Re: aggressive behavior displayed by my puppy

In Reply to: aggressive behavior displayed by my puppy
Category:   Aggression
Posted by:  Rhiannon Peters
Posted on:  August 27, 2002 at 08:44:23

: Sometimes my 9 month old Jack puppy becomes unpredictable. My mom babysits kids in our home and we are always worried that he may bite one. In most cases he plays with them perfectly but every once in a while he will get into a strange mood and lunge at someone...we notice this the most around his food and when he gets tired. but sometimes is comes out of nowhere and we dont know what to do. WE try to remove him from the situation but we are hoping that you can help us because sometimes it is hard for us to predict when he will have a change in moods.Also he seems to just put his teeth on people he never has bitten hard enough to break the skin. PLEASE HELP!

Response:

Hi Rhiannon,

If your pup isn't neutered I strongly suggest you get him in ASAP and get him done. Neutering will help lessen territorial aggression in male dogs, that's along with so many other benefits, including almost eliminating the chance of marking behaviors.

First of all children shouldn't be anywhere near a dog's food. Dog's can be very possesive of their food, they don't know that nobody wants to eat their food. Food guarding is a behavior steeped in instinctual behavior that goes back to the wolf days.

A dog should never be left unsupervised with small children, and that goes for even the best trained dog, let alone a terrier that's probably not been obedience trained and coming into his own as an adult dog. His hormones are starting to kick in which is part of the mood changes you are seeing.

I don't know how old the children are or how many your mother is sitting but it's yours and her responsibility to keep these kids out of harm's way. If you need to gate the dog off from where the children are then that's what you should do. You owe it not only to the children but also your dog until you can work with him to be better socialized.

Get your dog neutered and into a basic obedience class and please get yourself a copy of "Childproofing Your Dog" by Brian Kilcommons and Sarah Wilson. Lot's of great tips in there. :)