The D word...
Shira and I have been visiting our friends a lot lately. By friends I mean my former teammate and her boyfriend, and their Beagle, Chase and "Jug" (Jack Russell/Pug), Yogi. Shira, Chase and Yogi are pretty good "friends"; they love racing, chasing and wrestling, and they're all very close in age (4-8 month old range), but lately Shira seems to have turned into what would at least be bossy, at most be a bitch (no pun intended).
Chase and/or Yogi will be minding their own business, sitting or laying down, and Shira will go stand over or step on them and sometimes stare them down. On occasion I've seen her get that look in her eye and merely start to walk towards Yogi, and he rolls over and puts his belly in the air while she sits next to him and just stares for a bit.
Shira also resource guards (I think?) in that if she has a toy/food/water/treat and Chase/Yogi goes into her space, she'll first get very quiet, then curl her lip, then growl, and if they keep coming she will lunge and we have to intervene. If one of the others has a toy Shira wants, she will go stand over them until they move away, they give up the toy, she takes it from out of their paws/mouth, or they get in a fight because they don't want to give it up.
But the instance that really bothered me was when I had Yogi in my lap, petting him.
When I give other dogs attention she does "get jealous" and comes and puts her paws on me like "Look at me, ma! ME!", even if she were across the room. But I had Yogi and she hopped onto the couch and started the stare/lip curl/growl routine. I just watched for a minute to see what they were going to do.
Yogi returned the stare/growl, so Shira stalked closer and then lunged. I had 2 dogs fighting on my lap and had to push them apart. I held Shira at arm's length and put Yogi on the other side of me. Shira whined a bit until I released her. Then she crept closer to me, staring right at Yogi, and definitively put her leg onto mine. I said "no", then moved it off of me. Yogi then took his little paw and gently placed it on my other leg. I said "no", then moved it off of me and made both of them get off of the couch.
This behavior is recent within the past week or two.
Shira does not resource guard with humans. If she thinks you're coming over to take something she just picks it up and tries to get away.
I know "dominance" is a shady subject, but I am curious as to whether I should be concerned with her behavior?
I can understand guarding/not wanting other dogs to take her things, but what about another dog in my lap? Is there a constructive way I can desensitize her to that, i.e., treats when she behaves and there is a dog in my lap/near her toy?
What is your impression of her behavior?
Sorry this is sooo long but I thought details mattered and I am a little concerned about this behavior and where it might be headed.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read it.
Chase and/or Yogi will be minding their own business, sitting or laying down, and Shira will go stand over or step on them and sometimes stare them down. On occasion I've seen her get that look in her eye and merely start to walk towards Yogi, and he rolls over and puts his belly in the air while she sits next to him and just stares for a bit.
Shira also resource guards (I think?) in that if she has a toy/food/water/treat and Chase/Yogi goes into her space, she'll first get very quiet, then curl her lip, then growl, and if they keep coming she will lunge and we have to intervene. If one of the others has a toy Shira wants, she will go stand over them until they move away, they give up the toy, she takes it from out of their paws/mouth, or they get in a fight because they don't want to give it up.
But the instance that really bothered me was when I had Yogi in my lap, petting him.
When I give other dogs attention she does "get jealous" and comes and puts her paws on me like "Look at me, ma! ME!", even if she were across the room. But I had Yogi and she hopped onto the couch and started the stare/lip curl/growl routine. I just watched for a minute to see what they were going to do.
Yogi returned the stare/growl, so Shira stalked closer and then lunged. I had 2 dogs fighting on my lap and had to push them apart. I held Shira at arm's length and put Yogi on the other side of me. Shira whined a bit until I released her. Then she crept closer to me, staring right at Yogi, and definitively put her leg onto mine. I said "no", then moved it off of me. Yogi then took his little paw and gently placed it on my other leg. I said "no", then moved it off of me and made both of them get off of the couch.
This behavior is recent within the past week or two.
Shira does not resource guard with humans. If she thinks you're coming over to take something she just picks it up and tries to get away.
I know "dominance" is a shady subject, but I am curious as to whether I should be concerned with her behavior?
I can understand guarding/not wanting other dogs to take her things, but what about another dog in my lap? Is there a constructive way I can desensitize her to that, i.e., treats when she behaves and there is a dog in my lap/near her toy?
What is your impression of her behavior?
Sorry this is sooo long but I thought details mattered and I am a little concerned about this behavior and where it might be headed.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read it.
Comments
You did a great job recognizing the signs, you only need to believe yourself that you are seeing what you think you are and act right away. Shira shows fair warnings of a normal dog- the Look, the wrinkled nose, the show of teeth, the sound- she gives plenty of warning and this is good!
What you need to do is anticipate this and intervene/redirect as early in the sequence as possible. Either limit guardables, limit duration of visits, and the INSTANT you see The Look, get her attention on to something else. As one of my trainers told me, "Don;t wait to see what's going to happen, you KNOW what;s going to happen.." so as the "adult" in the picture, it falls to you to manage things so Shira doesn't have to. You are already on it. Call her over to you when she starts staring at Yogi and give her the attention she likes or play with her. Keep them all moving - like on a walk- so they dont have time to wonder what each other has.
I also recommend (in general) NILIF with her- (Nothing in Life is Free)- to get anything she wants (a door to open, a cookie, permission to come on the couch with you- whatever she likes), she must say please, by doing a sit or a down or whatever tricks she knows and you can ask her for. Shira is very young so now that she's shown you she can be this way, you are in a terrific position to show her you are in charge of things and she doesn't need to worry- that it wont repeat. If it repeats and she learns that this is a good way to get things she wants, she will do it more. Do everything to prevent it.
You can totally do this, you know the signs, and Shira hasn't been doing this over and over for months and years. Get to it now with good management, Jess!
I love it when these things are caught so early! Good job!
When our dogs are in a group, we dont do toys or excessive fussing over and loving up in front of others, and they have nothing to fight about. Everyone can relax and you create that default for them over time.
If they are resource gaurding an object, remove it - including YOU. If they are doing the "mine" thing over you, then YOU get up and walk away, don't just sit there and correct, remove the source of the issue. They will learn that when the guard you, YOU leave.
Good luck!
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Chrystal - Thank you for the thorough advice and reassurance!
I had thought this was her "being a dog", which is why I mostly just watched. It's also fascinating to see how they instinctively interact.
We had started to put the "favorite" toys away because they amuse themselves just fine by racing around and wrestling each other, so I might eventually suggest removing all of them instead of just the rawhides/bones.
(We had tried giving each one of them their own chewy, but Shira began deciding that she wanted all three; making rounds, plucking them from their paws, and making her own goodie pile, lol.)
I try to bring treats with me wherever we go so I'll do the get-her-attention technique next time.
I've been trying to do NILIF, i.e. she sits for food, sits for leash on, sits for leash off, sits next to me for attention if I'm doing something else, sits for toy, randomly has to sit during fetch, has to "drop it" for fetch... We're working on calm/sit before playing/greeting a dog because she gets way too excited, though this is proving a challenge.
Brad - I thought of removing the toys beforehand, but not as "punishment", and didn't think of just getting up. Next time I will take the object away from them, including myself. That might even be more beneficial than just avoiding the issue, since they'll be learning growls = no toy. Thanks for the insight!
I had to learn to quit watching and get on top of things, because I kept thinking: I wonder what he's looking at? I wonder if he'll stop? I wonder...Too observational, not actionable. So don't be like me!
Snf