How Should I Respond To Zuki?

[Guest zoolaine]

Mizuki is about 9 months old now and is getting to be a pushy teenager that I'm not sure how to handle. Not long after getting Zuki (in March) she started acting like Cujo while in her crate. She only goes in there at meal time. I put her in while getting everyones food ready and she will growl and lunge at any dog that walks by. Everyone eats in different spots so it is not like she is guarding her food, since she gets hers last and by that time the only other dog she can even see is Luna and she is 10 feet away. But after she is done eating she will lunge and growl if anyone walks by - I have started putting a blanket over her crate which helps keep her calm, it probably really isn't solving anything though.

 

Now she is growling and snarling at other dogs that come near her when she is lying down. If she is on the couch or bed I kick her off, but now she is doing it when she is on the floor or dog bed. For example earlier today Zuki was lying on a dog bed and Danica walked by and Zuki jumped up and started growling. Poor Danica had a "what did I do" look on her face then walked away.

 

So how do I respond to Zuki when she does this? I have read that you shouldn't punish a dog for growling but she is going a step beyond growling into almost getting in the other dogs face. It is easy enough to make her get off the couch or bed but if she does this while just on the floor I don't know the best way to respond.

 

I know she totally does NOT see me as the "pack leader" and man she is stubborn. I have started working on obedience with her around the house so I am hoping that helps. We are also working on the nothing in life is free method but not sure how well I am following it.

[Sambuca]

I would call in a behaviorish. I would put her in her crate with a blanket over when she lunged at the other dogs. Have her drag a leash when you're home, so you can grab her and remove her from the situation. (She should NOT drag a leash if you are not around.)

[Guest krystolla]

Is she lunging at people or just at other dogs? If she's not lunging at people, I'd suggest feeding her a handful at a time. Wait until she's calm for a moment, feed her, wait again . . . until she figures out that only calm dogs get food. My guess is that it might take a while to sink in, but it's my best guess for 1am anyway. I guess that's really the "nothing in life is free" thing too.

 

If she's also lunging at people, I don't think it would be really safe to hand feed her. You might need to work on desensitizing her to the whole feeding routine instead. You know, in and out of her crate at other times. Banging food dishes. Whatever you normally do that gets her riled up. If she gets used to being calm around the "triggers" maybe she'll calm down around actual feeding time too.

[greysmom]

My Toni is like Zuki - a total dog bully, especially outside or about her bed. She will sometimes growl at one of the other dogs more than ten feet away. She wants to be the "dog-in-charge" and I think really enjoys pushing any and all boundaries. Toni just turned 5 years old.

 

Contrary to what others might say, I do scold her for growling at other dogs for no reason. If you subscribe to pack theory, an older dog would not let her keep doing that behavior and would correct it in a doggy fashion. Since I'm not a dog, I do the best I can. There's a big difference to me between scared-growly and bully-growly.

 

I know her and I know my other three dogs and if she's growling to try and push her agenda and their buttons, and not because she's really hurt or anything, I do correct her and make her move from the dog bed she is on. If she growls over a treat, the treat is taken away. If she starts bullying outsde, she goes inside by herself (which she hates!). I don't have trouble with her over feeding times as she's too focused on shoving all her food in her face as fast as possible.

 

I do NILIF with her as much as possible, and we're constantly working on commands that reinforce her trust in me, and my position in the house. She's smart and she's stubborn and she's extremely confident so we're doing this all the time. If she "wins" even once, I have to go back and step up the training.

 

I also exercise her much more than the other three. She's much more amenable and nice to everyone when she's tired!

 

I would probably feed her in her crate after all the others have eaten and left the area. Then I would put her bowl in her crate and dribble the kibble in little by little as she remians calm and not growly. The other thing you can try is to keep everything the same and just use a squirt bottle on her when she gets obstinate and growly in her crate.

 

Good luck!

[dante2zoe]

I don't have the food issue that you have, but Zoe is also a growler while lying down - on anything. She will even growl when another animal simply walks into the room. She doesn't do this all the time; it seems to be more prevalent later in the day. Anyway, we do tell her to knock it off. The other animals also give her a wide berth. She knows she isn't supposed to be that snarky, but can't seem to help herself. However, over the years, she has improved tremendously and the others appear to understand and give her extra space. She is an insecure dog and has developed the attitude that a good offense is a good defense. She is not this way with people. Good thing for her that she is pretty! It is frustrating, to say the least! I know that I don't have any advice, but sometimes it is comforting to know that you are not alone. Good luck.

[Guest 4dogscrazy]

This may sound odd, but when mine start to get a little bossy or snarky over a particular bed, I move it! I just re-arrange all the furniture in the room and move beds around. That seems to do the trick here. Greys hate to have the furniture moved around, so they are too busy huffing and puffing about the move to remember which bed was "the good one" and things go back to normal. Could you also try to move her crate? Off the wall...I know

[Guest zoolaine]

Yakima doesn't have any behaviorist - the closest would be the trainer that wanted me to put a choke chain on Zali and got mad when I refused - we went to 1 class and never went back. I should clarify that Zuki only growls at the other dogs. When she first started growling she was doing it to me too but I hand fed her for about 2 weeks - thanks to advice here on GT and she she hasn't growled at me since. I can also touch her while she is lying down and she is fine with it. Our feeding routine is like this: I get everything ready, bring the dog bowls into the kitchen and throw a baby carrot or two into Zuki's crate and tell her "kennel" and she goes in (the kennel is in the dinning room but it is open to the kitchen). As soon as she is done eating the little treat she starts in - barking, biting her crate bars, and will turn psycho if any of the dogs walk by her or gets too close to her crate. After I add a few "goodies" to the bowls - Jupiter, Zali, and Danica all get their food each in a separate bedroom. This whole time Zuki is barking and throwing a fit. When I come back to the kitchen, she shuts up. Then Briley and Luna get their bowls (Briley in the kitchen and Luna in the entryway) and finally Zuki. She is always quite as soon as I get back to the kitchen, I make her sit and wait till I say ok before she can eat. She gets done before Luna or Briley and if she doesn't have the blanket over her crate will snarl and growl at them if they come anywhere near her. I should try to find my camera and take a video of her behavior.

 

It is nice to know that others have similar issues with dogs growling. I have never had a dog like this before. And it worries me that she seems to be getting worse. The part I find kinda strange is she will be wrestling and playing with one of them and then half an hour later growling and in their face. Oh and she really isn't phased at all by the squirt bottle - she just backs up a little and closes her eyes.

[Guest 4dogscrazy]

Can you change the entire routine? She's now formed a habit, in my newbie opinion, and all the circumstances need to change I think. Can you feed her out of the crate, and first? Behind a baby gate maybe? Do the other dogs try to get her food? I would totally change up the entire situation if it were me. Piper and Fancy actually got into a fight once over a bowl of kibble that was left on the floor by mistake in my house, and Piper was known to growl at anyone who walked by her crate while there was food in it. She loved her crate, and used it all the time, but is a slow picky eater (that's why I was feeding her in the crate). I have now taken down the crates, and they all eat in the same room at feeding stations, supervised always of course. This was after I changed the entire room around first, so no one associated their crate area with "their space". Took about 2 days before everyone understood where their station was, but just calling their name and setting down the bowl worked. Good luck, I understand she's young so it might take more than my advice...

[Guest zoolaine]

Can you change the entire routine? She's now formed a habit, in my newbie opinion, and all the circumstances need to change I think. Can you feed her out of the crate, and first? Behind a baby gate maybe? Do the other dogs try to get her food? I would totally change up the entire situation if it were me. Piper and Fancy actually got into a fight once over a bowl of kibble that was left on the floor by mistake in my house, and Piper was known to growl at anyone who walked by her crate while there was food in it. She loved her crate, and used it all the time, but is a slow picky eater (that's why I was feeding her in the crate). I have now taken down the crates, and they all eat in the same room at feeding stations, supervised always of course. This was after I changed the entire room around first, so no one associated their crate area with "their space". Took about 2 days before everyone understood where their station was, but just calling their name and setting down the bowl worked. Good luck, I understand she's young so it might take more than my advice...

 

 

I think that is a good idea. Everyone all use to eat in the kitchen/dining room/living room - spread out about 10 feet from each other. When Danica came home she was really timid and was used to eating in a bedroom at her foster home so I kept it the same for her. And then when Sunny got sick and stopped eating, Jupiter and Zali would be a pain to deal with when I was trying to get Sunny to eat something. And Zuki has always eaten in her crate. I will have to figure out where to feed everyone and see how that goes. I don't know if Danica will eat outside of the bedroom - she feels safe in there. And I don't want to leave the others unsupervised around food. So I might still leave Dani in the back bedroom and feed her first.

Edited July 18, 2010 by zoolaine

[Batmom]

Is there somewhere else you can stash the other dogs @ feeding time for a few days? Or will they wait patiently in their areas?

 

I would probably be inclined to give my "Quiet" command (if she knows one; say it once and only once), stop meal prep, and sit down within her sight when she fusses in her crate like that. Stops fussing for a count of 5, "Good girl!", resume prep, repeat repeat repeat.

 

Bed snarking, kinda depends on how serious she is. If she's just vocalizing, what I've found works best is to laugh. "Ha ha hee hee ho ho, you silly girl, nobody's going to step on you, [and slightly firmer] cut that out, ha ha hee hee ho ho." If she's more serious, I'd probably put some basket muzzles on everybody and practice inviting other dogs close to her and rewarding for good calm behavior.

[Guest Swifthounds]

Can you baby gate her into the kitchen with you so that she's in the kitchen with you and the other hounds are on the other side of the gate so that she can see them but not reach them? If you can do that, I would set it up like that, put her bowl out empty and every time she looks at the other dogs and is quiet, she gets a piece of food into the bowl. If she snarls and barks, just ignore it and issue no food. It may take a while, but she will catch on.

 

With a strong willed hound you have to be more stubborn, more consistent, and more patient.

[Guest brandi007]

Zuki sounds like a bully to me - Hannah's the same way. Honestly when I first got Hannah there were many, MANY nights of crying and debating giving her back. She would growl when you hugged her, growl when you came in the room, growl when you walked by her and growl at Sophie for everything she did. She's still a snarly little Bag Face but I've learn't to distinguish a "There's something that's really making me uncomfortable growl" from a "I'm just being a B**ch" growl. I do lots of punishment for the B**ch growl. If she's growling about food she loses it, if she growls about space she has to move, if she growls when Sophie comes in the room I block her and give Sophie room and dibs on what she wanted.

 

It sounds to me like Zuki is putting a big Show with the whole "little tough guy" thing. I wouldn't let her out of her crate until she calmed down for one thing.

 

I know I'm not really a dog behaviorist but I've gone through a lot of the same experiences with my young one. It does get better as they learn their boundaries and yours - it sounds to me like she's just pushing your lines to see how far she can go before you come down on her. She sounds like an insecure puppy trying to be top dog but constantly feels threatened with losing that position because she knows she doesn't have the cahoonies to maintain it.

 

Keep doing lots of NILF and loss of privileges - you don't have to do anything crazy like alpha roll but she will learn that that kind of behavior isn't acceptable and it's not very fun to be a puppy in constant time outs

 

Good luck! Do know you're not alone and it does get better! Contrary to popular believe not all greyhounds are calmer than Hindu cows, some of them are tiny little firecrackers that you learn to love regardless of their snarly faces.

[Guest gurehaundo]

Six Pac was a little like Zuki. Six Pac would more or less try to eat everyone's food, and growl or bark at the other dogs. She was a pain! Ever since we moved to Washington, things have been a lot better. The dogs are fed by three people who do things differently. One thing that we are consistent about is that Six Pac must sit and wait several seconds AND give us eye contact before we give her the okay to eat. We have a separate laundry/mud room where all of the dogs are fed. My husband feeds the three girls first and the three boys last because Ace and Jac take forever. I can feed all of the dogs together except Ace and Six Pac only because they use the same table (elevated feeder). We quickly realized that in order for Six Pac to learn some manners we had to incorporate her as a member of the pack - meaning that she gets to eat with the other dogs. The five sighthounds were, and still are, very good about feeding time and giving the others his or her space. Six Pac is very smart and has learned that bad behavior gets her nowhere.

 

So basically, I think that if you change things up a bit as others have suggested, Mizuki's behavior may change. You're more than welcome to come over here and let her play with Six Pac to get some energy out!

[Guest zoolaine]

For dinner yesterday I put the older greys in the bedroom still but let Zuki eat outside of her crate - she did pretty well, tried to steal Luna's bread but Luna growled and Zuki backed off. Then in the evening Zuki growled and not really lunged but got up and took a step toward Jupiter when he rolled over on his dog bed - he was still at least 12 inches from her. So I got up and made her get off the dog bed which she didn't like - for a second there I think she thought about growling at me and then decided to go steal my place on the couch instead which I made her get off. Last night though she was up on the bed and got nasty with Jupiter again. I turned on the light and told her "off the bed" and she started growling at me. I had to tell her about 5 times and she growled at me 2 or 3 times. It was a little scary because I thought she was going to actually snap at me. I don't plan on letting her up on the bed for quite awhile but when I woke up this morning the little bugger was sharing my pillow with me. This morning we did the same feeding routine but I hand fed her - hopefully she knows the whole "don't bite the hand that feeds you" saying! Oh and she also put her skinny little snout down into my glass and spilled it all over the table I am finding my patience running out with this girl. All my other dogs the love has just come naturally but I find I really have to work at loving Zuki.

[Batmom]

How much exercise does she get? And does she have daily training sessions?

[Guest zoolaine]

How much exercise does she get? And does she have daily training sessions?

 

 

Probably not enough exercise. When she first got here, Sunny had been diagnosed with cancer so I did what I could but couldn't spend as much time as I would have liked with Zuki. Since Sunny has been gone (about a month now) she is getting more attention and exercise. This past week I have been sick so she has only had running around the back yard. I try to spend about 5 minutes twice a day with just her for little obedience training sessions.

[Batmom]

Drat, hope you are feeling better soon! And understood that sweet Sunny was your priority at that time.

 

For young dogs, more exercise is better -- mental and physical both. If she'll fetch, or even just chase a ball or a frisbee, see if you can get her running a time or two more each day than she normally would if left to her own devices. And for your own sanity and hers, keep in mind that obedience training doesn't have to be traditional stuff -- you can teach things like shaking hands, finding a cookie tidbit underneath an overturned cup, taking a bow, etc.

[Guest BooMooandDoo]

A tired puppy is a good puppy. I agree with Batmom she needs more stimulation. If she gets more exercise you'll notice that the behviours will change. I've dealt with two crazy, stubborn, bully greyhound puppies and I found that my sanity was directly linked to how tired they were. They push my buttons a lot more when they haven't gotten enough exercise. Leash walking not only gets the body moving the new surroundings stimulate the mind. It might be a good idea to take her out of the pack and out on the town for a good brisk walk.

[Guest gurehaundo]

Dude! Bring her over to my house!

[Guest Swifthounds]

She's about 9 months now, right? How old was she when she came to you? Apologies if I've asked or you've told us in another thread. My memory's no good until after my second

[Guest zoolaine]

She's about 9 months now, right? How old was she when she came to you? Apologies if I've asked or you've told us in another thread. My memory's no good until after my second

 

 

Zuki came home mid to late March, so she was about 5 months old at the time. Even then she was very stubborn and a handful. I guess I was expecting her to have a personality like Zali (I brought Zali home at 8 weeks and she is now 2 years old). Which I realize is totally unfair to Zuki. Don't get me wrong Zali was a naughty puppy too - she ate my couch but she always had a sweet personality. Where as Zuki couldn't give a rip.

 

I have another question for you guys.... If Zuki has snuck up on the bed while I'm sleeping (if I see her trying to get up I tell her no and don't allow it but seems when I wake up there she is up on the bed) do I wake her up and make her get down then? Her and Jupiter had another little tiff early this morning. Jupiter, who usually just ignores her, finally had enough and snapped back at her, which chased Zuki off the bed. And if I am trying to get Zuki off the bed and she growls at me what is the best way to handle it? I really don't know if she would bite me or not when she gets in that crazy dog mode.

[Batmom]

If you wake up and she's up there and you didn't invite her, then yes, off she goes. If she's going to be a butt, clip a leash on first -- puts more distance between you and the sharp end.

 

Does she know any commands? Most often I prefer to redirect and then praise for the desired behavior ("Go lie down [on your own bed] ... Good girl!") rather than using "No" a lot. I realize this may be difficult with a wild young thing .

[Guest BooMooandDoo]

Can you keep her out of your bedroom at night? Baby gate her in another room with a super cooshie dog bed? Crate her at night? It doesn't sound like she respects you and it seems you're a bit scared of her. She knows this and is using it to her advantage. The best way to get her out of your bed is not allow her in it in the first place . . .(granted this comes from someone who has tried for 4 years to get a 90lb grey out of my own bed. . so what do I know )

[Guest Swifthounds]

If you wake up and she's up there and you didn't invite her, then yes, off she goes. If she's going to be a butt, clip a leash on first -- puts more distance between you and the sharp end.

 

Does she know any commands? Most often I prefer to redirect and then praise for the desired behavior ("Go lie down [on your own bed] ... Good girl!") rather than using "No" a lot. I realize this may be difficult with a wild young thing .

 

[Guest zoolaine]

She knows sit, shake, wait, & take it, we are still working on down. She does well with "off" when she is on the couch and not so well when up on the bed, although eventual will get off. There is a bell on the back door that she rings when she wants to go out. I make her sit before I will let her out and I usually have to tell her about 5 times and she gives me that little stubborn look before finally doing it - amazing how I only need to tell her 1 time when I have a treat in my hand.

 

The past couple of meals I have left her out while getting everything ready - she will counter surf and try to steal someones food with me standing right there - as soon as she jumps on the counter I put her in her crate - hopefully she will make the association and decide it's not worth it.

 

I don't think she respects me at all. She will totally walk right up and try to steal food off my plate. And will try over and over and over - usually I end up putting her in the crate after the 2nd or 3rd time. And I can't tell you how many times she has put her snout in my glass and spilled my drink over the past week. With all the other dogs 1 or 2 "no"'s is all it takes and they back off and leave me alone.