Greyhound puppy aggression - reasons?

[Bellanash187]

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. 

[greysmom]

I've had two greyhound puppies and several under-2-year-olds.  Several thoughts.

Greyhound puppies are often misunderstood.  They are puppies, just like any other large breed puppy, and don't generally have the same temperament as the adults many people are more familiar with.  Adult dogs have normally spent months and months under a very strict training regimen before they come into an adoption situation, so folks have missed much of the unruly behavior that is a part of their natural personalities.  When you see a bunch of scars on a retired racer, it's usually from fighting on the farm with littermates and NOT from any tragic racing mishap.

A racing puppy at this age is still being raised on a breeding farm, amongst the rest of it's litter, in very large, long mostly outdoor kennels that gve them plenty of room to run and play (and fight with each other) as much as they want.  They get daily human contact, some basic leash training, food and water, and that's about it.  They don't really stop being hooligans until they're a year old when they begin their actual race training.  Even an AKC puppy is going to revert to the 100s of years of DNA in their make up - bred to run and chase, think independently, not bond with people much.  They have *boundless* energy to use up, and are really intelligent.  If you can turn the key into becoming a partner with them you can teach them anything very quickly.

So. Number one - Your puppy likely needs much much more exercise than he's getting.  Either outdoor playtime and/or training time, several medium length walks a day, sessions with various brain games and/or food puzzles, outings to a doggy day care or play dates with other dogs several times a week, car rides to new walking spots - any and all of whatever you can think up to tire him out.  With a BIG CAVEAT - his body is still growing rapidly, so you don't want to put too much stress and strain on softer bones and joints, so change up your daily activities so he's not always running or always chasing a lure pole.  And activating his brain with obedience training and puzzles can be just as tiring.  He also needs to learn to control his puppy impulses, so age appropriate training in "drop it' and "leave it" and "wait" can be really helpful.

Number two - along with a rapidly growing body can come some physical issues that can cause pain.  A conditions called Panosteitis can make the bones and joints painful both to use and if he's picked up.  He might limp on different legs, or hold one up, lick or bite at his feet, or growl when he's physically moved.  At this point, he's probably getting too big to regularly pick up anyway, so you should be teaching him a command to get off the couch (using positive reinforcement) instead of physically moving him.  

Number three - at this stage, for an owner, it's mostly being patient.  He's young - sooooooo young! - and still growing and trying to figure everything out.  As a greyhound, he's also not averse to expressing his opinion about things he's asked to do (this will NOT get better until he's older than three years old - my 6 year old still talks back to me like a teenager).  So I would urge you to not think of his growling and resisting as "aggression."  He's just telling you what he thinks of your request in the only way that dogs have.  Growling isn't in and of itself a bad thing, and you don't want to punish him for it.  If you take away his growling you may push him into another form of expression that's more dangerous to humans like biting.

Four - the best thing you can do at this stage in his development is to show him he can count on you - bonding activities like walking and training will help strengthen his ties to you - and using age appropriate Nothing In Life Is Free training (NILIF - basically making him "pay" for everything by requesting an age appropriate behavior before getting something he wants) can help reinforce that a human is the leader of his pack.  None of that I'm the Boss or Dominance crap though - a benign leader who has his best interest in mind.  Keep him on a strict daily schedule for all the important things - getting up, morning potties, breakfast, playtime and down time, dinner, evening activities, last outs, bedtime.  

Five - unimpressed by the trainer you're using, from your minimal description.  With greyhounds (of every age) positive reinforcement works better than any other kind of training.  If your trainer isn't advocating and teaching you how to reinforce your puppies behavior with positive rewards, and does advocate punishments and/or isolation for misbehavior, find another trainer asap.  Reward (lavishly) the behavior you want, ignore the behavior you want to extiguish.

If you want to have a different training input, any of the training books by Patricia McConnell are excellent.  You can also ask your adoption group and others who have adopted in your area for trainers using positive reinforcement only techniques.

Puppies can be such a joy, and so very difficult.  Time and patience are your best partners.  Good luck.

 

[gracegirl]

Echoing what greysmom said here too. Greyhound puppies are….different. We just adopted a little farm girl last month. She’s 18 weeks now and she’ll growl at us to communicate. We will allow her to growl to tell us to knock it off, but at the same time she doesn’t get to tell us what to do. 
 

Some things you might try are using high value treats (peanut butter or lunch meat or cheese) to move her off the couch. Toss a treat off the couch, reinforce by saying “off” as she gets off to go get it. 
 

You could also take her couch privileges away all together 

 

Last you could get a 12” traffic handle to keep on her at all times and use that when you need to move her around. 
 

I can promise you that if she were aggressive, she would break the skin and leave marks. She’s testing you. These pups are stubborn and will push to see what you’ll let them get away with. When Poppy growls at us, we say matter of factly “you are not the boss, I am the boss, knock it off” and we make her do what we want her to do. She’s definitely in her “testing boundaries” phase right now. I look at her every day and thank god that she’s cute so that I don’t open the front door and let her go find a new family. (Super kidding about this, I would never). 
 

We are going to start taking her to doggie daycare twice a week next week to get some of that energy out. A sleeping puppy is a good puppy.