RockDog

I had to google DD colar. :D

I'm taking this all on board, and appreciate your input

Hmmm... got to admit your point does sound tempting. I'm not confident it's the way to go though, and I'll definately try to see the best-recommended trainer/behaviourist while we're in Perth for that one week. Really worried cos we're ONLY in Perth for that one week, and this is obviously going to take a long time to overcome.

nother

nother

Will have to dig out some photos of Taffy and Hunnie, but in th emeantime here's the Rock-Dog Jentol Mirra's Chain Reaction 5/9/2009 Sire Mika vom Overledingerland. Dam Jentol Raver's Reflection.

Rockdog .......I would agree with the above and speak to Honey Me too I met Honey about 10 years ago and was looking for her phone number yesterday. Can't find it anywhere. If someone has her number can they please PM me? Thanks. And Christine, a big Oops! from me, . Photos of my beauties coming up.....

Thanks Nekhbet :-) Funny how writing things down then reading them can put things in perspective. From the part you quoted me on, I can see now that he's had a problem with small dogs since before Spongey came to stay with us! I had seen the problem as only starting when he had "enough" of Spongey and attacked him, then got worse with other dogs too. But I don't agree with e-collars or leash hanging. I've read too many times that it can "shut down" a dog, and for how long? And it will destroy his trust in me, and make him hate the stimuli more. Little dog = pain and fear. But your input was helpful, so cheers for that.

What did you expect?? Your pup is obviously testing the waters and it will only get worse as he matures unless you sort out your pack structure...... seek professional help with this one. Re:reputable breeder of Australian champions...... A GSD "Australian champion" does not have its temperament tested so it means nothing outside the showring. I don't know what you mean by "What did you expect?". Are you suggesting I should expect every dog in the world to become DA? I don't think so. Please be clearer. "Pack Structure"?? Hasn't the latest research knocked that archaic model on the head yet? If you mean am I his leader, his guide, his teacher, then Yes. That's what I'm trying to be, but it's gone pear-shaped due to my lack of intervention over a few weeks, and I am now asking for assistance. ALL GSD sold within the GSDAWA have to be breed surveyed, which includes temperament testing. I would never buy a GSD from parents who hadn't been breed surveyed. I was merely clarifying for readers that this is not some pup from a backyard breeder or pet shop. A breeding pair within the GSDWA Have been bred partly for temperament, and been tested. I try to give as much info as I can, to assist people offering help.

You're absolutely right. Before hand, there'd been no actual damage, so I'd been thinking he had good bite inhibition and was just warning the other dogs to shut up. Although doing it in a very aggressive manner. But now my lovely old Staffy has two big tooth puncture wounds in her, and he's barking and growling at every dog he sees! I know this is Very serious, and he will cause great damage, if not death, very soon.

First of all, there is NO WAY I would do what was suggested by malsrock! And I think it was VERY irresponsible of you to suggest it, Fiona. No offence, and I really do apreciate you taking the time to answer anyway . I forgot to say that Spongey (and his owner) stopped living with us nearly 3 weeks ago, so they haven't seen each other since the day Rocky attacked him and had to be pulled off by the throat, in Perth. I agree that the problem has come from Spongey being growly at Rocky for those weeks that he was living with us. It's been pointed out to me that I should have stepped in and done something at the beginning, which I REALLY regret not doing. I thought it was OK for Rocky to "correct" Spongey with a growl or stand over him, not realising that it would escelate. Just as Rocky was turning aggressive towards Spongey, there was an incident at the school, about 5 weeks ago. We were standing at the chainlink fence, no-one around, Rocky relaxed, when a lady walked up behind us with her JRT on leash. Rocky saw them first and lunged towards the dog, taking me with him. They greeted, the JRT walked towards me, Rocky was being annoying and nudging him, the JRT growled, and then it was 'on'. No damage, and I managed to pull Rocky off after only 2 or 3 seconds, but that (at the time) had me confused as to what on earth had made Rocky do that. At the time, I put it down to Rocky resource guarding me. About 4 weeks ago is when Rocky attacked Sponge in the kitchen, and about 3 weeks ago is when he attacked him at the gate in Perth and had to be pulled off by the throat. They haven't seen eachother since. No incidents since then (I've tried to keep him from even seeing little dogs, but when he does he really wants to go after them, barking etc.) Then last Monday the big fight with my Staffy. I took notice of what was happening, which I saw as this - He approached her with a toy in his mouth, she growled at him to back off, he immediately stood over her, she growled again, and he attacked. Badly. And there was last night, when he saw my friend's Shih-Tzu about 30 metres away and went nuts. So yes, it is very much escalating. I'm really worried that we ONLY have a week in Perth to see a behaviourist, and I have no money!! I'm going to borrow a couple of hundred, but I really want the best help I can get in that short time. Funny that people have recommended Kathy Kopellis-McLeod. Someone told me the other day to "On no account go to her"! haha. But seeing as she's been recommended here, I'll get in touch with this person and ask why she was so against her. Thank you everybody for replying, and please, any suggestions as to what I could be doing now before we go to Perth, keep 'em coming

Thanks sas. I'm keeping Rocky and Taffy 99% separated. One thing I do with them was advised by a trainer in the US, who works daily with reactive dogs. I kneel on the floor, tether Rocky, have him facing my right side in a sit, and have Taffy facing my left side in a sit. I feed them alternately, and I sneak in a few clicks for eye contact from Rocky as well. Really want to get this sorted as soon as possible cos I know that the more he practices this aggressive behaviour, the more he'll do it. I'm so lucky he hasn't damaged someone's dog. YET. Well, apart from my Staffy that is.

Appologies that this post is so long, but I want to give as much info as I can think of, to assist anyone who offers help. I have a 12mo intact GSD who came to me at 10 weeks old from reputable breeder of Australian champions. He's always been very good natured, calm, confident, not easily spooked (I've never seen him spooked), and I made sure he was well socialised. I have just started using the clicker a couple of months ago, but just simple stuff like "101 things to do with a box". I practice NILIF, so very rarely does he eat out of a bowl, he earns his meal kibble-by-kibble during a training session. He's a family pet, no competing, so "training sessions" are 10 minutes of sit, give, look, etc. He plays nicely with large dogs who like to roughouse and run, and has learned to take notice of other large/medium dogs' signals of "I don't want to play" or "get away from me". Not little dogs though, he has always kept on annoying them when they tell him to "nick off", until I call him away. Until a few weeks ago, my only two problems with him were that he lunges on the leash when he sees another dog (wants to get to it to play), and that he plays too rough with small dogs. I had a housemate until recently. My housemate has an unsocialised 16mo Jack Russell/Shih-Tzu (Spongey). When him and my GSD (Rocky) first met 9 weeks before, there was a bit of a scuffle to do with Spongey and Rocky trying to get to me when I was eating my tea on my lap, and the result was a 1cm tear in Spongey's ear. Since then, Spongey had occasionally growled at Rocky, who has either ignored him or walked up to him and stood over him and growled. When Rocky did this Spongey would usually roll on his back, but there had been a couple of times when Spongey has growled while on his back, and Rocky has 'had a go' at him. By this, I mean a light scuffle lasting three seconds but no-one hurt. Since then, the two dogs did seem to have become good friends and had been playing together, roughousing, running around the back yard and in the house. Sometimes Rocky will have had enough or get distracted and finish playing, but Spongey hadn't finished and would try to engage Rocky in more rough play, nipping his mouth and jumping up at him. Rocky didn't seem to mind this at all and would either ignore him or play more. Spongey's owner sat on the couch most of the day and evening, with Spongey either on his lap or under a very small table next to the owner's legs. Sometimes if Rocky just walked past minding his own business, spongey would growl at him (which I assume is protecting his owner?). Rocky used to either ignore this or walk over to Spongey and growl back. If Spongey was on his owner's lap at the time, he would keep growling and I would call Rocky away nicely, or if Spongey was on the floor he would roll onto his back. A few weeks ago, I brought Rocky in from the back yard and we walked into the hallway and past the open lounge door. Spongey and his owner's usual spot is about 2 metres inside the doorway we were passing. Spongey jumped down from his owner, ran towards Rocky barking and growling, then turned and jumped onto his owner's lap. His owner, as usual, held Spongey to his belly and told him to "shut up". Rocky followed Spongey and 'had a go' at him. The owner slid out the way and I had to grab Rocky's collar and pull him off because Spongey was screaming!! As I pulled him off I said "NO!" Made Rocky come a couple of meters away with me and sit, and look at me. I was talking to him nicely, and praised him for it. I told John that he mustn't let Spongey under the table or on the couch or at his feet any more while Rocky's in the room or coming into the room. One evening, John had taken Spongey out fishing and when they came home, Spongey came into the kitchen, where I was. I don't know if Rocky was already in the kitchen with me or if he followed Spongey in, but suddenly, behind me, Rocky attacked Spongey. I didn't hear Spongey growl first, though. I pulled Rocky off by the collar, Sponge ran away and I let go of the collar. I followed Rocky around to the back door behind the couch, with the intention of putting him outside. Partly to avoid a rematch, and partly to give him time out (which I've never done before). Unfortunately, behind the couch is exactly where Spongey had gone to hide, and Rocky went for him again!! No provocation, Spongey was just cowering and Rocky lunged. Again, I pulled him off, said "NO", and put him outside. There were no wounds on Spongey, and John put him in his bedroom. If Spongey had growled first and Rocky had retaliated, I wouldn't have been quite as worried. But not only did Spongey not initiate it, but Rocky went for a second go when he found Spongey hiding!! We managed to keep Rocky and Spongey separated for the next few days, then I went away to Perth for two weeks, taking Rocky with me. John then came to Perth to stay at the same house for a couple of nights. And he brought Spongey with him!! When he got out the car, Spongey went to the gate, which Rocky was behind, and they sniffed politely, tails wagging. I called Spongey away, but a minute later John opened the gate, thinking everything was fine now. Actually so did I, so I squeezed through the gate and happily called Rocky away with me. No such luck, he went straight for Sponge. The John had run away to his phone by this point. I called Rocky, and used my emergency recall. He stopped and looked at me, but then Spongey went to get off his back and move away, so Rocky started on him again. I was pulling Rocky off by the scruff of the neck (no collar), but he had Spongey in his mouth and even started shaking his head a bit. This went on for ages, and I couldn't get Rocky off. Eventually, John came and got Rocky off by grabbing his throat, while my son pulled Spongey out from underneath. To my great surprise, Spongey wasn't damaged except for a couple of bruises. I thought Rocky was trying to tear him apart!! I was so shaken up by this! And some neighbours had come out to see what on earth was going on. Since then, a Facebook 'friend' has directed me towards some videos she's made of getting attention and eye contact. I've been practicing that, c/t for 3 seconds, 6 seconds, 4 seconds etc unbroken eye contact. Just started on adding small distractions too. Also, I'm asking for, and rewarding, eye contact before daily things like getting in/out of the car, through a door way, throwing a fetch toy, etc. So Monday afternoon, I was playing fetch with Rocky in the back yard, and my other two dogs were milling around my feet. This is common, and has never been a problem before (my other two don't play fetch). He was coming back towards me with the fetch toy in his mouth, and went to Taffy (my 13 yo Staffy female) to initiate play. He was play bowing, but then was bothering her by going right up to her face and nudging her. Just as I called him away, she growled and air-snapped at him. This is by far not the first time, and usually he won't react aggressively, he'll keep bothering her and I call him away. This time though, he stood with his four legs over her (so her back was touching his belly), and she growled and snapped, and they had a fight. Rocky had the upper hand because of his size, I guess, and at one point he had her right shoulder in his mouth and she was screaming. I was scared so I was shouting his name, and managed to pull him off by the collar. But then she got up and went for him, and he then had her thigh in his mouth. I managed to get him off somehow, and as she was, yet again, going for him, I grabbed her collar and pushed her away. I put Rocky inside the house straight away, and checked on Taffy while I calmed down. She has one puncture wound in her shoulder and one on her thigh. I realise he could have done real damage if he'd wanted to, and he didn't, but there are still the puncture wounds. Since the incidents with Spongey a few weeks ago, I've kept him away from other dogs, except 3 big ones who he knows and plays well with. When we've come accross small dogs, he's eyed them off, and sometimes lunged or barked, depending on how close they were. I've called him away nicely, pulled the leash to walk away in the other direction, made him look at me, and praised him for doing so. But now since the fight with my Staffy last Monday, he's got worse. If we're in a parked car and a dog comes by, he'll bark aggressively and go nuts. He Never used to do that! And the other day he was lunging and barking aggressively at another large dog, while I was trying to hold on to the lead. That's the first time he's had an aggressive reaction to a large dog. Same thing happened this evening, we were talking to some people, Rocky was relaxed and getting petted by some small kids, than a Shih-Tzu walked by, about 30 meters away. He went nuts, and I only just managed to hold on to his leash! Any ideas on what's going on and what I should do? Thank you so much for reading, Sian.