Jax was aggressive yesterday!

Cbrugs · Mar 31, 2014

Oh my god! So my boyfriend's daughter (she is 15) took Jax out yesterday afternoon for a potty break and he brought a stick inside and when she tried to take the stick out of his mouth, he bit her! Then he was running around the house with the stick and when my boyfriend caught him, he was growling and was being aggressive and then bit my boyfriend and drew blood, quite a bit of it on his finger! He has never acted so crazy and aggressive before! I am hoping it was a one time incident but now I am worried it will happen again especially around my small nephews and niece or at the groomers or daycare. I gave him a firm NO and said, firmly, NO BITING. I am pretty sure he knew he did something wrong. Any ideas on why he turned into Cujo? What can I do so this does not happen again? I am so worried now.

ParisRoger · Mar 31, 2014

Cbrugs said:
Oh my god! So my boyfriend's daughter (she is 15) took Jax out yesterday afternoon for a potty break and he brought a stick inside and when she tried to take the stick out of his mouth, he bit her! Then he was running around the house with the stick and when my boyfriend caught him, he was growling and was being aggressive and then bit my boyfriend and drew blood, quite a bit of it on his finger! He has never acted so crazy and aggressive before! I am hoping it was a one time incident but now I am worried it will happen again especially around my small nephews and niece or at the groomers or daycare. I gave him a firm NO and said, firmly, NO BITING. I am pretty sure he knew he did something wrong. Any ideas on why he turned into Cujo? What can I do so this does not happen again? I am so worried now.

Ohhh no. I hope your Boyfrien is ok. Jax may of been trying to show your Boyfriend he was the Boss but if uv told him off in a firm voice he may not do it again x

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trishkidd24 · Mar 31, 2014

Ugh how horrible.. I know exactly how you feel.... I felt the same way when Marge snapped at our friend... she didn't draw blood or anything but I was completely appalled that my sweet baby was capable of turning into such a brat... She has been so much better now since I sternly corrected her right when the incident happened. We have been more cautious about what situations we put her in, but we also want her to be socialized so we keep trying to bring her places... It is hard.. I hope things get better and maybe since you corrected him right away that will help his attitude... I think this age for them is just a teenage attitude time.....

Cbrugs · Mar 31, 2014

trishkidd24 said:
Ugh how horrible.. I know exactly how you feel.... I felt the same way when Marge snapped at our friend... she didn't draw blood or anything but I was completely appalled that my sweet baby was capable of turning into such a brat... She has been so much better now since I sternly corrected her right when the incident happened. We have been more cautious about what situations we put her in, but we also want her to be socialized so we keep trying to bring her places... It is hard.. I hope things get better and maybe since you corrected him right away that will help his attitude... I think this age for them is just a teenage attitude time.....

Jax is well socialized and has never shown aggressive behavior before so I have no idea what happened but I was mortified! I felt bad yelling at him cause he was giving me his sad eyes so he must have known that he did something wrong. Hopefully it will not happen again.

davidh · Mar 31, 2014

Well the thing about that is, it starts out as play and then escalates from there, into a dominance thing. When they get excited like that, make them settle down and then sit. Practice on the "drop it" command and reward with a treat. Keep doing this training with toys or whatever you want to use. When he growls when you try to take a toy, tell him NO and make him know that is not acceptable behavior. It takes time to train him and he will get it, just be consistent.

Alice Kable · Mar 31, 2014

I think Jax wanted to keep that stick and wasn't about to give it up to your BF or his daughter. David is right, don't try to pull the stick from him because it becomes a game of tug. Tell him to leave it (or drop it) and have a treat handy to reward him. If he is too excited you may have to get him to sit first, the human needs to be in control.
That is really sad and I hope your BF and his daughter are okay.

MaplesMommy · Mar 31, 2014

Does he have to wait for his food? when I feed Maple I put the dish down and she has to sit or lay down and look at me until I say "Okay" then she is allowed to go towards her dish. Occasionally I take the dish away while she is eating and then give it back to her. I also let other people do this so she learns that she is not in control of the food and that when the humans want it she has to give it up. Same with toys or treats.

2bullymama · Apr 1, 2014

back to basics --- look at the training 'sticky' threads... 'nothing in life is free', great tool to help you out

gmarti20 · Apr 1, 2014

This is the same issue we've dealt with. I posted something similar about 2-3 months ago.... I'm happy to report that we haven't had an inccident since, but I'm aware that the issue might still be there. Since he bit me we no longer play tug of war with him as I think this was a part of the problem. We also don't force objects from his mouth because that's what triggers him to bite and protect the item. We spent more time teaching him commands, going on longer walks and taking him to the dog park. We make him 'sit', 'stay', 'down' before every treat, meal, go outside or every time he gets in the car (his favorite).... We had a harder time with 'drop it', but we're making progress. If he brings an object from outside (like a stick) and he won't drop it, we'll put him in timeout in the laundry room and we keep checking up on him until he drops the item and when he does we praise him.... he's starting to drop the item before we get to the laundry room now. Our goal is to get him to drop the item on command.... it might take us another month or two, but we'll get there.

Cbrugs · Apr 1, 2014

gmarti20 said:
This is the same issue we've dealt with. I posted something similar about 2-3 months ago.... I'm happy to report that we haven't had an inccident since, but I'm aware that the issue might still be there. Since he bit me we no longer play tug of war with him as I think this was a part of the problem. We also don't force objects from his mouth because that's what triggers him to bite and protect the item. We spent more time teaching him commands, going on longer walks and taking him to the dog park. We make him 'sit', 'stay', 'down' before every treat, meal, go outside or every time he gets in the car (his favorite).... We had a harder time with 'drop it', but we're making progress. If he brings an object from outside (like a stick) and he won't drop it, we'll put him in timeout in the laundry room and we keep checking up on him until he drops the item and when he does we praise him.... he's starting to drop the item before we get to the laundry room now. Our goal is to get him to drop the item on command.... it might take us another month or two, but we'll get there.

Jax will bring a stick inside or anytime he has something in his mouth he shouldn't have, he thinks it's a game and likes to play chase. We need to correct this behavior. Jax will always sit before he gets food/treats. "Drop it" is another story and he has never listened to that command so I need to work on that with him. Now that the weather is getting better we can go for long walks again. He is at daycare today so that he can run around and play with other dogs instead of being home alone.

gmarti20 · Apr 1, 2014

Cbrugs said:
Jax will bring a stick inside or anytime he has something in his mouth he shouldn't have, he thinks it's a game and likes to play chase. We need to correct this behavior. Jax will always sit before he gets food/treats. "Drop it" is another story and he has never listened to that command so I need to work on that with him. Now that the weather is getting better we can go for long walks again. He is at daycare today so that he can run around and play with other dogs instead of being home alone.

We put him on a leash before he comes inside, otherwise he'll run wild around the house.

Julie Stevenson · Apr 2, 2014

Cbrugs said:
Jax will bring a stick inside or anytime he has something in his mouth he shouldn't have, he thinks it's a game and likes to play chase. We need to correct this behavior. Jax will always sit before he gets food/treats. "Drop it" is another story and he has never listened to that command so I need to work on that with him. Now that the weather is getting better we can go for long walks again. He is at daycare today so that he can run around and play with other dogs instead of being home alone.

So sorry to hear about the biting incident. Yes, Jax is starting to show posession aggression with those things that he believes are his. You have received a lot of good advise already. I will follow up with my own story. Ollie likes to play the chase games too but I refuse to allow anyone in th house to pay it. Instead I keep a container of his food (cookies) we call them and anytime he has something I don't want him to have I ask him, Ollie do you want a cookie? He has learned that when I say that he gets a treat so he comes over to me and drops the object and opens his mout for the treat. No chase, No biting. Rewarding for coming to me and giving up the object without a fight. Win win. The best thing you can do is if he gets agressive with other things which you may see like where he's sleeping or his food or water bowl you may have to revert to feeding with your hands for a while or removing the bed so he learns that YOU provide those things and you are alpha. Good luck. I'm runing into issues with our Boxer and I'm about at my whits end!