My new chi is having some dominance issues. We have had him three days now and he has been ok, no snapping at least, with my dogs and really sweet with us. We got him from the shelter and don't know a whole lot about him except he is an adult male. Well, today he went crazy on me. He was on the bed with me and I got up to take him out to potty. I told him to come on, but he wouldn't, so I went to pick him up. He tried to bite me everytime I tried to pick him up. He let me pet him, but as soon as I put my hands around him he tried to bite them. I kept telling him "no", but he wouldn't stop. I thought he was sore at first from the neuter, but then my other dogs made some playful fighting noise and he quickly got up and jumped down to investigate. I went to pick him up off the floor and he was fine with that. A while later today he jumped on the couch with muddy feet and I went to take him off and he tried to bite again. I tried to move him to the edge so he would jump off, but he still tried to bite. He put up a huge fight and finally just jumped off by himself. He immediately let me pick him up off the floor with no fuss. How do I deal with training this out of him? I want him to know that we are the boss and he has to listen to us. Any advice will be appreciated.
New Chi thinks he is Boss
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My almost 4 yr old Annabelle does this. I got her at 6 weeks old which I think has a lot to do with it. She has other issues too. I didn't know that was too young to bring a pup home. The way that I handle her is I never let on that she scares me. She can sense fear and it makes her worse. Also I NEVER yell at her or put my finger in her face. This also makes her worse. What I do to get her off of funiture is to go over confidently but calmly and pick her up pretty quickly. Not too fast and certainly not too slow. Basicly I don't really give her a chance to think about how she is going to react. By the time she is thinking about it, she's already on the floor.
I hope that makes sense. :? I'll be interested to know if anyone else has advice on this. Good luck!
I hope that makes sense. :? I'll be interested to know if anyone else has advice on this. Good luck!
He is timid, but he doesn't act scared when I am trying to get him. He just acts like he wants to be on the couch and doesn't want me to move him. I will try taking him off before he can think about it, but he really is a quick thinker. Once his feet are on that couch he is thinking about how he wants to stay up. His other owners could have been mean to him, but I also think maybe they let him do whatever he wanted. They obviously didn't take too good of care of him, though.
Mikey is the exact same way! He senses my stress and my fear. Both will make him growl and snap at me more. I have to say this though..today we were out in the backyard and he came up to me so I picked him up and I was petting him..when I went to put him down I must have scared him somehow so he started growling and snapping. I usually move out the way fast enough..well this time I didn't and his mouth made contact w/ my hand..the great thing is he didn't bite down, he didn't even nip me. So, I am wondering if all this time he has been putting up a front. More bark than bite.
SC you made perfect sense
SC you made perfect sense
I know this dog isn't sensing my fear because I am not afraid of him when he does this. I use to work at a vet clinic and have had too much experience with huge snapping dogs to be afraid of this little guys teeth. I don't think he would actually bite me, though, because he wasn't being completely vicious about it, just baring his teeth and going toward my hand. I don't know, we will just see how he continues to act.
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Both of my chi babies are rescues and I have had similar issues. The first two days after I brought Mimi home she wouldn't let anyone near her and would bite your hands, feet, etc. to let you know to get away. She seemed to get better once she let us take her harness off of her (it was too tight and was causing scabs to form!!)- the harness was on her the day we picked her up from her foster mom.
My advice would be to leave the dog alone when he is biting-just walk away. There are a ton a possibilities of why he might be biting. I have had dogs from shelters that bite because they have poor eyesight and are afraid of fast moving objects like hands, feet and other ones that seemed to have been abused, if not tortured. If the biting continues see your vet to make sure the dog is not in pain or sick. I hope this helps a little
P.S.-shelter dogs are special, you have to give them lots of time to adjust because they have been thru a lot of stress-don't give up!!!!
My advice would be to leave the dog alone when he is biting-just walk away. There are a ton a possibilities of why he might be biting. I have had dogs from shelters that bite because they have poor eyesight and are afraid of fast moving objects like hands, feet and other ones that seemed to have been abused, if not tortured. If the biting continues see your vet to make sure the dog is not in pain or sick. I hope this helps a little
P.S.-shelter dogs are special, you have to give them lots of time to adjust because they have been thru a lot of stress-don't give up!!!!
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My aunt got her poodle from a breeder that took him back from the previous owners.. (We think they were abusing him)
The first few months the dog would follow my aunt around the house and never go near her, nor would he let her pick him up. The dog was about 14 months old. She has had him for almost 2 years now and he loves her to death.. he will do what ever she wants him to.. sits on her lap, comes when called and he sleeps with her... He likes very few people. It took her a good 6 months to win his trust...
I live about 250 miles from her and go up there about 1 time a month sometimes 2 and everytime I go up there he will come over to me to be petted... See, she had him for about 5 days and I went up there for 10 days and I just let him be and when ever he would come near me(never close enough to be touched) I would talk to him. I wolud put my hand down by the side of the chair or couch and I would let him come to me and sniff... I would never try to move my hand...
the next time I went there he came to me and let me pet him.. by the time I left that time he was jumping up ointo my lap...
I watched him for my aunt one weekend at her house. I slept in her bed and let him do his normal thing.. by the end of the weekend he was crying and whining when I was packing my stuff in my truck to leave...
Dogs are funnny... give him time and he will learn that he can trust you and you won't hurt him?
The thing that helped my aunt is she got him a dog door and he can go in and out anytime he wanted to.
The first few months the dog would follow my aunt around the house and never go near her, nor would he let her pick him up. The dog was about 14 months old. She has had him for almost 2 years now and he loves her to death.. he will do what ever she wants him to.. sits on her lap, comes when called and he sleeps with her... He likes very few people. It took her a good 6 months to win his trust...
I live about 250 miles from her and go up there about 1 time a month sometimes 2 and everytime I go up there he will come over to me to be petted... See, she had him for about 5 days and I went up there for 10 days and I just let him be and when ever he would come near me(never close enough to be touched) I would talk to him. I wolud put my hand down by the side of the chair or couch and I would let him come to me and sniff... I would never try to move my hand...
the next time I went there he came to me and let me pet him.. by the time I left that time he was jumping up ointo my lap...
I watched him for my aunt one weekend at her house. I slept in her bed and let him do his normal thing.. by the end of the weekend he was crying and whining when I was packing my stuff in my truck to leave...
Dogs are funnny... give him time and he will learn that he can trust you and you won't hurt him?
The thing that helped my aunt is she got him a dog door and he can go in and out anytime he wanted to.
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Good luck with the little man...the fact that he has a caring person like you who is trying to understand him, will I am sure help him to overcome his colorful past! :wave:
stefoni82 - good luck with your little man! :wave:
he is so cute by the way! :lol:
about biting and growling I can say that providing he is physically fine (I mean nothing hurts him when you pick him up), I say you should not allow that. Pupa "tried" to growl a bit, but I immediately pushed her off my lap and ignored her for a while...no yelling... that REALLY gets to her, she cant hadnle it and would try to make friends in every possible way...no growling of course. But your issue is different a bit I think cos you still have to establish "who is who" ya? :wink:
he is so cute by the way! :lol:
about biting and growling I can say that providing he is physically fine (I mean nothing hurts him when you pick him up), I say you should not allow that. Pupa "tried" to growl a bit, but I immediately pushed her off my lap and ignored her for a while...no yelling... that REALLY gets to her, she cant hadnle it and would try to make friends in every possible way...no growling of course. But your issue is different a bit I think cos you still have to establish "who is who" ya? :wink:
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