PLEASE Help! I Dont Know What To Do!:(

[Nala]

ok i have a 3 year old german sheperd/pit mix. shes very protective over me and the rest of my family, when we go camping she snaps and trys to bite other members of the family she does not know yet (never bit anyone). well it freaks everyone out, when she does this she looks very mean, it even scares me. im not sure how far she will go. its werid shes ok with some strangers but not others. were currently moving and shes staying at my dads temp, well when we were at my grandmas she was doing ok with everyone, then my grandpa got back and as he was coming in the house and nala went crazy and started snapping and growling at him. afterwards she started growling at my grandma which was just playing with her, she was just fine with a sec ago before my grandpa came back. i dont have any idea why shes like this. i prob didnt socialize her enough as a puppy, but its to late for that, what do i do now? she is just so protective over us, i wish she wouldnt do this. is there anything i can do? i guess shes kinda just a one family dog, shes completely ok with us we all love her, she never growled or snapped at any of us. any ideas on how to tame my cutty? no telling what will happen if she bit someone

[julie]

Firstly I would muzzle her for everyones safety, it's not cruel and will make everyone feel much better. I am not sure what the best way forward would be with the problem but you need to take the danger out of the equation before something terrible happens.

[Ritz459]

I 2nd Julie's post. Muzzling her would be a temporary solution and if you buy one that fits right, it won't hurt her. Then I would try to find a professional trainer that could help curb aggressiveness. Just be sure you find a good trainer and not one that will beat the dog untill she isn't aggresive anymore. (Which won't work anyway. She will just become more aggresive.) Anyways, good luck!!

[Alexis]

I agree that you need to find a trainer/behavioralist. Make sure that they have experience with dog agression. Good luck!

[Crossfire Bulldogs]

I'm not a huge fan of muzzles but agree that they have a place and purpose; my suggestion would be that since you know her behavior can be unpredictable around people she doesn't know or possibly even in a group setting to keep her out of that type of situation where she feels she needs to make choices if at all possible.

You mentioned that she was three, if correction wasn't given when she was younger and this is something she's always done then keeping her in a room where large groups are or where there may be someone she doesn't know and muzzeling her now will only confuse and frighten her. To her this is now considered acceptable behavior and she won't understand what it is that your trying to do.

I understand it can be difficult at best to avoid putting her in this type of situation while your moving but is it possible to maybe move her into a quiet back bedroom or something of that nature when visitors come into the home or someone like your grandfather that she's not used to living with comes home and then bring her out to meet him after he's already inside to take down the excitement a bit for her?

From what your describing it almost sounds like she gets overly excited and nips rather than being aggressive in nature, especially since you mentioned that she was growling at your grandmother and you stated that she was wanting to play.

Nala is in serious need of a trainer and if she must be in an area with new people or those she doesn't know well then yes, by all means muzzle her before someone is seriously injured but working on the heart of the issue and finding out what is actually making her act this way is the key to correcting the problem.

[julie]

I suggested a muzzle because our rescue yorkie can be unpredictable with strangers (nervous aggresion we have been told) and our behaviourist suggested a muzzle and take him into as many different situations as we can with strangers to desensitise him. The muzzle means everyone is safe and he is slowly gettig used to people, once he stops snapping with the muzzle on we can try him without. He is a very small dog and I worry about the damage he could do so it seems sensible to muzzle a larger dog.


BTW muzzles are good they can stop dogs who eat inappropriate things picking things up when walking as well as stopping biting and nipping.


Worst he can do now is give a poke !

[puppylove]

[puppylove]

Yes I would too say a muzzle we had a farm dog like that we had to keep him muzzled once they get protective like that its a hard thing to break. After all he's just doing his job, he just does it a little too good. I saw aon a vet/animal show once about a dog with that same problem they put him on a light tranqulizer to even out his temperment. Maybe talk to your Vet or a local dog trainer

[Nala]

thank you everyone for your help, after i posted that i got to thinking about a muzzle for temp solution because i never know if she will be ok with people or not. i know i should have broke her of this along time ago, but this is the first time shes staying somewhere eles around new people besides camping. she just scares me when she does this, i know she isnt playing, she darted at him and started snapping and stuff, so i think i will use a muzzle and see how she does around everyone, if she does fine and not growls or anything maybe ease her out of the muzzle. thanks again

[PitBullie09]

Good Luck with her. She is Very pretty.

[oc_spirit]

Yes I deffinately agree that at this point a muzzle is your best option until a professional trainer can be hired who work with 100% positive reinforcement. You do not want a trainer who is going to use ANY negativity because the thrainer is going to be a stranger obviously and if the trainer gives her a pinch/poke/leash snap/whatever this could trigger her to feel she has to defend herself.

As for the TYPE of muzzle I highly recommend a greyhound racing muzzle. It's the kind that it looks like the dog's muzzle is in a cage. This type of muzzle allows the dog to breathe freely and pant if need be as well as even drink some water if water is in a large, deep bucket and the dog figures it out (not all dogs get the hang of it but I've seen some who have). The problem with the nylon wrap around muzzle the looks like a cloth around you're dog's muzzle is that if the dog happens to vomit it can't spit it out and could choke on the vomit. Also these muzzles don't allow dogs to pant so they could become overheated.

Cheers!

[GreenleafGreyhound]

This kind?




Technically, these are not racing muzzles. They're turn-out/kennel muzzles
You can order these from Halemar.

[flyndog]

Nala, keep the dog muzzled around strangers (family or otherwise) until you can get some professional advice *in person*. This isn't the kind of behavior you can solve with a few posts in a forum. She's not going to stop being aggressive on her own. In fact, she could get worse, and really hurt somebody. In the long run it's better to get the problem taken care of now before you have to give the dog up later. If you can't afford a professional trainer, read as much as you can to help you understand what's going on so you can manage your dog in situations that make her aggressive.
Here is a good informative website to help get you started. It also has an excellent list of other resources, too. http://www.k9aggression.com/Aggressi...anagement.html
Hope it helps.
Kit

[minpinsrock]

Good luck.

[oc_spirit]

Ya GreenleafGreyhound that's the one I'm talking about. I didn't know their official name but I figured if I mentioned racing then I would have the best luck of someone knowing what I'm taking about LOL Thanks!

Cheers!