Our problem child
I'm so happy I've found a group of Corgi people. Maybe one of you can shed some light on our on-going issue. From the day we brought home our youngest Corgi, Dobby, he has been aggressive. When he was five months old he bit me and drew blood. We got him into dog training right after that. He and our other Corgi, who was two at the time, began fighting. Not play-fighting (though they did a lot of that too) but real fighting. Dobby is almost two now and things are much better between them. But Dobby still growls and bares his teeth and snarls when we tell him to lay down. It's strange -- he lays down and rolls over on his back, growling the whole time. He also does it when we pick him up, physicaly restrain him, or dry him off after a bath. I'm not afraid of him and he doesn't attempt to bite. He just makes a lot of noise. We've tried being agressive back which usually just escalates the problem. I'm wondering if he has fear aggression. When he's growling and making a fuss now we just talk softly to him, keep petting him and he calms down. Is this rewarding the behavior? Sometimes I just turn around and ignore him and he follows and wants to be petted. When he was almost a year old we discovered that his left foreleg is deformed. It turns out. Two vets said there was nothing we could do at that point. A Mini-Pin breeder I know said if we'd caught it earlier me might have been able to tape it and it might have straightened out. Anyway, that made me wonder if his aggressive tendencies are rooted back to his fear of showing physical weakness ??? Whatever it is, we'd really like to know what, if anything, we can do about it. It's really weird because of the two dogs, Dobby is the one who seeks out your attention and loves to be petted.
Comment
-
Comment by Roger/Laurie on September 5, 2010 at 4:13pm
-
Our Tenby (rescue) has fear aggression. We have always tried to be calm when he is afraid. But the biggest help has come from our other corgi Chespstow who is so easy going and calm. Tenby is finally (4 years) starting to see that Chepstow is never afraid of anything. He also has noticed that Chepstow gets a lot more attention from people. Tenby will never be "cured" but he is starting to realize things aren't as scary as he use to think.
-
Comment by christy fry on September 5, 2010 at 11:38am
-
I had a fear aggressor and there were tell tale signs of his fear....he would try to hide from the stimulli causing the problem and if the stimulli would keep advancing( in this case lets say the vet) he would turn his head to the side, show teeth, and most importantly his eyes would start to dialate and alot of white would show( most trainer's refer to this as Whale eye) he would also start shedding, drooling, or lightly growling(never were his growls loud or nasty) also not all of these would happen everytime but more than one symptom or warning signal was given. Positive training like Bev say's will help alot and also respecting his limitations will help keep your house calmer.
-
Comment by Bev Levy on September 5, 2010 at 8:34am
-
How was Dobby in class? He sounds like a more assertive and talkative corgi as is my Sparty. I continued Obedience classes with him to advanced and then took beginner classes with him every couple of years. Have you tried the Nothing In Life is free method? Some corgis have the attitude needed to push a one ton cow around and need a firmer family life than others. I find that training sessions are really fun for Sparty and he behaves so much better when we do things like that. More exercise with an emphasis on leashed walking helps a lot too. Just make sure your training involves positive methods such as treats and praise with negative feedback involving no attention instead of physical punishment because you do not want to activate his "attitude" any more than necessary. If a cow so much as mooed at Izzy she would roll over but Sparty would bark his head off. She was much easier to have at home but Sparty actually minds better and learns faster.
Rescue Store
Stay Connected
FDA Recall
Canadian Food Inspection Agency Recall
Groups
We support...
Badge
© 2024 Created by Sam Tsang.
Powered by
You need to be a member of MyCorgi.com to add comments!
Join MyCorgi.com