Dog Training The Easy Way

Q  -  My dog has never attacked another dog but he has never done this before. He is a two year old min pin and when i opened my door he ran out and chased a neighbors chihuahua. In other interactions with this dog, they both growled (the chiuhuahua’s owner said his dog doesn’t like other dogs) but my dog is not normally like this. He plays with all dogs at the dog park, whines to play with dogs on the street and plays with the dogs at all my relatives houses. What could have caused him to go after this dog and will he now do it to other dogs?

 

A  -  This is a complicated question because you didn’t see the whole picture. Unless you can see the body language between the two dogs, it is impossible to say exactly why he went after the other one because you don’t know who started it. That said I think the issue that you should consider and address, is why your dog ran out of the house in the first place. The answer is that he believes that it is his responsibility to protect his/your territory against possible threats. You need to make him understand, that it is your responsibility to decide who can enter and not his. He obviously sees himself as top dog. You need to sort this quickly because if you don’t it will probably get worse and he may well do it to other dogs. Good news is, it is not usually too difficult to cure. I recommend a training course; a link to it is on my blog. One thing which should help is, before you open your door, make sure that, not only is he behind you, but also that he is calm and relaxed and sitting or down. Watch him as you start to open the door and if he starts to get up, correct him immediately and get him relaxed before you open the door. Be aware of him while your door is open so that you can correct him if need be. While you have the door open he must never be in front of you always behind you and relaxed.
I hope that this helps.

Filed under: Dog Training by jab177