Something you might not expect if you believed everything you read in the papers!

Whenever I go to my parents house, my Westie puppy always tries to attack my parents Staff! And you'd think the Staff would try and fight back or something wouldn't you? Well she just ignores her and walks out the room!! Everytime my Westie has done it, the staff has just ignored her!


Although it's a suprise from what you usually hear in the papers, I think my Westie might have a bit of an attitude problem! :( Everytime another dog goes near her now, she growls!

Does anyone know of any training things that are for aggressive dogs? The ones I've looked at so far have all been different kind of training and not for moody dogs, haha!


I'm scared that she's going to go up to another dog and growl and expect to be ignored/win by the other dog leaving the room, but it might be different, and she's only little and I don't think I'd want to know what would happen.

I don't want to have to only walk her at silly times when no other dogs are around! :(


Also she thinks she's a guard dog, I think she thinks she's a lot bigger than she actually is to be honest, haha! But that's not much of a problem I don't think, it's just funny. :P Like her running up to the hoover barking/growling, then we move it and she runs away!

What do you mean by 'training things'?

I can give you plenty of tips on her interactions with other dogs, but I'm not sure what you mean by 'training things'. Like bark collars?

I'm afraid the only way you'll fix it is by putting effort and time in yourself, you won't find a gadget that will train the dog for you. :)

Hi

It is something better nipped in the bud before it gets worse, even though it may be funny at the moment. My dog shows none of the other behavours associated with being aggressive/ dominant with people just aggression with other dogs. He does not growl, just straight out lunges and attacks biting and holding hard, lately he is starting to bark at them first, though I'm not sure if thats an improvement or not, at least it's some type of warning that keeps them away! He is muzzled when there might be dogs off lead for other dogs safety.

Please don't let it get to this stage (he was a rescue and came like this), luckily a westie is small enough not to damage other dogs too much! People have lots of advice on here!

luckily a westie is small enough not to damage other dogs too much!

This is true, but it can easily upset other dogs enough to hurt it. My aunt's neighbour's JRT met an untimely end after terrorising a GSD constantly.

I don't mean everything is funny, I mean it's funny that she thinks she's a bigger dog, barks at household things then gets scared and runs away!

I don't think it's funny that she's moody towards other dogs at all. It's actually scary, coz although she may not harm another dog because she's so small, there's always a chance she could relaly annoy the other dog, so they could go for her.


I don't expect there to be some gadget to get her out of this.
Just I've picked up training leaflets and all of them have said they don't deal with agressive dogs, and that's what Kizzy seems to be.


And the thing that worries me, is you watch some of those animal programes, and the dogs that act like that and are aggressive around food and stuff, are usually put down!!
So I know it's a big problem that isn't going to go away over night.


I'm just glad my parents dog isn't as evil as people like to make out those dogs are!

If you have the time and energy to put in a dog needn't be put down :D

My dogs have never been a particular problem for me (although they would've been had I had children in the house) but Takara used to be a big resource guarder, she wouldn't guard food from me, but she would see off other dogs that went near her when there was food around, she used to play merry hell if I or a family member used to try to move her from the furniture and there were certain places around the house that she went to to get out of the way (under the table, behind the chair) and if you went around there to get to her (only if you really had to because I appreciate it was her safe spot) she'd go mental.

I can happily say I see none of this anymore. Occasionally she'll have the odd grump at another dog if they're near her toys or her food bowl but not if it's just treats like before and she's currently curled up on the armchair but I only have to say 'Takara - off' and she'll hop off happily with no arguments.

I NEVER used any physical force to sort her out, I never dominated her, I never told her off. I appreciated that she was uncomfortable with something and worked on it at her pace and she's damn near perfect now.

Eddy was dog aggressive when we got him and he's now a little gent with other dogs 90% of the time. I continue to work with him but I know he will struggle to improve more due to his eye sight deteriorating - it puts him on edge.

So no - there's no need to have them put down and to be perfectly honest I think a lot of these dog training programmes only make matters 10 times worse for owners watching them!

:shocked:

how did being put down get into this thread? :shocked:

anybody who knows anything about westies at all knows that they are brave little dogs with big personalities! They do have a habit of telling the world and it's uncle that they're in charge! They're noisy, and feisty, but please don't label them 'aggressive'!

(just read Lotti's last sentence - agreed 100% :thumbsup: )

turn the telly off, throw the newspapers out, and listen to your dog. If you are the one in this relationship calling the shots (rather than the dog) you'll find your dog will have less to say, and will ask you first before kicking off at everything that worries her :thumbsup:

The thing with Westies is that nobody told them that they're small!

I've learned from Molly that what aggression she has towards other dogs is due entirely to her being very uncertain and afraid of them. She wasn't socialised as a pup and finds being around dogs that she doesn't know extremely stressful (right up to having dreadful diarrhoea after meeting a dog that she's afraid of).

We've learned that she really doesn't want to be close to them and that she'd really rather sit some way away if I talk to the other dog's owner. She's also afraid of other dogs coming too close to me or my partner, anyone we're out with or the dogs that she's friendly with and so who are in her pack.

The first step is working out what her issues are- she'll tell you soon enough if you listen and watch properly.

I know that this is a life's work with Molly because you can't take an abused adult dog and suddenly make all the connections in their brains that make them trust and be happy around other dogs.

However, it has got a hundred times better since we realised quite how stressful she found being in close proximity to other dogs and stopped trying to get her to socialise and we're now training her to ignore other dogs (which is fine until another dog comes barreling in, determined to be mates- and of course their owner's say 'he's very friendly' and doesn't understand that it's unwelcome attention).

We met a Belgian Groendaal shepherd whilst away on holiday which was just like watching a movie of Molly a year ago in how he was towards other dogs. She was SO grown up and only barked a couple of times at him, no matter how worked up he was- but the important thing was that she chose to lie down about 10 yards away from us while we were talking to his owners, rather than come too close to him. That's an important message from her and we didn't miss her message. We're learning just as much as she is.

However, it has got a hundred times better since we realised quite how stressful she found being in close proximity to other dogs and stopped trying to get her to socialise and we're now training her to ignore other dogs (which is fine until another dog comes barreling in, determined to be mates- and of course their owner's say 'he's very friendly' and doesn't understand that it's unwelcome attention).

This is the stage I'm trying to get to also, I know he will never be trusted with other dogs, the ignoring still isnt going too well to be honest though :lol:

We now have a dog thats very wound up once he sees a dog and although we are getting past them in a fashion (at distance) he now lunges behinds after we have nearly passed, generally if they are sat down on lead he does not bother. I'm not sure if thats an improvement or not, He's also started crying when he sees a dog and knows he can't get to it I'm not sure what that means, I think another lesson for me is in the pipeline :) I've decided he just must have a screw loose.