[Scott Blenkiron Blenkiron]

Here i will provide some comments regarding Leadership.

Affection don’ts

1. Soliciting affection – We (our immediate family) have followed this guideline from day one however there have been instances where people outside of our immediate family have not done so successfully thus tipping to entitlement. We always let the people know but can still be challenging from time to time.
2. Undesired affection –  we have always been aware of this and told the children to stop when there is any signal of Kaia not wanting affection.
3. 10 Second rule – We introduced this rule early on when reading the Leadership section for the first time. I was always concerned of having a dog with separation anxiety. There are certainly times when Kaia is not at all interested in affection. I use to offer affection to her when she would bring back the item while learning to play fetch. She would almost all the time pull away. I noticed throwing the item again was the reward she enjoyed.
4. Actively submissive – we are paying particularly close attention to this one now! Odessa clearly understands while Lucius can forget in an instant. Hence the need for supervision!
5. Kissing – We have been on top of this one as a family but i have found myself kissing her on rare occasion. I will ensure i correct myself in future.
6. Hugging – Kaia has never really been hugged by any one. She does love to bury her head in your crotch but we have been shifting this as she would do it to strangers. I will squat down and invite her for a petting and she will lay the top of her head on my lap while i stroke her under the muzzle and neck area. This is kept to the 10 second rule. Is this OK or is it considered hugging?

Affection do’s

1. From the heart – we have always worked toward this and encouraged the children to have Kaia come to them and sit.
2. Greetings – we used to ignore her with greetings as I was under the impression it helped limit separation anxiety. When I first read this we happily started greeting Kaia in a relaxed and calm but from the heart manner.
3. Receiving kisses – We’re not big on having our face’s licked but have never corrected Kaia for this. Is licking a hand for example respect or soliciting?
4. Tummy rub – Kaia does love a good belly rub from time to time and i feel most have been when called over but there may well have been some leaning toward being “actively submissive”.

Play time

From day one I had wanted her to play fetch so that she could get the exercise she needs. Kaia’s breeder taught us the way with two of the same toys. We still use a light line but she will leave any fetch toy on command.

I later introduced tug after watching your video and being confident there was an appropriate way to play it. To this day Kaia has never won the toy and i certainly feel it fulfills some of her drive. because of her size and strength i am the only person to play this with her.

We have kept our “own stash” from day one. although we do have one toy that is left down all the time but is not used for play. Should this be picked up too?

Resting places

Kaia has never been allowed on furniture or beds. When inside she had her crate to go to which is in the dining/kitchen area. There was one night when i turned around and Kaia was not in her crate. I asked Zamina if she let her out and she hadn’t. we looked around the house and could not find her anywhere. It was dark in the lounge room and she was curled up hiding her nose as if she new the rust markings would give her away. I gazed over the couch and had to second take to notice her there. She was promptly encouraged back to her crate. She ended up persisting for several weeks but seems to have got the message now.

Food and chews

1. Removing food – I have never felt removing food was a good idea. My parents would consistently tell me to do it so Kaia knew I was in control and so she wouldn’t be protective around the children. I am glad i never did it! We have always told the children to leave her alone when eating which she always does in her crate in peace. I feel Kaia completely trusts me with food as i have never given her any reason to be protective over it. She will generally always leave anything i ask her to which is seldom and only if i am concerned she will swallow something that may get lodged in her intestine.
2. Clean up – i would say Kaia has shown resource guarding behaviour a few times. Once was with a visitor who didn’t know she had a bone and i didn’t even know she had a bone. The other was when Lucius would annoy her while chewing on something such as a stick she found in the garden. I now realise even more that these situations are where Kaia needs to feel confident that I or Zamina will do the discipline for her.
3. Chews – We probably weren’t consistent enough with this until a few months back. Now we typically provide chews in her crate or outside when the children are not around. Old bones are picked up and disposed of when finished with within a couple of hours.
4. Food rules – very seldom does Kaia have food items in the presence of other dogs. There is only one dog when this would happen and they are kept separated when being fed or given chews.

Outside access

We always try and lead and by following quite a predictable schedule we find this reasonably straight forward to manage. We have also found that consistent behaviour form us in certain circumstances has lead to Kaia knowing what is expected of her without being asked.

 

I Feel we have done well for Kaia not to be “Entitled” to her basic needs. As far as the scale becoming unbalanced between “Provided” and “Unprovided” we feel this to be challenging. I gather that it will become clearer with time, experience and growing the relationship with Kaia.

[Scott Blenkiron Blenkiron]

Mike,

What great information, thank you. I would just like to say, the service you provide is immeasurable and I am truly grateful to you and the wider community – so thanks again!

It has been an emotional week where Zamina (my wife) and I have discussed at length whether or not Kaia is the right fit for our family! I would be absolutely gutted to lose her but we don’t want Kaia to be neglected.

We completely understand that the working line’s are not really suitable for young children.. Adopting Kaia was not taken light heatedly and we understood, to a point, what it meant to get a Doberman. In our research and talking to breeders we were convinced not to get a “full” working line breed. We were also convinced of a female.

I, in particular, did not want a “show/docile” breed and wanted to stay as true to type as possible. However, in speaking to working line breeders it became apparent that a “full” working line dog would not be suitable for our family so we rested with the decision of half-half, i guess you could say.

The breeder we chose was very informative and helpful in getting the best fit for our family dynamic. There were two litters to choose from and I had my heart set on one in particular…. Just a few days before we were to fly to the breeders, some 2000 kms away,  i received a call and was told that she could not give us the puppy that was picked out for us as it was showing strong signs of dominance. I had my concerns from the begining as the genes were highly stacked on the working line side however i was still despondent. We were then offered the female she had chosen for herself for breeding from the other litter – now known as Kaia.

In reading your post my thoughts are, that no matter what temperament we thought we had from a genetic point of view, Kaia is now showing dominance from her working line genes which can switch on at any moment. Would this be correct?…. This is where Zamina was and we are extremely concerned.

With that in mind, we would be lying if we said we weren’t discouraged however, we are not willing to lose a family member without great effort. Reading about Earl’s girlfriend and the other incidents was rather discouraging but it punches the point not to be near or disturb a resting dog!

Coming to your management plan.

• Her outdoor bed has been moved along with her indoor crate. Unfortunately, the layout of our house makes it difficult to get her out of thoroughfares indoors but it is placed in the most out of the way corner we have – still probably not the best though. We are always educating/reminding that disturbing Kaia or any dog while resting is NEVER acceptable.
• We always have and continue to strictly enforce no hugging/kissing.
• We are supervising our children at all times when in the presence of Kaia or keeping them securely apart when unable to be supervised.  Odessa is right on top of this… When talking to Odessa about the possibility of losing Kaia she is devastated which seems to be great motivation. Lucius being almost 3 is not so good at remembering so we are extra vigilant in our supervision of him.
• I am getting Kaia used to her muzzle/party hat which she is taking to quite well. The video was helpful here – thank you! I’ll post a photo.

I look forward to working on the exercises of making the kids approach to Kaia a positive perception and management being less restrictive. Is it possible that there will be a day where the kids can be left unsupervised with Kaia?

Thank you so much again Mike. I will go over the leadership section now and post shortly but want to get this one up before I accidentally close it again.

 

[Scott Blenkiron Blenkiron]

Thank you so much for your post Sharon. It is very helpful and great to have thoughts clearly laid out.

In reading your thoughts on the incident with Odessa and reading through the site moreover, I now feel it was a sign of dominant/social aggression – an assertive warning. Kaia shows good bite inhibition. When I play tug with her and she latches onto my hand it is very soft and she immediately re-positions her bit. I don’t feel she had any intention of biting Odessa. My thoughts is that perhaps Kaia did signal she’d had enough stroking and Odessa failed to notice/comply.

I must say I feel irresponsible for not stopping her stroking her on her bed. The children have never been able to disturb Kaia in her crate which is inside but we have not been as consistent with her outside bed! On this day and with having friends over, I feel I let my responsibilities slide. We do tell the children not to disturb her while resting anywhere and we are taking this as a reminder to be consistent and not think that it’s ok this “one time” just because I was busy with friends!

In terms of leadership Odessa can certainly be actively submissive toward Kaia by wanting to pet her when she feels the need. I understand this would of course put her down the pack order. That said we have always aimed never to allow Kaia to be “entitled” to affection by any family member.

I had a little chat with Odessa after it happened with regard to how she would feel if someone just came up to her and started hugging her without asking. She knew straight away she would not like it! I explained it was the same thing with dogs and that you can ask Kaia by saying her name and showing open hands. If she approaches you can pet her. If not, it’s best to leave her alone.

Kaia was taken to her crate immediately after the incident. I wasn’t totally sure this was correct so thank you for mentioning that.

On the small fluffy dogs issue, I would really like to understand the reason for it. I now find myself relating it to prey drive, fear aggression, social aggression and protection instincts. Ultimately I want to do what’s best for Kaia and having her attack smaller dogs is obviously not pleasant for anyone. As mentioned before, I feel her ”bite inhibition” is great as she has been open mouthed for every incident.

My vet told me that this action was caused by anxiety and that it would be causing her stress. She also said to keep her away from environments where she could see a SWFD. I mostly take her to the park at night where I can really throw the Frisbee to give her a good run but am always looking over my shoulder. I do have her on a light line!

I am now feeling from your comments that it is OK to have her out, of course on leash, where she might see SWFD. Would this be accurate? I’m not really fond of muzzling her in public, happy to use as a training tool though. I assume this would be very stressful to the SWFD’s even without the chance of a bite– is this fair to say?

Furthermore, I just remembered, I was at a dog park some months ago and there was a staffy X, which was smaller than Kaia. The dog showed clear dominance and Kaia submitted immediately lying on her back. They then played beautifully together.

A little later a greyhound, retired from racing, walked in. Kaia ran straight to it and began barking like crazy. I wish I could remember all her body language. The Greyhound stood its ground… I managed to call her back to me… The Greyhound went about its business and kept at a distance for a while. As it came closer Kaia ran straight to it and again showed heightened aggression. Neither Kaia or the Greyhound were backing down. I swiftly walked over to her, put her on leash and left.

Could someone shed some light on this? I guess she perceived the Greyhound as a threat but I am perplexed by when a medium dog (smaller than her) shows dominance aggression she submits and yelps but with this Greyhound, which was much bigger than her, she was not going to back down. I feel there would have been a very bad fight had I not left with her.

Could it be that the Greyhound was not showing any signs of dominance and Kaia wanted to be the dominant one – but why run to her without no apparent conflict? Has it to do with fear or respect or something else? I understand Hackles up is to feel threatened but does this necessarily mean fearful?

Sharon, I’m certainly looking forward in working toward phase 3 training and I want to do the best for Kaia along the way.

There is certainly a lot to remember with so much valuable information on this site so having this group is great to gain in clarity.

Thanks again.

[Scott Blenkiron Blenkiron]

Hi Erika, I understand hole digging to be natural and can be an outlet for anxiety and boredom. From reading Cesar Millan’s “How to raise the perfect dog” it was recommended to provide for this behavior not suppress it. When Kaia was a pup and she would dig i would take her to a place i would allow her to dig. Here she would go crazy and i would never tell her off rather i would praise her. She would then go back to this spot. We also took her to the beach as much as possible to dig in the soft sand and roll around – she loved it! She still digs from time to time, such as the other day in the soft soil of the freshly prepared veggie beds so i had to fence this area off as i couldn’t watch her all the time. If you can provide a sand pit or a soft soil area for your puppy i’m sure she will love it.