Aggression...help!!

Hi

I wrote on here a couple of months ago about our now 7 month old boxer Mollie, and her becoming seemingly aggressive when she crossed over the road when on walks.

Fortunately, she seems to have overcome this, certainly when crossing over the road.

However, she always seems to have been very dominant, even from when we first had her at 8 weeks. In hindsight, we know it was wrong, but we bought her, having never seen the mother with her, or the rest of the litter. We visited the home on a couple of occassions, as it was easily 3/4 of an hours drive away, however the mother and father were always shut outside, and never seemed to be with the pups. The owner told us that the father sometimes played with them but the mother didn't seem to.

When visiting the owner told us that Mollie seemed to be the boss of the pack.

Unfortunately, looking back, we didnt realise the consequences of this!

She has always had problems on the lead since we've had her, putting paws on the lead and jumping up at us and growling. We have taken her to puppy classes, and learnt the basics such as sit and down etc, which she seems to cope with pretty well, although particularly when there is food around - the rest of the time it takes some persuasion!

However, we have noticed that she seems to lose it, the eyes glaze over and she is very difficult to control. In the past, we have always made excuses for her (hormones, overtired,traffic, food colourings etc etc). In fact, we changed her food as a pup from Baker, with all of the colourings to more natural products - on the suggestion of our trainer, and this seemed to make a difference at that time.

We have in the last month had her spayed (before any season as we were told this was best), and hoped this would be a way of calming her down.

However, all of the time she is still being dominant, particularly with my partner Julie. She is almost constantly jumping up and mouthing her, apparently trying to be above her in the pack. She is always biting jumpers and coats etc. After watching the Dog Whisperer ( I know from previous comments on this website that it is not always that favourably viewed BUT we are at wits end, to be honest!), we recognised a lot of problematic dogs that had similar traits to Mollie. Therefore, we have been trying to put her in her place in the pack, below the humans.

It seemed to be working for the first 3/4 days, but she has come back with a vengeance, being very aggresive towards Julie in particulr - even I haven't been able to control her tonight. She ran outside in the snow, got very excited, came back in, was jumping on Julie, trying to mouth her (which she has been constantly doing all weekend), bit her finger and drew blood, and then became uncontrollaby aggresive. When I grabbed her house line, she raised up on her back legs, put both front paws on it, and was growling, snarling and trying to bite me! Fortunately, we managed to get her outside and we isolated her, for a considerable time. When she came back in, it was as though butter wouldnt have melted!

However, putting her to bed later tonight, after tea and a good walk, she started again. Bribery with cream cheese was the only thing that would work to get her in her crate to go to sleep.

We are at our wits end with her dominating attitude and aggression. Fortunately, she has only ever been aggressive towards me and Julie and our eldest daughter (aged 19), and we have sort of been able to deal with her as best we can when she turns. However, if she were to ever go for our 2 youngest kids (14 & 9), I know they wouldnt be able to fend her off, and calm her down.

What can we do!!

Please help - tonights episode was almopst the last straw - she seems to be getting more intensively aggressive towards us.

As I say, this is a trained dog in terms of the basics, but we know this behaviour is unacceptable, and we cannot risk the possibility of her hurting any of our children - the way she is going this is becoming increasingly probable!

Please help - we dont know what to do, we want to keep her but we cant risk the kids!!

First the bibery wont help as your re-inforcing her being bad to get attention, eg telling her shes going to be treated for being bad.
Boxers are so usally good with kids, and readily accept them as play mates, have you took her to the vet for a check up? has she got a sore ear or foot, as when you took the house line the collar could have caught her ear.
I've had a bitch do this with me only once and I used a wee bottle with small wee stones in it to divert her attention when things got heated, that way shes not seeing me as the threat and backed off to which i made her lay down and praised her, maybe you could get julie to give her a treat when mollie is doing something good, when she jumps on julie to mouth her shake the wee bottle and say a firm no, or julie could do this,then followed by a sit and then a treat. i hope she settles for you it seems to me shes tying for attention,just make sure its only postive attention youre giving her, because attention in bad form is still attention xxzbxx

I'm sorry to hear you are having these problems, it can't be easy.

However the first thing that jumped out at me, was that you bribed her to to go to bed. I know it may seem the easiest thing to do at the time, however what you are doing is rewarding her for her bad behaviour !! Never give treats as bribes in situations like this, especially when it comes down to aggression problems.

How old is she now ? I'm sorry I haven't read about your problems before.

How long ago was she speyed ?

How does your partner react when she does this ? Do you deal with it, or does she deal with it ?

Are you both consistent when dealing with her, or does one punish and one bribe her ?

I just want to get a better picture.

Zoeybeau1, many many thanks for answering so quickly.

Unfortunately, we have already tried the stones in the bottle, they were suggested to us by another boxer owner. They worked for a little while, however, she soon got too used to them for them to make a difference.

Julie is probably the main provider for her, and is forever giving her treats when she is well behaved, giving her lots of cuddles etc, which boxers like. She had a boxer when she was young, and 2 other dogs since, and never experienced this dominance before - and nor have I

The main reason for having a boxer was the that they make such good family pets, being good with kids etc

We know its not right to bribe her, but she is getting so overtly confrontational and dominant that it seemed the right thing to do tonight (ok, not the right, but definitely the easiest, given how she has been the last few days), being in front of the kids, as they saw her turn nasty earlier tonight.

Never heard of a nasty boxer before, cant believe the problem we seem to have got with this one

Is it just that she is so dominant, she cant help herself? Is it in the genes - we just dont know!

What did your breeder recommend? And what was the temprement of her father?il pm you tomorrow im away to bed now by time you answere this hopefully more would have been able to help in the meantime xxzbxx

We are now both more consistent in terms of laying down the law to her, in that we try not to let her mouth etc. Jumping up has always been a problem though, and it remains to be so. She is still doing this to Julie (and Laura), and mouthing.

We bribed her tonight to avoid confrontation, and because we both felt so down about her -not right but the easiest option to avoid any more upset for us, Mollie or the kids.

Malady

Apologies, forgot to add she is 7 months old, and we had her spayed middway through October

You seem to be jumping the gun an awful lot, you may see a confident puppy within a litter but it certainly wont be dominant... that wouldnt ring alarm bells with me at all..

Bakers is very high in oh lets compare it too a little kid drinking fizzy orange all day get the picture?

You had her spayed at a young age again another attempt to control her i wouldnt say spaying works at that age for a breed that is still maturing... malady she does say 7months

At that age they are in the teenage stage of life and whatever you have learned previously may as well be thrown out the window and picked up around 14months of age..

Consitancy is the key, shes 7months now and can be let off for more free running a tired puppy is a happy puppy...play with her give her mental exercises to do..

I see no dominant behaviour whatsoever ok so shes mouthing she maybe teething so give her a kong to chew on, turn your back they are only babies at that age people are to eager to label their behaviour at that age as dominance.. Its a case of at times who screams the loudest wins and as you can see it doesnt work with a dog as they can howl much more lol...

I know it may have seemed the easiest thing at the time, but many people just dont understand dominance and many dont believe it even exists !

However, every single time you give in on something, that is one more point she has earned to knocking you off your perch.

With dominant dogs you really cannot give them an inch EVER !! You really need to be totally dedicated and completely consistent with how you treat her and never give in under any circumstances.

Depending on when she was speyed and her age, it could be hormones playing a part in it too.

Dominant dogs are stressed too, so any training must be dealt with sensitively, i.e, no shouting : this is seen as a weakness, and not something to be listened to.

I hope you get it sorted.

I was trying to give advice, are the rolling eyes really necessary ????

I missed the age part, is that a crime ??

Jees, lighten up !