Help me!!!!!

soph!

Ok my OH just came up to bed and was taking our dog off the bed as usual to put him on his own bed which he usually doesn't mind but 2 night the dog elmo got really aggressive shoeing his teeth and everything!!! He is the sweetest dog ever and Iv never seen him like this before now my OH wants the dog gone!!! Help I need advise on what to do!!!

Shanao

What kind of dog and how old? Did he wake the dog up or was the dog already awake? He could have just gotten a fright

soph!

He is 11 months old and is a mixed breed cocker and a poodle!! The pup was awake.

portgirl123

hopefully your oh was just upset and didnt mean what he said. id say more than likely dog was asleep and was frightened. which can you blame him if so for getting cross. i know i would.
maybe best thing to do is not let him sleep on bed. decide where his bed is and stick to it. your doggy at 11 months is now at that age where he is becoming a teenager and is getting strope. is he neutered yet?
i would with him have some rules and stick to them. hopefully your oh will calm down.

dave1982

Sounds to me like your dog was trying to set his place on the pecking order.

You the dog and the OH

It's a young enough dog my advice keep the dog off the bed and keep it in their own bed,

Let it know its place

Sounds mean i know.

soph!

Ya I think it's off the bed from now on!! OH is saying the dog is not right in the head cuz elmo totally over reacts every time I leave the room, house!! He gos mad with excitement when I come home won't stop crying I don't no what iv done wrong so don't no how to help with his separation anxiety

moving_home

I really can't understand the mentality of saying the dog needs to go after one incident one strike and your out??

what is he like during the day? any sign of aggression? you said this happened 2 nights ago - what has happened since?

did you have rules for the dog? as in does he know what is expected of him or is he let away with any sort of behaviour? i would say leave him downstairs at night time (does he have a crate?) and ensure that you are implementing basic discipline to make sure he has respect for you.

pokertalk

dave1982 wrote: »

Sounds to me like your dog was trying to set his place on the pecking order.

You the dog and the OH

It's a young enough dog my advice keep the dog off the bed and keep it in their own bed,

Let it know its place

Sounds mean i know.

yeah agree with dave, also have a look around his body incase he is sore or anything and maybe the oh irritated it . but deffo let the dog know he is not in charge if not you will only have the same problems in the future

dave1982

Poker raised another good point

soph!

It just happened tonight elmo sleeps in a crate on the landing. He is good during the day. He doesn't get away with everything but I am quite soft on him tho!!!

moving_home

soph! wrote: »

Ya I think it's off the bed from now on!! OH is saying the dog is not right in the head

o god lord

soph! wrote: »

cuz elmo totally over reacts every time I leave the room, house!! He gos mad with excitement when I come home won't stop crying I don't no what iv done wrong so don't no how to help with his separation anxiety

to be honest it sounds as if ye both need some help training him. I would recommend getting in a trainer or at least going to obediance classes.

what sort of food is he on? what level of protein? how much exercise does he get?
i have a cocker and she is very high energy and needs loads of exercise (she gets around 8k a day). she can be a brat if she does't get exercised properly for a day!

pokertalk

dave1982 wrote: »

Poker raised another good point

zing:D

magentas

soph! wrote: »

OH is saying the dog is not right in the head

that's an awful remark for your OH to make.
I suggest he educates himself before coming out with rediculous comments like that.

Your dog needs to know where he can or cannot sleep. If you bring him up to sleep on the bed and then your OH gives out to him for doing so, it's sending mixed signals to the dog and this confusion could lead to aggression.

Your dog may feel closer to you/scared of your OH and felt like he was defending you.

If dog was asleep he may just have got a fright.

Or it could be any number of other reasons.

However, every dog needs to know their boundaries. Allow him to sleep on your bed, or not. At his age he may be finding his feet as he is in his "teenage years"! he may challenge you but you need to let him know who's in charge. Any of these issues can easily be rectified with a little training.
IMO a trained dog is a happy dog.
He won't mind not been in the bed if you give him his own designated area for sleep but it must be clearly defined and both yourself and OH need to implement these rules.

wanting the dog gone because of a single minor incident is extremely rash.
hopefully you can get in touch with a good trainer and yourself, OH and elmo will be one big happy family again in no time!

Good luck:)

LucyBliss

There are certain stages in a dog's development where he will try to best the owner. Some dogs will bare their teeth at you, others will bark at you, while others will just wilfully ignore you. Some do all three.

The worst thing you can do in this situation is get scared or angry because then the dog thinks "hell yeah! I pwned their asses! Go me!"

If by taking the dog off the bed, you mean lifted the dog off, then that has to stop. If you are to teach the dog boundaries, you need to be give the command and the dog jumps off the bed. I'm not a big fan of having to touch the dog to get them off furniture unless the dog is sitting on my lap or right beside me. In that case, the dog is well used to my presence and I give the dog a quick gentle rub so that I'm not just grabbing the dog. To be honest, if I were lying comfortable on the bed and someone pulled me or started to move me, they'd be lucky to get away with me just baring my teeth. Why should the dog like it any less?

I find a combo of lifting the bedclothes and issuing the command works for when my boyo decides that my bed is the best ever and he is not getting off for love or money. Doesn't happen often but he chances his arm every now and then because he loves his comfort.

When training dogs at this age, you really have to develop an attitude of 'whatever, I'm not interested in your sh*t behaviour, do as you're told'.

There's nothing wrong with a dog being delighted to see you when you walk in the door. I have one who would jump into my arms if I let her. To rid of her that, I would have to seriously break her spirit but why would I do that? But I do use treats to focus her attention on that when I walk in and less on the going bonkers. She sits, she waits, she gets a treat. Then I give her plenty of attention and she's happy. I also find it beneficial that I give them the bed command when I leave so they're sitting or lying calmly (or glumly when they realise I'm taking my handbag which means no walk at that time). You have to tell your dogs how you want them to behave. They want to be told, that's the thing! It's up to us to step up and give them what they need, otherwise we're failing them, not the other way around.

To be honest, wanting the dog gone after one incident is a little extreme. It's okay to be soft with your dog (heck, I'm completely liberal with mine!) but softness doesn't have to equate pushover. There are some boundaries and rules that I insist on from my dogs. Nothing major, basic good manners. Once they follow them, they get all the hugs and kisses and walks and treats and toys I can possibly give them!

Don't let this incident dictate your future relationship with your dog. Handled correctly, it's a storm in a teacup. Best of luck!

moving_home

magentas wrote: »

that's an awful remark for your OH to make.
I suggest he educates himself before coming out with rediculous comments like that.

Your dog needs to know where he can or cannot sleep. If you bring him up to sleep on the bed and then your OH gives out to him for doing so, it's sending mixed signals to the dog and this confusion could lead to aggression.

Your dog may feel closer to you/scared of your OH and felt like he was defending you.

If dog was asleep he may just have got a fright.

Or it could be any number of other reasons.

However, every dog needs to know their boundaries. Allow him to sleep on your bed, or not. At his age he may be finding his feet as he is in his "teenage years"! he may challenge you but you need to let him know who's in charge. Any of these issues can easily be rectified with a little training.
IMO a trained dog is a happy dog.
He won't mind not been in the bed if you give him his own designated area for sleep but it must be clearly defined and both yourself and OH need to implement these rules.

wanting the dog gone because of a single minor incident is extremely rash.
hopefully you can get in touch with a good trainer and yourself, OH and elmo will be one big happy family again in no time!

Good luck:)

this was all the stuff i wanted to say but you put it much more eloquently!!

the boundaries is a big thing in my book - little things like my doggie will always let myself and OH through the door and wait to be told "Ok" before she comes through make all the difference. I agree that a trained dog is a happy dog!!

Xplor.er

soph! wrote: »

Ok my OH just came up to bed and was taking our dog off the bed as usual to put him on his own bed which he usually doesn't mind but 2 night the dog elmo got really aggressive shoeing his teeth and everything!!! He is the sweetest dog ever and Iv never seen him like this before now my OH wants the dog gone!!! Help I need advise on what to do!!!

do you pamper the dog, treats, playing, petting? if so then the dog could be mentaly attached to you. when he sees your OH with you he get jealous and sees him as a threat.

it would do no harm in putting him out of your room altogether.

keep an eye one him if he does it again, see who is around the dog, what is going on around him. can help find the cause

good luck

barbiegirl

We have a similar problem, with our 7 month old pup, jack russel/cavalier king charles cross, expecially when he is dug in somewhere comfy to sleep, so we decided to nip it in the bud, and contacted Emmeline of citizen canine, you'll find her if you google. She came yesterday and worked with us and the little man, it is work to convince him that it's good when we ask him to move, but we will get there, following her rules and suggestions.
I would advice a proper trainer. She costs €100 for 2 hours which when you consider the life time of the dog is not that much.
Best of luck.

Galway K9

soph! wrote: »

. He doesn't get away with everything but I am quite soft on him tho!!!

Theres your prob.

Galway K9

barbiegirl wrote: »

We have a similar problem, with our 7 month old pup, jack russel/cavalier king charles cross, expecially when he is dug in somewhere comfy to sleep, so we decided to nip it in the bud, and contacted Emmeline of citizen canine, you'll find her if you google. She came yesterday and worked with us and the little man, it is work to convince him that it's good when we ask him to move, but we will get there, following her rules and suggestions.
I would advice a proper trainer. She costs €100 for 2 hours which when you consider the life time of the dog is not that much.
Best of luck.

2 hours???? wtf...what she do exactly? the fella must been bored...was this a dog listener?

reeta

Hi, the exact same thing happened a couple of weeks ago in my house. Dog (cocker/springer spaniel, 11 months old) lying on bed, teenage son came in to move him off the bed (I was also lying on it) and she got extremely aggressive. We had seen this building up over the last couple of months. It was quite scary to see her react like that. The dog is extremely attached to me also. So we got a dog behavourist in (€70.00 for about two hours). It was great, she reinforced what we knew we should be doing. We started setting down boundaries i.e no upstairs, no sitting on bed or sofa, and the result has been amazing. She now knows her boundaries and place in the family. ! Also I was told to stop talking to her like she was a human which is hard, but she has definitely gained more respect for me and the rest of the family. You can make what happened a once off occurence if you start laying down rules and boundaires, its for her own good in the end as she will be a much happier dog.... Good Luck

barbiegirl

Galway K9 wrote: »

2 hours???? wtf...what she do exactly? the fella must been bored...was this a dog listener?

She is a trainer, but I think most of it was working with us to show us how to train him, so we were left homework.
So for him not liking being lifted up, we have to lift him and treat him, 20 times a day, because you can't always stop a child lifting him, so it's about making sure he associates being lifted with nice stuff.
Time outs when he misbehaves, such as his lovely high pitched barking (which rattles glasses), allow him bark once or twice, then say quiet, if he doesn't quieten, pop him on other side of door, saying that's it, with a leash holding him in place for 30 seconds. That has worked wonders :-)
On the him not liking to be moved when he's settled in somewhere, we have to get him used to being lifted and prodded in this situation with treats and going slowly. So far so good :-)
She doesn't want to stop all growling as she said it is the dogs warning system, just to condition him to liking the things that he currently doesn't like.
I hope that makes sense. She is ringing us in 2 weeks to see how we get along, but already, there's a lot less mad barking, a lot less jumping on everyone, and so far no escalation and in fact a reduction in his little growls. He really likes turkey :-)
All very positively led :-)