Help with dominant dog

[Casey's Mom]

Hello everyone, I am babysitting a dog Saturday who was here tonight - I wanted to see what he was like with my dogs who are both mellow girls. He is a maltese/poodle cross male about 4 years old. The owner says he doesn't listen to her at all and it shows! He was fine for the first half hour then he tried to hump Desi my havanese numerous times and was being very dominant. He won't bother Casey because she is bigger and she just tells him to go away :))

Any advice? I am not leaving him alone with them and the owners will be gone about 9 hours.

[SasAndYunah]

Hi Ellen,

since it's just about babysitting this one time, any advice on training and such would be useless :) You said it perfectly already, "I am not leaving him alone with them". Perhaps you have a crate that you can set up someplace so whenever you have to leave them alone for a moment, you can put him in the crate :) Or if he keeps bothering Desi on and on again, you can put him (or Desi, if she's used to it) in the crate for a while so they won't all be stressed out bij the end of the day...

Sas and Yunah :)

[Casey's Mom]

Thanks Sas, however he may become a regular here as they can't leave him alone - ever! She talked about the following Saturday as well. I would like to get some advice on how to handle him if anyone has any ideas other than crating although if I did have to go out that is what I would do - Desi is used to a crate.

[Squirt's Mom]

Hi Ellen,

Sounds to me as if the parents need obedience school! ;) You might do some local research on training classes and gently hand the info to the parents when they come pick their wild boy up next time.

I used to keep a friends dogs when she would leave town. One of them, a female poodle-mix, was a monster! She ruled her house from sun up to sun down, terrorizing her brother, sister, parents and guests...and destroying anything she set her eye on! She wasn't a mean baby, just out of control and full of piss-n-vinegar. I tried crating her but she would throw herself around in the crate and I was afraid she would hurt herself. She couldn't be left in a room by herself or there would be nothing left whole! :eek:

After the third time she stayed with me, I told my friend she had two choices - find someone else to keep her babies OR get some training. She chose training and it really helped - ALL of us! :p Molly was never what I would call "obedient" but she was much, much more attentive and had a desire to please her humans instead of bullying them into submission. ;)

Hugs,
Leslie

[SasAndYunah]

Ahhhh okay, that’s a different story if he will be coming over on a regular base.

Well, since this particular dogs doesn’t posses some basic obedience skills, your best bet would be to “show” him right away who’s boss. And this should be done through your body language and behaviour. I’m sure you will recognize the following picture:

Dog owner with an unruly dog goes see a trainer. Dog is handed over to the trainer and more or less immediately behaves…. Dogs is being handed back to the owner, dog falls back onto it’s normal behaviour when in the company of its owner.

This means that dogs will behave differently when addressed/treated differently. So it’s not necessary for this dog to behave in the same manner around you as he would around his owner. But in order to achieve this, the dog needs to know that you are in charge, from the start! (oops, now I’m dealing with a true packleader..I better behave now) You can get that message across by watching how you behave, starting when he enters your house. It’s YOUR territory and he should respect that. This means he can not barge in and certainly not before anyone else. So tell your friend to keep him on his leash when she brings him on Saterday. Step out the frontdoor (you should not be standing inside the house) take over the leash, if your friend is staying for a bit before she leaves, let her enter the house or else let her leave. So now it’s you and the dog, outside the frontdoor. If the dog knows “sit”, then ask him to sit (make sure you have some treats ready in your pocket) and at the same time raise your hand, palm towards the dog. (like a policeman saying “stop”) If the dog doesn’t know “sit” , just raise your hand in the “stop” manner and walk into your house, (make sure to not bend over towards the dog at any time, stay standing upright and straight and don’t use the “talking to babies” voice with him) If the dog tries to follow you into the house or tries to pass you on your way in, stop, turn around, walk outside again if needed and repeat. Ih he waits for you to tell him he can come into the house, praise, treats, the works… And every time you need to go through a door, repeat this. He should not, not once even, go through a door before you, before all other humans present in the house. Same when he gets picked up, he cannot run outside to go greet his owner, he has to wait till she is inside. (so it would be handy that if you know when such occasions are, to put him on his leash before hand) Throughout the day, do some small obedience exercises, let him sit from time to time and give him lots of praise for every time he succeeds. If he gets fed, or goes for a walk and needs to be put on his leash, whenever he wants to be petted…with every interaction between you and him, first let him sit. So before anything happens, he needs to “earn” it by , in this example, sitting down. You could use any command he is familiar with though. One of the things that makes dogs “think” they are highest in rank is the fact they have unlimited access to every place, they can have anything and do everything without having to earn it first. So by making him earn everything he wants, you will send a strong message that you are the highest in rank, not him. I would not allow him on chairs, couches or anything above groundlevel since a “high place” is also confirming his high rank.

The humping is a bit more complicated. Between dogs it is totally normal to find out where they stand in the pack by humping. If a dogs allows to be humped then this will sent the message that this dog accepts that he/she is the lower ranked dog of the both of them. So a bit of humping going on is natural and good since it will make things clear between the dogs. But, if he keeps humping and humping then it’s clearly not about the pack position anymore but more about boundaries and about how much doggy decorum the dog knows (and if he keeps humping, he clearly doesn’t know much about doggy decorum) So, in that case, the packleader steps in. A packleader would never interfere if behaviour is part of normal doggy decorum. But when the behaviour is out of control with no respect to the other dog, the packleader will step in. You can get him by his scruff to take him off, put him down again slightly lean over him a bit (not bending over) and stare him in the eye (only if he’s not a biter) The moment he turns his head away (even slightly) or the moment he brakes the stare by looking in a different direction (without moving his head), you relax (change body posture from slightly leaning over him to a simple, relax stand no longer over him) But whatever happens, you cannot break the stare since that will make him “win”. He should be the one to stop the stare, that’s the submissive thing to do. Then happily say: “come, let’s go” or whatever to take him out that situation and give him a change to be a good boy…when he follows you, even a few steps, tell him to sit and praise with treats and happy voice.

It’s with these things that you should be able to have him behave at least in your home.

Sas and Yunah :)

[k9diabetes]

I suspect that the humping is a sign that he's actually quite insecure and lacks confidence, not that he's "dominant." And I worry that being firm with him or trying to dominate him will only make him more fearful. After all, he really has no idea what to expect from this strange environment so it's not surprising that he would be anxious.

What exactly, besides the humping, were his behaviors with your others dogs that were problematic?

Does he know commands like Sit or Down?

I would opt for redirecting him to some other activity when he's causing problems.

Taking some time to train him with the Learn to Earn protocol would not only redirect his energy somewhere else but engage his mind in something fun and teach him better behavior.

He may very well have no idea how to behave around other dogs and the situation could be very stressful for him. I would look for ways to help him stay occupied at your house so that he can acclimate to the other dogs being around and learn to be rewarded for his calm behavior and polite requests for attention.

You can get some ideas about how to teach these behaviors at www.drsophiayin.com (http://www.drsophiayin.com).

Natalie

[Casey's Mom]

Thanks guys - good advice from both of you. Luckily I have a fenced yard and also plan to take him on a good walk with the girls today - I always find that helps as well.

I will let you know how my day goes!

Love and hugs,

[Casey's Mom]

He was fine - I met him at the door and immediately took him on a walk and made him walk either beside or behind me. He was great all day with both Casey and Desi and my sisters big german shepherd cross dog until once when when he was sleeping beside my sister and her dog came up to sniff he went after her. We settled them down and no harm done. I think because my sister was babying him even though I told her not too - he thought she was part of his pack. Once she was gone it was all good again.

Thanks for the good advice Sas, Leslie and Natalie - you made my day much easier:p:):p