Hi, i hope someone will be able to help me. My Lurcher (95% greyhound, 5% kangaroo we suspect due to her bouncyness!) has started to hump my wife and has tried to hump my sisters son and also my sisters female dog (meg 100% whippet). She hasn't to this date tried it with me, i think its becuase i was the one who rescued her from the RSPCA and am some kind of peer. I suspect she thinks of them as members of her pack and she's maybe trying to dominate the pack. Another thing is she has tried to bite my wife - she was in the kitchen making toast and left the room for a couple of seconds - the lurcher (Jazz) took the toast and started to eat it. My wife, Christine, spotted her pilfering and shouted at her and tried to take the toast from her and she got aggressive. A week previous she was aggressive with me - the daft dog had got a chicken bone stuck in her mouth and she was choking - i was trying to get it out of her mouth, but she was that hell bent on keeping it that she wouldnt let me near - i had to entice her away with a dog biscuit before i could help her. The main problem to try to stop her robbing food is that she's a pretty big dog and everything seems to be at her head height which is why i sympathise a bit for her - i suppose its like everything is on a plate for her. Like I said she's a rescue dog - we reckon she's about 2 and a half years old - we have no history on her whatsoever - she was just tied up outside the RSPCA no name no nothing waiting for the place to open. Also we have had her now for about 3 months. Please can someone advise - when i was younger i had a whippet and thought (she looks a bit like a really big whippet) i could handle her, but i fear if i dont nip it in the bud, that she may get prgressively worse!

HELP!

Matt.

B.T.W. i can take her food bowl (food i have given her) any time during her eating it and she doesnt mind - it almost seems that because she's stolen it that she knows she's done wrong, but woe be tide anyone to get that off her!!!

as for the aggressiveness. you said she was a rescue dog. well, that explaines it all. You have no idea on what she was brought up to do. you were not there during puppy hood, so al her bad temper tamtrums have come from her old owner(s). There is very little you can do in the short term. you have to work on it, and look up all the puppy training guides. try to re-train her. She might have been thorugh a lot in the past few years, or else she wouldnt have been in the rspca. An agressive dog is a danger, so please try to fix it. dont punish her, just tell her off. by hurting her, she will not trust you. by her not trustung you, she doesnt thinkg you are genuine when you try to "help", so she may thing you are going to hurt her. thats when the biting kicks in. Her ol downers may have torchered her, and if she finds somethng, she wants to keep it. lets say out of comfort.

Good luck on this hard task...

thanks for your advice - did all your reply post? if it didnt i would like to hear what you had to say about her other issue with other people (i.e. humping!)

humping is generally just an exciteable behaviour; don't make a big issue out of it but just be off hand and say "get off" and be fairly matter of fact; sometimes dogs, like children, don't know what to do with themselves and have to let off steam somehow! (LOL).

yes i agree with you, but!!!!! Kyle (my sisters son) is only 7 and he's got scratches and bruises all over him from Jazz "dancing" with him. My wife and i will be wanting to start a family in the next couple of years and i'm afraid that her children skills need to be a bit more honed into before our kiddies come along!

thanks again!

matt,.

Hi :)

Admittedly my dog is alot smaller than yours so food isnt at her head height, which I can see must be highly tempting to her :)

However she did used to get aggressive with bones if anyone went near her which I didnt like as she would growl really badly even if the kids were in the same room when she had a bone. What I did was get her used to the idea that we are not a threat to her by giving her a little piece of ham and taking the bone whiest she eats the ham, then fussing her a bit and returning the bone straight to her. I did this on several occassions until she twigged that letting thwe bone go meant she may get a treat, and also learnt that I was not a threat as I returned the bone to her. Pretty soon she twigged it and now she will munch her bone quite happily in the room with us, and know we wont steal it :)

I know it is'nt exactly the same situation with your dog, but perhaps, if she steals something you could try a similar thing, treat her to a little tit bit and remove the stolen food, then give her lots of fuss if she behaves. Try to keep her in another room when preparing food so that it is'nt putting temptation in her face too. Some people believe that dogs should eat when we are finished eating, so they know where they stand, but personally I find it better to feed my dog at the same time as we eat. That way she is happy and occupied and does not beg or try to pinch food. Very rarely she may try to nick something, but if I tell her 'down' very firmly she will drop it now and then I give her a treat or a bit of fuss. I'm no expert but it worked for me :)

Your poor dog being left outside the RSPCA! But at least you are giving her a chance, best of luck :)

Helen

And another thing, I forgot to mention, is you could try getting a behaviourist or trainer to visit you at home, they may well be able to advise you. Your vet will be able to refer you to one :)

Helen

Try putting double sided tape on worktop surfaces, many people find this is a good deterrent and after a while the dog may stops trying to counter surf.

You say you can take her meal away. Please don't do this to "test" her or prove your "dominance", it's really not fair on the dog. Ultimately we all want a trusting relationship where we can take anything (including the main meal) if it is really necessary (ie if there is glass in the bowl or we hve given the wrong meal to the wrong dog...) but this should be once in a blue moon.

If the dog grabs something, shouting gives it attention and reinforces the fact that it has something humans find very important. If the dog has grabbed something, either get it to swop or else distract, but don't get agitated. Bones are very hard to get a dog to give up as they are often seen as the ultimate prize :(

Sounds as if the dog needs a training programme to train it to give up things, your dog sounds very normal to me and i am sure a good trainer who uses reward based methods will be able to help. My dog had a fetixh for socks - my fault as i made a big error of judgement one day when rushed and stressed - but now will always happily give them up/bring them to me, so changes can be made :).

Good luck

LIndsay

just like to add that I don't and would never take her meal away as a test of dominance. I took them away for a legitimate reason (forgot the mixer!) and she seemed happy for me to do it, thats where i got that experience from! I'll try the double sided sticky tape idea but she's so big that i think unless i cover the whole area, she'd get past it!. The issue with her chicken bone was that the poor dog was choking - i was upset to see my dog in this way and i did not shout at her - i enticed her away from the bone with another treat - i think that she got all upset becuase it was stuck.

Thanks for your advice and i will give it a go.

Matt.

Sounds like she has a good home Matt - I agree you have to get chicken bones out if the poor girl is choking, it would be easier if they could jus t understand why we do things <g>.

There is an excellent book out about the rescue dog and what sort of problems to expect and howto cope, for example it discusses problems which arise due to a lack of knowledge or training in the previous home, and so on. Think it is called "The Rescue Dog" by Gwen Bailey.

Good luck :)

Lindsay

thanks helen,

I think i'll definately try to get someone like a behavourist, the trouble is that she's a clever so and so and its not as if she does it all the time i would say 90% of the time she's the most loving caring and placid dog you'd ever like to meet! she just starts getting a bit silly once she tries to start a game up - she snaps at the person thats playing - she has no intention of biting the person - when she's playing this way i have been so sure she wouldnt do anything that i put my hand in her mouth and then she kind of remembers that biting isn't good and settles down a bit. She is a great dog and I want her to be with us forever, the alarming things are her issues with Kyle, my sister Nephew aged 7, who has scratches and bruises on him from where her paws have tried to mount him. In a couple of years my wife and i will be wanting to start a family and i hope i can get her out of this sillyness before we have children - greyhounds/whippets are fantastic with children - i was expecting her to be the same! dont get me wrong she does play a different game with the kiddies and is generally (90%) wonderful with them - but then she gets silly and goes for the hump!