Need Advice with Prince - Page 1

Hello,,I was just going to send out a couple PM's to the the few on the forum that I trust and respect, but then I thought if I did others would not have the benefit of learning from the replies on the open forum. Also, I do enjoy hearing the opinions of everyone..

Many here know the history on my male Prince from the multiple threads posted back a while ago...I am not going to go back over all of that, but for those that know a bit of history on Prince I am looking for some advice.

Prince is still not friendly with those outside of our immediate family. He is 3 years old and still intact.. We don't venture out much unless we see the vet and we muzzle him for the outing..We have not had any aggression issues with him towards our immediate family, other then his belligerent attitude about being caged when company visits. At that time he does willing go into his kennel, but as soon as the lock clicks he explodes!,,He rarely does that with me because I will open the cage take him out and give him a correction when he does.

This is my concern. Last week I returned home from work late in the evening and entered the house. He came out of his cage where he sleeps to greet me and when he approached I sensed his posture was different. He was stand offish and I swear I heard him growl...Never has he growled or behaved that way with me so I chalked it up to maybe I startled him coming in late while he was sleeping...

Anyway again last night I come in late and enter the house and Prince appears like his normal self. I go up into my room to change and clean up and as I walk past him I grab his neck and give him a kiss. At that point I am certain I heard him growl . I took my knuckles and popped him on his nose. I made him heel and sit and put him in a 5 minute down..The whole while I am trying to make sense of this. I can't for the life of me figure out why he would behave this way. I know I have to address this ASAP, but not sure how to or why he is displaying this behavior with me of all people.....Thanks..

Deanna...:)

 

oh wow...i dont think any of my dogs would have survived post growling at me...
If this was my dog...actually i do that anyways w/o them growling...when i come home, i am usually dressed in business attire so dogs are not allowed to approach me until i call them over, I rotate who stays in the house, it is a privilege. So when they come forward they are allowed to see who comes in and than i immediately send them back to their room/bed. Once i am changed I usually try to sit down turn TV on, they are expected to stay in their room (door way is fine) if they cross they are send back, only once they lie down and relax i call them over to let them sniff/greed me and than we go into the kitchen and evening chaos begins...it reminds them that they are here because i allow them...thats just one of our routines, it was harder to break family members from immediately petting and getting dogs all worked up...
i know you have a history with this behavior and we are all so different, even w/o meeting you i would say you are a peace maker, the gentle soul, Switzerland (neutral)....i am sure you have your conclusions about some of us...so its hard to give advice or solution because delivery makes a world of a difference...

When & why did you stop "Nothing in life is free" ?

Surely all the advice you got on here way back was that
you had to kinda 'stick with the program' in regard to
Prince and his 'alpha' behavior ?

Are you sure he was growling?  Could he have just been vocalizing?  I would really need to know more about his body language and demeanor to offer any advice.  Is he in any kind of pain, hips, joints, elbows?  Not feeling well?  Are you sure it wasn't a groan and that he wanted to be left alone?  You know I am pretty black and white when it comes to behavior and training and what I will tolerate.  You also know that I am not a softie, more of a benevolent dictator with my dogs.  I think before you go hammering the dog for what you thought was a growl, I'd want to really make sure.  
 
My wife will hug Boomer and really get in his face and fawn all over him.  There have been times when Boomer has groaned and my wife thought it was a growl.  I have heard the dog growl and it was definitely not a growl.  He may have voicing his annoyance at being hugged, kissed and squeezed but he wasn't growling.  I had a white GSD that would groan when being hugged because she was so happy.  The dog was a rescue and the tighter I hugged her the more she enjoyed it and groaned in happiness.  My point is you really need to know what the vocalization is all about.  

I've seen more than one dog excused by a judge for growling when the dog was only "talking" to the judge. My own dog can be very vocal, she will moan and groan and even howl like a wolf when she's communicating with us, being petted, or hugged.

Good luck with Prince, I know how much he means to you. You got some really great advice here before and I'm sure the same people will come to your rescue this time too. Some of these dogs are just more of a challenge than others, but they are the ones that teach us the most I think.

I definitely 100% agree with slams post. But to be on the safe side I would go back keeping some sort of training collar on him as, if it is deliberate on the dogs part you need a safe (for you, others, and the dog) effective manor to deal with the issue.

Also dragging a dog out of its crate for aggressive tendency (regardless of the root cause) to correct them is something i dont like to do. It takes away the timing ability of handler and the dog is not in the crate for the association that its not accepted. I prefer to run a line or two through the crate while the dog is wearing a training collar. So it can be directed to sit or down in the crate. Obviously the obedience should be absolute and this way it safely allows you to correct the behavior using obedience with effective timing and clarity to the dog.

Some may agree some may not. Also sometimes those issues can be solved outside the crate as well. As it seems your issues didnt start there. However really would have to see the dog to give any sort of sound advice. As Slam posted above.


edit:
1 more thing: Be careful about striking your dog on the nose. I have seen more than one person get seriously injured from popping a dog on the nose. And if you have the appropriate gear on the dog obviously you wouldn't need to to this. There is no reason to strike a dog though i understand why you did in this case. And I would definitely not make it publicly known you did that as some would try to have your head for it.

 

I agree that hitting a dog is never a good idea.  I use my hands for praising and petting only, never for hitting.  Samael28 is very correct in his post.  Hitting a potentially aggressive dog can lead to you getting bit and bitten badly.  With this dog you can never relax and must always treat him like a dog, more importantly a GSD.....not a poodle or a maltese.  He need fim rules, strict boundaries and total control.  He will benefit from this consistency.   

Deanna,
Just read your last post.  Hackles and the tail up are not good signs.  He should not have his "hackles" up around family members or anyone else for that matter.  IMO, a dog that raises his hackles around people has an insecurity.  Unless, you startled him and he didn't realize it was you.  Even so, you need to go back to square one and work with him again.