to want to stand atop a high building and yell "YOUR DOG IS NOT TRYING TO DOMINATE YOU!" so that all othe dog owners in the land hear meme?

[poachedeggs]

/facedesk

Poodle I have done this with various dogs with differing issues. Sorry but it's not a series of flukes it's a different approach to yours.

As I said there are a lot of approaches to acclimatising them which works depends partly on the dog and partly on why they have a issue with it.
First things first remove the food. Growling did not successfully defend food so is not reinforced.

The only time I would not apply this is when the dog is immediately recovering from being starved and then I would avoid the issue until they had been fed up a while.

or it could go growling did not defend my food, i should savage the bitch next time as opposed to oh, every time she comes near my food, chicken appears as if by magic in my bowl, i should eat near her all the time, good things happen when she comes near my food. must stop guarding my food from the magic chicken lady

with the first scenario, there is a risk of being bitten if it goes wrong, with the second one there is a risk of the dog attempting to move his food dish to your lap, i kno which technique i'd rather go for.

and yes, it sort of was a series of flukes. most dogs will never bits, they will simply shut down. most dogs, not all dogs, some will defend themselves and their food from a threat at all costs. why take the risk when positive training works just as well as poses no threat to dog or owner?

Until ds moves out

It's hard isn't, once you start seeing what people do to these dogs you just want to keep them all safe.

Idiots think having a big dogs gonna make them a hard man.
You can't control a big dog with brute force, there is no lifting them up and letting them yap from the safety of their elevated position
You cannot let them pull on the lead.
If you don't control them with your heart they're going to end up getting put down.

A series of flukes right of course.

Silly me all these years it was just a series of flukes when the only way that would have actually worked is your way.

Oh wait maybe there is just more than one way of doing things.

I'm sure my text must be invisible...

Fwiw the only dog that has ever bitten me was a friends dog who was beautifully trained. They failed to warn me she had just had an op so when she ran up to me for a fuss I touched her fresh scar without realising.
She did not get told off, it was fair enough.

Loopy

Who said that?

Where does he normally sleep?

yes it is another way of doing things, a way that increases the risk of further, escalated aggression if you try it on the wrong dog. why take that risk?

your way also increases the stress and fear levels in the dog, which is never good. my way increases the trust in a dog.

think about it, if you were sat on a bench eating your cheese sarnie and the man next to you stole your sarnie, would you eat there again? depending on what kind of person you are, you might eat there again and be ready to punch the twat if he so much as looks at your cheese sarnie or you might just move away. now say you have no choice, you have to eat next to the sarnie nicking nutter. if you're a naturally nervous person, you're just going to accept that you're sarnie might be taken away, you're not going to be happy about it though are you? now what if every time you sat down to eat your sarnie, the man gave you chocolate or money? would you be happy about eating next to him then?

I've read it lots on the net, is it not true?

He normally sleeps either in the kitchen or living room.

sorry loopy.

you'd need to crate train him first. you can't just shut him in and hope for the best, that would traumatise him. but generally most dogs will learn to love their crate and they won't mess in it.

the who said that was a dig at you being invisible!

Put his bedding in it inone of those rooms and give him a chance to get used to it.

Have you gone bak to basics and tried rewarding him when he does go outside? We had to do that with my mums dog.

Thank you :)

Oh, I'm not the sharpest tool in the box

Wrt rewarding, when I come down in the morning I go straight to the kitchen, ( that's always the scene of the crime ) and I normally know if he's been good or not, because if he has, he's bouncy if not he has head down ears back, I give him lots of fuss if he's good, if not I tell him 'no. Dirty mess' and walk away from him.

In all years and dogs it has never had the affect of making a dog more aggressive so I'll continue to accept the evidence of my own eyes.

Loopy, personally I loathe crates although I have seen them used kindly.
What time do you feed dog?

After 48 dog fosters in 10 years and a lot of MN Doghouse, I believe that my 5 "forever" dogs and more cats than should be allowed, the parrot and children, their friends and a husband, there may be a bit of security in entering a home where the old hands think "here we go again" and growl if they try to eat out of their bowl but there is no substitute for kindness, no shouting or violence, and never actually knowing how the next one will settle in. It would be easy to have a house menagerie that was organised on the lines of last in is scum and needs to learn his place but, in my experience, just being nice, calm and friendly, even when they have eaten you dinner off the work surface makes far less bitey anxious dogs. Cats are another story, they are all assholes and the biggest asshole wins in my experience.

It would deffo be used kindly, :) he's fed about 6

but, believe me, monkeys (had a few fosters since in ME) are utterly untrainable. When they are little they cling, then they dominate and bite everyone (and the sofa). They smell veeeeery bad as well. Divorece has been threatened if I take another.

@D0oinMeCleanin

Message deleted by Mumsnet for breaking our Talk Guidelines. Replies may also be deleted.

Apols Dooin but we've had to delete your post, as we've had notice that it breaches copyright.

phew, I thought she had said something horrible about the monkeys!

YANBU OP. Drives me mad when people talk about dogs having fixed hierarchies. It's a nonsense theory that's been debunked in its entirety yet people persist.

Haha...this is like UP for dogs!

Can I take advantage of all you non-dominance dog experts please? We're having such terrible problems with our poor dog and barking and I find it so incredibly stressful :(.

She's five and the problem is just getting worse all the time, to the point where I can't really have guests to my home and anyone eg trades person who needs access has to be vetted for dog-friendliness first. My family avoid coming to visit :(.

She is totally neurotic and overexcitable - she barks continuously when people come into the house, and the better she knows/loves them the more she barks. It's completely uncontrollable and can last more than an hour. Sometimes she'll settle if everyone sits down, only to start up again if someone stands and moves to another room.

It's become so bad my family don't want to interact with her anymore - she literally can't hear or respond to anyone when she gets into a state and nothing calms her down. It's so stressful that at times I wish we didn't have a dog :(, but her issues are obviously our fault and we want to find a way for everyone to be happy.

So far, we've switched her to a raw diet, had four different trainers do consultations (they all seemed to subscribe to the dominance theory, though, even though before we met them I said I only wanted to use positive methods ), and even tried her on antidepressants - which did nothing.

We're currently trying to get her to use a mat while we eat, in the hope that we can move to using it when the door goes, but I'm not sure if we're doing it correctly so would love some pointers.

Our next move will be to go back to the vet for a referral to a proper behaviourist rather than a trainer. I didn't realise till very lately that there was a difference. It's incredibly expensive, though! We just have to sort it out - I really think her behaviour contributed to my PND last time, and DC2 is due next week...

This can be fixed but will take commitment, a clicker and guidance from a behaviour counsellor (APBC member).

In the meantime, you need to find a way to increase her exercise levels significantly, and work hard on basic easy commands such as sit, down etc. The mat is a really good start.

Hard going with a new baby but you can do it!