How would you correct this?

[MaryP]

Here is a video I shot yesterday of my newest foster dog at the park with our other dogs and fosters. As you can see from the video, Fynn has a rude habit of doing "drive by's" with my dog, Charlie. Last weekend when he was doing this at the beach, Charlie corrected him pretty severely and I thought that would have taught Fynn a lesson. He stopped doing the rude behavior for the remainder of the time we were at the beach. But, the next day, it was like he had completely forgotten about the tough correction he had received from Charlie the day before.

 

How would you correct this? Or, should I just let Charlie handle the correcting? Charlie is being incredibly tolerant so far. But, I know my dog. He's going to eventually hit his tolerance threshold and he's going to escalate that correction and it might not be pretty.

 

[Sue R]

Dan has a tendancy to get "too rough" playing with Megan and body-slams can leave her yelping. Being largely deaf, I think part of it is that she isn't aware he's "incoming" until he hits her. What I have been trying to do is to foresee the behavior and give him a correction as he's making his approach.

 

When I'm right, he hesitates, slows, and doesn't hit her - and she's fine with that. Then, usually for a while after, his behavior is improved because he has been corrected. I am assuming (hopefully) that my being consistent at this will reduce (which it has) and eventually eliminate the overly-rough behavior.

 

Fynn may not be at the position yet where a correction will make an impression other than a dog-correction.

[Rebecca, Irena Farm]

I can't see the video but usually for this sort of thing I'll give the dog that's overstimulated something else to do while the trigger is going on. When I let the dogs out to potty, Sam has started turning and biting at the dogs going by - fixating on Lynn in particular. He's so intense about it that he will rush out first, then stand on the porch in a trance until Lynn comes out. They used to all rush out but this has really rattled Lynn so she moseys out now - but the speed doesn't matter anymore.

 

Anyway, I'm letting Sam out first and tell him to go potty. The second he gets that glazed look in his eye (usually just as he passes the threshold), I say, "AH-AH!! Go potty!" He snaps out of it and goes to his potty place. I had to really correct him sharply the first couple of times, but now he only needs a little reminder. I expect it will be a few more days before he'll go back to normal again. He's that age, it's okay.

 

Also when I first started correcting this, I wouldn't let the other dogs out until he was really committed to going potty. Then I started letting them out a little earlier, and a little earlier, until now I can let them out as soon as he responds to the correction. Next step will be to start over again, with all the dogs going out at the same time.

 

I have an unstable spine and knees and just can't have dogs rushing around not paying attention to me, not to mention the injuries they can do to each other running around being stupid.

[OurBoys]

Jake use to run by JJ and body slam or block him all the time. We called it Jake's version of football. What helped us was to redirect Jake's attention.

 

Everytime we went out to play frisbee, Jake would place himself behind JJ to try to antisipate JJ's move. I found out when I said "Jake, leave it!" and toss the frisbee to JJ, Jake would take off running to the other end of the yard as soon as JJ's frisbee left my hand. Because Jake prefers catching the disks as they are sailing away, all I have to do is pivot and toss. Jake still manages to get a body block in every once in a while but now, it's not often enough to bug JJ.

 

Using balls, I would start off just a few feet from the dogs. Call Charlie's name and toss a ball towards him. As soon as Charlie's ball is out of your hand, call Fynn's name and toss him a ball. I increased Jake's attention towards the frisbee by sounding more exciting when I threw his. I'm sure the neighbor's thought I was/am nuts when they hear me saying "Get it! Get it! Get it! Get it!"

[Stoga]

Not much to add, other than I can see why you guys giggle. He certainly isn't being malicious - looks more like youthful exuberance and, as Becca said, overstimulation. I like Brenda's suggestion. If that doesn't work, I'd let Charlie handle it (as long as he has good bite inhibition). It's amazing the rough - but bloodless - corrections I've witnessed. It seems like Fynn is ignoring the toys and instead concentrating on the other dogs; does he play with toys (Mick doesn't, no matter what I do)? Have you tried one-on-one toy time with him (I know you're uber busy) so he might give up on trying to be the center of attention? I know when Tip and Mick are playing, Calli dives in to be what Anna calls the fun police -- "too much chaos; I must get you under control, dammit!"

 

Fynn sure is handsome -- I bet he'd be a natural on stock.

[MaryP]

does he play with toys

 

He does, but when other dogs are present, especially Charlie, he is more obsessed with chasing him every time he moves. Basically, he wants to chase the thing that moves. If he is the only dog and the toy is the thing that moves, that's what he'll chase.

 

The problem, though, is if Charlie truly gets tired of the behavior, his bite inhabition goes out the window. He can and has drawn blood on dogs that pushed him too far before. That's what I'd like to avoid, if possible.

 

Fynn sure is handsome -- I bet he'd be a natural on stock.

 

Donna, I would LOVE to put him on stock. He moves so pretty and I know, I know, I know that his performance on a field with a couple of Jolly Balls doesn't mean he'd be any good on stock, but I just would love to try. Unfortunately, I don't have any affordable access to stock, really. He already has a home lined up for him, which is good, but if I were in the market for another dog, I'd be giving him some serious consideration. If he were MY dog, I think I would HAVE to find some stock to try him out on.

[desertranger]

I have the same problem with Jin. He sacks Abby like a quarterback sometimes knocking her over. It's really hard on Abb y when she's wearing a pack. I have noticed that Jin usually does this when on a walk with out a ball or frisbee. My guess is he wants something to do. If I see it going ot hjappen I can usually call it off with a No! or Leave her.

 

I have to agree with Stoga on just wanting to play and Mary on Jins going after anything that moves.

[Root Beer]

Dean did that with Speedy when we first adopted him, and that was simply not going to be allowed.

 

I did separate play sessions for quite a long time and really got Dean more and more toy motivated. Eventually he did become more interested in the toy and stopped trying to body slam Speedy.

 

Indoors, if he did that, I put him on leash and made him sit on the futon with me for a while. I was perfectly nice to him - petted him and talked to him normally. But he had to earn his freedom to play by playing with Speedy appropriately.

 

It all came together and the attempted body slamming did stop.

 

I hope you find what will work for you and Fynn.

[Alaska]

I'm with Kristine. I consider that rude behavior, and I consider it the responsibility of the pack leader (i.e. the human) to put a stop to it.

 

Many of the suggestions others have offered I would call "management", i.e. steps one can take to temporarily interrupt the behavior, which is what I would do in the interim until I came up with a strategy for eliminating the dog's desire to do it at all. I don't have a specific plan to offer, but most of the plans I've seen for dealing with this involve refocusing the offending dog on the human (as play partner) rather than on another dog, which is pretty much what Kristine did. It's basically the same advice you'd give someone with a new puppy: limit access to other dogs until the bond with the human is sufficiently well established.

 

"Correcting" a dog for this behavior hasn't worked for me, but I'll bet Lenajo will be along shortly with another viewpoint (which I respect).

[Bordercentrics]

If it is just rudenessI would let Charlie take care of it. You know Charlie, and if you know that he will not actually hurt Fynn, then I think that is the way to go. If you want to just manage the situation until Fynn leaves for his new home, then I would give him separate play sessions. The one -on-one time is good for them anyway. I have never had dogs that could take part in a group play session for various reasons, so we don't have them. Charlie may be like our Meg. When she finally corrects a youngster, she SOUNDS like she is killing them, but there is not a mark on them, ever. And they turn into polite and happy playmates.

 

Kathy Robbins