Greyhound Becoming Aggressive Towards Me?!

[Brandiandwe]

So you've not contacted a behaviorist yet? And I've not seen you out and about. Happy to meet up if it helps.

[greytpups]

It appears that you need to work with her in a few different areas, SA, resource guarding and trading up, plus I suspect that if you exhibit some fear around her, she may sense it and this may also exacerbate the aggression.

 

Hopefully, the behaviourist will help, but honestly, I would have worked with a good one rather than obedience training giving the challenges you have. It's unlikely that tripping over her caused the aggression later, but hopefully, you can get this worked out soon.

 

Did you contact the group or anyone else who has offered assistance? They may have some suggestions too. Good Luck!

[Guest Janiebugsmom]

Just a thought, you might have her thyroid checked. My female JanieBug, is very aggressive off the pills. worth a try.

[JJNg]

I definitely agree that this is a situation that requires professional help. Has she had a thorough vet check and bloodwork yet to make sure there isn't an underlying health problem?

 

Growling and snapping in response to everyday interactions means that there's something very wrong with the situation and/or the relationship. It may be that there's something about your body language that's giving her the wrong signals. Or there's something in her daily life and interactions that's causing her ongoing stress. An experienced behaviorist will be able to look at the whole picture and try to figure out the underlying problem.

 

However, I can't emphasize enough the importance of choosing a behaviorist carefully. Many trainers without any specialized training call themselves behaviorists. Make sure you find a behaviorist who is knowledgeable and experienced in learning theory and dog body language. I'd suggest avoiding any who rely on dominance theory or any confrontational training methods. These types of approaches can risk making aggressive behavior worse.

[Brandiandwe]

The behaviourist I recommended above works with greyhounds regularly and is highly recommended.

[Guest nickyb]

Hi guys - sorry it's mad busy at work, so am only online intermettently (plus our internet at home isn't working yet).

 

Basically to answer all questions:

 

We haven't taken her to a behaviourist yet because, the trainer - who is a specialist in greyhounds and others suggested obedience training first (it's $800 for a single session with the behaviourist so we wanted to exhaust the other options first)

 

@Brandiandwe - we haven't been out to St Ives as we live over the other side of Sydney - we go to Tempe dog park, they're not greyhounds, but she does know the dogs there and she seems pretty happy when she's hanging out with them.

 

All our obedience training was based on positive reinforcement methods.

 

We've taken her to the vet and they've ruled out anything physical - but I don't know about a thyroid check.

 

The behaviourist is from SABS at Manly, our vet referred us - Dr Kersti Seksel.

 

I don't know if anyone has used her, but apparently she doesn't mince her words.

 

I guess our main issue is we wanted to give a good home to a dog that would otherwise have to be PTS - we were prepared to put the work in training the dog and

making sure she was well looked after (she is she gets walked 2 -3 times a day, is well fed, well cared for - and would be patted frequently if she didn't try to bite us :-)).

 

We both work full time and wanted a dog that would be part of the family, not one we were both scared of.

[Guest BrindleBoy]

This (almost) exact thing happenned with our girl, who is very sweet now. She was more timid and easily frightened when we first got her, as it turns out, she was latently dominant, which she was hiding with her weird aggression issues. We solved her food aggression by hand feeding her for a couple months. She too, was determined to be a couch dog...As for the couch thing, which was the most disturbing beause she would snap as seemingly random times (like when you've been petting her for hours, then all of a sudden she'd decide you were done), we stopped allowing her on the couch until she could behave. Something about being UP on the couch made her feel very important. We didn't lure her off the couch with treats though. We got very stern and grabbed her collar and clapped and told her no!! I'm not used to scolding animals, and with being just snapped at by my pet, the first few times it did make me cry. But she learned her lesson, and she only growls/snaps at her brother (other greyhound) now, which we can correct if it gets out of hand, but we usually allow growling as a communication mechanism between the two of them, as long as there's no biting. We just made it clear to her that we humans are in charge, and if she wants to be in charge of the dogs in the house, that's fine, but she is not going to be the boss of us. She really loves her humans now, cuddling with us daily, and starving for constant human attention. I'm not necessarily trying to give advice because there are probably many others here more capable than I. Your post just reminded me a lot of Pixie when we first got her, and I thought I'd share our experience to give you some hope.

 

(She still secretly pees in the house though. Just found THAT out. No success stories for that...sigh).

[Guest BrindleBoy]

Dragon. Would love to talk to you about this over private chat. Indy did the same thing and it still makes me nervous ( snap out of nowhere and I cried). Only really did it when tired or almost asleep. I don't get on his bed with him and leave him alone when he is lying down. The mst curios thing happened last night though. He got on the bed with me and laid at my side. I did not invite him he did it on his own! I was shocked! He does not cuddle! Of course I got out of bed because I was afraid he would fall asleep and my slightest movement would startle him!

[Guest Gemma]

I would definitely check with your vet as to whether they did a FULL thyroid panel. We had a foster with a history of aggression. Part of the problem was behavioural (we think he was mistreated at some point by a previous owner) but some was his thyroid. Getting him on proper medication helped a great deal.

[Guest Giselle]

I agree that $800 is a steep price for a first consult. (It's actually quite ridiculous, even in my opinion!) I wonder if that's due to a paucity of vet/behaviorists in your area.. Anyhow, I would recommend looking for an equally good behaviorist at a more affordable price, if possible. If not and IF this behaviorist is knowledgeable and experienced, consider it the best $800 investment you've ever made. Every time an animal gets the ability to repeat a behavior, that behavior will be strengthened. If, between now and the time you decide to schedule an appointment, your dog has practiced being aggressive 10X more, it will be 10X harder to retrain better behaviors.

 

One red flag that caught my eye: When your dog rolled over to show her belly and "wagged her tail", do you think it may have been a calming signal to back off? Dogs can roll onto their backs, revealing their bellies, and twitching their tails to say, "Hey, I'm really uncomfortable. Please don't come closer." It's different from a play posture. Play postures involve a more relaxed body and wide, sweeping tail wag, usually with an open and relaxed mouth. If it was the former and not the latter, it's understandable why she progressed to a bite. I'm truly worried that there's miscommunication between dog and people, so I think you should consider investing in a behavior consult with a reputable professional. Good luck!

[racindog]

IMO you will always have problems which will get worse as long as you resort to "bribery" to "prevent" "aggression". All she needs is for you to be a leader and take authority. I have found what you describe to be a common occurence with dogs. I don't tolerate it. I quickly take authority and physically move them or restrain them or whatever the situation requires. You are the human. You are supposed to be in charge. Put the muzzle on and remove her from the couch with authority-not with sweet talking. If you let the dog push you around for bribes you are going to ruin her and all the positive things you have accomplished so far. If you merely assert yourself you will probably be amazed at how quickly she "gives up" and responds and becomes happy and secure and does not challenge you. JMO based on years of experience.

[Guest Giselle]

And I can say from years of experience with working with severely aggressive dogs (albeit, mostly with Pit bull and protection breeds - not greyhounds) and academic research that the issue is not the dog "challenging" the human.

 

First, dominance is defined as preferred access to resources, and it has nothing to do with social status. Social rank, in fact, is extremely fluid and a higher social rank is usually not won by force. In fact, your social rank is determined by the deference of the lower-ranked animal. The lower ranked animal voluntarily shows deference signals: turning his head, licking his lips, looking to the side, or backing away from the situation. There is no force involved. So, if people use physical coercion to "assert themselves as a leader", I don't know what they're doing because it's not normal dog language. In fact, this is why pushy behavior from adolescent dogs get reprimanded by older dogs; it's socially abnormal behavior. So, why use it?

 

Second, the idea of "bribery" and manipulation requires that the dog posess a "theory of mind". In animal behavior, we have very limited data to back up the notion that dogs have a "theory of mind". As of now, we can't say that they have a sophisticiated ability to understand, predict, and manipulate our future actions. Bottom line: We can't say they understand "bribery". If we do, we're using our own emotional biases and anecdotes.

 

Third, aggressive behavior is subject to the conditions of learning. If the dog is allowed to rehearse the behavior - even with a muzzle on - there are neural connections that will strengthen the pathway for that behavior. It will only become stronger. So, take the example of the dog not getting off the couch: Even if you slap a muzzle on her and then push her off, she will still experience some type of distress and will display aggression. Even if she can't bite you due to the muzzle, the neural pathway that codes for "emotional distress = bite" will strengthen, and you'll only make the bad behavior worse.

 

The evidence we have in animal behavior is decades of research that elucidate the need to understand their body language and the necessity of understanding how learning theory can modify their behaviors. In cases of aggression, I strongly urge owners to seek a reputable professional with a strong academic background because it's a complicated issue that requires an experienced eye. It is costly, but think of it as the best investment you ever made. Try perusing through this link if you haven't already:

http://www.animalbehavior.org/ABSAppliedBehavior/caab-directory