New rescue - entire male Pyr, dominance/aggression HELP!

Just over 3 weeks ago, my partner and I decided to offer a home to a male rescue Pyrenean Mountain Dog who was severely depressed in kennels, handled primarily by inexperienced staff who were scared of him, and in a right state physically.

We have another 3 dogs: Skye, 18 months old neutered Welsh Sheepdog bitch, Shiloh 11 months old neutered Welsh Sheepdog dog, Ruby 9.5 months old Rottie x JRT entire bitch.
Our existing pack has had intensive training and socialisation from pups. They know the ropes. They are not allowed to guard food or toys, and they are not allowed to play with too high energy. They all have recall, heel (off-lead) and all of the basic commands in place and are never a problem when meeting other dogs in the park.

Onto our new boy, we think he is around 4 years old, his teeth are bad but from what we can see of his front incisors, they have a bit of the 'fleur de lis' shape still and there is no build-up of tartar. He is covered in sores from the kennels, was a bag of bones when we got him and had a terribly matted up coat.
He was scared of rain and didn't like walks, he wasn't interested in us or anything.

We've called him Bear and he had no name. He did not previously live with other dogs.

Good points about Bear:
-he responds brilliantly to correction, and sometimes if his state of mind has already got too hyped we have to use a rattle tin and it snaps him straight out of it.
-he is submissive towards us
-he follows on walks, he doesn't lead
-he will happily eat his food within a metre of the other dogs eating their food with no sign of aggression
-he is brilliant with people and children


Points to improve (which I need a bit of help with):
-he is aggressive to other entire male dogs - he has already attacked a spaniel and is now muzzled at all times outside of the home - he is not left unsupervised with our other dogs and probably never will be - he is uncastrated at present but will be done as soon as his physical health is better
-his state of mind occasionally escalates to the point where he will growl and snarl at my OH when he is forced to submit, but it all seems to be hot air going on his body language
-he will curl his lip or growl at our other dogs, about 50% of the time (down from 100% when we got him), when they touch him or get in his 'personal space'
-he fixates on cats and small animals and would chase them


Currently our methods with him are generally noise correction, then touch ... and if this is to correct aggression and it escalates we will pin him on the floor on his side until he completely relaxes.

In the park, we sit him down and sometimes lie him down when dogs pass and keep his focus on us, we correct him if he tenses up and/or fixates. We are working on getting him to relax and ignore other dogs before he will be asked to relax and take it upon himself to meet other dogs.

Otherwise he just needs to learn basic manners (ie not to go round and drink tea out of everyone's cups ).

All in all, he's a lovely with a hell of a past behind him, from what we can gather he was probably used as a dog in illegal exploits (guarding a drug den or similar perhaps?) so he's not had brilliant guidance to begin with.

Here's the handsome boy himself:


So, I've never owned a Pyrenean Mountain Dog before, in fact I've never owned a large breed before. My OH has owned rotties, GSDs and labs so he has some experience.
I have owned sheepdogs/collies so I know all about the head-strong nature and assertive energy!

We are hoping that us combining our experience and working together is going to teach Bear a different way to live. He is already improving every day but some days we seem to go backwards.

And if people visit (as we live away from family, we often have family members visiting), Bear's behaviour will change and he will become much less submissive and become less tolerant of our other dogs. I understand that this is the common factor, but I don't understand why it triggers the backwards steps?

I would be really grateful for any advice or anything on the breed, the problems we are trying to correct and whether we are doing things right here or what we could do differently.

well done on taking on a troubled rescue case.

but you are building up a problem

your focus is skewed.

forget the dominance heirachy stuff, its irrelevant and doesnt exist.

your other focus re his heightened state is spot on

he will be carrying a lot of over arousal from his bad upbringing and kennels life, and you need to deal with this in tandom with his emotional state, in order to get his levels down. this involves sensitivity.

this means pinning him, scaring him with noises, and forcing him to submit is the wrong approach.

(btw, he cannot be a submissive dog if you have to make him submit?)

it stands to reason he would grown and snarl at your OH if your OH if perfoming confrontational moves on him first.

it will just escalate, he will growl as you are being confronational, you will perform a harsher rank based confrontational move, he will snap, repeat, he will bite, so on so forth.

you dont want to bring out the severe side of a pyrennean, they were bred for fighting bears.

Which rescue did he come from?

Thank you for your reply.

How is the best way to reduce his heightened state and regain control?

I don't tend to pin him myself, I'm aware I don't want to bring out the severe side of a Pyr and I will tend to body block him when he is being too much and wait for him to relax and submit, which he does readily after a minute or two, and then walk away. With no touch and no noise.

Is this right?

If so, should we simply use that method until his state of mind is always (or should I say primarily as no dog will ALWAYS be) relaxed and submissive?

He came from a boarding kennels where my OH and I were doing some AHEMs. He was recovered on behalf of the council when his previous owner's flat was cleared and he was left behind and he was rehomed on behalf of the local council.

whats an AHEM?

Animal Husbandry Extra-Mural Studies, my OH and I are vet students

The rolling and holding won't help as has been said.

I'd try and avoid all confrontation and use rewards etc a lot more.

Muzzle is a great idea and so is not leaving him with the others.

How do you train? I'd do lots of reward based training and build up a trust with him.

When people visit I'd put him somewhere with a LARGE stuffed kong and avoid wind up situations.

I'd use a trail lead in the house and I would diffuse and/or avoid all flashpoint situations with the other dogs.

Good luck with him.

rune

Can I ask which kennels it was? Did he have any paperwork from his previous owners?

Thanks guys for all of your replies. What you have said has made a lot of sense and the backwards days have been the ones where Bear has been pinned. I kind of thought that but it's hard to always know what to do.

I do a hell of a lot of reward-based training with Bear, he is given lots of treats, he will sit and down very willingly and just loves the praise. He has a very happy face and waggy tail reserved specially for when we do this kind of training. I should have mentioned that we will positively reinforce wherever possible and he does respond brilliantly to this.

If he is corrected, and responds, he immediately gets rewards in the form of praise and treats and it immediately distracts him from doing the 'naughty' thing again.

We do avoid 'flashpoint' situations but we don't let him avoid our dogs completely. He has even been known to cuddle with Ruby a few times, which is a massive thing for him.

I really appreciate the advice, hopefully it should keep us on track with Bear and he'll soon relax into and be happy all the time in his new life with us.

Just to add: his trust is really coming along, he's gone from snarling when we even touched the fur around his sores, to allowing us to bathe them gently (while keeping a vigil to make sure we don't hurt him!) and then licking us afterwards. He's a really rewarding boy, and I think we are gaining so much and learning so much from him. I just want to make sure that we are helping him to adjust, rather than going at loggerheads with him.

I could sit and ramble for pages on how he's improved since we got him and I guess I need to remember all those things when I sometimes feel disheartened and it seems like we've gone backwards.