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Agressive behavior

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Fred

1272775		 
 
Barked: Sun Oct 21, '12 8:53pm PST 
My Blue Heeler becomes extremly agressive when I attempt to make him do something he doesn't want to do.Tonight I tried to lead him by his collar from the stool to his bed, he growled and snapped at me. One other time I tried to remove something from his mouth and he did the same thing. Both times he was told no and taken to his crate. If this kind of behavior continues Fred will be looking for a new home.
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Member Since
12/04/2012		 
 
Barked: Tue Dec 4, '12 7:04am PST 
First, try Fred with a harness instead of a collar. None of my seven blue heelers liked collars and would only accept them when they were much older.
Second, Fred is trying to be dominant and you have to change that to you being the honcho. I never had to be physical when correcting my heelers as they are so focused on you for commands, but I have had other pups that were very harded headed and determined that they were the dominant one, even going so far as to dominate older dogs. I'm talking a 10 week old pup!
So get him in that harness and start making him behave.
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Member Since
02/26/2013		 
 
Barked: Tue Feb 26, '13 1:30am PST 
I guess I have been extremely lucky with my Blue Heeler. She was born on 28 August 1997 so is 15.5 years old now. She has health issues now with widespread arthritis and hearing and sight issues now. She has NEVER been aggressive and has never destroyed anything. She has had the same toys for 10 years and loves and licks them. They have always gone to bed with her. The only thing she did that upset my neighbour when we lived on a property was she took her garden shoes and buried them in our place. She liked to do this for a day or so and then dig them up. I spend a lot of time with her and she just loves everybody. I just love her to bits and I know her time is coming to an end and I don't know how I will cope. All the dogs I've ever had have lived to a long age and Molly is my first blue heeler.
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Member Since
01/07/2013		 
 
Barked: Fri Mar 1, '13 5:55am PST 
I had similar issues with my dog when I first adopted him. When it first started, I did exactly what you did (no and put him away for a little while). What I realized though is I had gotten so frustrated that I had forgotten to focus on positive reinforcement when he wasn't acting up. With Ozzie, a lot of it was trust issues. The more I trained him to do and rewarded good behavior, the less aggressive and snappy he became. This dog made a sharp turn around in just a month's time. I'm not saying to become all bright and cuddly when Fred does something bad, but when he's not misbehaving and being aggressive work hard on training positively; it builds trust. It might help in your situation, but I don't know if that's something you are already working hard to do. What I do know is Ozzie doesn't act out in the apartment any more. If I tell him to do something, he does it and I don't need to give him a treat every time or anything like that; he just listens. I also learned that at least for Ozzie, ignoring him was a better way to deal with him as opposed to putting him in his crate.

For those times when Fred is refusing to do what you say and you need him to vacate wherever he is, I found that a spray bottle is a really helpful tool. As soon as you stick your hand in near a dog that has the potential to be aggressive you put yourself at risk of getting bitten. So I used it when I needed him to stop obsessing over something or refusing to get off of a piece of furniture. For example, if he was barking and growling at the door so much I couldn't break his attention:spritz, fixated on the cat and chasing him around: spritz, refusing to get off furniture... you get the idea. It can't be the only thing you use but I found it helpful for getting my point across when I was nervous about how he would react if I tried to pull him away or pull him off of something.

I don't know if the frustration and subsequent difficulty being positive when he's actually good applies to you, but it was for me and I no longer worry that I will be forced to give Ozzie back to the shelter.
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