NEW PUPPY - Dominance issues in socializing

[CRYROLFE]

Hi guys,

We have recently adopted a 3 month old Pit/Bulldog puppy from a shelter and are in the process of training her. We adopted her on 11-13-09 and she was raised at the shelter and in a foster home w/ her litter mates (8).
Her name is Ester.

She is a very playful puppy but also very attentive. She goes to work with me everyday at the grooming shop/ dog health food market where she is exposed to many types of other dogs and people.
She also has 2 other dogs in our home....a easy going 3yr old male Boston Terrier (who is a "greeter dog" at the store) and a 12 yr old female Shar-Pei/ Pit who had some dog aggression problems but now is very controllable mostly since we can read her very well.
She gets along with both of them very well....however she involves in some serious rough housing with the Boston.

I took her to her 2nd puppy class last night. Her sister is also in the class and owned by the head trainer.
She was very tired that night since she was playing most of the day and seemed to be in a "mood" when we got there.
The class is a clicker based class and the puppy learn their "puppy push-ups" and to come when called and to loose leash walk and "leave - it" and various other basic things.
They train a bit and then have puppy play time. Well....as soon as she was loose, she ran at one of the more boisterous lab pups and started to stiff walk w/ hackles up and tail high. Then she snapped pretty viciously at him. This continued around the room.
Whenever her sister was involved we literally had to go and separate them since they started to actually fight and hold.

Now I am really starting to worry that we are in for some serious problems and I don't want to make things worse or miss my window of training with her and make it more difficult later.

What should I be doing with her right now?
Here are her photos....

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cryrolf...7622801785354/

Thanks for any help!!!
Crystal

[CRYROLFE]

Well, now at work we are keeping her tethered to the door so she can meet the grooming dogs as they come in and out but not rough house with them.
Whenever she is playing w/ the Boston now....she is ferocious after a bit and really bites him to where he is yelping. He keeps going over to her to start wrestling though.

She is still VERY mouthy w/ any new people (even though she has gotten better about doing it to me).

So far my plan is to not let them wrestle (when I can) and to keep her tethered to me or in a crate.
We are practicing seated greetings while she is tethered.

I plan to wait until she is 4.5 months to take her back to class....at that age she can go into the Family Dog 1 class where there is no free roaming playtime.

Any ideas??

Thanks, Crystal

[Mike D'Abruzzo]

Hi Crystal,

Sounds like you have a rough one! Also, it does sound like you are on the right track with trying to keep her socialized.

One of the most important things that is occuring here is that you are learning what are the normal tendencies for your pup, and that is actually a good start to making a plan to know what kind of activities and social situations are going to best suit her and how to guide and lead her in the situations where she has more trouble.

Here is some quick advice:
- when she is playing with the Boston and she makes him yelp (and she doesnt back off on her own) seperate her from him immediately. If he comes back for more and isnt injured let her play again. If he stays away, then play time is over. She can possibly learn to play more gentle this way if you react quick.

- If her hackles come up during play it shows she somehow feels threatened in some way. It could be by the dog or it could be there is an object around (toy, food, etc) that she feels the need to protect and is hence uneasy by the threat of losing it. Since most puppy classes dont have things laying around she is likely to feel uneasy about more boisterous pups she doesnt have an established relationship with and deals with it by herself by trying to force the dogs into being more submissive. This can be dealt with by more interaction with dogs rather than less. The trick is always pairing up the right dogs and have an open enough area where no dog feels trapped. I would suggest older pups or extremely reliable non-aggressive adults to give her more positive experiences and less self fullfilling experiences where she handles dogs by totally dominating them and therefore learns that is the best way to handle things.
Remember, that dogs generally can't interact normally with eachother unless they establish who is leading and who is following. If she is overly concerned about leading and dominating every dog she encounters - it is safe to to say she will probably not be the best dog park kind of dog (she would be too worried about enforcing her unknown status - not fun for her or the other dogs). Rather, she will be a better "play date" kind of dog. That can play and interact with dogs that she has known established relationships with and meshes well. There is nothing wrong with that, some dogs just genetically are more suited for different situations.

I would look foward to a future plan of teaching toward some reliable off-leash obedience as she gets older and starting now with following strict pack structure exercises - so she will see you in the proper position to guide with your authority in tricky situations for her and diffuse potential aggressive encounters. Because she obviously has some old gladiator spirit in her little body - she will thrive on the guidance you will be able to give her that will keep her out of trouble and channel to a proper outlet - such as a good game of structured tug or play with another dog who can take the beaten and not mind it and give back beatens fairly.

Hope you got at least one pointer out of this - keep us updated!

[CRYROLFE]

Here is a small video of her in class....it seems to be the clueless little foo foos that she wants to beat up (the Shih Tzu pup and a little Norwich terror)
The bigger dogs she is just strutting around by.

This really never seems to happen at work w/ me....she is also really submissive and friendly w/ dogs she meets on walks.

She does seem to be food reactive if it's a strange dog though.
I can set up a video that shows that if you'd like to see it.

Here's the one from class....

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cryrolfe/4150430304/

If they won't separate her next time (and put her with the bigger pups) then I will just not bring her til 16 weeks where she can go in the family dog class.

Thanks so much!!!

[Mike D'Abruzzo]

Good stuff in the vid! Who's Myrtle? lol Great name!
From what I see in the video... Ester gets the scorpion tail up when confronted with the ridgeback (i think) at about 10 seconds left mark.

The ridgeback reacts by turning away and the foofoo grabs ester by the tail when she still has hair up and edgy.

The foofoo unfortunbetely has a naturally high set tail on top of it- like many of them which sets them up for trouble (and sometimes reflects their actual personalities).

I think the general chaos of the puppy class with bad combo of ester plus foo foo had to do with that. I wayched your other video of her playing with your other dogs and she definitely can get along when she has established relationships.

Definitely seeing that it shouldnt be much to worry about besides her probably not being the best dog park candidate when she matures. Like i said a better play date type dog.

[Mike D'Abruzzo]

Watched the vid again. Also, you can see the little foo foo actively trying to engage Ester for a while with some pretty perky posture.

In dog relationships one of the primary non-aggressive ways to establish a higher ranking in a relationship is to ignore assertive behavior and initiative. This is what seems to be happening until the Foofoo crosses the line.

This is the idea behind humping behavior. It is a demand for attention. It is not well tolerated by a dog that is making a strong point (as is Ester) with their posture that they are calling the shots.

Those points are in the self help section under knowledge and pack structure - but you can see it in action well in your puppy video.

The puppy classes are good because it helps not only Ester but dogs like the assertive little foofoo in recognizing these postures and the consequences of not responding to them or recognizing them. It is better for the pups to learn it there. That correction by Ester could potentially save the Foofoos life if she respects the posture of an adult dog out and about. Just thoughts..

[CRYROLFE]

Thanks so much Mike....Ester is doing much better. She will still be a little reactive about strange dogs when food is around but we are now able to read her very well.

Here's her at work w/ a new Boxer puppy...much more her level.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0t2KFgBkgJk

You can see she is still the one in charge but not as reactive.