dominance issues

Hi everyone

I haven't posted for a while, had tons going on with the humans of the household lol!

However, now Zac is starting to exhibit dominance with other dogs and just wondered how I should handle it. He used to sniff and wag his tail but now I've noticed that with males he has started to growl and bark too. He did it today with a lovely rottie who he knows and usually greets nicely! He was trying to put his paws on the other dog and raise himself up.

He is 1 next week and I'm wondering if this is an age thing and what I can do to stop him from doing it?

Any advice gratefully received x x

Probably an age thing. I'd verbally correct him & give him something else to think about - a command, or a little training - then try introducing him to the other dog again.

It could, of course, be the start of da, but only time will tell.

He is a teenage hooligan going through his second fear period, this has nothing to do with dominance, more about being a teenage hooligan, trying to see what he can get away with.

I am assuming he isn't neutered so is approaching maturity, it is normal for many entire dogs not to be nice to other entire dogs. You know he does this, distract him before he starts so he doesn't get the change to practise this behaviour, he may do it to a dog that will turn on him so the quicker you distract him the better.

Caryll wrote:Probably an age thing. I'd verbally correct him & give him something else to think about - a command, or a little training - then try introducing him to the other dog again.

It could, of course, be the start of da, but only time will tell.

Thanks Caryll, I will try the distraction thing and continue with the verbal correction which I did when he has done it.

I agree that its an age thing. Charlie started doing the same thing at that age and sometimes still does now, although he does stop when I correct him or if the dog makes it clear that it isn't happy with it. I would just correct him if he does it and praise him when he stops. It is hard at that age, Charlie drove me nuts between 8 amd 18 months! Good luck

Cyril baby wrote:He is a teenage hooligan going through his second fear period, this has nothing to do with dominance, more about being a teenage hooligan, trying to see what he can get away with.

I am assuming he isn't neutered so is approaching maturity, it is normal for many entire dogs not to be nice to other entire dogs. You know he does this, distract him before he starts so he doesn't get the change to practise this behaviour, he may do it to a dog that will turn on him so the quicker you distract him the better.

Thanks for the advice, ill def try and distract him as well as correct. You are right Zac has not been neutered x x

shontelle wrote:I agree that its an age thing. Charlie started doing the same thing at that age and sometimes still does now, although he does stop when I correct him or if the dog makes it clear that it isn't happy with it. I would just correct him if he does it and praise him when he stops. It is hard at that age, Charlie drove me nuts between 8 amd 18 months! Good luck

Great another stroppy teen in the house lol ... I already have two human ones! I guess ill just have to keep correcting him till he gets it

Irene wrote:
Great another stroppy teen in the house lol ... I already have two human ones! I

I sympathise!

Thank you Caryll lol x x

I don't suppose you want another two?

You are on the right track with distracting and a verbal correction. We also stopped all interaction and had Suki sit until she was calm before reintroducing her to the dog.

Caryll wrote:I don't suppose you want another two?

Noooooooooooo

Damn! Thought I might be able to get rid of them..........

You can have my two and Zac if you like x

Nooooooo!

Like you, I think two are enough!

Yeah the teenage years are a nightmare -and Zac has now decided to join in with the attitude lol x x

The ideal situation with positive training is your dog never gets into a position were you need to correct him because you have anticipated what he is going to do. Written down that looks easy but it isn't, it can be very hard to do. even saying "No" is a correction and ideally the dog shouldn't be in the position were we have to say no.

Only you know your dog, you can anticipate when he is going to do this so step in before he does by distracting him, he never learns that he can do it then. If a dog doesn't learn he can do something it doesn't develop into a problem.

When I read "Correction" I wonder what has been done to the dog, to some it just means saying no, to others it can be a jerk on the lead, a poke, back healing etc.

Positive training means we never have to correct our dogs, there are consequences to the dog if he doesn't do what we want but that is different to a correction. Dogs like us humans like to be rewarded, the consequence to a dog is no reward, this encourages a dog to do what we want, a correction doesn't and if done wrong, a correction can spoil the bonding with our dogs and confuse them.

Nobody is perfect, life would be very dull then, I usually shout "NO" when I see Dolly disapearing over the fence to see her auntie Laura.- Dolly doesn't understand why I suddenly shout, she probably doesn't hear me because she is focused on Laura. Dolly is 10ins high and the fence is over 5ft.

When a dog is focused on something like trying to hump another, saying "No" won't have any effect because your dog is so focused that he doesn't hear you, same if he has his head down a rabbit hole. Once focused everything is shut out apart from what he is doing.