Please please help :(
Hi everyone:
Our six month old Haru is a great lovable protector that I got for our family after the grieving period calmed for our Husky/Malamute cross (Ice), who was killed by a maniac driver when he was let out late at night off leash for a pee in our rural area. Haru has been very energetic and always a little rough at play since we got him at 8 weeks old. He has been lovingly cared for, but we have also been stern with him, so that he knows his place in the family, but he bit our six year old son on the arm about a month ago while our son was eating supper, and my wife Cindy, who was out of the room at the time, said she heard Haru, and that he sounded ferocious when he bit him. I was away at work, but we decided to keep him outside when we were eating, and give him his meals at the same time as ours. I'm away at work right now, and she called me today and told me that our son was watching TV, and Haru did the same thing again. Our son, (Willie) doesn't pick at Haru or torment him, and when we're around and out on our walking trails they're good together. Now we don't know if we can trust him with Willie, and we are very distraught. Haru is scheduled to be neutered next week, but Cindy feels that she may never be able to trust him around Willie again, and we may have to find a new home for him. Is there someone out there who can help us?
Our six month old Haru is a great lovable protector that I got for our family after the grieving period calmed for our Husky/Malamute cross (Ice), who was killed by a maniac driver when he was let out late at night off leash for a pee in our rural area. Haru has been very energetic and always a little rough at play since we got him at 8 weeks old. He has been lovingly cared for, but we have also been stern with him, so that he knows his place in the family, but he bit our six year old son on the arm about a month ago while our son was eating supper, and my wife Cindy, who was out of the room at the time, said she heard Haru, and that he sounded ferocious when he bit him. I was away at work, but we decided to keep him outside when we were eating, and give him his meals at the same time as ours. I'm away at work right now, and she called me today and told me that our son was watching TV, and Haru did the same thing again. Our son, (Willie) doesn't pick at Haru or torment him, and when we're around and out on our walking trails they're good together. Now we don't know if we can trust him with Willie, and we are very distraught. Haru is scheduled to be neutered next week, but Cindy feels that she may never be able to trust him around Willie again, and we may have to find a new home for him. Is there someone out there who can help us?
Comments
It's also really important you find a behavioralist who does positive reinforcement....aversives and rough handling will only make this problem worse. I'm not sure what you mean by "being stern" with the dog, but I'd be very, very careful of using aversives--esp. no physical punishment--with the dog right now, as that could make it worse as well. (I would not use a physical punishment ever anyway, but especially not with a dog showing aggression toward a human for an unknown reason).
This web site has trainers--not sure that it includes behavioralists as well, but it might be worth a look: http://www.trulydogfriendly.com/blog/?page_id=4
@Vance - I'm so sorry to hear about what happened! I can appreciate that this is a very trying time for your family and I hope your son is feeling well.
Below are links to Certified Applied Animal Behaviorists across the country who offer telephone consultations for pet behavior problems (listed in alphabetical order). Or find a Certified Applied Animal Behaviorist near you from the Animal Behavior Society’s CAAB Directory (make link http://www.animalbehavior.org/ABSAppliedBehavior/caab-directory). Some CAABs and ACAAB also offer telephone consultations.
Debra Forthman, PhD, CAAB, dforthman@mypetsbehavior.com
(678) 391-0326
Jill Goldman, Ph.D., CAAB, carletonplace@earthlink.net
Carleton’s Place: Animal Behavior Services
(949) 683-4886
Lori Holmberg, MA, ACAAB, CPDT, lori_holmberg@hotmail.com
Animal Expressions
( 303)400-0740 or (720)327-5335
Melissa Shyan-Norwalt, PhD, CAAB, mshyan@earthlink.net
Companion Animal Problem Solvers,Inc.
http://home.earthlink.net/~companion-animal-problem-solvers/
(317) 496-7502
Nancy Williams, MA, RVT, ACAAB, Nancy@DogsWithIssues.com
www.DogsWithIssues.com
(410) 374-1556
You should also know that the field of dog training and pet behavior consulting are not regulated by any government entity. Consequently, anyone can use any professional title they choose (however veterinarians can use the term “behavior specialist only if they are board certified).
I used to refer clients to Nancy Williams, so I can personally recommend her.
Good luck. He's a young dog and you should be able to get back on track.
I'm curious, did h break the skin when he bit Willie?
Here is a suggestion that might not solve it, but it might help:
I think that Haru is challenging your son's spot in the hierarchy of the pack. The pack's hierarchy is established and maintained during feeding time. You see this in pack animals all the time: Alpha's eat first, then everyone else.
Akita's are very pack driven. So don't feed Haru at the same time your family is eating, feed him after everyone is done eating.
Haru has to know that he's not in a position to 'challenge' his pack leaders, this might stop his aggression a bit.
@MapleTwinkie We agree with you and now our son is feeding him after he eats. From now on we will have only our son feed him and see how it goes. Thanks.
Pack animal heirarchal social behaviour evolved over tens of thousands of years and is a genetic behavioural characteristic of canines. Fundamentally, our canines are pack animals, some more than others, but especially our Spitz breeds.
So to dismiss pack-hierachal social behaviour as "nonsense", "alpha hype" and "heirarchal pseudo-science" is probably not accurate.
Please don't get this confused with a Dominance approach to dog discipline as this is not what i'm advocating and a lot of people seem to link the two. There are ways to establish a heirarchy in a family (pack) without "aggressive" dominant reinforcement behaviours.
I hope that clarifies my position.
Part of the problem is the age of Haru and your son is 6 years old. Although fixing the dog might help your issue it isn't going to solve it. These dogs need time to mature and to them a 6 year old child can be scary and unpredictable.
MY HUNTCH IS YOUR ISSUE IS RIGHT HERE: 1) "son was eating supper, and my wife Cindy, who was out of the room at the time" 2) "because he has especially taken to Cindy like no other, and he's her baby. It seems like maybe a jealousy issue" 3) "I'm away at work right now, and she called me today and told me that our son was watching TV, and Haru did the same thing again"
I've seen it happen first hand with a club member and her dog. He is her baby and when she would pickup another puppy, he would go NUTS. Look at your quotes, I see a pattern of Haru bonding with the opposite sex (very common), having to share time with the little one of the same sex. Lastly Haru's issues happen when you wife is out of the room and/or you are not home.
I agree with the others, since Haru has bitten your son, I would seek professional help. I would also get him a crate in the house for him to call his own. Lastly makes sure the two are not unsupervised at all.
Case in point: the first "behavioralist" I contacted believed all that pack order nonsense (which is, in fact, part of the dominance theory, and is not accurate. Dogs don't even form packs in the way wolves do and the whole thing about pack order even in wolves is much more complex and flexible than rigid. For more info. on this read some of the threads here on canine "dominance" if you want to know more about why this whole idea is problematic.)
Anyway, I was too inexperienced to know. This so called behavioralist charged me a lot of money to tell me a lot of bullshit about I needed to not let my Shibas on the furniture, etc, and then said I should let them "fight it out" to establish pack order. I knew better than that, thankfully. I later learned, from my vet, that at least two dogs had died under the guidance of this person--in one case she told a family to let her dogs establish the pack order, and two younger dogs killed the elderly GSD.
That's a cautionary tale: be very careful about finding out exactly what training a person has and what their approaches will be before you hire them, and if they start talking about pack order and dominance or alpha, then do NOT hire them. They will not help.
My other behavioralist was very very good indeed, and, among other things, is also a teacher of the Karen Pryor clicker trainers. I'd recommend her, but she's in NM.
Good points from Sean--crate Haru when you can't supervise him. Get professional help, and never let the dog be with the child unsupervised again. And finally, neutering will not fix the problem. It may (or may not) change his temperament slightly, but it will not fix it.)
Everyone else has already beaten me to all the good points, which is this:
-Get a behavioralist. Now.
-Practice positive reinforcement
-Dogs don't consider humans part of our pack, they're smarter than that
-Don't submit to the alpha and/or dominance theory.
-Crate him when there is no supervision. You should never trust a child with a dog, just as you should never trust a dog with a child. It goes both ways...
-neutering is not going to help. not much anyway. (though, you should still neuter him if you're not going to breed him, I commend you on this effort)
Didn't I read on another threat that Haru was food possessive? I would try to address that issue too. You can't just throw him in the backyard to eat... That is just putting a bandaid on the problem, not actually solving it. I think addressing this issue will help you trust him more.
Not that Haru hates children, but try to imagine his viewpoint. Children are weird little humans who move funny, make weird noises, and are at eye level. (eye level can equate to confrontation). I'm not trying to right what Haru did, but try to provide some insight that might be useful in figuring out how to handle this situation,
You said you are going to have your 6 year old son feed him from now on.... While I see where you're headed with that and can understand why you would want to do that- I do see it as potentially problematic. My concern is that 1)your son is 6 and still a small child 2) Haru is already 'jealous' of your son 3) he has already bitten your son- twice 4) A lot of dogs tend to be uncomfortable or scared of children. Kids are unpredictable, quick, noisy, etc. (Not an insult to any child of course! It is just how they are lol)
If your son is feeding him and Haru sees him with his food/food bowl will he react negatively? Possibly.
If your son stumbles and spills the food then gets down on the floor to pick it up will Haru possibly see this as your son taking his food and react negatively? Possibly. And I can think of many other scenarios.............. Letting a small child feed him is not something I would do because you do not want to set either of them up to fail (and you do not want anyone to get hurt)... I would contact a behaviorist immediately and seek guidance. You can regain harmony in your home... it will just take time and a lot of work.
If you wanted to let your son do something food related maybe let your son drop treats around Haru when Haru is being nice and calm when your son is present?
Just my thoughts.
His dog also started guarding the hallways so i couldnt even walk down the hall... So dont let your son have to walk by him in a hall either.
No idea how the dog is now we broke up on a bad note and i havent looked back.
We hired a behaviorist who came into our homes and worked with us. We found he had triggers that we had to try and avoid to do. Any signs of resource guarding was what we tried to avoid. What we did was take everything away and slowly reintroduced it to him little by little as he began behaving nicer. Our training model was based off of Ruff Love by Susan Garrett. I got to a point where I was able to pet him while he was eating, but his other behaviors still needed work.
It worked off and on for about three years but he relapsed and I had the help of a vet/behaviorist and we tried meds. It calmed him down immensely but he relapsed again and bit 4 family members. I then had blood tests and additional tests done but we discovered he had a hormone imbalance that caused his bipolar behavior.
I would keep your dog away from your child until you can have a vet behaviourist evaluate him.
It's nothing about I trust my dog or not but I just don't do it because anything can happen.
*EDIT:
I agree with the crate suggestion. If you cannot watch him- crate him. If there is a lot going on in the house and he is stressing- crate him. If your son is running around all energetic (normal 6 year old stuff)- crate him and so on. Make the crate a positive thing. A place he can go to have chewies or just to chill....