Dominance Aggression?

[scottie777]

My wife and I recently (3months) adopted a 3 year old purebred Border Collie named Scooter. He is a great dog, and heas really bonded well with me, he obeys every command I tell him, he's very affectionate to me, basically a great companion to me. My wife on the other hand is having some bonding problems, and I must say she is trying with all her heart, but the dog is sometimes skiddish towards her and growls and shows his teeth. We have been trying everything people have told us about having her set the commands, not letting him go thru doors first, she puts down the food etc. it seems that when he feels like being nice, he is sweeter than pie, but when he doesn't, he gets this still face on, lowers his head and ears, and begins to growl. He has nipped her twice, and me twice(although i probably deserved it for bothering him while eating). She has never deserved it. Does anyone have some hints on letting him know who is above who, or are we not being patient enough. thank you in advance.

 

Scott Knowton

[Jessica & Nash]

This is a tough one. I wish I had some advice. Sorry

 

Jess

[cholla]

I sure was hoping somebody else would tell you what to try. On agression, where a dog is placed as an older dog with well meaning loving people but not dog trainers or under the direct supervision of one, I can only see problems.Boy, I hate to have to be so negative. First, a dog does not "nip", he bites. He will have learned (hopefully), If he was socialized properly, and yours seem to have been or he would not have lasted that long,that he had to inhibit his bite, at least a little. Do you know first hand, not "stories", where he comes from? Was that why he was given up?

You need to have your vet evaluate the dog and recommend a local trainer.It is too hard a problem to solve without seen it. Good luck.

[Niko]

First of all, you never ?deserve? to be bit for disturbing the dog while he / she eats. You should be able to touch him while he eats. You should be able to take the food away without so much as a bared tooth.

 

As to the aggression towards your wife, there could be a number of reasons for the aggression. The one that come to my mind is that you and she could be giving the dog mixed signals. Like Cholla said, your best option is to find a knowledgeable trainer who can witness the behavior and give you some advice.

 

I?m curious though, what is your and her reaction when the dog growls at her? Also, you might want to keep a note as what?s going on when this happens. Perhaps there is a pattern that you aren?t seeing.

[scottie777]

thank you for your responses. We had an interesting weekend, as the dog bit my dad pretty bad. I really can't understand him, its almost as if he is getting a little meaner, not that he was mean to bbegin with,but he was always a little skiddish with my dad, but this time he flat out bit him. Anyway, we are going to get a trainer this week to see if we can iron this out, I really want to be positive and think it is fixable. I can tell you a little baout the dogs history. We was in a neglectflu (to border collie exercise standards) for the first tow years as the people woned a small business and were gone from 7am to 10pm pretty muchevery night. He developed a "snarly face" which they didn't like and gave him up to border collie rescue. We got him from a guy named Wally who had Scooter for 8 months. Scooter did not give Wally or his wife the "snarly face" but he said Scooter may try it out on new folks seeing he is a very smart dog. Wally had many acres and 7 other dogs (one BC) so when let free to run Scooter had al ot of room. We have a similar setup except we have no other dogs. We have a couple of miles of beach that we go out and play frisbee on. I'm home a lot, there are some days, as we all have, where we have long days of wor, but I think that since we've gotten Scooter, lucky me has been home 75% of the itme. I definitley do more of the playing with Scooter, although whenever my wife is home she plays with him too. We have only missed one morning of getting up at 6am to go out and play (major winter storm - 70+ mph winds), and we play a lot so I feel we are not neglecting him even though we have jobs. We take him everywhere we go. I understand that animals look at things much differnet than humans do, and some of this pack menatailty / alpha person that I read about is dog instinct, but I alos thought that eventually everyoone figures out their place in the pack. Are we being too impatient and need to give it more time? We are not yet too frustrated, but would rather straighten the situation out sooner than later. The biting my dad think really does upset me though.