New dog - need some help

[Stefy B.]

Hello everyone,
I'm new here and I hope I can get some good advices to introduce my new dog to the others I already have.
I have a 7 years old female (Shama) and a 3 years old male (Zak). The female is sterilized, but the male isn't castrated. The new dog is a 10 months old male that we named Aron. All are cocktails dogs of medium size and all have some shepherd kind dog in their DNA I guess... the last one really looks like an original german shepherd dog if not for a small white patch on his chest.

Anyway, I took Aron at home 2 days ago (on Sunday) and I noticed that he didn't have any kind of education at all, but he's smart and he learns quickly certain things. In 10 minutes I was able to teach him to sit and even wait for food this afternoon. He's very excitable and it's hard to get him calm once he's excited. At the moment he stays in the living room, while the other 2 dogs are in the garden, I bring him out sometimes with the other dogs and sometimes not (when I want him to play a lot without the leash or without put the muzzle on Zak, the other male dog I have).

The following big issues I have are:

- Zak growls sometimes at Aron and I'm afraid he could attack him ferociously if I don't keep Aron with a leash or put the muzzle on Zak. Zak is very jealous of Shama and there's a lot of tension between them since Aron came in the house. Today Zak and Shama got a fight... this isn't happened for a long time, before Aron coming here.

- Aron tends to "have sex" with family members legs... especially with my father and I don't know how to stop it. I try to distract him with a toy or some food, he chases the toy and bring it back and starts to "have sex" with the leg again. I think I'll opt for a castration to avoid this behavior. Another bad thing about this behavior is that if my father try to avoid this by turning his back and try to ignore him, he continues and if my father raises a hand on his head (without hitting him) he goes mad... he starts to bark and jump and bite (not hard) my father's hand and try to continue to "have sex" with his leg... I think he got some hits in the past, because I can't find another explanation for him going mad with a raised hand on his head.

- I have other animals in the house, I live in the country so I have some goats, horses, chickens and cats. Aron seems scared about goats and horses (even if he goes in the horses paddock and stands behind the horse which is very dangerous, especially with my horse... she gets nervous when she has dogs around and she could kick maybe). He simply ignores chickens at the moment, which is positive and I hope he keeps going this way with them. He had a really bad reaction with the cat living inside the house... he started to chase him with a semi-aggressive mood I think and the cat was really scared about him, but the cat usually has no problem with the other dogs. Mostly Aron wants to play with everything/everyone, but he's quite rude since he didn't have any rules in the past. I tried to let him sniff another cat which lives in the garden and that's not scared about dogs at all... the cat was behind a door (which was not totally closed... I mean that the door is made by small planks with some space between the one and the other), so they could see each other and he seemed really scared at the beginning, so I associated something positive (food treats) to the cat and he got closer and seemed not so scared anymore.

- Last little thing I think I've just solved: he cries and scratch the door when I leave the living room. He just stops after a few minutes and he goes to sleep. I've just tried to put randomly some food treats on the floor, so he has to go find and pick them up to eat and it worked. I left the room while he was busy and he didn't make any noise.

I'm concerned mostly about the other male dog, because both males come from a youth bad experience. They're both abandoned and they lived in the street for a while. Zak is a fear aggressive dog and I didn't work on him too much because I have a really big garden so I don't need to walk the dogs out, they can run around the house as long as they want. I'm afraid they could fight and injury very hard if they don't accept each other. Aron seems to ignore Zak most of the time, but Zak becomes nervous if Aron run near him or gets over excited or try to play with the female.

Aron is a very beautiful and smart dog... I know it's a hard situation and I've already thought about find a new family for him if the other dogs won't totally accept him (the female behave quite good with everyone/everything to be honest), but I really would like to keep him, so I'm looking for any advice I can follow to make this happening.

Sorry for grammar mistakes, I'm not american or english... so I try to do my best when I speak english.

Here some pics of my dogs:

SHAMA



ZAK



ARON

[Stefy B.]

UP! No advices for me?

Anyway I'm trying to keep Aron busy as much as possibile. I just bought a Kong toy with the filler, I'll use it just for "special" occasions so he won't grow bored about it I hope and I bought 2 tennis balls since he already learned the "leave it" command. I toss a ball then he comes back, I say "leave it", he drops the ball and I toss the other one... he goes mad for this game and this is really positive because after half an hour of game he seems tired and no more overexcited.

The main problem is Zak, the other male dog... I don't really know how to make him accept the new guy and I don't want to risk a negative encounter so I'm keeping the dogs separated for now. I think I'll castrate Aron first, then I'll find a way to make them meet in a safe situation.

Is it a good idea to create a couple of nylon collars filled with something soft like foam rubber to protect their throats when they will meet without muzzles on or leashes (in a far future I guess)? I think that will prevent dangerous wounds if they will attack each other. Zak seems to ignore him most of the time he sees him around, but he doesn't like when Aron start to go mad, jumping and running all around the garden, when Zak sees him that way he starts to growl at him with the typical standing position with erected ears and tail and he looks so aggressive. He doesn't seem feared about Aron... he's a fear aggressive dog just when he's out of his territory, he seems pretty calm at home.

I hope you have some good advices for me anyway.

I'm going to buy Victoria's first book, a clicker and a puoch for food treats to start an intensive training with Aron and Zak and I'll cross my fingers because if Zak and Aron won't find a way to stay together in peace I'll have to look for a new family for Aron and I would really like to keep him.

Thanks.

Stefania aka Stefy (Italy)

[emmabeth]

Ooops sorry i went away to think about it... and now i have a serious headcold... its like thinking through treacle here! (you should SEE the pile of tissues on my desk!)..


Zak sounds insecure to a certain extent, ie, hes usually ok BUT, the arrival of Aron has sort of played up his insecurities, made them more obvious.

So you need to address those - manage things so he does not feel the need to growl at Aron (or get in fights with the b itch) - if that means limiting Arons access, so be it, if that means using dog gates, crates etc... do that. It may just mean using yoru body to block Aron from approaching Zak head on.

Improving Zaks security will also mean working with him one to one, doing things like clicker training, like self control exercises too.

Aron is not sure about his whole world... hes VERY anxious, fearful, insecure. Clicker training would do him the world of good - preventing him from feeling the need or having the opportunity to upset Zak will also be good management and actually have a much better effect on progress than you may think.

Do NOT over face Aron - he will not over come his fears by being forced to face up to them, no dog will. Instead for ANYTHING he finds fearful (and by that, i mean he may react aggressively, scaredy, pretend it isnt even there... all these things are saying' scared' eve if they may not look like it)..... you need to find the distance where instead of reacting.. he will take a tasty treat from you and maybe even give you a few seconds eye contact (or at elast a look in the general direction of yoru face).

If he can take a treat and find it rewarding - thats the distance you work at, be it other dogs, people, horses, chickens, trucks.... whatever, and you dont decrease that distance until hes happy at it and can listen to you and comply with commands/cues etc.

[Stefy B.]

Thanks for the reply Emmabeth!

Yes I know that I have to work on Zak too... and I'll do it when I have time. Victoria always suggests: don't do everything alone, but it's really hard to involve other family members and I don't want them to apply wrong methods (I'm not scary like Victoria ). During the day I work and in my spare time I try to work on Aron first because he needs to learn how to behave in the house and he's no more a little puppy, he's a big dog already and he can hurt if he doesn't know how to be a good boy. I feel I can do it if I keep calm and I do everything step by step. No hurry.

Anyway I think I made a big step forward with Aron today. He was pretty calm for the whole day, I played a lot with him to reinforce the command "leave it" with the 2 tennis balls and after a long time playing we walked around the garden so he saw the horses, chickens and goats and he was calm and not so interested, he followed me and he answered at my whistles to make him going on walking around the house.

I also bought the Kong toy and it's amazing. He usually start to bother me if I'm on the couch watching TV, he wants to play all the time... so today I gave him the Kong filled with treats while I was watching TV and he went to his place in the living room and he was busy with that for a long time. Sometimes he tried to bring me the toy on the couch, I simply ignored him until he went away again. We're both improving I guess.

He likes to chase flying birds btw... he's really funny

Thanks again for the answer. I found your post very interesting.

[Leigha]

He likes to chase flying birds btw... he's really funny

Mine catches them!

[Stefy B.]

Mine catches them!

While they're flying?

Anyway we made another progress today: we started to work on the command "stay" and I was able to go 10 meters away from him and he didn't move, but the incredible thing is that we were in the garden with all those interesting stuffs around (birds, noises, horses and so on...). We worked on it also before to go out of the door. Ha had to wait the other dogs coming inside before he could move and go out. It took quite a while and a lot of attempts, but at the end I managed to sit Aron and wait until he got the permission to go. He seems to recognize his name too.

I think I'll buy a whistle to start working on the command "come here", he's still too much inattentive when he's outside and if he's focused on a thing he's not responding to the call.

[Stefy B.]

I'm really really worried about Aron. He does something I really don't understand.

Usually around 7-8 p.m. (after the last session of play outside) he starts to go mad and try to have sex with one of us (i.e. my mother, my father, me or my boyfriend) and I don't know how to stop him, he doesn't react to any command he learned and I have to take him and try to bring him away, but the time I do that he starts to be aggressive, he barks loudly, jump in place, run around, he looks like he's challenging me and there's no way to make him quiet. I try to turn my back, do nothing but he challenge me by biting my hands and run away. This morning I was laying on the couch after I took him outside to play and he wanted to play again. I gave him the Kong toy full of treats and he was busy with that until he finished the treats, but he wasn't calm at all. He started to bring me the toy on the couch (with half of his body on the couch) to play, but I simply put the toy on the ground, trying to make him understand that I didn't want to play, but he didn't got the message and I tried to ignore him as much as I could. Didn't work... because he started to bite me a bit, first the hands then he went for my head (not that hurting, but I didn't like the behave at all!) so I lost my patience also because he started to run around, barking and biting as I described before. The only way I found to stop this crazy behave is to get the muzzle and put it on him, I know this is not the right solution, but I don't understand why he does that way and if I don't understand I can't find a proper solution. Anyway with the muzzle on he stops everything immediately and usually sit or lay down. At that point I take off the muzzle and I praise him while is still calm.

Any idea?

[Leigha]

I'm not sure if she does it while they're flying or if she's quick enough to grab them while they're on the ground. I've had to get three of them away from her since we got her in March. One of her puppies catches and eats them too.


I can't remember if you said, and my head hurts or I'd go back and read it myself, but did you say how much exercise your boy gets each day?

[Stefy B.]

I'm not sure if she does it while they're flying or if she's quick enough to grab them while they're on the ground. I've had to get three of them away from her since we got her in March. One of her puppies catches and eats them too.

I had a Czechoslovakian Wolfdog who did that... he was quick enough to grab them while they were on the ground.

I can't remember if you said, and my head hurts or I'd go back and read it myself, but did you say how much exercise your boy gets each day?

He goes out 4-5 times in a day, at least 3 of them unleashed to play with balls and run around as he wants, but that seems not enough I'm afraid. The total amount of the time spent outside may vary from 2 hours to 3 hours.

I know it's just a week that I have him but I feel a bit discouraged and I think it's better if I find another family for him because I think he suffers a lot when he's inside and the training will take a long time because there are various problems that must be solved before I can let him stay outside for the whole day and night.

[Leigha]

If it's "unstructured" activity--as in he's outside by himself left to "play"--it's probably not enough. He needs some structured exercise (walking, running, etc). My beagle and walkerhound spend most of their day outside. Most of that time is them sleeping or sunbathing with maybe 10 minutes of them chasing each other.

If I don't exercise them outside of their outside time all hell breaks loose at my house. Increasing his exercise might help with the humping. He might need an outlet for that pent up energy and has decided that humping's the way to go.

[Stefy B.]

We go outside to do some exercise. I toss him balls and he took them back (reinforcing the "leave it" command too) and we practice to sit and stay. Anyway I think that's not enough time for him.

This morning I tried to unleash Aron with the other 2 dogs outside (unleashed as well and without muzzle) and everything went very well. They didn't fight, not even growled to each other, even when the postman arrived and the others 2 dogs started to run and bark at him. Aron tried to play with Shama after the postman went away (I guess he was a bit excited about that situation), but she simply ignored him and Aron stopped to jump and bark at her.
There was just a moment when Zak and Aron were sniffing a marking point in the garden together and both stopped to wag their tails while looking each others eyes... so I called Zak and he walked to me and left Aron alone. I think it's positive, isn't it?

I think he will go fine with other dogs very soon... I have to solve other problems... I'm practicing to keep Aron calm when there are cats around, especially one who his deaf and he can't keep his own balance so well. He seems good with them, I think he just wants to play, he sniffs and wag his tail, but he's not aggressive at all... but of course the cats don't know that.
He's able to look at me while there are cats around, so we're doing good I think.

Thanks again for the advices Leigha!

[Stefy B.]

Ok, there's something wrong again and I'm getting stressed.

I just saw some "It's me or the dog!" episodes where Victoria says to scream like a puppy and turn the back crossing your arms when a dog bites someone and the dog should stop that behavior... but if that simply doesn't work? Aron ignores the scream and jumps on the person even on the back...

I describe you the scene just occurred: I started a training session with the 2 males dog. I tried to make Zak relax with Aron, so I let Aron go outside to play (without Shama because she's a bit sick today) with me while Zak was around. I noticed that Zak's always nervous when Aron is around... I understood that he doesn't know how to behave with another male dog, simply because he didn't meet another one before. That's my fault, I didn't took Zak outside when he was a puppy because he was scared about everything and he was stressed about the car (I don't live near a city so I can't simply take the dog and walk outside... I have to take my car to go where there are people and other dogs).
With the treats I can reach great results, I can make them eat treats while touching each other noses, or let Zak sniff Aron's ears, body and butt without any negative reaction (you can see Zak wags his tail, but he's not totally relaxed tho...), I almost make them do anything together... without treats it's just more difficult. Zak is more nervous, less concentrated and so on... but I finished treats and was about to bring Aron back in the house when my mum came out. Zak started to growl a lot and Aron stopped to ignore him as he usually does. He started to jump and go mad, barking and running around. Then he jumped on my mum, biting her so she screamed like we saw on "It's me or the dog!" episode but Aron ignored that and continued to jump and bite. My mum was scared and things went worse and worse of course... Zak was getting really really angry (I was keeping him from the collar to avoid a fight between him and Aron) when he saw Aron jumping on my mum (I think he wanted to protect her), then we managed to bring Aron back in the house (he didn't want to enter and of course he didn't want to be taken). End of the training.

It's just frustrating to see that things are going well and a second later everything is screwed...

Any advice?

[Stefy B.]

Updates: Aron is scared of Zak, every time Zak comes near him he just cowers and goes away from him. Aron is not allowed to do anything: he can't run, play, bark, even drinking water is not allowed sometimes, that's just because Zak doesn't want him to do any of those things. How to make Zak ignores him? I don't believe they can play together, but Aron can't live in a garden where there is a huge tyrant like Zak. And I'm not relaxed at all to leave them together in the garden. But I'd like to let Aron have a good place to stay and enjoy without them fight occasionally when I'm not around with treats.

I tried to play with Aron before (we still have the biting problem and screaming increases his excitement instead of lowering that) and he started to jump on me, barking and biting. At that point Zak was worried and came towards us with his tail and ears up, his sight focused on Aron, not really a friendly behavior. He wanted to protect me, I think he thought Aron was hurting me and so he came to rescue me. When Aron saw him simply stopped to do what he was doing and went away from me.

I think it's clear that Zak is the dominant and Aron seems not interested to challenge him, but I don't want Zak to remark his supremacy on Aron every second of their life.

[Stefy B.]

This is not going to work... I have not enough time and knowledge to take care about dogs training... I think I'm gonna let another person adopt Aron... it's just frustrating, it makes me cry and argue with my family.

I can't understand why Victoria's tips and tricks work just in her TV shows.

Zak and Aron got a fight the other day and almost got another fight tonight. I don't want them hurt each other and I don't want this ruin Aron's life above all.

If none will help me I think this is the only solution. Even if I'm crying because of that.

[Zeldacorgi]

The way I see it at this point, you have two choices:

a) Manage the dogs properly. Stop giving the male dogs access to each other for the time being. No one is trying to be dominant or pack leader. From what I've read, Zak is very insecure and extremely uncomfortable with Aron's presence. And Aron's becoming increasingly frightened of Zak. By continually forcing them to be together in the house, in the yard you are fueling their anxieties. So keep them separated. That seems to be the bulk of your issue.

You also need to remember that Aron is essentially a teenager with a very high sex drive at the moment. Again, a situation that needs to be managed. If he insists on humping your family, remove him to a safe area where he's occupied and unable to get to you or harm himself. (Same for if he's biting during play.) And please don't think neutering is going to solve the problem. It probably won't.

As for Victoria's tips and tricks-don't think of it as working on just the TV show. Think of it working for the dogs that are on her show. The same method she uses for one dog is not necessarily doing to work for your dogs. That's part of the reason we're all here. Tell us the problem, what your goal is, what you've tried, and we can try and help fix it. But you have to be willing to take the advice we give.

b) If you can't or won't make time to train ALL of your dogs (because taking on three is a huge commitment), then you at the very least need to rehome Aron.