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Dog Questions
Dear Dr. Berg,
We have a Chihuahua named Sissy that is one year old. Sissy gets very angry at us, growls when she
becomes tired. Also, she growls when we try to take a bone from her. Is there anything we can do?
Thank you.
M +E, U of Del.
Dear Marianne and Erick,
It sounds like Sissy runs your household with an iron paw. Does she let you sleep on her double bed and
use her TV remote sometimes as well?
The answer to your problem lies in the way that she looks at you. To Sissy, you. re just another member
of the pack that lives in your house. You dress a little funny and bark different than her, but, basically,
you. re another dog in the pack.
Within every pack there is an ALPHA DOG. ALPHA DOG gets to do whatever he/she wants. If there is
a prize bone and Alpha dog wants it, all others in the pack relinquish the bone to her. Alpha dog is the
first to eat from the food bowl if she wants, and gets to sit in the prized spot below the picture window.
The pecking order of the pack is determined by an evolving understanding resulting from many small encounters
within the pack. Fights break out between members and it is through these that the hierarchy is figured out.
It is not always the big or strong that are at the top. I know an 8-? tortoise cat that can send an 80
lb Doberman to his room any time she wishes. Psychology and attitude also play a big part here.
In your household, Sissy may act very nice and sweet when there are no confrontations, but when it comes time
to take something from her, the true alpha dog in her comes out.
Obedience training, often begun at 3-4 months of age, can go a long way towards preventing situations such as
you have from happening.
When a puppy goes through obedience training, he is learning to obey commands from you and your family.
If he does what you say without question, he is, by definition, lower on the pecking order.
I encourage puppy owners to begin handling paws and mouths at an early age to make nail clipping and removal
of wallets easier as the puppy. s weight hits triple digits.
And, believe it or not, it is rare that a dog is too old to learn new tricks. It just may take them a
little longer to learn the trick or accomplish it.
I would strongly recommend taking your dog through obedience school as a basic starting point. She will
learn to sit when YOU say sit, and not just when she. s tired. She. ll learn to come when asked and not after
she has carefully weighed . what. s in it for me& ..
Once she responds without questioning your authority, then you are, by definition, higher up on the pecking
order than her. \
The next step is to take the training that you have done, and let others in your family either attend classes
or just go through the exercises at home with her. Remember that it is PRAISE and REWARD that bring the fastest
results. My dog would jump over our house for a piece of cheese the size of the tip of my finger.
Then, I would practice actually taking things out of her mouth. Start with things that don. t really
matter to her and work up to bringing home a brand new toy, giving it to her, then taking it out of her mouth.
If you can accomplish this last feat, you have done your training well.
I have seen, in many of the dogs that I have owned, a period of . testing. where the dog is trying to figure
out if he/she is above you in the pecking order. It takes many forms.
. Come Nikki. . Nikki looks at me and stares, not moving a muscle. . Come Nikki (in a deeper, more
serious tone). . Nikki slowly walks at an angle in my direction, but NOT directly towards me, then she stops
6 feet from me.
Of course Nikki would NEVER act like that, and rarely is she every off a leash. But if she was testing
me, she would intentionally do each of these things then carefully watch to see my reaction. If I fail to
react and correct her RIGHT AWAY, she has learned that she might be higher up on the ladder.
Any time a dog growls at you or at an action that you take, this is aggressive behavior and needs immediate
correction. Because if you fail to correct it, even though it. s only a growl, it may progress to a nip,
then a bite, then a fight.
If Nikki ever growls at anything I do, I immediately say NO in a strong voice, then follow with a command like
. Sit& DOWN (she HATES to go down). . If she fails to go down, I PUT her down. If there is a squabble,
I. d rather she have it with me than with a small child that might innocently be trying to get her Popsicle back.
I love my dogs, and I train my dogs because I love them. I want them to learn how to live peacefully with
the other creatures in this world, and to enjoy the other animals, 2 and 4 legged, around them. There are
rules that make this easier for everyone, and it is my job to make sure that my pets understand them.
So start with a discussion with ALL family members about what are the problems that you see with Sissy, and
decide how TOGETHER you will try to correct them. It is very important that you all act together. If
Sissy never gets away with misbehaving, her progress will happen much faster.
For those of you who have never experienced just how fast a Chihuahua can snap without warning, take my word
for it& .the tip of your finger is gone before you know it.
With our dogs, I have done dominance exercises where appropriate. This is nothing more than holding the
dog down on their belly, their side, their back (whichever position YOU choose. not the dog) until YOU decide it
is time for the dog to get up. The first few days you do this, you will have a struggle in your arms, but
it gets better and better. And the dog learns to resist less and less.
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