Help Needed! My bully keeps trying to go after my roommate.

[BrownBag]

Hi everyone. I am in need of some help. My bully is gonna be 2 years old in december. Recently she has been trying to go after my roommate. We have been living in the same house since january. We have never had a problem with her trying to go after them him. Last weekend he had a black air line hose in his hand. She seen him with it and was freaking out. After that she has tried to go after him 4 times. When she sees him she freaks out really bad and tries to charge at him. After that she is okay around him and jumps and plays with him. Thats the part I dont get. I have yelled at her and made her go to the room.


Any ideas on what I can try to do?

 

[cali~jenn]

Hmmm.... have your roomate hand feed her meals. It is amazing how well it works when you make them do commands before each handful they eat. Make sure she eats out of his hand tho and he decides when to give it, take time between bites to reinforce that. Maybe you both should do this to reinforce who is in command. I could be wrong but seems to me if she is lunging and not listening to you then you too are not in the pack leader role. I am far from an expert but know what helped getting our Miila situated in the family and this helped to made a big change in her.

 

[Davidh]

I think you have some good advise above to try. the hose is what scared her, and now she is thinking he has it all the time. So sometimes you just have to go back to the basics and feeding her out of his hand is one of them.

 

[JeannieCO]

Emma my girl, she'll be a year next month, has a thing for power tools, like she wants literally go after then and attack them. She's not afraid of anything that the hubby's compressor will run, the louder the better for her. We have had to work with her so that as she gets older it doens't turn out to be one of her triggers. You need to put a stop to Penny and the hose. Work with her when it's off and then when it's on. When she starts to go after it, do not let her and tell her firmly NO. Sumbit her if you need to and/or make her stay. This type of behavoir will takes lots of patience but will be worth it on the long term. I'm dealing with what I call "triggers" with my male, Wilson. He'll be two on 1/6. He gets set off very easy;, could be a fly, leaf, loud noise, maybe he's chillin' and if Emma or Jack get too close to him when his trigger has been set off it's game on and I have a dog fight on my hands. Right now I have a ZERO tolerance with Wilson and he has to work for everything he gets, as do my other two. When I walk him now his leash is shortened up and he only gets to sniff/pee when I say he can. It's tough love but I'm hoping to avoid bigger issues down the road with my pack.

Be consistent and patenient. You'll get through it but Penny may always have something that triggers her off.

 

[cali~jenn]

Any updates on this? Hope all is well.

 

[Vicaroo1000]

Emma my girl, she'll be a year next month, has a thing for power tools, like she wants literally go after then and attack them. She's not afraid of anything that the hubby's compressor will run, the louder the better for her. We have had to work with her so that as she gets older it doens't turn out to be one of her triggers. You need to put a stop to Penny and the hose. Work with her when it's off and then when it's on. When she starts to go after it, do not let her and tell her firmly NO. Sumbit her if you need to and/or make her stay. This type of behavoir will takes lots of patience but will be worth it on the long term. I'm dealing with what I call "triggers" with my male, Wilson. He'll be two on 1/6. He gets set off very easy;, could be a fly, leaf, loud noise, maybe he's chillin' and if Emma or Jack get too close to him when his trigger has been set off it's game on and I have a dog fight on my hands. Right now I have a ZERO tolerance with Wilson and he has to work for everything he gets, as do my other two. When I walk him now his leash is shortened up and he only gets to sniff/pee when I say he can. It's tough love but I'm hoping to avoid bigger issues down the road with my pack.

Be consistent and patenient. You'll get through it but Penny may always have something that triggers her off.

Great post.

Daily walks - complete with lots of leadership from the human - will help in your efforts. [MENTION=2014]JeannieCO[/MENTION] is spot on. What happens is that most humans say, "Oh he/she just doesn't like the ___________." and operate around the dog. Which of course is ridicules -- unless you want a fearful roommate and a dog that thinks he controls said roommate!

Re: her potty comment above, I can tell you without reservation that this is ABSOLUTELY TRUE in my case with Bo. We walk daily and during these walks I provide leadership. If I am NOT on my game and Bo (who will be 2 in February) starts taking ME where HE wants to go on the walk, I see an immediate attitude shift (it's like a light switch - I'm not kidding) in Bo and he will continue then, to try and manipulate or "rule" the rest of the walk. On one level he's challenging my leadership. On another level he's just being a dog! But for Bo, it's mostly the former --- not the latter. He's two, he's a male and other behaviors he has confirm this -- so he gets NO LEEWAY. That old saying, "If you give him an inch, he'll take a mile"? That's Bo in a nutshell.

Your daily activities with your dog offer MANY opportunities to illustrate that you're the leader of your own pack. When we leave the off leash area everyday, the dogs have to wait --- gate wide open --- until I say they can walk out. I don't do this everyday either because I don't want it to become a "habit" --- I want to be the one making the call. There's a garbage can next to the gate and Bo doesn't like it, so he'll try to scoot OUT that gate as quickly as possible. Having that extra "thing" in the mix reinforces my leadership. Bo can't escape the can until I say so. It's a 30 - 90 second exercise right -- but it's MEANINGFUL to both Bo and Bea and that leadership extends itself to other situations as well.

 

[ModernFemme]

I found this video to be pretty helpful in understanding why some dogs can be aggressive: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3B2YdDAFvY

 

[Alaskasmom1]

Good video! Interesting.