Post by DogGoneGood on Mar 25, 2008 10:52:46 GMT -5
Okay, here's the situation with as much detail as I think is relavent...
We live out in the boonies in a town located out in the boonies lol. We have five acres and a total of 4 neighbors in "close" proximity. When I first got Linkin I tied him up and worked with the long leash with him outside teaching him a better recall and boundary training. I live with my parents and when it comes to decisions like putting up a fence, it's theirs and they've decided against it because it's way too expensive. We use to have a dog run but the dog I had previously that used it completely destroyed it because she was so determined to get free.
Coal is boundary trained and we've never had a problem with him leaving the yard. We have one neighbor dog that wanders constantly and practically lives at our house so I know how annoying it can be to have a pest of a neighbor dog like that so since Coal was a puppy I taught him to stay home. My intentions were the same with Linkin but unfortunately Linkin was much older when I got him with so many bad behaviors already installed into him that keeping him home became a problem. He seemed to have started getting better at it and then a couple days before we went to Calgary Dad got a phone call from a neighbor who told him his son was walking home from school and Linkin bit him. From the information that's been passed onto me, it sounds like the dogs (Coal, Duke [neighbor dog] and Linkin) have been harassing this kid for some time without our knowledge. The bite wasn't serious and didn't break the skin.
So we got a tie out (I have about 3 or 4 now but keep losing them and one is frozen under the snow :
and have been typing up Linkin during the day (or keeping him on leash), and when it gets dark out we let him run loose.
I went to Calgary... and it was either the first night we were there or the second, I can't remember now, mom told me dad got a phone call from a different neighbor (on the other side of us) with a simular complaint. The boy was riding his bike this time, and again, Linkin didn't break this skin.
This is extremely serious to me and even more shocking. I've SEEN Linkin with kids, he's got more patience with them than I do. I've seen him interact with them on several occasions and he's always been extremely well behaved even when the kids were pulling at him and climbing on him and chasing him.
Jump back to when I first got him... The people that gave him away were a young couple with two very young kids (one's 3 and the others 6 I think). They kept him tied up in their yard all day long, he had absolutly no training, and other than the fact they had no time for him they told me one of the reasons they decided to rehome him was because he would get so excited and knock over their little kids (big, hyper puppy and little kids don't usually mix so well). It wasn't an aggressive thing, he would just be so wound up and jumping up on the kids.
I took him with me to Salmon Arm where I stayed at the KOA Kampground. Being a campground, of course there were little kids everywhere. I'd walk Linkin a couple times a day through the camp (sometimes just for the enjoyment, others it was to work on his obedience) and almost daily I'd have at least one kid come up to me and ask to pet him. This is how I got him to learn to be calm around kids, this constant interaction with them.
Several months after I came back from Salmon Arm I brought him back to Adam and Trista's place to show them what he could do and how much he's grown and how well he's doing. They were amazed, especially at how calm he was around their two little kids.
So you can see how this would come as a shock to me that he'd be now harassing and even nipping at the kids down my street.
Linkin's also just turned a year old, which means his personality is changing and he's testing everyone in the household etc.
I've thought long and hard about it, and without knowing more information on the situations, I've come up with a few different theorys on why he might be doing this...
1. Coal hates kids. He can not be trusted around them because he was never raised with them. They scare him which turns him into a growly, grumpy bugger. He's never bit a kid, and whenever confronted with one he tends to growl and walk away rather than lunge out. One assumption I have is that Coal is maybe rubbing off on Linkin with this whole kid hatred thing. I've discouvered a couple of other bad behaviors that Coal has taught Linkin (such as food aggression towards other dogs).
2. Linkin was actually trying to play and was just too riled up. He's nipped me when playing and he's gotten too excited before, and it can hurt like heck. When he plays he can appear to be a vicious dog also to someone who doesn't know dog language and who doesn't know him.
3. He's becoming territorial. Both insidients happened just outside our property line; on the road.
The only solution I can think of (besides keeping him tied and under survailence), is to call the parents of these kids and discuss it with them, and see if they'd be willing to let me "borrow" their kid to interact with Linkin and see what's going on. To talk to the kids about safety with dogs and teach them what to do when confronted with a dog, as well as teach Linkin not to be a little jerk. I'd be more than willing to let the Parents sit in on this little lesson as well if they'd feel more comfrotable with that.
What do you guys think? Any input or advice on the situation?
We live out in the boonies in a town located out in the boonies lol. We have five acres and a total of 4 neighbors in "close" proximity. When I first got Linkin I tied him up and worked with the long leash with him outside teaching him a better recall and boundary training. I live with my parents and when it comes to decisions like putting up a fence, it's theirs and they've decided against it because it's way too expensive. We use to have a dog run but the dog I had previously that used it completely destroyed it because she was so determined to get free.
Coal is boundary trained and we've never had a problem with him leaving the yard. We have one neighbor dog that wanders constantly and practically lives at our house so I know how annoying it can be to have a pest of a neighbor dog like that so since Coal was a puppy I taught him to stay home. My intentions were the same with Linkin but unfortunately Linkin was much older when I got him with so many bad behaviors already installed into him that keeping him home became a problem. He seemed to have started getting better at it and then a couple days before we went to Calgary Dad got a phone call from a neighbor who told him his son was walking home from school and Linkin bit him. From the information that's been passed onto me, it sounds like the dogs (Coal, Duke [neighbor dog] and Linkin) have been harassing this kid for some time without our knowledge. The bite wasn't serious and didn't break the skin.
So we got a tie out (I have about 3 or 4 now but keep losing them and one is frozen under the snow :
and have been typing up Linkin during the day (or keeping him on leash), and when it gets dark out we let him run loose.I went to Calgary... and it was either the first night we were there or the second, I can't remember now, mom told me dad got a phone call from a different neighbor (on the other side of us) with a simular complaint. The boy was riding his bike this time, and again, Linkin didn't break this skin.
This is extremely serious to me and even more shocking. I've SEEN Linkin with kids, he's got more patience with them than I do. I've seen him interact with them on several occasions and he's always been extremely well behaved even when the kids were pulling at him and climbing on him and chasing him.
Jump back to when I first got him... The people that gave him away were a young couple with two very young kids (one's 3 and the others 6 I think). They kept him tied up in their yard all day long, he had absolutly no training, and other than the fact they had no time for him they told me one of the reasons they decided to rehome him was because he would get so excited and knock over their little kids (big, hyper puppy and little kids don't usually mix so well). It wasn't an aggressive thing, he would just be so wound up and jumping up on the kids.
I took him with me to Salmon Arm where I stayed at the KOA Kampground. Being a campground, of course there were little kids everywhere. I'd walk Linkin a couple times a day through the camp (sometimes just for the enjoyment, others it was to work on his obedience) and almost daily I'd have at least one kid come up to me and ask to pet him. This is how I got him to learn to be calm around kids, this constant interaction with them.
Several months after I came back from Salmon Arm I brought him back to Adam and Trista's place to show them what he could do and how much he's grown and how well he's doing. They were amazed, especially at how calm he was around their two little kids.
So you can see how this would come as a shock to me that he'd be now harassing and even nipping at the kids down my street.
Linkin's also just turned a year old, which means his personality is changing and he's testing everyone in the household etc.
I've thought long and hard about it, and without knowing more information on the situations, I've come up with a few different theorys on why he might be doing this...
1. Coal hates kids. He can not be trusted around them because he was never raised with them. They scare him which turns him into a growly, grumpy bugger. He's never bit a kid, and whenever confronted with one he tends to growl and walk away rather than lunge out. One assumption I have is that Coal is maybe rubbing off on Linkin with this whole kid hatred thing. I've discouvered a couple of other bad behaviors that Coal has taught Linkin (such as food aggression towards other dogs).
2. Linkin was actually trying to play and was just too riled up. He's nipped me when playing and he's gotten too excited before, and it can hurt like heck. When he plays he can appear to be a vicious dog also to someone who doesn't know dog language and who doesn't know him.
3. He's becoming territorial. Both insidients happened just outside our property line; on the road.
The only solution I can think of (besides keeping him tied and under survailence), is to call the parents of these kids and discuss it with them, and see if they'd be willing to let me "borrow" their kid to interact with Linkin and see what's going on. To talk to the kids about safety with dogs and teach them what to do when confronted with a dog, as well as teach Linkin not to be a little jerk. I'd be more than willing to let the Parents sit in on this little lesson as well if they'd feel more comfrotable with that.
What do you guys think? Any input or advice on the situation?
