Quote:
Originally posted by nononono
My dog's breed is routinely described as "not for everyone." And like an idiot, when we chose the puppy, we (I) picked this alpha pup, pick of the litter, instead of his less-beautiful-but-totally-sweet brother. In terms of alphaness, yes, with him and with this breed, it is a constant issue. I am the closest thing to an alpha figure (my ex- is completely inconsistent with him, which set the stage at an early age for the dog not to understand that no is always no) , and he (again a breed characteristic) does not hesitate at times to ignore me (they have an amazing thing of just standing nearby and looking the other way - it's so rude). He does not respond well to physical aggression, and I think the events of the evening leading up to this (he had been in trouble earlier and handled, which is never the right approach with him) probably set the stage. The only way to keep him behaving is to be the calm alpha, no-nonsense, but no raised voices or physical encounters. I'm not perfect at this, especially at the end of a long day, a stressful week, with two other needy things of my own underfoot. No excuse, just reality. He's been on drugs before, which didn't have a great effect, but I may try them again, after talking to a trainer.
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About six years ago, my then-husband brought home a dog that he had seen injured while racing. In fact, he carried her off the track, to the orthopedic surgeon's office, where we spent a small fortune on surgery and rehabilitation.
Problem was, we already had two retired racers at home already. And we'd already had a pretty established pack order going on.
Within 2 weeks of bringing the new dog into our house, she made everyone of us bleed at one point or another. She and our other (alpha-ish) female really went at it, in a way that was actually pretty scary. Our male dog got bitten once and let it be known that he'd stay out of her way. She bit my then-husband while he tried to rescue her from some metal grillwork she'd gotten stuck in. Me, she bit a couple of times for really no apparent reason.
I remember sitting on the couch with then-husband and having a discussion with him that basically went "Well, if we can't make her a pet, no one can. So the choices are, figure out how to make her a pet or put her down."*
I'm happy to say that she's lying at my feet at the moment, happily snoring away. (I am less happy to report that she is also farting up a storm.)
Some of it was dogged (heh!) determination to make it work. Some of it was stupidity. You've gotten pretty good advice here. Don't be afraid to ask breed-specific listservs for advice. My dog spent a fair amount of time in a crate and in a muzzle at first. It was a way to moderate her temper and her propensity to bite when she got frightened or overwhelmed.
I will say she is mosly a love now, except for every once in a while when she will bark at me or show me her teeth. She'll instantly be remorseful, and there is no question who is in charge in this house. But every now and then, she does slip.
Still, she's a good dog. And I'm not sorry I put in the work to make her part of my family.
*
I am not suggesting that we were model dog owners, or the only dog owners who knew what they were doing. But we already had 2 of these dogs, and were really involved in breed rescue and knew a lot about the dogs (both ours and the breed in general). At the time, it seemed like if people like us couldn't make it work, foisting her on someone else would have been unfair. At best.
