Working & Sport Dogs
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serious mals and how to deal with them
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serious mals and how to deal with them
We
ve got a high drive (food, prey, play, pack) and physical Malinois, bred for police work with very strong nerves to keep the drive in check. He is 16months young, naturally protective and aloof towards strangers. Since small puppyhood he displayed dominant behavior in several situation (resource guarding, territorial issues, making him big when somebody enters our house, trying to herd guests, growling when petted)- we trained and somtime corrected him in all of those areas, to great effect. He respects and listens to us perfectly, hes very well socialized, mostly focused and almost calm in crazy distracting situation – STILL he remains a dominant, HARD dog.What i mean by that is: he ignores peoples, dogs everyting, even very close by BUT if somebody speak to him or tries to pet him (when he isn
t into that, doing some sniffing, etc.) he growls. Just now he snapped in the directions of 2 strangers how wanted to pet him on the head. He got a very firm correction on the second time, we missed our chance at the first time (no excuses, but social pressure got the worst of us).<br><br>We very well know that he isnt afraid of humans, had never had any bad experince with them, and we also know that he has strong enough nerves to let people pet him even if his not in the mood. But he chose to ACT OUT, he tought he is dominant enough to CORRECT A HUMAN. It was correction, not a reactivity issue, neither fear aggression. He didn^t like what the human did, he wasnt under my command to endure it, so he acted as he tought best (domninant according to his personality).I know if i tell him
NOorbe nicehe will be nice, still i want to make him understand that any human is off limit any time even without the pack leaderscommand.<br><br>Do you guy think thats possible for a dog like this? Is it an unrealistic expectation from a naturally dominant police dog?Thanks a lot for your advice, Nomad, Blanka and Adam.
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2 Replies
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Sounds like you’ve trained him very well. I do think you have an unrealistic expectation about strangers petting him. Best to respect the dog on this one, it’s his genetics, and also respect the safety of other people. People ask me all the time if they can pet my high drive gsd. In all cases, I say “No he’s not friendly, thanks for asking.” Simple, to the point, we all move on with our lives and no one is the worse off for it.
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thanks Ben for the great advice- I was slowly reaching the same conclusion after going it through again and again in my head. Nice to hear it from other people as well. Wish you and your gsd well 🙂
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