Hi all, looking for advice from people who have experience with greyhounds, obviously. I have a 5.5 month old greyhound pup, adopted from a breeder at 8 weeks. She’s been exhibiting some aggressive behavior and I really want to understand the reasoning behind it. We started working with a trainer on it when she was around 3 months, shortly after she started exhibiting the behavior but I’m not sure how much his advice is helping- more on that later.
she is a very sweet dog most of the time but she has moments of aggression sometimes. For example, at night I’ll usually hang out on the couch with her until 10 or so and then I’ll take her out to pee one more time before putting her in the crate (we finally got her crate trained at about 4 months) but she has to be lured off the couch with a treat. If I even try to pick her up gently or rouse her she’ll growl and snap even if she’s already wide awake. Tonight after I brought her in from going out she suddenly became upset and started growling and I think it’s because she knew she had to go in the crate. I kind of guided her over to the crate slowly and she went in without resisting but she was pretty upset before. 95% of the time she had no issue with me petting her or even picking her up but sometimes if she’s walking around and I approach her she’ll get upset and growl.
Our trainer, which we have through a company, has come in once and we’ve talked a few times but I think the aggression has gotten worse since we last spoke. He seems to think that I don’t have enough control over her when she’s calm. She has honestly gotten very good at recall and does listen to me a lot more now and even goes in the crate on command. I’m doubtful that it’s a control issue, although I admit I don’t know everything. It genuinely seems kind of fear based to me and I want to understand why it’s happening. She loves people and gets along great with my parents dog who she lives with and I’ve been making an effort to socialize her with other dogs since she got the last of her puppy vaccines. I’m pretty sure she’s getting enough exercise and of course she gets plenty of food/water/treats and sleep. Anyone have any advice? I’m hesitant to try a new trainer only because I’ve spent so much on the last one but I will definitely do what’s necessary. I just wanted to reach out and see if anyone else has experience something like this. I know that greyhounds are prone to anxiety, could that be driving this behavior? Please let me know, whoever has any advice. Happy to answer any questions or give more details.
