Adopted Boy Showing Some Aggression Please Help

It's fine and dandy to have you pooch sleep in the same bed as you but to go and get a dog the first day you let him in the house and sleep in you bed without knowing nothing about him or behavior issues it a BAD BAD BAD Idea.

Find a professional dog trainer but it doesnt take an EISNTEIN to know that it's temperament is questinoable, take the dog back and tell whatever organization you adopted the dog from and make sure you let them know about his issues, I GUARANTEE YOU!!! they will not put it up for adoption again. They will have him walk the plank to "THE GREEN MILE!! "

 

from the limited info from the OP i think the dog just needs to learn its place in the family i dont think it needs to be culled immediately.

is the dog showing food aggression? territorialness (can you walk past the dog in a small space, or can you step over the dog)? human aggression (if it is showing this then cull it )

 

Give it a week and if the dog doesn't improve, contact the place you got it from and tell them you need to bring it back. I would say cull the dog but most rescues have a policy that if anything happens that you must give up the dog, you bring it back to them. If you got it from a shelter, that's different.

When you wake up in the morning, take the dog for a long walk. If you have a bike, even better. You might want to invest in a prong collar for it. They work wonders, trust me. Just be sure to learn the correct placement of the collar and how to properly use one. Leerburg has a great article on this. http://leerburg.com/pdf/fitprong.pdf They address it in the article but always use a back up collar with a prong!

About 20 minutes after you get back would be a good time to feed. You need to teach the dog that just because you are preparing its food, that's no reason to get excited. It should wait calmly to be fed. You should be able to set the food down without the dog diving into it, too. My dog waits in a down before eating until I release her. I can set her food down, leave the room for 10 minutes and come back and the food will still be there.

Toys and chews should not have even been introduced to this dog yet IMO. It hasn't done anything to deserve it. It hasn't earned the right to be up on furniture either. Even my dog, who is the most submissive and calm dog in the world, isn't allowed on the furniture except for on rare occasion and then it's only when someone invites her to.

Everything should have structure to it. Turn games into training. For example, if you bring the toys out for play time, have the dog sit before you throw anything. As the dog learns more you can increase the difficulty of what you ask of the dog. I ask my dog to sit or down and stay while I throw the toy and then release her to go get it a few seconds after the toy has landed. Sometimes I ask her to do some other weird little trick I've taught her, lol. That's one thing about working dogs I love... prey drive! They will do anything for a toy! Use this to your advantage.

 

Jelet, you'd carry more authority if you had actual experience. Have you met any of Out of the Pits dogs? I've temperament tested ( I'm an ATTS tester) over 20 over the years, our APBT club used to sponsor them at our ATTS test. The OOTP dogs I've seen have been very solid temperamentally. They evaluate and pull dogs from shelters, while they are with them, they receive care and training. Is it concievable that a dog they adopted out bit someone. Of course. Sometimes dogs bite. But, based on my personal experience with them, and their dogs, over maybe 10 years, I've been consistently impressed with their temperament, and I believe the likelihood of getting an OOTP dog that bites is far lower than dogs from other sources. The OP would have been in much better shape if they had an OOTP dog.
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I havent met any OOTP dogs before. And actually, I have heard good things from many people about that particular rescue; saying that it is top notch and are also strict about who they give there dogs to and all that.

And I do believe OOTP dogs will be safer then the typical local shelter dogs. But I still wouldnt trust them around my family. But I do consider them safer then the dogs that just live at the shelters. Since the dogs at OOTP go home with the "foster owners/parents" and live with them and such.

Anyways I am reading a thread in a training section of another forum that I used to go to; about the owner of the dog having his brother/parents over for dinner. And the dog bites the mans brother. I remember the poster/owner saying that the dog had his vaccines earlier in the morning and saying that the brother might of petted it to rough or something. And was asking for advice...And the thread had the typical excuses for manbiters. Such as something like this Aw poor writtle dog, had his vaccines, if it wanted to do damage it wouldnt have bit and let go. All that nonsense. The dog broke skin. Enough said. And some members asking to get a medical evaluation and all that nonsense. And how do i know the dog came from OOTP? Because people asked for history of the dog and then the poster posted that he got it from Out of the pits rescue a year ago previous to the incident.

 

Just for reference this isn't my first pit. Look at my join date. The dog shows no other aggression beside which is mentioned. No food aggression he has been good with any person or animal he has encountered on a walk. He will let you step over get close all of those things. From what everybody said it seems like he just is pushing his boundaries and he is getting upset when he is put in his place. It has only been the one incident mentioned so far. I'm going to give him a week and see if he improves.

 

While I find this dog's behavior disturbing and unacceptable, what I can't tell over the internet is whether this is just an opportunistic young dog testing limits, or a genuinely HA dog that should be put down. I also can't tell whether the OP has the skill to determine which is the case.

Jelet, I wasn't debating whether an OOTP dog had genuinely bitten someone. I was objecting to your making such a broad general statement about an organization you aren't actually familiar with. There's not too many rescue orgs that I know and support, OOTP is one of the few. It upsets me to see their reputation smeared.

 

so if you have a kid an it bites your brother, should that kid be put down? no that would be nonsense an illegal. what i am getting at is, find out the reason why or what may have triggered the dog to bite. just like a child it should be punished first and then given another chance.

i agree give him a week and work on his behavior with training.

 

No.

If I had a child and if my child bit my brother. I would VERBALLY TALK IN ENGLISH to my hypothetically child and ask why he bit my brother. Then, since it is "unprovoked" I will send my child to the corner for time out. And he will learn his lesson to show respect to his uncle. If not, I will put him in time out for longer durations till he learns. And eventually, he will learn his lesson. But genetically unsound dogs will not learn there lesson.




Why? Because my child is a human. He is not an animal. His genetics dont play a bigger role in the actions/behaviors.


HUMANS- NURTURE plays a bigger role in ones uprising. Unless the person is mentally disabled of course... There are psycho mentally challenged ones that you just cant explain right from wrong to them.

ANIMALS - NATURE plays a bigger role in the dogs uprising. You get an unsound dog, no matter how much socialization and love you give. The dog will always be a man-biter. You cant control whats inside the ANIMALS mind.

 

Frank no one cares about your bloody thread, time to let it go brother, dude your like a fortune cookie no matter how many you crack open you always end up getting the same one again at some stage. So your advice for every single thread for the last week or even longer has been"dont tell anybody its a pitbull" its like you copy and paste your own posts mate.




to the op, id take Rally Racers first advice, sound to me like hes just trying to work his way out and see where he sits in the ladder hence harassing your girl and not you.
its early days but id stopp letting him think that hes on your level by inviting him on the bed or lounge or whatever, hes a dog and he needs to know that, in time you may or may not be able to have him up there if you want to but dont do it till he knows where he stands in the pack, ive never had a issue with this but i know a few who have, and in the end the problem was not the dog it was them, they didnt have clear guidlines and the dog more than often acted out of confusion more than aggression.

keep us posted.

and michele, well done i see some dont agree and play on the fact you dont own one, and i respect that you will back yourself time and time again, gamer than most people that own em i reckon!

 

and weekend, give the dog more than a week mate, youve gone out of yourway to save a dog, so put some effort into saving him, you will have to accept that hes gonna have some baggage mate and people give all kinds of stories into why they cant keep a dog. it makes them feel better about it.
if he was worth saving when you got him he still is now, rescue dogs are rarely easy for a while, hes probly had a rough trot up to this stage so dont give up too early, he may just turn into the best one youve had!

 

Thanks for the sound advice. I'm not going to be one to just throw in the towel right away. Here is a something somebody sent me in a message. Just thought I was share.

http://www.pitbullforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=81654

 

I just came accross this thread and was going to tell You the same thing! CRATE!! CRATE!!! CRATE!!! Crate training and leashed at all times has an amazing affect on rescue dogs!!! He will learn that You are in control of his every move and need and learn to trust and depend on You and Your G.F. for EVERYTHING!!!!
And if this training does not improve his behavior after several weeks then there is a serious tempermental stability issue that may not be resolvable. I wish You luck!!!

 

And he may just turn out to maul a 4 yr old. This dog has a 60/40 chance at being a biter. I say 60% percent chance he will bite someone, because he showed you a signed that he's capable. I give 40% because now you have to retrain this 8 month old dog that is just about to hit his sexual maturity age. And now add in the factor of having an owner who has no major experience training dog let alone an adolescent aggressive pit mix. Now, some of you are speaking from hearsey, my buddy had this problem or my mom had this problem. This is not a game, this is a gamble, this dog has the potential to severely hurt or even kill a person. Those that have delt with this type of problem first hand, should be the people commenting on a serious situation like this one. Giving the OP false hope can only hurt her and her family, without the proper experience or the option of a professional training, this dog should be removed from the home. I have experience and i know how to train dogs, and all of my experience is with this breed and its to high of a risk to take. JMO I will not post on this topic anymore because i've given all the advice that i can give. The owners are gonna do what they want anyway, reguardless of what we experienced folks think. Good Luck

 

True! personally I would cull him cause he is showing that he is willing to be dominant and not submissive to humans. From my personal experience with doing rescues he would have been culled if it was me or my family. though he would have been started out crated and or leashed at all times rather than given the run of the home.

 

In my opinion that dog needs to be put down, it is man-agressive. I personally will not accept that kind of behavior in any of our dogs ever, no matter what their age is, period.
We have kids and no dog in the world is worth risking my family over so if I even have a single thought a dog may be agressive I will put that dog down and know that my family will be safe. Don't risk your friends, family or even yourself on a dog like that, it's just not worth it.
That "pup" is old enough now to be a danger to people and you will NEVER be able to trust a dog like that. And for God's sake DO NOT allow that animal to be even within site of any kids!

 

One? Growling at girlfriend in bed + growling at girlfriend when on her lap with bone= more than one iffy incident, by my count.
And really, it isn't whether a dog shows aggression or not. The questions to be asked when evaluating an aggressive incident are (1) what precipitated the aggressive incident? (2)was the aggressive response reasonable considering the circumstances? (3) was the aggressive response reasonably predictable considering the circumstances? (4) am I willing to deal with the level of aggressive response and/or unpredictability displayed, so far, for the rest of this dog's life if need be? While keeping in mind, that most unreasonable aggressive responses become more unreasonable and aggressive not less, unless very carefully and properly handled.

 

If a kid bites your brother? You really making this comparison? Firstly, when a child bites, it isn't usually going to break the skin, require stitches or prompt news reports at ten. Secondly, most children will develop a mentality more advanced than that of a three year-old. Meaning, that at some point you will be able to SPEAK WITH and REASON WITH the child, while the dog remains a dog. Sure you can mold behaviors and refine responses, but it will never be able to discuss the kind of day it has had or why it shouldn't bite with you. So please, let's try to keep the comparisons logical, reasonable, sane?

 

Of course this is getting a little bit silly. People who haven't seen the dog and weren't there, including myself, are in no real position to judge the dog or the situation properly. However, what is known is that a rescue dog with an iffy history was handled inappropriately and set up to fail by some very well-meaning folks who intended the best. Unfortunately, the dog failed pretty badly on its first day, and those kinds of failures usually have a way of leaving confidence eroding doubts in owners minds, or causing them to hunker down into "I can save him" mode, and not see problems for what they are. In all fairness, it wasn't until after a long day of doing the right things for the most part that the dog began showing bad signs. So, I'm not going to say take him out back and shoot him, but the rescue should know what happend today, not next week. The folks who let him out need to be involved in his rehab and any decisions regarding his future, at this point. The least a responsible rescue should do in the case is re-evaluate and provide continued training for the new dog and owners. Just my opinion based on my limited experience.