Dominance Issues...

[cricketsmygirl]

Wow, so it's been a while and my life has been busy as heck lately. I'm back one Chaz for good though and have really missed everyone. Now the point of the thread as said in the title is I'm having some dominance issues with Diesel who to refresh everyone is an 11 month old American Pit Bull Terrier...

Diesel has been very roudy lately, pinning the other dogs down and growling at them and he will not listen to any commands at the moment. Not even known ones....It takes me ten minutes of hell just to get him to sit. He will not wait at the door anymore and darts out it, if he can get by fast enough, he will no longer stay in the yard. He barks at everything (AGAIN) and has just been terrible. I'm honestly at my wits end and would love some help with him! If anyone has any advice or if there's anyone in the Michigan area close that is willing to help it would be great. Thanks everyone,

Malissa.

 

[Dog Connections]

It sounds like Diesel is getting in the terrible 2: Terrible Teenage Years.
You say in your message that you have been really busy lately! May be he is sending you a message?
How about some one on one time with Diesel? It does not have to be very long may half an hour. A little play where you reinforce the basic training.

I had an issue like that in a multi dog house where I was house/dogsitting. Sometimes all they need is a little special time.

I hope that helps a bit.

 

[Artfish]

11 months old? Seems to have forgotten all training? Acting like a drunken college frat boy? Yep, sounds about right!

Time to step up on EVERYTHING for this boy. Make NILIF a constant part of his life. Double or triple the physical exercise he gets and quadruple the MENTAL exercise. Running around the field will tire me out but sit me down in front of a calculus exam and I will sleep for days afterward! Same with dogs. Work on obedience separately from the other dogs until he is reliable, then make him work around one other dog, then when he is reliable with another dog, he can be with all your dogs. In high distractions, use REALLY GOOD TREATS. Save the Milkbones for sits in a sterile room, time to break out the freshly fried bacon, decadent Hungarian sausage, sharp cheddar, pieces of pizza, squeeze cheese from a can, whatever your dog will go crazy for. Do you clicker train? Clicker training may seriously help you out here.

Doors are a biggie- huge life-safety issue. Start by sitting Diesel by the door as if you were going to go out for a walk. Clip on his leash, put on your shoes, etc. Arm yourself with fantastic treats. Put him in a sit, then reach for the door. If he stays sitting, great! Treat him. If he breaks, correct him in a means fit for your dog (some need only verbal, some need physical, know your dog), make sure he is back in position, then try again. He will soon figure out that his butt lifting off the ground before you give the release gives him zero freedom. Continue this procedure until you have have the door wide open. If he gives you eye contact, jackpot him with treats. When it comes time to releasing to go out, enforce mandatory eye contact and a POLITE exit! Rushing out like a mushing team should not be rewarded. My dog still gets wild hairs up his butt and if he rudely exits, we immediately go back inside and start over. It doesn't happen often and would happen less if everyone in the household was consistent.......

Make sure also that positions like sit, down, etc are reinforced until YOU release the dog- no more requesting a sit and allowing the dog to break whenever he wants. This is a major problem and again one that I have with consistency in the household. "Sit" means "Sit your butt firmly to the floor and do not move unless I release you or give you further instructions." Same with "down." The goal is, I should be able to drop the leash and do jumping jacks and backflips around and over my dog and he should be waiting for the magic release word before we go anywhere.

Stick to your guns, increase the training and exercise, and remember, this too shall pass!!

 

[cricketsmygirl]

I've actually been busy with school and the kids, the dogs each get an hour alone with me and I do work on the basics...he just isn't interested in the least bit lately.

 

[Artfish]

Also want to add that while he has "conveniently forgotten" all obedience, you may want to keep him on a long drag line (handleless leash of at least 15' long) so you have a means to control and enforce obedience.

Finally, pick up this book: Control Unleashed by Leslie McDevitt. I have done bits and pieces of this program but am getting ready to do the full deal on my own before implementing it in training classes and I tell you, this is awesome and amazing. I am saving up for the DVDs!

 

[cricketsmygirl]

Thanks Artfish, I have been working hard with him. He is just very bull headed, no pun intended lol.

 

[Artfish]

I have the same thing. Stubborn, hard headed dogs... they sure make you want to bang your head on the wall!

Does Diesel eat his meal with gusto? If so, that's a FANTASTIC way to train. When I fed kibble, this was how meals were done and it does make a huge difference.

Protocol for relaxation
This is Dr. Karen Overall's Protocol for Relaxation. I did several days of this before Life said "Hey s* happens!" but I could tell it was making a huge difference. Going to start it up again soon and my goal is to do a little bit EVERY day. I know at least one person who went through it with her dogs and said it was an amazing program that really did change her dogs' behavior for the better.

 

[Artfish]

Yet ANOTHER blurb to add....

My dog is in a constant nutty hyper brain fog when he is on any grainy, carbohydrate-laden food, kibble or cooked rice or otherwise. For a long time I did have him on a raw diet where he was energetic, drivey, yet relatively clear headed given his history and genetics. For awhile we had to do homecooking with rice due to giardia flareup. OMG I wanted to skin him alive!!!!! It was like someone took my dog and replaced him with a lab x malinois x border collie cross that was fed pure sugar! I couldn't get him back onto raw diet fast enough and within a couple days he was back to his usual high energy but NOT HYPER self. Barring health problems, he will always be either on the raw diet or a quality grain-free kibble.

 

[~Tucker&Me~]

...11 month old American Pit Bull Terrier...

Diesel has been very roudy lately, pinning the other dogs down and growling at them and he will not listen to any commands at the moment.

I just want to remind you that pitties are KNOWN to lean towards dog aggression. This may be a 'terrible twos' stage or it may be him showing his true colours. At this point, I don't think you should leave him unsupervised with your dogs. If you leave the house or are not immediately nearby, I would crate him to be safe.

I also agree with more exercise - a lot more. And as was mentioned, ramp up the mental part of them. Have upbeat, relatively short training sessions in which you practice simple commands and work towards new ones multiple times a day. Reward well and reward often for good behavior. Sometimes we forget to occasionally reinforce behaviors we ASSUME they will do because we have just gotten used to it. Once and a while, treat/praise that fabulous sit, or being calm.

Doors are a biggie- huge life-safety issue. Start by sitting Diesel by the door as if you were going to go out for a walk. Clip on his leash, put on your shoes, etc. Arm yourself with fantastic treats. Put him in a sit, then reach for the door. If he stays sitting, great! Treat him. If he breaks, correct him in a means fit for your dog (some need only verbal, some need physical, know your dog), make sure he is back in position, then try again. He will soon figure out that his butt lifting off the ground before you give the release gives him zero freedom. Continue this procedure until you have have the door wide open. If he gives you eye contact, jackpot him with treats. When it comes time to releasing to go out, enforce mandatory eye contact and a POLITE exit!

Actually, I think I would go about doing this differently. Instead of correcting your dog, let him figure out for himself what works.

For example, ask your dog for a sit near the door. When he does, reward him. Then, reach for the door. If he continues sitting, click-treat. Practice this once or twice to make sure he understands that sitting still is the desired behavior. If he does this reliably, move on to grabbing the handle. Click-treat for staying still. Once he has mastered this, twist the handle and crack the door open. Click-treat for keeping his bum on the ground. As you continue clicking-treating and he appears to make the connection between being still and getting rewarded, you can open the door more and more.

It is also important to help him understand the release. After sitting still through 3-4 clicks, give him your release and praise him when he leaves the position.

If at any point he leaves the sit position when not instructed, close the door (getting OUT the door is a reward so never let him achieve that if he breaks the sit) and in a neutral voice, say 'woops'. And from there, go back a step or two and cement the sit position.

Remember not to do this all in one session, span it out over a few so as to not tire him out too much.

Good luck

 

[cricketsmygirl]

Thanks T&M I appreciate your advice and yes I did know coming into this there was a chance of dog aggression. Normally what happens is he will be playing and all of the sudden he pins them down and growls at them. He has never tried to bite anyone and I can always get him off fairly easy, I do crate ALL the dogs when I go somewhere. They seem more comfortable this way anyhow.

Exercise has been hard with the weather, I don't go the normal which is 6 miles in which, we incorporate training as well however I do go three. And yes I know 6 seems a bit long for a young dog but it's the only way to tire him out, he wants to get out and pull the whole way. I don't let him however. As far as the door goes I will definitely try that. I went about it a bit differently in the beginning when I first trained him to wait at the door.

The biggest problem is no one else makes the dogs wait at the door, only me, the rest just walk out the door and this leads to not only Diesel getting out but my mom's dogs and my other two as well however my girls know if they do get out the door they come back as soon as I call. They have excellent recall. I have been working with them all on staying away from the door when guest or other people in the house are going out.

 

[elegy]

Normally what happens is he will be playing and all of the sudden he pins them down and growls at them. He has never tried to bite anyone and I can always get him off fairly easy,

this might be as simple as he's getting too overstimulated during play and you need to be breaking it up and asking dogs to calm down more during playtime. my two bullies can get too intense with each other during play, and while it's never come to blows, i think if i didn't intervene it very well could.

i don't think he's being dominant with you. i think he's being a teenage knothead. when he's not listening what do you do?

i agree with ramping up NILIF and keeping him on a leash or a dragline at all times so you can quickly and easily get control of him. i'd use all his food for training if you can. each mealtime work on obedience commands for his kibble. keep some of his daily allotment of kibble in your pocket so that you can work on obedience in little few-minute increments throughout the day. remember that mental work can be just as tiring as physical exercise, with the added bonus that it doesn't build up physical stamina, so you might try some clicker training, shaping type games, or even "find it" games where you hide a toy or a treat and let him search for it.

i'd keep everything very positive with him. i wouldn't get in a battle of wills with him. work WITH him and teach him to work with you to get what he wants. make sure what you're rewarding him with is worth his while. and be patient- he's a teenage boydog pit bull. it doesn't get any more trying than that!

 

[Artfish]

The biggest problem is no one else makes the dogs wait at the door

This will be your most troubling hurdle. Everyone must be on board and consistent or else your dog will be very confused and you will have a lot of training conflict. Can you sit down with everyone else in the household and work out some common ground? You may not win all the training battles but I think door exit/entry should be your top priority with getting everyone on the same page.

I agree with keeping things positive and just using a negative verbal marker to help the dog figure things out. My dog is a bit..... hard headed and does need the extra prod but he does know and understand the rules. Again, the problem I have is household consistency!

Now is a great time for group obedience classes. If you can, by all means sign him up! Also, if you can find a club for weight pull in your area, that might be right up his alley. He should not pull on leash, but if he is given a time and place to pull, that would be fantastic! He may be too young to start pulling weight now but now would be a great time to start training and getting him used to harnesses and having something noisy drag behind him. If you cannot do weight pull or carting, I find that dog backpacks really do wonders. As soon as I put one on my dog, he gets a "working mindset" and seems calmer and more focused on walks.

 

[corky]

Hi Cricket's

I have a Pitty-type foster dog. I'm reading and watching your thread for ideas. Corky has pinned one of my dogs a couple of times; I guess that's a Pitty thing to do. I like the idea of pulling and mind-challenging play times to tire out the dogs.