aggressive puppy wants to attend puppy party!

Re: aggressive puppy wants to attend puppy party!

Lucy Brett — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 10:31:02 GMT

Hello again,

Sorry this is taken so long. The general feeling on the CABTSG study group forum is that you get in touch with someone with relevant puppy behaviour experience perhaps from the UKRCB or APBC to come and assess the puppy's behaviour during socialisation sessions. They could then work with a view to perhaps pulling the pup out to work one-to-one with a more experienced adult dog used to this kind of work who will be able to help this pup 're-learn' some play and general affiliative social behaviours. Hope this helps.

Lucy

Re: aggressive puppy wants to attend puppy party!

BengalcatRVN — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 11:50:10 GMT

I had a pup that used to hide behind the hay when she first came, left her alone, took her a couple of sessions but she did come out of her shell and started to play with the other pups. Although she was a big pup (dogue de bordeux) we allowed her to attend some extra sessions as she was so gentle. It def helped her.

Re: aggressive puppy wants to attend puppy party!

Wendy73 — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 11:10:54 GMT

Hope the first party went ok. We have a local behaviourist running our puppy parties and follow-on training classes and I assist with these. We would have encouraged them to atttend and asked everyone at the class to protect this nervous pup by gently moving away any other pup that made him feel worried. Vital that this pup is not picked up to 'rescue' him from a scary situation as this will make matters worse. Don't push him into interacting with the others, if he wants to stay under a chair that's fine, just tell the owners to keep the extra-tasty treats and praise flowing while he is calm. As long as the other pups are not allowed to scare him he should eventually start to feel braver and want to approach them, although this may take several sessions and might be worth considering repeating the course with him to get more benefit. Good luck

Re: aggressive puppy wants to attend puppy party!

Stuart McQueen RVN MBVNA — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 17:47:20 GMT

it might be worth while explaining to the other people in the class the pups problems, i had a 12 week old sharpei cross that was really dominant with other dogs.. the usual story - "he's not like this at home" etc etc I explained to the other that the behaviour will only get worse the older he got, she made a friend at the parties and they socialised outside the parties as well as coming along to play with the other pups. when he came back after xmas it was like a completely different dog.. he was letting the other pups jump all over him, rolling on his back...

if he really is bad you could always get the owner to bring the dog into the reception two or three times a week... just to sit and watch other dogs coming and going - hopefully paying him no attention...

keep us updated. would be good to know how he got on, and share any tips. xx

Re: aggressive puppy wants to attend puppy party!

Anonymous — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 11:29:24 GMT

the owners explanation makes a lot more sense, ill bet the problem is more with the owners being nervous aswell....

my dog was pushed down a ditch by a big black dog and it did knock his confidence, but puppy classes really helped him. He was nervous to start with, you probably tell the owners this already but it really helped me to take his blanket and a stuffed kong and loads of class A treats not just the normal training treats

Re: aggressive puppy wants to attend puppy party!

Jessica Scaife — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 21:39:10 GMT

That makes more sense. My collie was doing really well with socialising and then he was attacked at 4 months old. Since then we have had 3 more, all German shepherds go for him, I don't know why, Sam wasn't even interested in them, Sam was on his lead and the others weren't on all of the occasions. It so sad now because he is scared of all other dogs, and it has made him display fear aggression at times. I think we may need to work with a behaviourist to sort him out.

Really annoyed that they weren't on leads, it could have been avoided. One owner even blamed me for walking my dog near his, I didn't know they would be there, my psychic powers weren't working that day!

Hopefully the classes will help him, it's much easier to help a ten week old puppy than a one year old.

(By the way I'm not saying all German Shepherds are aggressive it's just more a unfortunate coincidence that it has been the same breed go for my dog.)

Re: aggressive puppy wants to attend puppy party!

caz vernon — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 17:26:34 GMT

thanks for everyones replies.. i called the owner the other day.. and what has happened is that the dog was attacked by another dog while out on a walk so is now very nervous of other dogs and hides and snaps as he feels threatened... so now i have the whole story! ive invited him to come along and just let the puppy watch the other pups play for a while from a distance.. i'll see how he goes.. i may let him off the lead with the gentler puppies who are quite chilled out so he gets his confidence back.. i think his owners are quite nervous aswell now so need to work on them too.. thank u so much for everyones advice.. the puppy in question is a wire haired fox terrier.. they are little rebels.i owned one for 15 years!. and i love em.. can't wait to meet him. i'll let u know how it goes

Re: aggressive puppy wants to attend puppy party!

Anonymous — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 17:19:32 GMT

how does a puppy get dog agressive by 10 weeks old?

is it the owners that have said he is dog agressive? are they confusing natural dog play for agression?

Re: aggressive puppy wants to attend puppy party!

Susan Jackson — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 11:21:53 GMT

Another way to approach it is to say that you've noticed this dog is showing conserns of dog aggression and that your glad the owner wants to try to rectify the problem, but you would prefer if he was socialised in a more specialised clas with a dog behaviourist as you feel he may learn worse behaviour in your classes.

Re: aggressive puppy wants to attend puppy party!

Mrs Dot Dot — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 00:19:33 GMT

Your options are explain to the owner that you don't want their puppy to scare/ worry/ make a bad impression on the other pups and their owners so you would prefer them not to attend ( don't say ban because it sounds too harsh) or you could ask them to come but sit a safe distance away from the others, with him either onthe owners lap, making sure that the owners just ignore him (don't over reassure) or have him sitting under their chair for the whole session, so he can just watch - you can see how he reacts... you say aggressive but in what situations... is he cornered, approached wrongly, scared/ nervous? If you have the slightest concerns about the owners not fully understanding the seriousness of the situation, don't have him at the puppy party. If you aren't confident in giving them advice, then don't... refer to a behaviourist. I would love to see how he is acting, and how the owners respond? Have you seen them much... really sad, especially for the puppy............

Re: aggressive puppy wants to attend puppy party!

Katie B — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 23:52:44 GMT

10 weeks old and he is already aggressive, thats really sad, lets hope it's a puppy stage. Although how does a pup get dog aggressive at such a young age?

Re: aggressive puppy wants to attend puppy party!

Tracy Windler RVN — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 20:14:37 GMT

I would be very reluctant! There must be a pretty severe underlying cause for a 10 week old puppy to hate other dogs and, in that case, putting it in a room with other dogs that you have no control over could add more bad experiences to this, compounding his response. Then you have all the other puppies suffering a bad experience.

I think you, or someone with behavioural experience, if you don't feel comfortable, needs to gather further information about this dog and the behaviour it is exhibiting and why.

I think this puppy/owner needs some help quickly, as it will end up being a very unhappy, frustrated dog for the rest of its life.

Good luck xx

Re: aggressive puppy wants to attend puppy party!

Lucy Brett — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 20:02:23 GMT

Very good point! I am a member of the CABTSG behaviourist forum. I will ask them or you and get back to you tomorrow.

Lucy