Aggresive/over Excited Behaviour Around Other Dogs.

[gdel]

Hi All,

 

First time poster long time lurker

 

First allow me to tell you a story about our latest family member.

 

We Adopted Gelert in May, at the time he was a shocking white blue eyed Husky cross (not sure what he's crossed with but i believe a G/Shep), the vet believes him to be under a year, we adopted him from the local pound, he was brought in 10 weeks earlier and was on his last week before being put to sleep, I could not understand why no one had adopted him, he instantly caught my eye and when i approached the kennel it was obvious that he clearly had become so intensely bored in the pound, i went into the cage and sat next to him, he instantly walked over sniffed at me and led down head on my lap looked me in the eyes, i could almost hear him say 'oh there you are daddy', then he fell asleep.   By this time i don't honestly mind admitting i was a little tearful, suffice to say i found my new best friend, we decided to adopt him on the spot and make him a part of our family.

 

We then found out that he had a very hard life, he was heart worm positive had been shot with a .22 in the leg and was terrified of people, dogs, cats, the tv, cars, noise... well everything. Most people once finding out that adopting him entailed a very expensive vets bill (ended up coming upto $6500) decided it was too much and went for another choice, but at that point i could as much left him there to be put down as i could leave my wife there.

 

So we brought him home, he lived in his little fenced off area in our front room for 4 months whilst he underwent pretty intensive treatment, if you dont know the treatment for heart work it is basically Chemotherapy for dogs, the most exercise he could manage was to walk up the stairs which took him at least 3 breaks on the way up a single floor.

 

Back a few weeks ago he could begin exercising and going out, pretty quickly we found the 8 mile walks (4 times around the lake) we could handle in a day was pretty much just a warm up for him, we then discovered roller blades and a pull harness left us having him pull us around, he now pretty much manages 16 (8 times around the lake) miles a day pulling either myself or my wife around the local nature hike at the lake, still he seems to be almost finished with his warm up, as an experiment we put him on our tread mill one time, after 25 miles of a brisk walk he seemed to be done.

 

However now we are trying to introduce him and socialise him with other dogs, this is where the nightmare begins, unless he is in ;'business mode', that is pulling us around, With just a sight of another dog he starts yelping, pulling at his leash even with a easy halter, and general over excitedness, recently at the dog park he was playing with other dogs his size, this normally consits of him placing his paw ont he other dog and pushing him tothe ground, once the other dog has submitted he is fine with them, he does this with every dog at the park, however he came across a dog that was as dominant as him, within moments it turned into a nasty fight and he managed to rip the poor dogs ear so bad it required 8 stitches.

He has basically turned from being terrified of everything to a ball of energy when he encounters a dog that isn't one of his walking buddies at the lake, when not around another dog he is placid and very well behaved, however with the recent events he is now muzzled when going out.

So, if your still with me comes the part where i pose my question; How do i train him out of this behaviour, i am currently forcing him to heal and sit or lie down when around another dog, this only really lasts for a few seconds before he is trying to pull my arm off, He has never showed aggression to another person or even our two cats, he is pretty much terrified of our older Tomcat who walks in the room and stands aside as Gelert walks out and goes to hide.

Any help you can offer would be most appreciated.

[Val (Zebedee)]

Hi Gareth, well done on rescuing Gelert from his impending fate but it does sound like he has a few historic issues you are going to have to work on. You are starting right by making him sit until the other dog has passed, but he must be made to stay until the dog is well out of the way. Try taking him as far off the path from the other dog as possible & use a treat to get him focussed on you. Reward him for ignoring the other dog; if he turns to look at the other dog, a short "Ah!" to get his focus back & keep him looking at you. It may take a while depending on how many dogs you come across but it is a good start to get him to understand what is acceptable.

 

 Have a browse through our Training & Behaviour Section http://www.husky-owners.com/forum/forum/49-training-behaviour/?prune_day=100&sort_by=Z-A&sort_key=last_post&topicfilter=all there is a wealth of experience in there too that may help you & Gelert

[mydiamond]

Hey there Gareth welcome to our forum and thank you for choosing to rescue first of all, I'd like to begin by saying that this requires more than an online help. You need someone to be there and assess Gelert's behavior on the spot. Here behind my laptop screen, I can easily say that's a typical husky behavior. Huskies are always, always excited when they see other dogs and throwing their entire body to the poor other canine is perfectly normal. I can even go as far as saying he's not trying to make the other dog submit. He's just being a husky! 

 

But hearing about the nasty fight that ends up in 8 painful, costly stitches.. I'd choose to suggest you seek a professional trainer's advice. He might just be nervous, or provoked by the other dog. Either way he has already harmed another dog and that means this is serious. I do have some ideas I can give you though:

 

1. Watch for body language

Learn to read Gelert's tail, ears and eyes so you can correct him right before he went into "fixated" mode and gone completely deaf of your commands. Dogs do go through stages before they went ballistic and you'd want to correct them on the early stages. When you notice his ears are perked up, his tail drop down and his head held high for more than 3 seconds, you're already too late. You'd know you're too late when he refuses to walk straight and start jumping, pulling or just embarrass you in general  what can you do when he started eyeing that other dog--but his tail is still curled up and he's still walking pretty nicely?

 

A. Block his view. Use your legs and knees. Walk like a soldier in the old times; lift your knees up high to his eye level so that he can't see his "target" for a moment. If he's still on the very first stage usually this works right away. What if he's already pulling?

 

B. Keep walking! I'm not saying you should drag him though. If he stops dead on his tracks and completely refuses to move, stop walking. But if he's still on four feet and walks normally, pretend nothing is around. Say "come on" or similar commands, shorten the leash and just walk. His entire head might be facing backwards to keep that "target dog" in view, and he might start acting like a kangaroo, but in my case a louder "come on!", 2-3 correction tugs and some extra view-blocking fix the problem. Never ever panic. I know it's easier said than done, but there's nothing else I can say.. Just don't panic. It'll make things worse. 

 

2. Introduce him to other dogs slowly in a more controlled environment

 #1 is only ideal to deal with typical huskies that act purely on excitement and a strong drive to "play fight". If your dog is nervous, scared or just lack social skills in general then it's better to bring in some well-mannered, calm, laid-back dogs and introduce them to Gelert in a secure, off-leash environment. Some dogs get aggressive on-lead because their instinct says "fight or flight", and being on-lead crosses "flight" out of the options. The calm friends Gelert make will (hopefully!) teach him to be more confident and trusting around other dogs