Growling & Biting

Here are some opinions of KerryBlues-L Newslist subscribers

Scott wrote:

Our otherwise gentle, privately trained 8 month old bitch bit me last week (very lightly) when I went to pull a meat filled bone away from her.

Tonite she growled at my wife when she pulled a piece of cheese away from her.

Do we have a problem here, if so what do we do?

Michael Cunnington <mc@INTERNODE.ON.NET> responded:

Hi Scott,

If your dog is growling and biting then you certainly do have problem that must be resolved quickly. Particularly as you have a young child in your home.

Here's my two cents on the subject.

Don't ever imagine that your dog thinks like a human. She is a dog and as far as she is concerned, you and your wife are just other members of her pack. Therefore she must quickly learn her subservient place in the pecking order.

How to do it? There are many books on the subject and my own methods are a combination of information I have gleaned by reading, advice I have received from others and arbitrary decisions of my own.

Here are some ideas that make sense to me.

Obedience training is very important.

Don't allow your dog to lead when the pack (i.e. the dog and family members) is on the move. When out walking make her walk to heel and make sure that you make the decisions on where to go. She shouldn't be taking you for a walk.

Make her wait until you and your wife have passed through doors before giving her permission to follow. If you are letting her leave the house for a spell of freedom in the garden, don't let her rush out. Make her wait for a few moments when you open the door, then give her permission to leave.

I do not let my dog have the right to sit on any furniture in the house and especially not in my favorite chair. He tried it once and my reaction was immediate and unmistakable outrage. A loud "NO!" and "DOWN!" was enough to let Kasey know that his place was on the rug. He has never climbed on the furniture again.

I do not let him sleep or even climb onto my bed. That place is taken by my wife and I and is another demonstration of our higher status in the pack pecking order. However, when I retire for the night, Kasey always puts his head over the edge of the bed and nudges my arm until I give him a pat and a scratch around the ears, then he settles happily on the floor by the bedside.

My dog is never fed any food from the table when the family is eating. This has more than one beneficial effect. First, it reinforces our dominant pack status. We eat first and we don't share. Secondly, by not feeding Kasey from the table we are not troubled by a "begging"and drooling dog. He eats from his own water and food bowls and knows that he will be fed after we have eaten.

Two other things.

I never, ever, hit my dog. My hands are instruments of communication and I do not want him to fear them.

My previous dog (An Australian Cattle dog) once nipped my thigh in a moment of excitement and I'm sure she regretted it instantly. However, my reaction was to take immediately take a firm grip on the loose skin behind her neck and give her a quick and vigorous shake while saying "NO" in a very loud and dominant tone. I then rolled her onto her back into a "submissive" position and held her by the throat while repeating the word "NO" once again.

I had to get the message across to her very clearly and quickly that biting me was never an option. It seemed to work because she never nipped me again.

To maintain my pack status I occasionally deliberately remove food from my dog while he is eating. He must know that I always have the right to do this, even if I should choose to eat his food. Once he shows acceptance of this exercise, I praise him and return the food.

If you watch young puppies and young dogs playing with their own kind, you will see that the pups often lick around the mouths of the older dogs. I'm not sure if this is some kind of behavior related to begging for food or if it is an acknowledgment of the superior status of the older dog.

Personally, I don't let dogs lick my face and mouth but I once heard an Australian bushman say that a good way to establish a bond and superior pecking order with a young dog was to let it lick spit from the palm of your hand.The theory made sense to me so I do follow the practice of spitting saliva into my palm and letting a new dog lick at it.

I hope I don't sound too Draconian in my methods. Let me hasten to add that Kasey and I are now the best of friends and he follows me happily wherever I go. At at the moment he is curled up at my feet and I am taking the opportunity to warm my toes by sticking them under his tummy.

I hope the foregoing is of some help.

Charlotte Crosswhite <rhiahl1@EARTHLINK.NET> added:

I would agree with most of what Michael has posted. I feel the most important command a pet puppy should learn is come. Sit is fluff and will come later. But the second most important command is give or, drop it. Celt picked up on both pretty rapidly. If you let the dog get away with it, it's a big, big mistake. There's an advantage to a Kerry
Blue as opposed to the larger Pyrenees in this though.

A Kerry has fall and a beard. Grab both and shake it out of their mouths and a stern no. I'd start with favorite things they like to pick up and tell them drop it or, give. I never back down from a dog that growls at me. I've landed on 150 pound Great Pyrenees and the shock of me doing something so outrageous gets their attention. With Celt he managed to get a chicken bone and felt he was going to warn me off and growled at me, he's looked at me with a little respect since. I grabbed his neck pushed him to the ground till I could get a hold of his beard and fall and shook it out of his mouth.

The one thing I would warn against is flipping a dog on it's back.This is the most demeaning thing you can do to a dog, it tells them they are the low dog in the pack. IF you do this, you'd better win, because if you fail, you are the lowest thing around. I would think twice about doing this. And I've never done it. At five foot, the chances of me
flipping Pyrenees are pretty low. And the minute I fail, I'm well, basically screwed.

To me it's important with multiple dogs in the house that there exists a pack understanding, it's nature to them. But, they need to know that their pack privileges don't extend to the humans, the humans are the heads of the pack. And my dogs KNOW I'm in charge.

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