least partially account for her change in attitude in a fairly short period of time. But it's still something you need to work on and nip in the bud. The longer it goes on the more ingrained it will likely get.

 

How old is your other puppy, and what breed/mix? What kind of training do you do with them? Has the Mastiff mix been spayed yet? Your friend's dog that she growled at -- is that dog a male or female?

 

Our other puppy is a Blackmouth Cur and he is 10.5 months old. He has been through the fist round of obedience training with a dog specialist, not just a Petco type thing. He is obnoxious but SO easy to train. The trainer was even imprssed with this. He is definitely going to go back but we didn't want to do it over the summer. I will try to swing both going back because Lola, the mastiff, needs more socialization and I want it in a controlled setting. I just don't know if we can right now. She has not been spayed yet because I want her to go through one cycle after doing some reading. The other dog she growled at was a male, the dog she really growled at the beach was a female. She did get pretty close to us. I just want to make sure there are no issues when we go out. It is difficult when we encounter others hiking or at the beach when their dog is running loosely and approaches our Leashed dogs.

 

We got both dogs for guard dogs. I can tell they will be great at that, but I really want to take them on outings, especially hiking!

Edited by Denisemomof4
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No advice just commiserating. We have a female golden that is great with other dogs until I am around and then she goes into protection mode. When we go hiking, my husband has to hike with her about a half a mile ahead of me because once she sees me, she wants to be with me and protect me. She doesn't do this with anyone else in the family but it is obvious who she is attached to. It drive me insane. I can't stop and talk to any of the neighbors who have dogs when I am out walking because she gets all mean and nasty with their dogs. This dog is a perfect family dog other than this one issue.

 

I'm going to be following this thread to see if anyone has any good ideas.

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Our other puppy is a Blackmouth Cur and he is 10.5 months old. He has been through the fist round of obedience training with a dog specialist, not just a Petco type thing. He is obnoxious but SO easy to train. The trainer was even imprssed with this. He is definitely going to go back

 

But what kind of training do you do with him and Lola? Not a trainer, you.

 

You and every other person in the house should be devoting some time to training every day, both in formal training sessions and throughout the day as part of the household routine. And you need to work separately with each of them.

 

I highly recommend a program called Nothing In Life Is Free. It's pretty simple but incredibly effective at establishing leadership and helping dogs learn and accept their place in the family.

 

There could be several reasons for the barking in addition to guarding behavior. While we'd all like to think our dog barks aggressively at other dogs because he/she is protecting us (because it's kind of a warm and fuzzy thing to think), in reality it can and often is due to much less warm and fuzzy reasons. Like the dog believes you are her possession and that she controls you and other people's (and animals') access to you. You don't want that attitude in any dog, and especially not in a large guardian breed.

 

Nothing In Life Is Free

 

Another NILIF article

Edited by Pawz4me
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But what kind of training do you do with him and Lola? Not a trainer, you.

 

You and every other person in the house should be devoting some time to training every day, both in formal training sessions and throughout the day as part of the household routine. And you need to work separately with each of them.

 

I highly recommend a program called Nothing In Life Is Free. It's pretty simple but incredibly effective at establishing leadership and helping dogs learn and accept their place in the family.

 

There could be several reasons for the barking in addition to guarding behavior. While we'd all like to think our dog barks aggressively at other dogs because he/she is protecting us (because it's kind of a warm and fuzzy thing to think), in reality it can and often is due to much less warm and fuzzy reasons. Like the dog believes you are her possession and that she controls you and other people's (and animals') access to you. You don't want that attitude in any dog, and especially not in a large guardian breed.

 

Nothing In Life Is Free

 

Another NILIF article

 

I am going to read your links but I wanted to address her role in the family. I am positive she has no misconceptions as to who is control - ME! She knows she is in a subservient role to the humans.

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I think he may have finally completely bonded to your family, and now he is being very protective. Our dog was that way until she got very old, and we could not take her out except to visit my parent's dog. I have no idea how to break him of that and still have him be a guard dog when your family is hiking, but I hope someone can come along and figure that out.

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But what kind of training do you do with him and Lola? Not a trainer, you.

 

You and every other person in the house should be devoting some time to training every day, both in formal training sessions and throughout the day as part of the household routine. And you need to work separately with each of them.

 

I highly recommend a program called Nothing In Life Is Free. It's pretty simple but incredibly effective at establishing leadership and helping dogs learn and accept their place in the family.

 

There could be several reasons for the barking in addition to guarding behavior. While we'd all like to think our dog barks aggressively at other dogs because he/she is protecting us (because it's kind of a warm and fuzzy thing to think), in reality it can and often is due to much less warm and fuzzy reasons. Like the dog believes you are her possession and that she controls you and other people's (and animals') access to you. You don't want that attitude in any dog, and especially not in a large guardian breed.

 

Nothing In Life Is Free

 

Another NILIF article

 

:iagree: My current foster actually lived with us for a couple of months before she started to display the behavior you describe. We worked with a behavior modification trainer to get rid of this "resource guarding/ aggression." (I happened to be the resource.) We've made slow and steady improvements over a long period of time.

Edited by Beth in OH
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:iagree: My current foster actually lived with us for a couple of months before she started to display the behavior you describe. We worked with a behavior modification to get rid of this "resource guarding/ aggression." (I happened to be the resource.) We've made slow and steady improvements over a long period of time.

 

Did you work with a trainer?

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Did you work with a trainer?

 

I did work with a trainer--I should have proofread my post. ;)

 

I used him as a consultant only. He kept Lucy for 24 hours just to observe her and get a feel for her issues. He didn't do any work with her at that time. Then, I took Lucy to him for "lessons", which were mainly to teach me. I would work with him for about an hour at a time, once every few weeks (or months). I needed repeat lessons so that the philosophy of how to work with Lucy would sink in, and Lucy needed time in between lessons so we could see what she needed next as she evolved.

 

Prior to this dog, I thought I was the leader of my pack. I really didn't believe the trainer when he tried to tell me I needed to change in order for Lucy to change. I have learned a lot about these smart, stronger breeds (malamute/GSD mix), and now I know that they require even more diligent leadership than I was accustomed to giving. For Lucy, the methods are pretty old school--leash corrections, and giving her simple commands and requiring work from her when she starts to take over. It seems harsh compared to positive reinforcement/clicker training, but it has been necessary to establish my leadership. It would have been very cruel to let her continue and potentially hurt someone/something and have to be put down.

 

For us, change has been slow, but steady. Lucy was 3 years old when she came to me, and she had many issues. Progress has definitely been about peeling back the layers. Resource guarding/aggression has been the slowest to go away, but we have come sooooooo far. It's greatly reduced from where we started. We have not yet reached the point where I can relax when I'm walking her in the neighborhood. I still have to anticipate encounters with other dogs and take steps to keep Lucy from escalating by immediately putting her to work.

 

If you tackle this issue with your dog, I think you will find the result to be very rewarding. These dogs love their people in a very special way. Strange as it sounds, learning to lead Lucy has also made me a better leader of people! :lol:

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