Agression

[afergu728]

My dog has generally been a sweet dog. Unfortunately, she has not be socialized as much in the last few years as in the earlier years. She is 6.5 years old, and a German Shepard/Boxer rescue. She has always slept in the bed at my feet. I know she will startle and nip in the air when I would accidentally touch her in the middle of the night. She has never actually made contact until recently. The other night she got in bed with my son and knowing that she made contact with me last week I went to get her out of the bed. As I reached for her she started growling and showing her teeth. She also seems to showing more aggression to the other dogs in the home. She will stand at the dog door and not allow the senior dog to come back inside. Even though there is multiple food bowls, she will stand over one of the smaller dogs as they eat and show her teeth. She also tends to be more "protective" over one of the smaller dogs when the two are playing together and will snap/bite at the other to make him back off. With 4 dogs in the house we have had our occasional dog fight.

She's always been a bit of a fearful dog, but the recent aggression is a major problem to me. I am trying to stop it before we have to make a major change in the family with her.

[Howler]

Hello and welcome to the forum,

You are on the right track in wanting to stop this before things become more difficult. With aggression, things tend to get worse rather than better if not addressed. It is best to nip problematic behavior in the bud before it puts roots and becomes more challenging to eradicate.

 

The wisest thing to do is removing any bed privileges for safety and to prevent rehearsal of the troublesome behavior. She should be trained to sleep on her own mat, but since this training takes time (and she would likely keep on jumping on the bed), you may need to confine her for now in another room or in a crate next to the bed if she is crate trained.

If not crate trained here is a guide:

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/video-archive/love-the-crate/

 

And here is guide to train a dog to go to a mat, but you may need to block off access to your bed in someway during the training period:

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/video-archive/train-dog-go-to-mat/

 

Since there is onset of new behaviors, it might be wise as well having her see the vet and discuss these behavior changes. Some medical conditions may cause or exacerbate aggression. Many dog behavior professionals require a recent health check before intervening to help because behavior problems arising from medical issues require a different approach (tackling the underlying medical problem.)

 

For now, since these behaviors are escalating and there are children and other pets in the home, the best thing to do is to use management (let her sleep in another area, keep her in another area in the home when the older dog needs to come inside and when the other dogs are playing, and feed her in a separate area or in a crate at meal time) and have a behavior professional (using humane, force-free behavior modification to prevent further exacerbating any tension) come to your home to assess the situation and guide you through the process of behavior modification. This is paramount for safety and correct implementation of behavior modification.

 

If you ever find that despite your attempts, she has sneaked off and climbed on a bed or other piece of furniture, DO NOT grab her collar or make any movements to reach towards her. Grab a dog cookie instead and toss it on the floor to get her off (when no other dogs around to prevent food guarding) and entice her to follow you out of the room. Another strategy to get her to move off is to grab her leash (many dogs come running in response to seeing their leash) or ring the doorbell (do this with no other dogs nearby if this excites all dogs and creates a setup for squabbles).

You may also want to train an "off command" using positive reinforcement with the help of your behavior professional so that you won't have to to physically intervene to remove from beds/furniture.

Edited December 13, 2018 by Howler