New Owner of Adopted seeks HELP

[MomOfThreeAndZiggy]

Hi, My name is Marcie. I just joined today. I am as of this moment a first time Dachshund owner and I was hoping to find a suppot group! ..lol.. all joking aside I really do need some advice.

My husband and I got Ziggy from the pound. I have lots of dog experience but zero Dachshund experience. Apparently that matters.

Ziggy started out fine. Before we adopted him I ran some standard temperment tests. Looked good. Introduced him to my 19 month old daughter. Was fine. Came home... Still seemed good. Then the following happened.

First - Took Ziggy to my grandmothers house. He got along great with her Pem Corgi. Snapped at her. My grandmother is wonderful with animals so this supprised me very much. I corrected him immediatly. He proceeded to sulk for quite some time. He made up to me a little later and didnt offer to snap at her again but gave her dirty looks off and on and ignored her pretty much until we left. No luck that day with Ziggy and Grandma.

Second - Had Ziggy in the car. Was on my way to his first vet visit. stopped by my husbands work to pick up his credit card to pay for Ziggy's vet. When I pulled up I rolled down the window and when my husband reached in towards me Ziggy went apesh--. Luckily my husband had on his gear for work and he said he really didnt bite him hard. When it happened my husband immediatly corrected him and made him submit. But still.

Third - Get to the vets office. Stright out the car he's growling and lunging at people half way accross the parking lot. In the waiting room he was fine. In the exam room he freaked out everytime someone came in.

Now my vet apparently is a Doxie enthusiast and has many of her own. She didnt seem the least bit alarmed by any of this. Said he was probably displaying "protective agression" either because of me or my daughter or both. She said to work with him for a week and that he should be fine. She said however if he hasnt fine in a week then maybe i should reconsider.

So...? Is this normal? Or do I have a defective dog?

I am no stranger to dogs. I've had them all my life and even fostered them when I lived in WA state. Any other dog breed I would have said this mutt is nuts. Apparently people I've met who have Dachshunds think it's "normal"

Tell me what you guys think?

 

[DeafDogs]

I can give you a fair bit of advice, but I have to go to work right now. After work, I'll type a reponse!

 

[Cell]

I know some people think this is normal behavior, and allow this behavior in their dogs but this is not normal behavior, it is very anti social and could get him killed (if he tried to go for the wrong dog who happens to be quicker)
You need to get to the root of the problem, is he protecting you, or is he protecting himself? You should go back to complete basics, especially if he is guarding you as a resource. Look up some info on NILF (Nothing in life is free) training, basically he needs to work for everything he gets. You should solidify some basic obedience (sit, stay, down, leave it, go lay down). He should have to be calm and patient before he does anything (gets his dinner, goes outside, gets his toy. etc) and you should keep him off the furniture, and beds until he has learned his place. You may also want to get a dog seat or a car tether to keep him in the back seat so he can't go lunging at anyone. It is possible these are simply behaviors he picked up in his last home and he has learned this behavior has worked. I know getting a new dog is exciting but especially the first few months are critical in the dog learning it's place and what is expected of it, otherwise old habits die hard, especially when they are accepted.

I met a couple last summer in the park with a male and female dachshund puppy, the male was a normal loving puppy and the female was a terror, barking, shrieking and trying to bite my dog simply for existing, and they allowed it, maybe even thought it was cute. What a horrible foundation some people set in place for their dogs, no wonder so many are euthanized and abandoned. Any form of aggression should never be tolerated. Luckily since you said your dog temperament test fine, he has shown he is capable of being normal, it just seems some product of the home environment is making him defensive, which should be manageable. You will also want to make sure you exercise him a lot to work off a lot of that energy he is using for anti social behavior. Since his behavior is now under modification he will need to be in a controlled walk, short leash and potty breaks only as you allow. You need to essentially be drill Sergent which doesn't sound fun but if you are successful you should have many fun years ahead of you.

 

[MomOfThreeAndZiggy]

I know some people think this is normal behavior, and allow this behavior in their dogs but this is not normal behavior, it is very anti social and could get him killed (if he tried to go for the wrong dog who happens to be quicker)
You need to get to the root of the problem, is he protecting you, or is he protecting himself?
.

Well he acctually doesnt seem to be dog aggressive at all. In fact if he was that probably wouldnt bother me as bad. People aggression bothers me ALOT. I have been working with him on pretty much all you've said. One day that he had been PARTICULARLY BAD I made his do a comand for every single pice of kebbel he got for dinner that night. It took a long time for him to finnish his meal that way but I wanted to drive home the point that he had to work for me priod. Normal feeds I fill the bowl in front of him on the counter and have a pack of crackers (already up there where he can't see) and I eat the crackers to make it appear to him as if i'm eating his food and have "all I want" before I give him his bowl. He also has to "sit" before I put the bowl down. I'm still working on getting him to stop jumpping up from the sit though.

I have mostly owned big dogs. I only have had one little dog in the past and because I'd always owned big dogs i really did nothing diffrent. I have since learned it is common for people who are drawn to little dogs to "baby" or "spoil" them. I don't do that. Ziggy "owns" nothing in my house and he is not allowed on any of the furniture. The only exseption being if i invite him to sit with me on the couch. I start and end play time. I've been working with him on "pack walks". In other words making him walk beside or behind me everywhere. Maybe I'm just exspecting too much too soon but with human agression in dogs I have very little tolerance.

I was told when I adopted Ziggy that his family turned him over because they moved where they couldn't have him.

Hounestly, from what I've seen with his behavior, I think who ever had him got him because they thought he was cute and spoiled him beyond stupid. I think they made a monster out of him and instead of aknowledging that fact they just got rid of him. Here is why. When I first got him, aside from the aggression issues, he also....

-Jumped on the furniture.
-Curled up not just on the couch but would also get up onto the back of the couch.
-Jumped in your lap without permission (he even went so far as to jump on top of my laptop while i was typing just to be in my lap because HE wanted to)
-Jumped in the bed without permission
-Would contine to do these things repeatedly even though he'd been told "NO OFF"
-Nosed your hand constantly as if to say, "you are GOING to pet me".
-He is very smart (learned sit via a hand single in just 20 mins) but had NO basic obedince traning when we got him.

When I brought him home he didnt seem to recognize even the most basic of commands. He is learning them REALLY fast. But is not to a level of consistancy or controlability yet. And he's a year old. So you can see it's not a far streach to imagine the above senario with this previous owners. I think he was taught by them that people are servants (which is why he doesnt respect them) Dogs are domiant (which is why he's ok with other dogs.

I guess a big part of the reason I wanted to chat with you guys in first to make sure he isn't a "lost cause" because people agressive dogs are a big problem.

It's like I said before. I need a Doxie support group! lol

 

[DeafDogs]

K i spent 20 minutes writing a post for you, but the darn computer decided to update and I lost it all! bloody computer! I need to go to bed, I just had a 12 hour shift on a foot that I tried to plug a lamp into when I tripped over my lovely little Doxie (she almost got flattened!) so I'm very tired, sore and somewhat grumpy... but here's a couple of quick things.

1 - correcting his aggression and making him "submit" will not solve his aggression, it'll likely get worse. He needs to learn to trust you and your husband, not expect an attack.

2- handfeeding is a great start to solving resource guarding (which is what he's doing) Hand feed him his meals, making him work for every peice (sit, down, hand targets, high fives... anything really)

3- there is a wonderful book that will really help you deal with aggression called: "Click to Calm: Healing the Aggressive Dog" by Emma Parsons

I have a 6.5 year old Dachshund that I adopted knowing he was a really aggressive resource guarder... it took 4 weeks, and he's perfectly fine. He's also deaf and sight impaired. He was horrid, he'd attack anything that got near his food, toy, bed or his person... I was able to turn it around in such a short time using completely positive training and clicker training (using an LED light instead of a clicker) He's now a wonderful little guy.

oh and Dachshunds are cuddlers, if you dont want your boy on the couch, sit on the floor with him. they need that contact, they are truly lap dogs. I make them sit politely before coming up, though.

oh and dont take things from him, trade him for the item you want to take, with a higher value item.

I'll try to find time when I wake up to get a little more indepth.

3-

 

[MomOfThreeAndZiggy]

and somewhat grumpy... but here's a couple of quick things.

1 - correcting his aggression and making him "submit" will not solve his aggression, it'll likely get worse. He needs to learn to trust you and your husband, not expect an attack.

3-

Here is my question. Generally I've always used "pack" based foundations when training my dogs. Then the more positive behavior I would get the more "freedom" the dog would get. It has worked wonderfully with ever other dog I've had. But I compleatly see how dealing with a human agressive dog might now work out so well. So here is my question. Can I contiune to use "pack" techniques for other things just not the "agression" issue? Or will I have to find a compleatly new training method all together?


I very much look forward to your reply when you're more rested. Thank you so much for your advice thus far.

 

[DeafDogs]

Here is my question. Generally I've always used "pack" based foundations when training my dogs. Then the more positive behavior I would get the more "freedom" the dog would get. It has worked wonderfully with ever other dog I've had. But I compleatly see how dealing with a human agressive dog might now work out so well. So here is my question. Can I contiune to use "pack" techniques for other things just not the "agression" issue? Or will I have to find a compleatly new training method all together?


I very much look forward to your reply when you're more rested. Thank you so much for your advice thus far.

Foot is keeping me awake, so I thought I'd answer you while I'm still awake.

Your dog's aggression likely stems from not feeling sure of his place, and his world. he is unsure of himself, and feels he needs to control what little he can. Using any corrective based training on him will likely cause more trouble than it solves. Even when Boo was in full attack mode, I never corrected him, I backed off, and let him feel more secure. The only corrections my dogs get are being ignored, given the frowny face/ finger wag or being put down off the couch.

I have 5 rescue dogs, all with varying temperaments and issues, but the one constant thing they all need is to learn to trust in me completely. that is not done with corrections... especially with a stubborn breed like the Dachshund. They need to WANT to do as you say, not be forced to.

I also do not believe in the pack theory. Dogs know we're not dogs, they also dont have a constant position within a pack, and modeling dog behaviour after Wolf packs doesn't work either as they have a much looser pack structure.

Yes dogs need rules, yes they need to respect us, but they also need to learn that they will be treated fairly, and can always trust us to protect them.

The worst thing you can do is to train the growl out of a dog. A growl is a warning that needs to be heeded. why is the dog growling? what is wrong in his world that caused him to growl? Many "unprovoked" bites of children happen because the parents corrected the dog for growling but didn't respect the reason for the growl. what happens when the warning has been trained out? well the dog has no option but to bite. if a dog growls, something is upsetting the dog, back off, figure out what, then work on giving the dog more confidence in the situation the dog was uncomfortable with.

Learn to anticipate what causes the agression, your husband reaching out at you could be seen as a threat to the dog, so have hubby reach towards you, then drop a treat, but at a distance the dog feels comfortable. then work towards getting closer. have hubby carry treats all the time, and periodically walk over to you when the dog is on your lap, and drop a treat at an ever decreasing distance.

Do not provoke him, try to never cause him to fail, the more he practices failure, the better he will be at it. If you know he's going to react to something, remove him from the situation, before the reaction. then work towards having him accept the situation by working in increments.

Teach him alternate, incompatable behaviours. if he's thinking about doing an incompatible behaviour, he's not going to give you an aggressive behaviour. (he's not going to lunge at someone, if he's in the process of laying down)

Agression is unacceptable in any size dog, fortunately, it is entirely possible to train the aggression out.

and keep up the handfeeding!

 

[MomOfThreeAndZiggy]

Well after alot of soul searching I've decided to get Ziggy a therapist. lol... A bevioral therapist that is. Wish us luck. She said after her first consultation with Ziggy she'll be able to tell me if he's workable or not. That will pretty much make or break his fate. So here's hoping he's a rehabable case!!

I'll let you guys know how it goes.

 

[Elysa]

Any update on Ziggy?