It is especially difficult to become pack leader to an aggressive dog because we will naturally fear our dog’s aggression.
My Shiba Inu used to have the worst bouts of aggressive leash biting. He would jump up on me, grab my jacket sleeve, and shake his head very rigorously, in what I call the kill-move (the shaking, head tossing motion that animals make to kill prey).
The more fearful I got of my dog, the more aggressive he became. He started humping my leg, and attacked the leash whenever I held it. Thankfully, he never broke skin, because of bite inhibition training. Nevertheless, I dreaded walking my dog, or even just being with him.
Here are some techniques that helped me conquer my fear, and become pack leader to my aggressive dog.
1. Practice calm energy
Cesar Milan, The Dog Whisperer always emphasizes the importance of projecting calm energy, especially when interacting with an aggressive dog. If we interact with a dog using nervous, submissive, fearful, or otherwise unbalanced energy, the dog may pick up on that, get stressed himself, and behave badly or start showing aggression.
Some techniques that helped me remain calm include:
- Taking deep breaths and focusing on breathing to remain calm.
- Actively thinking of something else, whenever I start to get stressed about what my dog might do.
- Using the “tsch” from Cesar Millan. No, it is not a magical sound for calming dogs, but it helps to remind me to stay calm.
- Walking with an assertive posture (shoulders back, head up).
In addition, make sure that we are not putting undue tension on the leash.
The thing that helped me most was to imagine the worst that my dog could do. In the leash biting case, it was a bite to my hand or arm. I decided that for my Shiba Inu, I could deal with some bites. If he did that, I would hold firm, get him home as quickly as possible, and thus end the fun walk. If he continued to bite at me or the leash once we are home, I can put him directly in a time-out area. In this way, he learns that –
Biting on leash = End of walk or temporary loss of freedom,
No biting on leash = Fun walk and exploration continues.
Once I had a plan for dealing with the worst, I became less fearful.
Once my energy improved, my dog’s bad behavior also improved significantly.
2. Have a drag-lead on our dog and keep him on a schedule
When our dog does something undesirable, it is always our reflex to chase after him. However, we will quickly realize that our dog can run much faster than we can!
To get better control of my dog and avoid chasing games, I usually put a drag-lead on him. Initially, I use a longer leash so that I can control him without being close to his mouth.
Only use a flat collar with the drag lead and NOT an aversive collar. Some example aversive collars include the prong collar and choke chain.
Also remember that while dealing with an aggressive dog, safety is of the utmost importance. If necessary, I muzzle my dog with a basket muzzle. A dog can still chew with a basket muzzle, and it is less restraining. To make the muzzling process less stressful, we may want to desensitize our dog to the muzzle, by pairing it with food and fun.
3. Have clear and consistent rules for our dog at all times
In the beginning, we want to be more strict with our dog. Institute more rules so that we have many opportunities to show our dog, that we are the boss.
If my dog does not follow the rules, then he does not get his most desired resources, for example, access of the backyard, walks, yummy dog treats, fun dog toys, play time, and access to pack members.
One of the best ways to become pack leader is to control his resources by following the Nothing in Life is Free (NILIF) program.
This just means that our dog does not get anything, until he does something for us first.
I do not give my dog all of his food on a silver platter. Instead, I use it for dog training, grooming, and other activities. I don’t leave food or high priority resources (e.g. food toys) out for him to use whenever he wants. Being the boss means that I control the key resources, and I decide when, where, and for how long he gets access to those resources. Of course, I also make sure that my dog has many opportunities to work for all the things that he wants.
Some useful rules to establish and maintain pack leadership include:
- No getting on furniture.
- Sit calmly before going through doorways, and only go through on command.
- No jumping on people.
- No leash biting.
- No food aggression. Must release resource (food, toys, or other items) on command.
- Absolutely no growling, barring of teeth, mouthing, or biting of people.
Once we gain some confidence and our dog is behaving better, we may relax some of these rules.
4. More walks of shorter duration
Most aggressive behaviors occur on neighborhood walks because that is when our dog is exposed to the most interesting stimuli (e.g. other dogs, cats, squirrels, people). On walks, we also have less control over the environment, and may not easily and quickly get our dog under control.
When I had troubles with my Shiba Inu, I shortened our walks but increased their frequency.
First, I would walk him in a heel position inside the house. Doing the heel exercise helps to put me in a pack leader mindset, and enforces my leadership status. In addition, if my dog starts any aggressive behaviors, I can more effectively stop him.
Once we are ready to go, we practice manners at the door. This helps to further secure my leadership role. My dog has to sit calmly while I open and close the door. If he remains calm, we can leave and start the walk.
Initially, I walked my dog close to the house, so that I can quickly end the walk, get him home, and put him on a time-out if he shows any aggression. As we started to have more and more successful short walks, I was able to gain more confidence, and control my fear. When things started improving, I slowly increased the distance and duration of the walk.
5. Address aggressive behaviors as soon as possible
A good pack leader is a vigilant pack leader. Watch our dog closely, especially when he is young (< 1 year old). Stop any aggressive behaviors as soon as we see them.
If we do not address aggression issues early, our dog will likely escalate his behavior, and start practicing aggression in a broader range of contexts. Once this occurs, it will be harder to break him of the habit.
I do not let my dog leash bite, show teeth, growl, or mouth at me. Any of these offenses will get him a warning (ack ack). If he continues, he gets a time-out. I carefully manage the everyday details of our time together, so that I set both of us up for success.
Proper management can significantly increase the number of successes, reduce the number of aggressive episodes, and help us become a good pack leader.
For aggression issues between two family dogs, please refer to Introducing a Second Dog into the Home.
Things are not going so well, actually. Our fight is usually over the leash. Every time I go to put it on him, which has never been a problem before, he attacks me. Unless he is just very excited to be going outside. His behavior is so strange to me. This is a dog who has never bitten me in his life. A dog who would sit patiently and allow me to put his leash on him at the door any time I wanted. And now he’s completely different. I’m very afraid of him, so I leave his leash on all of the time now so I don’t have to clip it on him. It’s a ridiculous method for covering up the problem, but he hasn’t attacked me since then either. I’m really very unsure of what to do with him. I would like to re-home him, but it’s impossibble to find someone who has the skills, or is willing to take in an aggressive animal. I love my dog very much. I’ve had him since he was a puppy, and we’ve never had problems before. But I just don’t know how to handle his behavior anymore.
Hello Emily,
I think I know what you mean. I was in a very similar place with Sephy not too long ago. Your comment really got be thinking about my dark times with Sephy so I wrote about it here –
http://shibashake.com/dog/afraid-of-your-dog
It is my own personal story so much of it may not exactly match your situation, but hopefully some of it will help.
Thank you so much for replying to my comment. Do you think it may be possible for us to exchange emails?
Hello Emily,
The best way to reach me is to leave a comment on the website. I check it most often.
You can also send me e-mail at –
http://shibashake.hubpages.com/_srec/contact
However, I don’t check and answer e-mail as often so there will probably be a larger delay in response time.
How are things going with your Shiba?
I recently moved, and this seemed to awaken my shiba inu’s aggressive behavior. He attackes all of my friends, and even me. I’m not sure what to do with him. I’m afraid to put his leash on him, or even spend time with him anymore.
Hello Emily,
Yeah, I experienced some of that with my Shiba in his younger days. Every time he got excited or when I stopped him from doing something, he would get wild and start jumping and biting at my jacket. I started really dreading our walks and became afraid of his wild behavior.
Fear is really the Enemy though. Sephy’s behavior worsened the more fearful I became of him.
The steps I took above really helped me during this time. The thing that helped me most is to get as much information as possible on the behaviors that I was most afraid of. I also observed him carefully so that I knew exactly the triggers that would cause those behaviors. Finally, I came up with a series of detailed steps that I would take whenever he started his wild jumping and biting.
Once I had a plan, my fear lessened because then I knew what to do, and I would just focus on the steps. Not all of the plans worked, but if they did not, I came up with alternative strategies and something usually works out. This helped me become more confident, and as I gained confidence, Sephy’s behavior improved significantly.
Observe Shiba carefully and see what his triggers are – does he attack when he is touched? approached? when people enter the house?
As you described, moving is a big deal to a Shiba because it is such a big change to his routine. Dogs, especially Shibas really need their routine, so a big change like that could cause significant stress. Has he been more stressed than usual? Is he eating less? How does he act when he is alone? Has anything else changed – e.g. your schedule, your friends, frequency of visitors?
Finally, his behavior could also be due to something physical. If he has accidentally hurt himself (hurt paw, tooth issues, etc.) it can also cause a change in behavior.
A professional trainer can be very helpful in situations like this to help you identify the source of Shiba’s aggressive behaviors. A good trainer can also come up with a plan to help Shiba get over his stress and redirect his negative behaviors into something more positive.
It will get better.
Things got better with Sephy once I started getting more information, worked on controlling my own energy, and developed a variety of strategies to redirect his energy.
Good luck – let us know how it goes.
Hi again!
My Shiba Inu’s previous problems are mostly fixed now after lots of hard work but now he has taken to trying to bolt out the door by squeezing between your legs and the door frame. We have had him sit EVERY time he enters or exits our home from the time he learned how to sit to try to teach him boundaries. This did not seem to help obviously because now, in the middle of his 8 Month old adolescence, he decided there are just too many new things to find on his own and I’m in fear of him running off or worse, getting hit by a car or biting someone who tries to catch him.
I need help! He is in obedience training but the trainer could only suggest what we’ve already been doing. I looked up some other websites to help me but they all taught dogs through negative reinforcement which we all know will never work on a Shiba…
Thank you for any response in this matter!
Lisa
Congratulations! That is very good to hear. The last really serious issue I had with Sephy was his leash biting and it felt so good when I finally got it under control.
Some things that may help –
1. Double gates/doors. I have installed double gates on my backyard – kindda like what you see in dog parks. Double gates are a great way to do door training because when Shiba squeezes through, he gets nowhere except straight to a time-out. It also makes things very safe. Some people set up a temporary pen right outside the door during training.
2. Drag lead. Sephy always has a drag lead on (only on a flat collar). That way I have a better chance of catching him when I need to. When I was doing door training, I put on a longer drag lead on Sephy. When he tried to escape I would just step on the lead. If he didn’t try to escape he gets to go on a nice walk and I also played with him outside. This way he learns that –
Try to escape = No walks and don’t get to go outside, Sit and wait = nice walk in the great outdoots.
In general, you want to – a) prevent Shiba from getting a successful escape and b) reward Shiba for waiting nicely on doorways. If Shiba escapes, then he gets to be free outside which is a big reward from his point of view. This will definitely spur him on to try more escapes and be more creative in his escape maneuvers. However, if he keeps getting thwarted, and loses his walking privileges, he will think twice before trying anything.
I have a year old female Shiba Inu. She has great energy and is extremely intelligent. In the house, I can pull things out of her mouth, I can stick my hand in her mouth, I can pull her bowls away from her while eating and invade her space without problem. However, once we’re outside, her “protect my things” switch is flipped. I don’t bring any toys outside with me. But she always tends to find something and claims it. In the dog run, if someone will a ball comes in, I leave. Otherwise, she will grab hold of the ball and become viscous with anyone, even me. She has bitten my boyfriend numerous times when he was trying to get something out of her mouth. Her possession aggression outside of the home is getting very dangerous. HELP!
Sounds like you already did a great job with her in terms of training her to “Leave-It” inside the house. Now you can just use similar techniques to train her outside. Dogs don’t tend to generalize commands across different locations – so a Leave-It command inside the house just means Leave-It inside the house. To them, Leave-It outside the house is a totally different command.
I found that playing the object exchange game is a great way to get my Shiba to voluntarily give him stuff. I also practice Leave-It commands with him outside.
When I first got Sephy, I used to take things out of his mouth all the time because he was always trying to eat something crappy off the sidewalk or road. This made him get even more possessive about objects when outside, because he associated me coming near him with taking stuff away from him (when he is outside). He was fine inside the house because he usually doesn’t get anything bad inside the house, and I didn’t have to go into his mouth.
After doing a fair amount of retraining with Sephy he is better outside, but I try to make sure he doesn’t get the chance to pounce on anything bad. In general, it is best to reduce occurrences where you have to forcibly remove objects. In this way, Shiba associates taking away an object with getting something else back that is even better, rather than with losing a prized possession.
Another thing that helped me with Sephy a lot is bite inhibition training. This really saved me later on when Sephy started doing crazy leash biting and sometimes biting on my hands when he redirected his frustration.
I think that is a very good idea because then, she does not practice her guarding behavior. The less guarding she does, the less likely it will become a habit.
I would definitely consider getting a trainer to help with this. A trainer can help with timing and setting up training exercises, structure and routine so that we minimize the number of guarding episodes and increase the number of successes. In this way, Shiba learns that people coming near her does not mean that she will lose her items but instead, she will get something even better. Proper management is important so that she is protected from other people who might reach down to her when she is guarding.
Let us know how it goes.
My Shiba inu hates walking on grass and is perfectly content on the cement. When we take him outside we have to lead him onto the grass to eliminate and then directly after he will fight and pull to go back to the cement. Sometimes I know he has to poop but he refuses to sniff around to find a spot so he ends up holding it for long periods of time. I know they like to be clean but is this a little extreme?
That is very interesting – Sephy is also like that but only for wet grass. He doesn’t even like playing on wet grass, so in the morning, he will only play inside the house. In fact, after it rains, he will avoid stepping on the wet door-mat when he goes out – lol.
Yeah Sephy is very particular about pooping as well. The stars and moon have to align in exactly the right way before he will do it. He almost never does it in the backyard, and when we are out on a walk, there are only particular places that meet his standards of toilet excellence.
If there is another dog or person about, or something is not quite right, then we must try again in the next spot – lol. I usually take note of all the good spots.
I think it is another Shiba quirk 😀
Charlie actually enjoys being in his crate… He almost prefers it. Then again about 2 months ago he broke his leg and wasn’t allowed to move at all other than his outdoor business so he had no choice other than liking it because he was in there 24/7 for about 7 to 8 weeks. Something that helped him cope with it, I believe, is because we put a blanket over his kennel so he couldn’t see out which prevented him from seeing any desirable reason to want out. He is crated at night and while we are gone but if we don’t cover his kennel he will whine to and yip for attention to come out.
I have a Shiba Inu/American Eskimo Dog (I think he got more shiba genes than eskimo (: ) He is 6 months old this month and he is really well behaved as far as not biting or chewing on non-doggy friendly items or jumping on my 21 month old daughter… BUT if there is a situation that he does not like or if I reach down to him for any reason he unleashes the worst scream I’ve ever heard and even if I don’t let him go and I ignore the behavior until he stops he will do it for up to 10 minutes sometimes… I’ve heard the “shiba scream” in online videos and things but none of them shriek as loud and evil as he does. I wouldnt normally care and we would just ride it out and hope that it goes away when he is older but we have problems with our next door neighbors. They are very picky and look for every little thing and anything they can call and complain about… I fear that they will begin to complain about Charlie and force us to find him a different home. Sometimes he starts doing it outside at me and I have to bring him in quick because I swear it can be heard for miles lol. Does anyone have a similar problem or any advice on how to distract him from screaming without rewarding him for it? HELP please!!
Hello Lisa,
Yeah, Sephy used to do the Shiba scream with our dog walker. Being a dog walker, having a screaming dog in tow is definitely bad for business, so she would get pretty frustrated when he did that – which made him do it even more. Sephy is very good at sensing our inner energy and pushing the boundaries when he can 😀
Hmmm, many dogs, especially smaller dogs can feel threatened when we reach for them from above. Here are some of the things I did with Sephy to desensitize him to handling when he was younger –
http://shibashake.com/dog/hug-dog-teach-your-dog-to-enjoy-hugging
Depending on the situation and reason for screaming – I will sometimes also use the time-out technique for Sephy. If he is just screaming for me to open the door for example, rather than as a result of stress, I will just ignore him or put him in time-out. Initially, he would scream in time-out but after a few times, he learned that this had little effect so nowadays he just gives me the depressed look even though I let him out after a couple of minutes.
Just make sure the time-out room is far away from the difficult neighbors 😀
thanks for the website.
I think we’ve realized that our shiba is not a dog that can be crated!
he does value his freedom way to much and its torture to leave him in there.
so, we’ve gated off a room and he gets to stay in there while we’re at work. he can look out the window and run around and he likes it better. we leave his cage in that room so he can go in and out as he pleases.
luckily he is not destructive and doesnt use the bathroom indoors.
the only thing im worried about is that he will claim that room as “his”. he is very dominant sometimes. he’ll nip at your feet when you’re not doing what he wants. but then he gets punished.. either leash correction or time out. but from what ive read, this is typical shiba. he’s such a little brat sometimes, but i love him!
Have you ever encountered any aggression when crating your dog?
We just started (about 3 weeks now) crating our shiba when we leave the house and at night to sleep. He HATES the crate, even if we bribe him with a kong or other high value treats. He bites when you take him to the room with the crate. Then, once he’s in there, he’ll scream for hours. Any tips to get him to like it?
Yeah, crate training can often be very difficult, especially for a Shiba because they do so love their freedom.
The thing that helped most with Sephy is to go very slowly. Many times during the day, I would just give him the crate command, he would go in, get rewarded, and I’ll let him come right back out. I did this until he was comfortable with the process, then I would close the door, and open it a few seconds later and let him come out.
Then I very very slowly lengthened the time he stayed in his crate. After a while, he was comfortable eating a Kong in his crate and staying the duration. Nowadays he goes into his crate on his own at night.
This article from the Humane Society has some good information on the crate training process –
http://www.humanesociety.org/animals/dogs/tips/crate_training.html