Sybl Saisselin Saisselin
Forum Replies Created
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Hi All. Allie, Mike, and Arthur, I thank you for your replies to this questions of a few months ago regarding the six month old small puppy who was rushing & biting his family, resource guarding, being quite the little terror. Please forgive this narrative that doesn’t read very dog-trainy but a report on what happened with puppy:
The puppy I referred to as Charlie Biter is now called Nico and he’s in a new home and thriving. I believe the main blame for his abnormal behavior was a severe lack of stimulation on top of a mildly fearful constitution and, probably, at least one instance where one of his humans scared the crap out of him. The lack of stimulation coming from:
– owners who only engaged with puppy when they were interested (ie they expected puppy to self entertain 90% of each day) – this is a guess that I’m fairly certain about now
– living in a very streamlined and boring-for-puppy home
– living with owners who responded with great drama to the puppy’s advances.
I had owners board him for a month at a friend’s at-home dog daycare (4-10 easy going dogs over 1yo) to see if dogs and friend’s dog-savvy ways could teach him how to puppy more productively. His demeanor improved more than significantly, he wasn’t guarding or threatening bites with friend and her husband, and he was physically more relaxed. Friend was very careful not to antagonize Charlie but to push in to him little by little as he progressed. She’s not a trainer, no formal exercises, but she managed a slow chipping away at his fearful and confused attitude by denying engagement in those times and reinforcing desired enjoyable puppy-human contact as it happened.
Most importantly, Charlie met a small pit bull there who I had worked with around lots of fear when she was adopted a year earlier; the pittie’s folks were smitten with him and adopted him after owners gave it one last try and he bit them first night home. They did NOTHING that I told them to do from the time they picked him up, including calling me when it happened.
Charlie moved in with pittie family and is living happily ever after – well, still a bit confused and timid but no longer fearful and biting, just tail wagging apprehension.
The End
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Thanks, Arthur. The family had already scheduled complete behavioral medical workup at the best vet in the area. I’ll let you all know what comes of that. Thanks for saying that bit ‘out loud’ and thanks for your support.
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Thank you, Allie. And, thank you, Mike. I was feeling quite fraught yesterday. I’m glad you could cobble my post and message together for me. My gut wants to give it a go. We had a long conversation yesterday all about the atypical nature of the aggression and all their options. I’m both saddened and gladdened to read confirmation of my own analysis. I’ll review the videos and streams you mentioned today so I can focus in and make plan on how best to move forward. The knot in my stomach is mostly gone now. Thanks again and always.
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I totally love that document, Allie. Thank you for sharing that. You’re spot on with everything and I appreciate that you used the phrase Ninja leadership skills which in turn had like go in depth into that on the q&a.
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Another element they’re dealing with is when they want to separate the dog from the home, they put her in the garage that has been specially reinforced to not be ruined by her great desire to come back into the house. But she still kicks up a long fuss in the garage after they put her in.
I think the short of it is that the dog is driven to be near and protect her people. I believe she won’t feel as strong a need to be with them at all times once they establish that Ninja leadership. Would you agree with that being the likely outcome if they establish that Ninja leadership?
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That was so awesome to hear all that on the q&a. You know I haven’t been taking advantage of this form but that is all changed now. Just a little more fun information on the Mastiff for you… Owners got her because husband was going off to Afghanistan 3 years ago and he wanted his family protected. He came back with PTSD from having been in two explosions and she, like me, has lived with complex PTSD since childhood. Both struggle with hypervigilance. The husband likes walking the dog because he relaxes and put all his trust in the dog’s natural drive to protect him. This is one source of his imbalance in leadership. The wife doesn’t like walking the dog because her own hypervigilance has the dog taking the lead and one of these days she’ll be the person pulled through the fence like the one you talked about. This is one of the sources of her imbalance in leadership.
You and Allie provided structure to my thoughts about this case. Nothing you all said was new or surprising or any different than how was already planning out on handling it. In fact, I covered most all of it in a more hodgepodge way at our consultation. It’s always comforting to know that I’ve got good game it’s getting better every year.
I’ll keep you all updated on what happens.