Hi all,
This is my first time posting, so if you can think of any other valuable resources that I may want to look at, please do not hesitate to recommend them.
Some background: My girlfriend and I picked up a male Anatolian Shephard pup. The pup, Haiku, is now 6 months old and is exhibiting a particular aggressive behaviour that worries me quite a bit. My girlfriend has done extremely well in training him and I think, for the most part, the he is doing very well and is well behaved for his age. We have previously lived in different cities and I have not been able to partake in the process.
The aggressive behaviour is very restricted to one thing: removing tasty, but not-to-be-consumed items from his mouth. Sometimes, the dog will pick up something that he values quite a bit. The typical commands for him to lay down and drop the item do not work for these high value items - typically smelly socks!! With the high value items, we tend to grab him by the collar and hold him until he drops the item. But, if he doesn't let go and continues trying to swallow the item, requiring us to extract it from his mouth, he becomes very aggressive and nasty with us. Needless to say, this is unacceptable, and is compounded by the fact he is already big, and will only become bigger.
During play, Haiku is quite bitey, and we have come to the conclusion that we need to address this as well by immediately quiting playing with him as soon as he makes the first playful bite. I am not nearly as concerned about this, but I think they are interconnected behaviours. The play biting is just that, but he sometimes does play snap at inappropriate places, like our faces for example. So, we are starting to tackle this too and realizing that he may just not be the type of dog we can play with in this manner. I am confident that we can accomplish this.
So - it is the aggression that we are concerned about - taking stuff away from him, items he is unwilling to drop. He does get very nasty and is already capable of causing harm. Naturally, we are very concerned.
First of all, has anyone else dealt with a similar type of aggression? Is there any advice out there for dealing with such an issue?
At first, about 3 months ago, when he started doing this, we would address it by grabbing him firmly by the cheeks and staring him down and holding him until he calmed down, which often took quite some time and arm cuts. (Note, this was recommended by a trainer). Realizing this was not working and didn't give us a free hand to extract items from his mouth, we now ask him to drop the item. If he does not, we grab him by the collar and ask him again. If he still does not drop , we begin twisting the collar. It is not until we are forced to take it from him, that he gets really nasty. Upon getting nasty, we essentialy toss him on his back and demonstrate our dominance and hold him down until he settles, but it takes a while and he is aggressive throughout the encounter. Usually this happens on walks, where throwing him into a crate as punishment is not immediately possible.
So, this is not acceptable. As his owners, we can deal with it when it happens, although very unhappily. However, it can never happen to someone else obviously, so I am very worried that we won't be able to extinguish this behaviour.
Any advice is valuable! I am sure some of you may critique what we are doing, but most of the responses are suggestions from trainers, all of whom, as you know, use different approaches to training. This is our first dog as a couple, but we both grew up with dogs, so we are not complete beginners.
Thanks in advance for taking the time to help out! We are at a loss of what to do! Do we fight aggression with aggression or will it only escalate? Is a dog that is this dominant capable of become submissive under aggressive retaliation or force? My girlfriend's opinion is that we should never do that and all training and obedience should be possible with positive reinforcment. I am no longer convinced.
Cheers and thanks!
This is my first time posting, so if you can think of any other valuable resources that I may want to look at, please do not hesitate to recommend them.
Some background: My girlfriend and I picked up a male Anatolian Shephard pup. The pup, Haiku, is now 6 months old and is exhibiting a particular aggressive behaviour that worries me quite a bit. My girlfriend has done extremely well in training him and I think, for the most part, the he is doing very well and is well behaved for his age. We have previously lived in different cities and I have not been able to partake in the process.
The aggressive behaviour is very restricted to one thing: removing tasty, but not-to-be-consumed items from his mouth. Sometimes, the dog will pick up something that he values quite a bit. The typical commands for him to lay down and drop the item do not work for these high value items - typically smelly socks!! With the high value items, we tend to grab him by the collar and hold him until he drops the item. But, if he doesn't let go and continues trying to swallow the item, requiring us to extract it from his mouth, he becomes very aggressive and nasty with us. Needless to say, this is unacceptable, and is compounded by the fact he is already big, and will only become bigger.
During play, Haiku is quite bitey, and we have come to the conclusion that we need to address this as well by immediately quiting playing with him as soon as he makes the first playful bite. I am not nearly as concerned about this, but I think they are interconnected behaviours. The play biting is just that, but he sometimes does play snap at inappropriate places, like our faces for example. So, we are starting to tackle this too and realizing that he may just not be the type of dog we can play with in this manner. I am confident that we can accomplish this.
So - it is the aggression that we are concerned about - taking stuff away from him, items he is unwilling to drop. He does get very nasty and is already capable of causing harm. Naturally, we are very concerned.
First of all, has anyone else dealt with a similar type of aggression? Is there any advice out there for dealing with such an issue?
At first, about 3 months ago, when he started doing this, we would address it by grabbing him firmly by the cheeks and staring him down and holding him until he calmed down, which often took quite some time and arm cuts. (Note, this was recommended by a trainer). Realizing this was not working and didn't give us a free hand to extract items from his mouth, we now ask him to drop the item. If he does not, we grab him by the collar and ask him again. If he still does not drop , we begin twisting the collar. It is not until we are forced to take it from him, that he gets really nasty. Upon getting nasty, we essentialy toss him on his back and demonstrate our dominance and hold him down until he settles, but it takes a while and he is aggressive throughout the encounter. Usually this happens on walks, where throwing him into a crate as punishment is not immediately possible.
So, this is not acceptable. As his owners, we can deal with it when it happens, although very unhappily. However, it can never happen to someone else obviously, so I am very worried that we won't be able to extinguish this behaviour.
Any advice is valuable! I am sure some of you may critique what we are doing, but most of the responses are suggestions from trainers, all of whom, as you know, use different approaches to training. This is our first dog as a couple, but we both grew up with dogs, so we are not complete beginners.
Thanks in advance for taking the time to help out! We are at a loss of what to do! Do we fight aggression with aggression or will it only escalate? Is a dog that is this dominant capable of become submissive under aggressive retaliation or force? My girlfriend's opinion is that we should never do that and all training and obedience should be possible with positive reinforcment. I am no longer convinced.
Cheers and thanks!
