What is a dominant dog?
Some people attribute all problem behaviors to “dominance“, while others do not want to use the “dominant dog” label at all. The truth, as always, is somewhere in-between.
It is useful to recognize dominant behaviors in our dog, so that we can better manage him, keep him safe, and set him up for success. Refusing to use the word dominance, or denying its existence in dogs, is unhelpful.
Any pack animal including humans and dogs, have to deal with dominance issues, because it is part of pack dynamics.
Similarly, trying to explain everything away by using the dominant dog label or excuse, is also unhelpful. To really fix a problem behavior, we want to fully understand it, and correctly identify its source. For example, a dog may show aggression because of dominance. However, dog aggression can also be the result of fear, stress, play, curiosity, boredom, or something else.
Dog Dominance
Dominance is a fluid concept.
Dogs are not dominant all of the time.
For example, many dogs will show greater dominance when they are on home turf, or when their owners are around. Under different circumstances, these same dogs may become less assertive, or may even become submissive.
Observe our dog carefully, and identify when he is more likely to show dominance, and why.
Dominance is a relative concept.
My Shiba Inu, for example, is more dominant than most dogs I have owned. He challenges me more frequently, and is constantly testing his boundaries. He has a dominant body posture, and he will not back down when challenged by other dogs.
My Siberian Husky, is a more submissive dog. She usually stops whatever she is doing, when I tell her to. She very quickly backs down, and uses submissive body language, when confronted by other dogs.
However, this does not mean that my Husky will always back down, or never show any dominance behavior. She simply prefers to avoid conflict, and has learned that she usually gets more, by seeking a peaceful resolution. I make sure to encourage this behavior, by rewarding calmness and conflict avoidance very well.
What is a Dominant Dog?
- A dominant dog will likely respond with aggression when he is frustrated, or when he feels threatened. He may also redirect that aggression onto us, if we try to physically engage him.
- A dominant dog is more forceful when it comes to fulfilling his own needs and goals. He is not afraid to challenge those around him, and to continually test his boundaries. My Shiba Inu is always testing to see if particular rules, such as the no getting on furniture rule, still hold true.
- A dominant dog is more likely to fight, and less likely to submit or run away. My Shiba Inu likes playing with other dogs, but he generally does not get along with dogs who try to dominate him. If challenged, he will not back down, and this can result in a dog fight.
Dealing with a Dominant Dog
1. Calm and decisive pack leader
Being angry and shouting at our dog, will only worsen his behavior. Fear and uncertainty will increase his level of stress, and cause him to behave in a more erratic fashion.
The best way to deal with a dominant dog is to remain calm, and firmly remove him from the environment or object, that is causing him to act out.
2. Avoid physical corrections
Contrary to common belief, physical force or physical corrections is NOT a good way to deal with dominant dogs. If not perfectly executed (with perfect timing, force, and technique), a physical correction may further frustrate our dog, and cause him to get more aggressive.
Instead, stay calm, keep physical interactions to a minimum, and quickly leave the stressful situation. In addition, using physical force against a dog, may end up teaching him the wrong lesson; in particular, use violence against violence.
True alpha dogs lead by controlling the pack’s resources. We can control our dog’s resources by following the NILIF (Nothing in Life is Free) program, and using reward obedience training.
3. Management and supervision
We want to step in and stop any aggressive behaviors, before our dog escalates and loses control. Prevention is key when dealing with a dominant dog. It stops him from practicing aggressive behaviors, and it enforces the important lesson that we are calm and in charge.
4. Consistent rules
To become a good pack leader, it is important to develop a set of house rules and some structure, for our dog to follow. Always be consistent with enforcing all of those rules.
My Shiba Inu’s most important house rules include –
- No getting on furniture,
- No biting on people,
- No leash biting, and
- No food aggression or resource guarding.
5. Frequent obedience training sessions
Schedule at least two or more short (10 – 15 minutes) obedience training sessions with our dog, every day. It is a good idea to keep up with obedience exercises, throughout a dog’s life. This keeps him mentally sharp, and makes it clear that we are in charge.
6. Use proper equipment to control our dog
When dealing with aggression, safety should always be a primary concern.
Use whatever equipment is necessary, to keep all the people around our dominant dog safe. A drag lead may also be useful because it gives us good control of our dog, without having to lay hands on him or his collar, and without resorting to chasing games.
If our dog has a bite history, it may be necessary to use a muzzle. I like the basket muzzle because it does not overly constrain a dog’s mouth, and is more comfortable. A basket muzzle will still allow a dog to eat and pant.
Be careful not to aggravate our dog’s aggressive behavior by overly constraining him, and causing barrier frustration. When in doubt, consult a professional trainer.
7. Set our dog up for success
Try to minimize the number of dominant displays. Identify objects (e.g. other dogs, cats) and environmental conditions (e.g. loud noise) that trigger dominant behaviors, and avoid those triggers.
Then, gradually desensitize our dog to those events, in a controlled fashion.
Many dog behavioral issues, including resource guarding, biting people, dog-to-dog aggression, sensitivity to handling, growling at humans, and general disobedience, are often attributed to “the dominant dog”.
However, each of these problems are unique, and complex. They are usually the result of many factors, one of which may be dominance. In fact, many behavioral issues are the result of stress and fear, and have nothing whatsoever to do with dominance.
When dealing with dog behavioral issues, it is best to keep an open mind.
Observe our dog and his environment carefully. Identify the triggers for his aggressive behavior, and try to understand why he is responding in this way. If his aggression is extreme (e.g. he is breaking skin, and/or causing puncture wounds), hire a professional trainer to help us carefully trouble-shoot the problems.
Hi, we have a 2 yr old Shiba Inu and a 6 yr old Boston Terrier. Both girls. Throughout the day they get along and play fight but then randomly out of nowhere the Shiba attacks the Terrier. She’ll be snarling loud and biting on her and Punkin (terrier) yelps. There’s no food around, Punkin can be just walking by and she flips out. Is it possible to get her to stop? She also does it to the other Boston Terrier my sister has who she grew up. He won’t even go in the same room with her.
Hello Sandy,
Shibas can be protective over their personal space. Sephy, for example, does not like new dogs invading his space and he especially does not like new dogs sniffing his butt. He is ok with dogs that are in his circle of trust. Also, if he is startled awake, he may air snap out of instinct.
When I got a new Sibe puppy last year, Sephy did not really want puppy near him. Some things that helped-
1. I clearly established interaction rules between the dogs. For example, there is no stealing, no bullying, and no invading of space (especially when Sephy is resting or asleep).
2. I did a lot of group obedience training sessions and taught them that they get rewarded most by being calm and working together cooperatively with me.
3. I supervised all play sessions. I usually have many play breaks so that nobody gets over-excited and “play” escalates into something else.
4. I make sure that all interactions between puppy and my other dogs are always positive or at worst neutral. There is no bullying allowed and they are not allowed to physically “correct” each other. If there are conflicts, they know that I am the one who will resolve it.
Here is more on what I do to keep the peace at home-
http://shibashake.com/dog/second-dog-introducing-a-second-dog
I have a 8week old pitbull puppy who ive had for two weeks now. She is very loving and playful.She comes to me, is excited to see me when i come home. There is one problem thats troubling me and my family I cant stop her from jumping and biting on my pug(7yrs).It looks playful but my pug is very lazy and doesnt enjoy. My pug isnt aggressive and does nothing but cuddle and eat. , but I cant stop my pitbull from biting her.My pug just runs away or ignores the jumping It seems innocent until my pug cant take it no more and snaps once nothing serious which settles things down as my puppy backs off. But 15 mins later my pups back at jumping and biting my pug. I seperate them when it starts and feed seperate. I dont think its too serious because they will sleep together at nighttime but i dont want this to continue where my pug gets my pit now or my pit gets bigger and does damage to my pug. Please i dont want anything to happen plz help. My pitbull is named atheena my pug is belle
Hello Codeman,
I got a new puppy early last year and she is a super ball of energy. She wanted to play all of the time and kept pestering my other two dogs. Some things that helped with my puppy-
– I set up a very fixed routine for puppy, which includes play time, eating time, training time, and the ever important rest time.
– I make sure that she does not bug my other dogs when they want to rest.
– I also have safe zones where puppy is not allowed to play. For example, each of my dogs have their own bed area and when they go there, it is a safe zone where they can rest in peace. I make sure puppy leaves them alone when they are there. If she goes near, I no-mark and just body block her away.
– I supervise them during play to keep things safe and have many play-breaks so that puppy does not become over-excited.
– I exercise puppy with games, training and interactive toys so that she redirects her energy onto positive, people-friendly, and dog-friendly activities.
When I do not have the time to supervise puppy, she goes in her crate, enclosure, or stays tethered in the kitchen with me.
Here are more of my experiences on introducing a second dog.
Here are some other things that helped with my puppy-
http://shibashake.com/dog/puppy-obedience-training
I have an almost 9 month old Husky-lab mix named Bailey, and she was so sweet and affectionate (though hyper active and excitable like huskies and labs tend to be) until her first heat a few weeks ago. Right before we knew she was in heat (before the period), there was an incident at home where my husband and I were sitting on the couch, and Bailey was laying between our sets of feet. I looked down at her at some point and thought she looked especially cute, and decided to pet her. Seemingly out of nowhere, she snapped at me and darted away. She never did this before, and I also got no growl or curled lip in warning. My husband and I were shocked. The only thing I can think of that could have set her off was that she had a bone nearby that she was being possessive over, even though I made no motions towards the bone.
Things only escalated from there. We have noticed that she never growls at my husband, only me. At first we thought it was because I am pregnant, and might be avoiding me because she senses or smells me differently. Now we think it is just a dominance issue, that she probably sees me as competition for top female in the house.
We moved her crate (used for bedtime, occasional feedings and travel) into our room so she might feel like we’re more of a “pack”. She does not sleep on the bed with us, though we do let her on the bed at times. When we go in our room, she follows and immediately goes into her crate, even though we don’t tell her. We try to call her out, but she won’t come. If we were sending her there for the night, we would say “bedtime” and she’d go right in, but though we don’t say it, she goes anyway and growls if I approach. Other times, she will lay down on the floor near her crate, and growl if I come near her. When she is in her crate and acting territorial/dominant like this, if I look at her she growls. If I so much as say her name, she growls. If my husband can coax her out, she’ll let him pet her and love on her, but if I gently move my hand towards her non-threateningly to pet her, she’ll then growl at me, and only me. Then she’ll try to go away into her crate.
She gets growly with me at random times of the day, also. Sometimes she’ll come over to me and lean on my leg for attention, and say I decide to give it to her and pet her, she’ll be fine for a minute and then suddenly she’ll start growling. I don’t get it.
She is possessive over toys if she is playing with them, unless she brings them to us for Fetch. Again, she only growls and snaps at me, and has only ever been this way with my husband once or twice. She still acts like this, even now that her heat has ended. I am worried about what will happen when our baby is born; I don’t want her unpredictable behavior to mean possible injury to our child.
We have tried establishing that she is not dominant in the house by having her sit before feeding, by not letting her pull on the leash and walk ahead during walks.. well that one we try on, but we have trouble with… she sleeps in her crate below us, when we play tug of war, we don’t let her “win”, and when we go up/down stairs and through doors, we make her sit and go through last. Please do your best to help me! How can I further establish dominance with her?
Hello Ashley,
I went through a similar experience with my Shiba Inu Sephy. It is difficult to say how similar my situation was, so I will just tell my story.
Sephy is a very stubborn dog and in the beginning, I was not very sure how to handle him. He was also very mouthy and would often mouth all over my hands and arms. Since my husband worked, I was home with Sephy most of the day dealing with his Shiba hijinks. I spent the whole day walking him, feeding him, and trying to give him affection. However, when my husband returned, Sephy seemed to prefer his company. Also, Sephy would reserve his worst behaviors for me – including humping my leg, jumping on me, crazy leash biting, and mouthing all over me.
Because of all this, I got even more uncertain of him, and was also somewhat fearful. I also felt somewhat betrayed that he would avoid my company, especially when I was the one feeding and taking care of him. However, the more uncertain and fearful I felt, the worse his behavior became. It was not a good time for either of us.
I later realized that Sephy is a very sensitive dog. Therefore, he picked up on my uncertain and fearful energy, and became somewhat stressed himself. Fear can often be contagious. As a result of this, he started acting erratically because he was stressed, and did not know what to expect from me. On the other hand, my husband was a lot more calm and sure with him. This was something Sephy could count on, and as a result he was a lot more calm around my husband and preferred his calm company.
House rules are important, but I realized that calm energy and confidence are also very important.
I started by taking very small steps.
-First, I stopped giving him too much attention and affection. I spent more time on my own tasks, and ignored him more.
-I put Sephy on a very fixed schedule. In this way, I was sure what to expect from him and he was sure what to expect from me. I had a schedule for the entire day planned out, to the minute.
-I established very clear rules and a very clear plan of what I would do for each of his bad behaviors. I also had many contingency plans. Having a plan really helped me build my own confidence and become less fearful of what *might* happen.
-I put a drag-lead on Sephy (only with a flat collar and only when I am home to supervise). This helped me to control him better, and to easily put him in timeout whenever he tried to mouth me or hump me.
All of these things helped me to regain control of the house, and become a lot more calm and confident. Once I became more calm, Sephy also calmed down and his behavior improved significantly.
Here are some things that helped me when Sephy was young-
http://shibashake.com/dog/puppy-obedience-training
http://shibashake.com/dog/afraid-of-your-dog
http://shibashake.com/dog/pack-leader-to-an-aggressive-dog
Getting private lessons from a professional trainer can also be very helpful. I met with many professional trainers when Sephy was young. It was not easy to find a good positive trainer that could handle Sephy, but we found a couple and they were quite helpful. I also did a lot of research on the web and read a lot of dog books. On the web, I found the breed-specific forums and meetup groups to be most helpful because there were a lot of veterans there that post regularly.
Hi! My male shiba is almost 4 months and he has bad food and toy aggression. We started to work on some food aggression techniques so we’ll have to see if that will fix anything. But he will growl at us if we got near him and even after he was done with his food, he’ll growl and be mad for the next 15-30 min. When he’s mad and growling, should we just ignore that or what do we do? He’s protective over his toys if we let him sit with it for a little bit and he’ll start growling if we got near him. This morning, he was being protective over his toy, so I drew his attention away by giving him a couple of treats and I put the toy away. Maybe about 10-15 later, I was laying on the floor, on my computer, my shiba was near him and I was just smiling at him saying hi and he just started growling and just came at me. Jumping and bite my thigh and gave me a small bruise. He has been very mouthy and I’m getting bite marks everywhere. I have no idea why he came at me like that. Maybe cause he didn’t have a toy anymore? and how can I stop my shiba from just biting? I tell him no, stop, or tell him sit, sometimes he’ll sit but goes back to biting. He has been biting a little bit around my leg and ankle lately too. There was also a time when I was training him how to sit and lay down, I gave him a treat after he did a command, and he came at me and then started to protect the bag of treats and growling at us and he started to pee. I need help! I know he’s only 4 months old but I feel like his behavior shouldn’t be this bad at his age. I want to fix this before he gets bigger or we can seriously get hurt.
Hello Hana Jang,
My Shiba was also very mouthy as a puppy. Here is what I did when he starts to bite on me-
http://shibashake.com/dog/puppy-biting-how-to-stop-puppy-biting#timeout
Bite inhibition exercises were also very useful for my Shiba Sephy-
http://shibashake.com/dog/bite-inhibition
Because Sephy was so mouthy when he was young, I got somewhat fearful of him. However, the more fearful and frustrated I got, the worse his behavior became. Sephy is very sensitive to what I am feeling, and he picks it up and becomes stressed himself.
http://shibashake.com/dog/afraid-of-your-dog
Sephy does best when I am calm, when I establish a very fixed routine for him, and when I have very consistent rules. Here are some things that helped with Sephy when he was young-
http://shibashake.com/dog/puppy-obedience-training
Here are some of my experiences with food aggression and resource guarding-
http://shibashake.com/dog/stop-food-aggression-stop-resource-guarding
Hi there, this has helped me learn so much that I didn’t think of! I have a new puppy Staffordshire ball terroir. He’s my baby I love him to pieces but he can reduce me to tears. He bites me( hasn’t drawn blood) pounces at me, grabs my hair try’s pulling it, follows me around growling at me. With my partner he’s as good as gold occasionally he may pounce around and growl but never to the extent he shows to me. Other than this he is brilliant I can take him for walks off his lead he doesn’t run far if he is running far he turns to check I’m there and comes running back to me before setting off again. He sits, comes here, gives paw, lays down and has been weeing and pooing on his matts since He was 10weeks.I’ve never been to classes he’s 15weeks now and I’m thinking maybe because of his behaviour to take him to classes what do u think? We currently live In a bedsit and will be moving into a house In 7weeks so I’m definitely going to start doing time out. I usually do that by putting him in his Crete. Is there any personal advice you could forward. Would really help! Thankyou in advance. A very desperate girlie xxx
Hello Katie,
I had a similar experience with my Shiba Inu Sephy. When he was a puppy, he would bite all over me, hump my leg, and do crazy leash biting. Here are some things that helped me with Sephy-
http://shibashake.com/dog/pack-leader-to-an-aggressive-dog
As for classes, my experience is that group classes are mostly for socialization. I really did not learn much there, but the socialization experience was useful for Sephy. I learned most from doing private lessons with a good professional trainer. Since dog training is not well regulated, there are many sub-par trainers out there. I always call them up, ask them many questions about my dog’s behavior issues, and push them for detailed answers. In general, I look for trainers who are well versed in operant conditioning techniques, have good experience with difficult dogs, and have calm dogs of their own that they can use in training.
http://shibashake.com/dog/finding-a-dog-trainer
In terms of time-out, it is best not to use the crate. My dogs go into their crate for eating and sleeping at night, so I want it to be a positive place for them. An alternative to using a time-out room, is to put the dog on a tie-down in a quiet, low stimulus area. Only use a flat collar or harness and not an aversive collar. Do not leave a dog on tie-down if we are not home.
Let us know how it goes. Hugs to your little boy!
i have huge issues with eddies domination of me. he is never dominating toward me when the hubby is around and he also isnt dominant toward my daughter. but as soon as the hubby isnt around its horrible if iam eating he will hop right on the table wont listen to me at all and will eat my food and if i try to take it from him he bears his teeth. he has also humped me and when i push him off he comes right back, and the most embaressing of all hes actually peed on me. if i take him for a walk i can never take him off the leash he wont listen to me like he does to the hubby, and i have to use the pinch collar the hubby doesnt need it he uses the harness, i dont know if its a gender thing or if he just sees me as weak. also if a male friend that he does not know comes up to me while iam walking him he growls and gets like this hulk stance going on and he like puffs up his chest its humiliating because people think hes vicious and hes far from it
I have a male and female pitbull mixes. The male shows dominance to the female, and before she was ok with it. But now she has started fights. In the past month it has happened 4 times. Any advice on what to do?
Hello Toni,
I have a no-bullying rule with my dogs, and that seems to have worked well. In general, when one dog is becoming a pest to another I will step in and handle the situation. Usually it is the new puppy that is trying something that the other dogs do not like, e.g. humping.
I supervise the dogs while they are playing so that as soon as I see puppy getting into position to hump, I non-mark her (No or Ack-ack) and lead her away by her drag lead. Then, we take a short break to do some obedience commands. After a bit, she gets to go back and play.
If she keeps trying to hump and ignores my warnings, then play stops and she has to go for a short timeout.
This teaches my dogs that they don’t have to correct each other, I will handle it. I also try to be very consistent with them in terms of the rules, i.e. no dog gets to hump, and all of them get the same consequences for the same actions. The key here is to step in early and stop things before they escalate into aggression. In this way, it can be a learning experience. Once things have escalated too much, it becomes dangerous to step in, the dogs have likely gone rear-brained, and they are no longer able to learn.
In general, the more a dog practices a certain behavior (including aggression) the more likely he/she will repeat that behavior. Therefore, I also try to supervise and manage things so that there is no need for aggression. For example, I prevent my dogs from stealing each others stuff. Very occasionally, a small theft occurs, but I will hand out the consequences to the thief, and I also replace the stuff. In this way, there is no need for the dogs to use aggression and things don’t escalate. I also make sure they are separated when working on really high priority items, e.g. bully sticks.
Here are more of my experiences with supervising my dogs –
http://shibashake.com/dog/second-dog-introducing-a-second-dog
Hello, Thank you for writing this article as I have learnt a lot about dominance. We have recently adopted a border collie puppy who has serious mouthing and nipping problems, we understand that it is a puppy thing but it is getting hard to live with as we are finding it hard to control, do you know of any effective methods we could use? Also, she seems to be claiming part of the garden because if we walk round the side she bites your feet, legs or trousers and growls. I am worried that this will progress into aggression, is there anything we can do to claim the garden back?
Hello Sophie,
Congratulations on your new puppy!
In terms of mouthing, here are a few things that really helped with my dogs –
1. Bite inhibition training – This teaches a dog to control the force of his bites. A dog with a soft mouth is a real joy to have.
http://shibashake.com/dog/bite-inhibition
2. Drag-lead – I put a drag-lead on puppies while they are still in training. The drag-lead is nice because it gives me more control of my dogs without having to lay hands on them. Only use a drag-lead under supervision and with a regular flat collar (not an aversive collar).
http://shibashake.com/dog/puppy-obedience-training#draglead
3. NILIF program (Nothing in Life is Free) – This simply means that my dogs have to do something for me before they get anything in return. This teaches them that the best way to get what they want is to first do what I want.
4. Time-outs – Time-outs worked very well for my Shiba Inu’s biting issues. Most dogs like their freedom and like being with people, so having that taken away is a big deterrent.
http://shibashake.com/dog/puppy-biting-how-to-stop-puppy-biting#timeout
Sounds like she is trying to herd people. Border Collies are very high energy and they can be very intense about doing a job. There are two Border Collies in the area where I live and it is amazing watching them herd goats. Border Collies really love to herd. 😀
Two things that may help –
1. Give her many positive and human approved outlets for her energy.
http://shibashake.com/dog/hyperactive-dogs-how-to-calm-a-hyper-dog-or-hyper-puppy
2. When my dogs nip on feet or hands, I non-mark them and try to get them to do something else. If they ignore that and keep biting, then I calmly say timeout and remove them to a timeout area using their drag lead.
A brilliantly written article. I found this because I have a Doberman who like yours won’t back down if challenged. Unfortunately it means he’s getting less predictable on walks and I don’t want to have to take away his liberties.
He is otherwise very well trained, he doesn’t bolt through doors, sleep on furniture and is very obedient. With most other dogs he’s fine and will play, if they get too playful he will try to get away or give a growl or snap. Nothing abnormal or wrong with this. But if any dog tries to stare him down, he’ll switch in an instant! I know he doesn’t want to fight, I can often step between them before it escalates and keep them from making eye contact and he will keep his distance and let me deal with it even without being told.
Now I know in the dog world, he’s not doing very much wrong, he’s sticking up for himself, he’s not going to allow a dog to bully him into submission which in some ways is great… if it were a child, I would be proud. Unfortunately a dog in the human world, this is unacceptable and potentially dangers. With new dog control laws going through UK parliament, this could be seen as my dog being ‘dangerously out of control’ and liable for a fine.
These occurrences are rare now, is there anything else you would advise to stop it before it becomes a genuine problem? My little dog is very submissive so never gets into fights…. and I want an element of that in him. I sometimes make him lie down if a dog a little further away is staring too intently, but I’m not sure if it’s the best thing to do.
Hello Simon,
Yeah Shiba Inu Sephy has a similar personality. He absolutely does not get along with other dominant dogs, and he will not back down even though he is a pretty small dog. He also does not like new dogs sniffing his butt, which may be because of dominance, trust, or both.
I keep him away from dominant dogs because it will not go well.
He plays with more submissive or playful dogs, larger dogs, and usually in small supervised groups. When we meet dominant dogs during walks, we ignore them. I do not let Sephy stop and stare back, we just move along at a normal pace. This creates a neutral experience rather than a negative experience. It also ensures that he does not practice any dominance behaviors with other dogs.
Now, Sephy has learned that we usually ignore new dogs. Sometimes, we will stop and greet friendly dogs that are under very good control of their handler and that we often see in the neighborhood. Still, I keep dogs away from his butt area.
I also have a lot of play breaks so that Sephy does not get over-excited when interacting with other dogs. When he gets over-excited things can get a bit too intense and play may turn into something more serious.
Here are more of my experiences with Sephy and other dogs –
http://shibashake.com/dog/dog-to-dog-aggression
Hope this helps. Thank you very much for your comment.
Thanks again, it’s refreshing to hear from someone who can provide a more balanced and objective solutions while the famous ‘professionals’ are teaching all sorts of bad and/or ineffective habits. The ‘Neutral’ experience is a good tip, I’ve always gone for Positive to avoid negative but actually neutral is a more balanced approach in cases such as these. (two dominant dogs with positive reinforcement food?… bad idea…)
Will now digest the entire blog as you have some amazing stuff on here!
I’m pretty sure Reptar sometimes thinks he is a working dog and that we are cattle. He tries to herd us constantly. He’ll even go as far as nipping at our ankles like a border collie does to cattle. He does this when we’re playing or have something he wants. For example, when we’re playing fetch outside and it’s my or my husbands turn to throw the ball or go get the ball, Reptar herds us to the ball. Also occasionally in the house if we’re looking for his Kong to fill, he herds us.
We’ve tried stopping play, and not giving him his Kong or whatever it is he is after. We’ve also tried non-marking the situation and even bringing him in the house so he loses his freedom when he does it. Doesn’t seem to make a difference. He still does it. He’s a smart dog, as you know with Sephy, and usually picks up on things quickly. So i’m not sure how to handle this situation.
Any ideas? I don’t even truly understand why he does it. He knows his role in the house and while he tests us with everything, we’ve established and continue to prove to him we’re the pack leaders. The herding is the only dominating thing he does that we can’t seem to get under control.
My guess is that Reptar probably just sees it as a game. In this case, the targets of the game are the people, so getting any kind of reaction from the people can probably be seen as a reward.
What does Reptar do after you bring him into the house? Does he continue with the herding? Does he only do it outside the house?
One thing to try is to show him that if he tries to herd, then he doesn’t get any attention and he can’t come near people for a while. There are a couple of ways to do this. You can ask him to Go to His Mat and to stay there. If he does that and stays there for a bit – then reward him well. Then just keep repeating that every time he herds.
You can also try asking him for space when you are walking around. For example when he gets too close, non-mark him, and then body block him so that he moves back. Then turn around and continue your walk.
Most of the time, Sephy will go to his mat when asked. Sometimes though, he is too intense on the game, so two possibilities are using a tie-down for a short period of time or putting him in the time-out room for a short period of time.
Hugs to Reptar! Let us know when you put up new pictures. 😀