The One Where the Canine Outsmarts Everyone
This blog could also be known as "The Truth about Chubbs."
Ever since I started learning about dog training, I've thought that Chubbs had an alpha dog personality. It's nearly impossible to get him to do something he doesn't want to do, but he never wants to start problems and usually complies. He picks his battles, so to speak. He's never aggressive, but I always thought that of my two dogs, he wasn't the brightest bulb in the box.
I was mistaken. Last night, my boss came over to meet with Muggsy and find out why he keeps attacking Chubbs. I had some suspicions that Chubbs was provoking the fights, but he's so darn cute and innocent looking, I couldn't exactly pinpoint what he was doing to make Muggsy attack. My boss came over to check out the situation and promptly dismissed Muggsy. Surprisingly, this is a Chubbs problem.
Turns out, Chubbs is the alpha dog. He walks around like he's king of the house. And once I challenged him to do some things that he needs to learn to do, I found that he thinks he's king of me as well. He learns tricks remarkably quickly, unless he doesn't want to. Typical man, right?
What's happening is that Chubbs is being submissively dominant, which is like a person being passive aggressive. He placates everyone but takes control by being pushy and doing things he knows he can get away with. This includes tormenting Muggsy with subtle body language I have trouble spotting. Then, Muggsy flashes his teeth because he loses his temper, being the alpha-wannabe that he is, and he gets in trouble. My boss suggested punishing Chubbs when Muggsy loses his temper and see if the problem doesn't go away because Chubbs will stop taunting Muggsy.
I was horrified. I'm doing the same thing to Muggsy that my parents used to do to me. My brother used to needle me incessantly in his subtle ways and when I'd lash out, I'd be punished. I feel terrible.
To taylor Chubbs' behavior, we had to ignore him for 24 hours, which meant creating a barricade around the bed when we went to sleep, and now we have to talk to him only to give him commands. I also have to work on getting him to go to a spot (called stationing). Ignoring was hard, but as my boss pointed out, he's making Muggsy very stressed, and Muggsy has too many issues as it is. We need to focus on anything we can to make his life better. Plus, this will be better for Chubbs in the long run as well. It is very stressful for dogs to be the "leaders of the pack."
Muggsy's next order of business is muzzle training and vet preparation because my boss thinks he needs a blood panel to diagnose a potential thyroid problem. Keep both my babies in your thoughts.
On another note, I taught my first solo dog class last night. It went pretty well, though I feel like a pretty dumb dog trainer by not being able to figure out the dynamics of my own dog. I guess there's always plenty to learn!
Ever since I started learning about dog training, I've thought that Chubbs had an alpha dog personality. It's nearly impossible to get him to do something he doesn't want to do, but he never wants to start problems and usually complies. He picks his battles, so to speak. He's never aggressive, but I always thought that of my two dogs, he wasn't the brightest bulb in the box.
I was mistaken. Last night, my boss came over to meet with Muggsy and find out why he keeps attacking Chubbs. I had some suspicions that Chubbs was provoking the fights, but he's so darn cute and innocent looking, I couldn't exactly pinpoint what he was doing to make Muggsy attack. My boss came over to check out the situation and promptly dismissed Muggsy. Surprisingly, this is a Chubbs problem.
Turns out, Chubbs is the alpha dog. He walks around like he's king of the house. And once I challenged him to do some things that he needs to learn to do, I found that he thinks he's king of me as well. He learns tricks remarkably quickly, unless he doesn't want to. Typical man, right?
What's happening is that Chubbs is being submissively dominant, which is like a person being passive aggressive. He placates everyone but takes control by being pushy and doing things he knows he can get away with. This includes tormenting Muggsy with subtle body language I have trouble spotting. Then, Muggsy flashes his teeth because he loses his temper, being the alpha-wannabe that he is, and he gets in trouble. My boss suggested punishing Chubbs when Muggsy loses his temper and see if the problem doesn't go away because Chubbs will stop taunting Muggsy.
I was horrified. I'm doing the same thing to Muggsy that my parents used to do to me. My brother used to needle me incessantly in his subtle ways and when I'd lash out, I'd be punished. I feel terrible.
To taylor Chubbs' behavior, we had to ignore him for 24 hours, which meant creating a barricade around the bed when we went to sleep, and now we have to talk to him only to give him commands. I also have to work on getting him to go to a spot (called stationing). Ignoring was hard, but as my boss pointed out, he's making Muggsy very stressed, and Muggsy has too many issues as it is. We need to focus on anything we can to make his life better. Plus, this will be better for Chubbs in the long run as well. It is very stressful for dogs to be the "leaders of the pack."
Muggsy's next order of business is muzzle training and vet preparation because my boss thinks he needs a blood panel to diagnose a potential thyroid problem. Keep both my babies in your thoughts.
On another note, I taught my first solo dog class last night. It went pretty well, though I feel like a pretty dumb dog trainer by not being able to figure out the dynamics of my own dog. I guess there's always plenty to learn!
posted by Anonymous at
1:00 PM
1 Comments:
Don't feel dumb! Sometimes it takes an outsider to point out things. You can't see the behavior b/c you're too close the the situation. Plus, who would ever suspect that angel face of provoking a fight? He's the cutest! I think it's pretty impressive that (1) you have dogs smart enough to have issues and (2) they came to reside with you, someone who cares enough to make their lives better.
By
Monica, at 2:05 PM
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