Re: Aggression towards teenage males

In Reply to: Aggression towards teenage males
Category:   Behavior Problems
Posted by:  Ellen Roueche
Posted on:  February 27, 2003 at 09:11:51

: First, Jake recently finished his obedience training and we did very well. During his training, we got him a gentle leader (we love it, he hates it). Jake has always been very much a people dog and loves to be petted by anyone and everyone. Sometimes it seems as though the more training we do, the worse he's gotten in at least one area: he's taken a dislike to some of the boys in our neighborhood. When we're walking and he sees them, he'll start barking and/or lunging towards them for no reason. I've had Jake sit and the boy give him a treat and this worked for one boy but not the other (who's actually nicer and also named Jake). With the boy Jake, it started when I was working on the controlled walk and wouldn't let him go over to be petted so he started barking. Someone suggested that he thought I saw the boy as a threat so was protecting me. The trainer said that sometimes dogs don't like teenage boys. Any ideas? Thanks.

Response:

Hi Ellen,

Well in many cases the obedience work usually helps to build a dog's confidence in itself, apparently Jake is getting a bit too confident!

Are you using the gentle leader when you have Jake out for a walk? The gentle leader should be correcting any lunging he is doing, as far as the barking, this could be tougher to correct. You might try to work him in other commands to redirect his attention and focus on you.

Your trainer might be right, sometimes dogs will just take an instant dislike to someone, we as humans don't see any rhyme or reason to it but dogs have their own reasoning lol! Terrier Jake may have read your body language when you kept him from approach human Jake.

Maybe you can talk with human Jake and see if he's willing to help you work with Jake to overcome his fear. It may take a little while but I don't know of too many dogs that can resist someone who gives them treats all the time. Maybe you can have both Jakes play fetch with a tennis ball. What you want to do is have terrier Jake associate human Jake with fun.

Regards,
Marie