READER QUESTION
My granddog is a boxer female 26 months old. In the mornings when I try to get her to go outside she snaps and growls at me. Can a dog sleep with a muzzle on? If they can is the my best plan of attack or put her back in her cage. Sincerely KB Houston TX
Dear KB,
Of course your dog could sleep with a muzzle on, but I wouldn't recommend it. I almost always reserve muzzles for dogs that BITE. Snapping & growling are warning behaviors -it is not to late to fix this problem. Both you and your dog deserve to sleep and wake-up in harmony.
It sounds as if your Boxer is a Bed Guarder. On the Guarding Scale (1-10) your dog is a light-weight. She only guards the bed, after having been there all night. Heavy-Duty Guarders will claim it as theirs (growl/snap/snarl) as soon as they lay down.
I'm not excusing the behavior, but I do understand it. I am a deep sleeper and DO NOT like waking up. I hate waking; I routinely abuse my alarm clock in the morning. The best days start with someone brining me coffee in bed!
Coffee MAKES me happy; coffee is NOT contingent upon my BEING happy :) As you read the following keep this in mind --The coffee I get in the morning is NOT a reward for waking up in a good mood. The coffee is a nice way to prevent me from being cranky.
By contrast, punishments for 'grumpy morning behavior' will not work. Think about it. If you already hate waking up to leave your warm, cozy bed your attitude will not likely improve if you get in trouble for not being a morning person.
WARNING:
Punishments: yelling, hitting, squirting, dragging, pinning, rolling, etc WILL MAKE CERTAIN BEHAVIOR PROBLEMS WORSE. In this case, the dog already hates leaving the bed in the morning. She is NOT is her right mind --me before coffee (cranky!) Punishments for cranky morning behavior will make your dog have an even bigger negative (yucky) association with waking up.
Try this instead...
1. Before you wake your dog, go to the fridge.
2. Get something tasty (some cheese or a hotdog).
3. Approach your dog, but stop before you are so close that she will yell at you.
4. Then, say something in a sweat voice: "Morning Girl -Rise & Shine." The phrase can be whatever you like saying and can say nicely.
5. Then toss a treat, right to her. Toss it on the bed, or even bounce it off her head.
DO NOT WORRY IF SHE BARKS OR GROWLS -Remember she is NOT a morning dog. She doesn't mean anything by it, she's just grumpy.
6. If she eats the treat, toss another and then toss the rest on the ground.
7. As soon as she is on the floor call her to the door and give her once last treat.
Please see the following ARTICLES for more information.
Dog Faces: Reading Body Language
Muzzles -When & How Should They Be Used?
Muzzles --Is Aggression The Only Use?
Is leash aggression the owners fault?
When dogs fight with other dogs on leash is the owners lack of confidence the problem?
Hardly! Owners can and should NOT be blamed for being nervous when handling their leash-reactive dogs.
It goes without saying that if you have seen your dog bark, lunge, or snap at another dog when on leash that you will anticipate more bad behavior. The anticipated unpleasantness makes most people nervous.
Still, my clients are often astonished that the dogs behave better when I am handling the leash.
When I am called to consult with a client whose dog routinely behaves badly on leash towards other dogs, a common question is: Have they (the owners) been transmitting their fears down the leash to their dogs? From this my clients often surmise that it must be my calm, confident demeanor that gives me the edge when handling feisty dogs. I would argue otherwise for several reasons.
Reason #1 When meeting new clients and handling a new dog for the first time I am absolutely NOT CALM.
I am always nervous when meeting new clients and handling new dogs. I might hide my fears and doubts well from my clients, but I am sure that if you were to put me to the test you would find that my heart rate is elevated, my mouth is dry and I my hands are sweaty.
Reason #2 It is more scientific to rule out other, simpler explanations first.
The answer to how well a dog can detect and to what degree they react to fear has not been sufficiently studied. however, the mechanism responsible for self-preservation called Fight or Flight is very well understood and is the key to helping many of my clients navigate on-leash encounters between their dogs and other dogs.
Reason #3 I have a very good success rate with teaching my clients new skills that improve the situation despite their nervousness at trying something new and their fears that they won't do well and/or that their dog is beyond help.
Imagine if you were taking tennis lessons and your instructor simply coached you by saying, "You need to swing with more power and accuracy." While this may be true, it won't help you KNOW HOW TO DO THESE THINGS!
A good instructor/coach/teacher is always able to break things down into specific tasks that a student can practice in order to obtain better results in overall performance. Telling someone that they are doing poorly or that they need to be, or do things better is NOT an educational technique.
My personal results with the aforementioned bad-coaching technique was a frustration-induced, "more powerful" but drastically, LESS accurate swing.
So what is the CONNECTION between the LEASH & AGGRESSIVE BEHAVIOR?
All animals have an innate protective response. When you are afraid (really, really afraid) your The is commonly referred to as the Fight or Flight Response.
Reactions include:
FREEZE -victims that we would describe as shocked, stunned, catatonic (this may precede other actions).
FLIGHT -a way of creating distance between you and a real or perceived threat.
FIGHT -another way of creating distance (turn the tables and get the scary thing to back off or run away).
The trick is to KEEP THE LEASH REALLY LOOSE & to KEEP MOVING FORWARD at a quickened pace so that your dog does not feel stuck or trapped. This is hard to do when you own body is anticipating a bad encounter, so my clients with badly behaved dogs all tend to slow down and hold their dogs back. This is a recipe for disaster. The slow pace and tension causes the dog to lunge forward aggressively.
Keeping the leash loose is easier said then done when there is a history of things going badly, so here are some hints. Carry your dogs favorite toy or better yet, walk your dog when she is hungry and hold some cheese or some yummy meat in front of her nose as you pass by dogs. Using your best goofy voice and moving quickly helps too. Also, be sure not to punish or correct (jerk the leash) your dog for relapses.
Remember you can't punish away fear!
So fix the fear, and the barking and lunging will disappear.
This is an email question from a DogTime Blog reader. It is about a Labrador named Lucy who suddenly became aggressive to her owner during training classes.
The owner stated that Lucy does well with heel, sit & down stay, leave-it unless there is a distraction such as a ball. "Lucy... ignores the other toy distractions and only fixates on the balls. Naturally, she struggles with maintaining her focus on me and my commands during this exercise, but we do have moments of success. She will leave it, but still maintains a fixated focus and trembles with excitement."
But Trouble is brewing...
In the email Lucy's owner reported: "This week in training Lucy was so agitated during this exercise that she snapped at me 3 times when I corrected her and snapped at other dogs in class. It is like the training, though having some positive affect, is actually bringing out the worse in my dog."
Lucy's owner is alarmed because, "In her two years, Lucy has never, ever snapped at anyone or any other dog during play or on walks. I have expressed this concern with the trainer, and her feeling is that this behavior was just in there waiting to come out. I am just not sure about that explanation and thought I would share my story with someone else."
I asked Marianne to share more with me about how she is teaching Lucy to LEAVE-IT.
Marianne reported: "We are using a standard slip chain choke collar. I snap and release the collar to correct. On the snap, I say "uh uh" (hard to spell that!), then give the command. For example, to have her ignore a ball or toy, I tell her to "leave it. If she goes for it, I snap and release the collar, say "uh, uh" and repeat "leave it".
"When she reacts correctly, I give verbal praise in a softer, higher tone of voice, such as "good leave it" or "good heel". Frequently, during our training, I stroke her and give her positive verbal feedback...no treats until the end of class."
There are several problems with the way that Marianne is being instructed to teach her dog. I will summarize my concerns and the errors in the training below.
However, I want to be VERY CLEAR about TWO THINGS.
1. Marianne did nothing wrong. She enrolled her dog training class with someone whom she was told was an expert. Dog training is still an unregulated field. Many of us, myself included are looking forward to the day when all trainers will need to be certified and/or licensed. As it is now, anyone can call themselves a trainer. There are a few Certifications Programs in the U.S.
2. The following is NOT MY OPINION. Training is a SCIENCE. This means that there are rules. While I have my own personal standards for "humane training" I am not at this moment referring to HOW you get the job done. I am instead referring to HOW ANIMALS LEARN. A good trainer should have a solid basis in understanding Operant & Classical Conditioning regardless of whether they give out cookies, collar corrections, or both. Without these fundamentals skills they are not prepared to train a dog. Would you go to a doctor that you overheard saying: "Veins, Arteries, whatever; they both do blood stuff!" I didn't think so.
So What Is Going On With Lucy? Is she turning aggressive?
For starters, Lucy's aggression was a trained response. It was unintentional, but it was taught. Specifically Lucy was taught to HATE seeing Tennis balls in class. Lucy was being asked to perform a task that she could not do, and because she was not given any guidance on the correct response (look away from the ball) her training looked like this.
Tennis Balls Appear In Class -------> Lucy is subjected to a barrage of jerks, snaps and chokes.
Punishment is a crude tool and has the potential for causing aggression. In this case, Lucy began to associate the tennis ball distraction with pain. All animals like to avoid pain and at some point will either choose to fight back or flee. As Lucy was on-leash fleeing was not an option.
An even more astonishing is that Lucy was never shown WHAT TO DO. When I want a dog to perform a Leave-it, I like to focus on what that looks like when the dogs gets it right (look away, sit, look at handler). There are countless ways to get something wrong, and generally only a few correct responses. Focussing on the correct response is not just nicer for the dog, but gives faster and eliminates the side-effects (ruined relationship, fearful dog, aggression) of aversive punishments.
What I would have done to train Lucy.
Bounce a Distraction-ball until Lucy notices the ball.
Have Lucy's owner give the Command (say, "Leave-it") the moment Lucy notices the distraction-ball.
Stop bouncing the Distraction-ball (kindergarten level) & Give Lucy a moment to respond on her own, by looking away.
Help Lucy get it right a few times (look away from the ball) by having the handler produce a Hint (squeaky tennis ball).
Praise Lucy at the exact moment that she looks away from the original distraction-ball (even if she is just listening to the hint).
Reward Lucy with something she really, really wanted A BALL!
Repeat this until Lucy looks away from the original Distraction-ball on her own BEFORE the Hint & reward Lucy with both balls and end the lesson. Review later and continue to raise the expectations until the hint is no longer needed and the reward is expected to be random.
Somewhere, somehow it got into peoples heads that if you let your dog sleep on the bed, walk in front of you, eat first, or heaven-forbid taste human food that they would instantly become untrainable, power-hungry, stubborn dogs on covert mission to rule your world?
This is NOT true. Banning dogs from certain areas and/or activities is a nice way to avoid problems (guarding, begging and pulling being at the top of this list), but does not make the dog any more subordinate or the owner anymore dominant.
What do we mean by "Dominant" anyway?
When my clients tell me that there dog is dominant, I always ask, "What do you mean?" For starters there seem to be as many definitions for dominant out there as there are breeds of dogs. DOMINANT is NOT a nice neat word. It has lots of variables -depending on what books you have read, who wrote them and what they were talking about.
Here is an example. If I told you my house was painted blue, you might picture your standard color wheel, primary color blue. But, I could mean light blue, or bluish-gray, my house might even be what some people call deep turquoise. If you work as a designer or in a paint store, and you wanted to know what color blue I was talking about you might ask me for a reference # from a color-chart, show me some samples, have me pick a specific color and then mix the paint so that I got exactly what I picked (not your version of my color).
In addition to having numerous definitions, the word DOMINANT seems to be used the way my grandma used slang around my friends. It did NOT come off as intended -she did not appear younger or cooler.
When interviewing clients I am frequently told that the problem is their dog's DOMINANCE. So I inquire more.... What do you mean by that? Can you tell me more about what the dog is doing? And then its the old dictionary stumbling on itself routine:
Client: "Well he's just being dominant."
Trainer: "Really, What is he doing?"
Client: "Well he's not submissive?"
Trainer: "Hmmm... I'm not sure what you mean. What would you like him to do?"
Client: "I don't want him being dominant."
Trainer: "OK, well tell me more about a time when your dog was dominant."
Client: The other day he was on the couch."
Trainer: Do you think he was dominating the couch?"
Client: Well he wouldn't get off when I told him DOWN."
Trainer: "Oh, would you like to teach your dog an OFF-command, in addition to the command for LIE-DOWN?"
The Bottom Line
If you don't want dog hair in your bed, make your dog sleep somewhere else. If you don't care, then by all means don't worry about it! There is nothing wrong with letting your dog sleep on your bed.
If you don't want to be pulled on walks then buy a humane anti-pull harness or halter. If your dog is not pulling, then who cares where they walk, front, left, right, behind -anywhere you let them walk is fine! If they keep crossing in front of you and you find it annoying than TEACH them not to do that. They are NOT doing it to CONTROL YOU! They are doing it, because it works for them and they don't know better.
And eating first... REALLY? I don't get this one at all, my dogs eat ALL THEIR MEALS FROM KONGS! And they also get to lick plates, but I guess that since I don't want them licking the plate while I am eating I do usually finish my food first.
Dear Kelley,
I pray you can help me. Last year I rescued a dog, and myself + my family showered her with love. She had had a very distressing past history, this reinforced to us when she bit my Mother In Law on her third day with us. They were very serious bites and our vet said we had no option but to put her down as she had a high risk of re-offending.
We, as a family, found this incredibly difficult but had no choice. She was a beautiful 2 yr old collie and it was so heartbreaking. We recently re-homed a 6-month old German Shepherd who is a real sweetheart.
However we have just realized that our 12 yr old daughter is still traumatized by the incident with my Mother In Law (which she witnessed).
Krya jumped up to lick her and she had a panic attack. My question to you is "Is it better to put a muzzle on a dog we all love or let her move to a home where she does not have that restraint? She would get plenty of stimulation with us, walks beside a canal for 2 hrs a day, hill walking/climbing regularly with loads of love + attention. Please let me know which outcome would be better for Kyra as it is her welfare that is at the forefront of our dilemma.
Kind regards, Linda
Facts & Summary:
- "Kyra" is your new, 6-mo. old German Shepherd Dog.
- Your daughter, age 12, was recently witness to a severe bite inflicted by a different dog to a family member.
- The dog who bit was a 3-day, newly adopted, 2-yr old Collie.
- The Collie was euthanized for aggression as recommended by your vet.
- Although the new dog is friendly, she is rambunctious and untrained.
- Your daughter is having panic attacks whenever the dog jumps up on her, licks her or does both.
QUESTION:
Should you use a a muzzle on the new dog, so that your daughter will not have to worry about being bitten. Or, is this unfair to the dog?
First, let me say that if your daughters fear is severe, or getting worse, you may want to seek help from a mental health professional.
It is entirely normal to be afraid of large animals with big teeth! But it sounds as if you are describing a new change in your daughter that is drastically different because of a specific event.
Given the bite your daughter witnessed and the events that followed, I am not surprised that your daughter is having a difficult time bonding with your new dog.
If you can't manage the access the two have to each other with gates, crates, and tie-downs while still providing excellent opportunities for mental and physical exercise for the dog, then you may want to re-home the GSD.
If you are able to find professional help for your daughter and the prognosis is good, then it might be possible to temporarily manage the situation and work through the issue.
Having worked as a humane educator I do have some experience working with social workers and psychologists in controlled settings with dogs and children who were fearful of, or had had a traumatic experience with an aggressive dog. It takes time to recover from a bad experience and steady, slow progress is best.
From a dog-behavior perspective, "wiggly" & "overly-friendly" are encouraging terms. They mean that the dog is not afraid (potential fear-aggression), just untrained. Untrained is fixable with patience and a little work. The dog's temperament aside, the human needs to be comfortable too and wiggly/friendly can be just too much for a fearful person.
When working with people who are afraid of dogs, I have never started with a puppy! They are TOO-WIGGLY! A friendly, well-trained adult dog who listens well to commands is ideal. So, don't peg your daughters recovery on your puppy. Consider training the puppy and getting your daughter (at her comfort level) interacting with older, well-behaved, friendly dogs.
Regarding your specific question, I would NOT recommend muzzling the dog.
I only use muzzles when the is a clear indication that a bite is likely and/or a previously known history of the dog having bitten or fought.
If this is a concern (that the GSD may have some tendency to bite or nip) than it may be best to re-home the dog and focus on your daughter's feelings and concerns regarding dogs.
If the dog is not currently biting or showing signs of being fearful or aggressive, then it is your daughter whom you need to turn your energy.
Muzzling the dog will not fix your daughter's fear, but could give her a false sense of security.
Furthermore, your 6-month old pup will miss out on the opportunity she needs to learn what (toys) she is allowed to put her mouth on and when (never), she may place (even gently) her mouth on people.
If the dog is NOT biting or puppy-nipping then by all means, please use other management devices such as crates, pens or tie-downs to prevent the dog from jumping all over your daughter.
This is just good-sense for anyone with a rude, jumpy pup.
Preventing the dog from practicing the bad behavior is critical to training.
Finally, please enroll in a Reward-Based (no choke/prong collars) Training Class.
Don't forget to include your daughter in training the dog. The class may be overwhelming, lots of young, un-trained dogs, but your daughter could be included in the homework exercises.
In the beginning this may mean that someone else holds the leash and controls the dog from a distance, or that your daughter gives the commands or food-rewards.
