Hi peeps, I'm helping a friend to board a female husky for at about 2 months, age 2 years old, today was the first day of boarding.

This husky, Alistar, was a rescued dog. She was abused by the previous owner that happens 1 year ago, which result in blindness in one of her eyes.

Alistar has gone through obedience training, and know the command of sit and down. However, she will bare her teeth and attempt to snap when you try to discipline her. Currently, I been keeping the leash on her collar, for easy handling.

Whenever she bares her teeth, I will take the leash and give a tug and say NO, and command her to sit and stay. Am I doing the right thing? I understand that her agression comes from her insecurity, as well as past histroy, thus I do not want to use harsh punishment method.

In addition, I'm also a owner of 2 adopted huskies, a senior female - 6 years, and a male - 3 years. She has been getting along with my huskies very well, except that when my boy attempt rough play on her, they will end up fighting. Is it advisable and trustable to leave the dogs together when Im not at home? I not too sure if I should separate Alistar away, or had her stay with the dogs but with muzzle on? Is muzzling a good idea, or will it introduce more fear? I will be out for more than 8 hours, so Im not too sure if muzzle for that long period of time is a good idea.

What is the correct way to handle when Alistar attempt to snap during discipline or scold her?

I wouldn't leave the new dog loose in your house when you're not home. You never know what will happen. She's new, so you really can't tell what she'd do.

I would avoid any fast hand movements toward her and just use positive reinforcement with her. I don't have much experience with an aggressive dog except for some of the ones my mom brings home for her dog rescue. If they act aggressive, growling, barking, etc, I usually just ignore them until they calm down, then give them a treat for calming down.

You may want to find a professional dog trainer who has experience with aggressive dogs. My trainer has classes she calls Detouring Doggie Delinquents. Doubt you're in central Florida, but if you are I can give you her number.

When a dog is displaying a warning signal (barring teeth, growling, ect.) and you then correct that behavior... You're telling her to NOT warn you. Keep it up and she may just begin to bite.

What are you disciplining her for? Fighting with the other dogs? I would try to walk her and the one she fights with most often. Walking them together (and i'm not talking about a 5 minute walk) will help their relationship.

I would not leave her alone with your dogs. And please, don't muzzle her if you're going to leave them alone. If anything that makes a nervous and insecure dog MORE nervous and insecure. Causing even more problems. Crate her or separate her from your dogs. You don't need to come home to injured dogs.

She is in a new environment. On top of that she's blind. And with 2 new dogs. With a new person. And could have possibly been abused. That's a lot of stuff for a dog who's already insecure to handle. That's why she's probably reacting.

Keep a leash on her at all times. Crate or separate her when you aren't going to be home. Work on walking with her and the male. And just give her time. If you're trying to get her to do something (go out, get off something, sit, down whatever) try using a food reward to lure her as that's easy for them to handle as opposed to being dragged around by the leash. You can certainly apply pressure to the leash to encourage her to do things, but don't use that solely.

Thanks for the replies. Alistar has to be approach gently without any fast movement. Not only that, she will snarl when I reprimind her to get her off the sofa or room, and this is the moment where you cant touch her, unless I have the leash on.

In fact, Alistar has snap the previous boarder's mum when she tried to pat her to get her out of the room, but she refuse to get touch. The boarder's family were upset, so it end up in my care. I notice that Alistar is very defensive and will not accept any commands, I believe she see it as a sign of fear, thinking we are gonna hurt her.

If I give her treats to lure her, will it send her the wrong signal, that showing these behavoir is encourage, thus it will be reward with treats?

I will put her in my balcony when Im out for work, and do I let her out immediately when I comes home?

BTW, Im in Singapore, nice meeting you guys.

If she is on the couch and you want her off take the leash in your hand. Show her the treat and if she doesn't immediately move for the treat, put pressure on the leash pulling her off, but gently. "Alistar, Off" as soon as she's off the couch reward with the treat. You're teaching her to get off the couch using a leash for safety as well as leverage. She seems like a very nervous and fearful dog.

I hope your balcony is screened or at least fenced in?

Welcome

My thoughts are you need to mainly focus on managing the things that stress her out. At this point in her rehab the things you mentioned in the first post are nothing but detrimental. Lots of good advice for dealing with her given already (like some serious energy draining walks). I just want to mention that for two months of time, you will see little to no improvement. This kind of thing can take years to fix under constant supervision and might not totally go away. When this behavior starts to fade sometimes it rears its ugly head when you don't expect it. That was a very impressionable time to have a bad life. Best of luck.

Maybe this would help a little: http://animal.discovery.com/fansites/e-vets/dogbehavior/aggressive.html

Thanks everybody, Im following the advice closely.

It's the 2nd day, had bring them out for the morning walk, got Alistar on a double leash with my male. Things were great at home, until she initatie to play with my boy. As usual, my boy was a rough player, and he always play bite on my senior girl, and needless to say, he attempt the same move on Alistar, there came the fight Pull my boy away to break the fight, and distract their attention by going to the kitchen to give out treats, am I right?

I realise that whenever my boy attempt rough play on a new dog, my girl will keep on barking at them, like signaling them to stop. What does it meant?

Taken a day leave from work to monitor Alistar and the boy, so probably no confinement for today. Till when can I ensure that Alistar can be left alone with my boys without supervision? They dont fight alot, only once or twice when either dog starts to play, other than that, they are quite well behave. In fact, she has not gotten any issue with my girl, as yet.

A little pic for everyone:

Your girl sounds a lot like Hailey when we first got her, except maybe slightly more extreme. I think you likely have a few issues going on. I agree with the previous posters. I think she's likely VERY insecure and unsure of where her boundaries are and where she fits in. I would start by doing Nothing In Life is Free training. Take 20 mins everyday with her and just work on training. Teach her to sit, lie down, stay, etc. If she knows these, just go over them again and again. Build her confidence and give her LOTS of praise. When you do this, make sure the others are gated outside of the room or shut them in another room. Make her work for everything. Make her sit before she gets treats, before she gets her meals, before she goes outside. Give her consistent rules and boundaries.

Second... I think they are likely just trying to sort out their place in the home. Hailey and Koda fought once or twice a day when we first brought Hailey home. She was insecure and defensive. She came into a house with nothing that smelled like her, nothing that she knew, and had a strange dog coming up to her and trying to play with her all day. She was scared, defensive, and even acted mildly aggressive, but only with Koda. Never with us unless it was over food and we worked with her a LOT on that.

So... yes, I would start by just reinforcing training, but also give the time. Keep them closely monitored. Never leave them alone unattended and if you leave her out on a balcony make SURE it's secure. Otherwise I would just shut them in different rooms.

Welcome to the forum! Good luck

smurfzzz wrote:

It's the 2nd day, had bring them out for the morning walk, got Alistar on a double leash with my male. Things were great at home, until she initiate to play with my boy. As usual, my boy was a rough player, and he always play bite on my senior girl, and needless to say, he attempt the same move on Alistar, there came the fight Pull my boy away to break the fight, and distract their attention by going to the kitchen to give out treats, am I right?

If possible you want to keep the familiar dogs in one hand and the new dog (Alistar) in the other. This keeps you between them (which you will need to constantly do for a long time) and gives you a bit more reaction time when one of them decides to start something.

This is very dangerous ground and I only hope your reflexes and instincts are ready. Your dog needs to be watched in a way that does not allow him to treat Alistar like that at all. The redirecting should ideally be done before your dog makes a move, but once he has decided to do so. If that makes sense. From your post it sounds like you see it coming from your dog but your pushing her limits too far at this point. She's had a bad life and is visually impaired, again, a dangerous combination.

smurfzzz wrote:

I realize that whenever my boy attempt rough play on a new dog, my girl will keep on barking at them, like signaling them to stop. What does it meant?

With my pack it means someone needs to intervene and SOON. You're very lucky to have a dog cognizant enough to give you that much of a warning. Pay attention to that marker and break up the pack behavior with treats before they go to the next level.

smurfzzz wrote:

Till when can I ensure that Alistar can be left alone with my boys without supervision? They don't fight a lot, only once or twice when either dog starts to play, other than that, they are quite well behave. In fact, she has not gotten any issue with my girl, as yet.

Again I will say it takes months to years for a dog like that to integrate. All it takes is one fight gone wrong. I hate to sound like such a killjoy, but this is a very serious situation that you are in. My personal opinion is this dog can not be left alone with yours for at least 18 months and at most 30 minutes. Someone needs to be there to constantly redirect any of the group for hundreds of times, over and over, to change the dogs' base reaction. One dog is not being trained, they all are.


¿You are only keeping this dog for two months, right?

Erm yes, tentatively 2 months, because the current owner's wife is on labor, so they will not be getting the dog back till the newborn baby has settled in.

My boy is just a typical stubborn husky, he will never learn to listen to play gentle and nice. Hate to confine Alistar, but reading all the advise, seems like thats the only way out if Im not at home.