Fear biting? Please help!

[Jo_Jo]

Hello,

We have just adopted a corgi male from a responsible pet owner who had to decrease the amount of dogs she had in her townhouse. He is house trained and crate trained. He went into the crate beautifully the first couple times, but when he knows it is coming, he runs to a corner and doesn't come. I can usually get him in there with a treat or leading him with his collar. However, when my boyfriend does so, he rolls on his back and if he attempts to grab his collar, Kirby attempts to bite him. I realize that rolling on his back is submissive behavior, which is desirable, but the biting is not good. Any tricks to correct this? Does he just need time to trust my boyfriend?

[Zoom]

When Kirby rolls on his back, he's saying that he's afraid--it is submissive, but it's also a warning. It's not really all that desirable, because in this case it's showing that Kirby is not comfortable. Since your boyfriend isn't getting the message from Kirby rolling over, Kirby then has to progress to biting. Look at it this way...even though he's done it himself, you have a dog who is backed into a corner and is being advanced upon by some huge, deep-voiced person who "attacks" him even after being told to "leave me alone".

He needs time, your boyfriend needs to quit cornering him and you might try feeding Kirby his meals in his crate to he associates it with good things again. How long have you had him? He's probably still going through an adjustment period and if he came from a house with a lot of other dogs, he's not used to be alone at all. Now the crate has turned into something that means he's going to be alone, instead of just a safe place to hang out.

[lizzybeth727]

The only thing I want to add is, I would suggest not petting your dog when he lays on his back like that. That is seen as just rewarding and encouraging the submissive behavior.

[Maxy24]

Dogs usually submit when being threatened, it's not a good thing really. My Uncle's dog does that because she is usually dragged like that when being brought to a punishment so now if you hold her collar she crouches and rolls over out of fear.
I don't blame you most people don't think about what their dog is saying or they feel that by listening they are "giving in" to the dog. So first thing, you have to start listening to him and respecting what he is saying then work to make him agree with you on the situation so you can get things done.

So he basically says "please stop this is scaring me I don't like it" and then nobody seems to hear him and don't even give it a second thought they just keep going. Maybe he crouches or puts his ears back first. Then when the humans fail to listen to the first request to stop he decides to run. When the humans still ignore him he crouches and/or rolls over to show clearly he is very scared. The humans STILL ignore what he feels are very polite ways of asking you to stop doing this scary thing. He feels the only way to protect himself from what is to him a very scary or unpleasent experience is to bite. It tends to work too.

So what needs to be done is for you to see he is scared. You want him to happily trot in there not have to be pushed in there while he is scared and freaking out. Then get him used to going in on command. first take his collar off so you can't revert back to that when you get frustrated. Then sit on the floor and lure, bribe, entice, encourage etc. him in to the crate and give him a treat. Then let him out and do it again. once he goes in right away add the command. Say "crate" or Kennel up" or something and lure him in and praise and let him out. Repeat until he goes in with only the word. Then close the door, open the door and let him out. Repeat. Then do it and leave the room and come back and let him out. Repeat over and over. then Put him in with a Stuffed kong and go for a walk and then come back and let him out. Then you can get away with full amounts of time but always make sure he does not have to potty, has had some exercise and has something to do in the crate whether it be a stuffed kong or other chew toy. Also to give it a better look do as Zoom said and feed him in the crate.

Also do not only put him in there when you have to leave. Put him in for a few practice sessions of a few minutes each day so he learns that not every time is bad. For these practice session always make going in a good thing give treats and praise, stay in the room for the few minutes he's in there, read a few pages of a book maybe. This way he will know that the crate does not always lead to you going but is actually not really connected to your leaving since many if not most of the times he goes in it's perfectly fine and nobody goes anywhere at all.

Once that is cleared up start desensitizing him to having his collar grabbed. Grab it and then give a treat over and over. Don't use it as a way to push your dog around, I know it's tempting but it's really unfair to him.

Good Luck!