At my wits end...
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Angel Firedancer
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- Posts: 6
- Joined: Thu May 12, 2005 12:45 am
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At my wits end...
Hello,
I've been a proud chow owner/pet for the past two years. Its' been a great experience up until recently.
You see, my pup and I had to move from Germany back to the United States. As you can imagine, it hasn't been easy on either of us.
We're still trying to find that little piece of paradise to call home. When we first came back to the US, Shayleigh had a few issues with the male in the home we were staying at. As he's not a very nice person to begin with, everyone chalked it up to her being antsy from the move and picking up on "bad vibes" from him. Her behaviour included snapping and growling everytime he came near me. She did bite him once, when he moved suddenly towards me from behind...but even he didn't take it to personally.
Soon after that, we went to a different house, hoping things would be calmer. They were and my pup got along with the other dogs and humans there. However, we couldn't stay to long there either.
Two more stops later, and my pup found another human she did not tolerate well. Unfortunately, we were out of gas money and had to stay put for a few days. During this time, I asked the girl living in the house to take my dog outside, because the male and I were getting into a heated debate and my dog was started to get irritable. Before Megan got her outside completely, the male raised his voice at me, and my dog snapped through her leash and bit Megan to get back to "protect" me.
I borrowed money to get to a calmer environment while looking for a new house back here in the states. In the new house, Shayleigh was wonderful for the most part. Twice she made messes in the house, but I take blame for both of them because the search for a job, shopping for groceries, and trying to find a more permanent home delayed me in getting back at a reasonable time to take her for a walk. In our last nights at this house (I still needed to drive to Georgia to pick up someone and go back to South Dakota) one of my friends was over to talk. He had had a very bad day, and unintentionally raised his voice venting out his problems. My dog took this as aggressive behaviour towards me and snapped at him. I know she was trying to protect me, but she still got a time out because this was very bad. Later, she didn't have any problems with the friend any more and they came to an uneasy truce.
Once back in South Dakota, I've been still looking for a house. While we're in this transition stage, I've been trying to stay in the same area so my dog doesn't get so disoriented. Unfortunately, due to the weather tonight.. I became stuck in one city while my dog is up in the cabin we've been living in. My mom, with the best of intentions, went up to let her outside to go to the bathroom. I wasn't to sure this was such a great idea, because of all of the moving around and my dog not behaving "normally". However, my mom still went up and let her outside. In return for going outside, and going back into the cabin willingly, my mom bent over to give my dog a treat. When she did that, Shayleigh attacked my moms leg.
I'm trying really hard to get a stable environment and make sure that Shayleigh doesn't think its okay to bite people. As I stated (least I think I did...) earlier, her biting people did not start until after we got to the US and things haven't been as stable for us as they were in Germany.
Is this behaviour something I have to look forward to from here on out? Or is it hints of an underlying medical condition like so many web sites have tried to say? Or is it just because we haven't settled into one place yet?
Please help me..
<saddened>
Angel
I've been a proud chow owner/pet for the past two years. Its' been a great experience up until recently.
You see, my pup and I had to move from Germany back to the United States. As you can imagine, it hasn't been easy on either of us.
We're still trying to find that little piece of paradise to call home. When we first came back to the US, Shayleigh had a few issues with the male in the home we were staying at. As he's not a very nice person to begin with, everyone chalked it up to her being antsy from the move and picking up on "bad vibes" from him. Her behaviour included snapping and growling everytime he came near me. She did bite him once, when he moved suddenly towards me from behind...but even he didn't take it to personally.
Soon after that, we went to a different house, hoping things would be calmer. They were and my pup got along with the other dogs and humans there. However, we couldn't stay to long there either.
Two more stops later, and my pup found another human she did not tolerate well. Unfortunately, we were out of gas money and had to stay put for a few days. During this time, I asked the girl living in the house to take my dog outside, because the male and I were getting into a heated debate and my dog was started to get irritable. Before Megan got her outside completely, the male raised his voice at me, and my dog snapped through her leash and bit Megan to get back to "protect" me.
I borrowed money to get to a calmer environment while looking for a new house back here in the states. In the new house, Shayleigh was wonderful for the most part. Twice she made messes in the house, but I take blame for both of them because the search for a job, shopping for groceries, and trying to find a more permanent home delayed me in getting back at a reasonable time to take her for a walk. In our last nights at this house (I still needed to drive to Georgia to pick up someone and go back to South Dakota) one of my friends was over to talk. He had had a very bad day, and unintentionally raised his voice venting out his problems. My dog took this as aggressive behaviour towards me and snapped at him. I know she was trying to protect me, but she still got a time out because this was very bad. Later, she didn't have any problems with the friend any more and they came to an uneasy truce.
Once back in South Dakota, I've been still looking for a house. While we're in this transition stage, I've been trying to stay in the same area so my dog doesn't get so disoriented. Unfortunately, due to the weather tonight.. I became stuck in one city while my dog is up in the cabin we've been living in. My mom, with the best of intentions, went up to let her outside to go to the bathroom. I wasn't to sure this was such a great idea, because of all of the moving around and my dog not behaving "normally". However, my mom still went up and let her outside. In return for going outside, and going back into the cabin willingly, my mom bent over to give my dog a treat. When she did that, Shayleigh attacked my moms leg.
I'm trying really hard to get a stable environment and make sure that Shayleigh doesn't think its okay to bite people. As I stated (least I think I did...) earlier, her biting people did not start until after we got to the US and things haven't been as stable for us as they were in Germany.
Is this behaviour something I have to look forward to from here on out? Or is it hints of an underlying medical condition like so many web sites have tried to say? Or is it just because we haven't settled into one place yet?
Please help me..
<saddened>
Angel
-
Angel Firedancer
- Rank 0
- Posts: 6
- Joined: Thu May 12, 2005 12:45 am
- Contact:
I should have added in....
Shayleigh was socialized from the day we brought her home to now. She normally takes any chance she gets to get "free loving" from complete strangers, and has only not liked the two males from above in the post.
At the cabin we're at, there are other guests in the area. She's met all of them with no problems. Her only issues with other animals seems to be that she is afraid of cats or anything smaller then her....but she still likes to try to make friends with them after getting reassured that the smaller animals won't attack her. As for dogs her size, or bigger animals (horses, etc), she's thrilled to sniff them and claim them as her friends.
When there's a male dog around thats getting a little to friendly, she'll just growl at him in warning and then either lay down or sit down behind the nearest human.
When there's a female dog around thats being territorial, Shayleigh will growl slightly back, then lay down and roll over to show that she's not trying to take over the territory.
<sighs> Any thoughts?
Shayleigh was socialized from the day we brought her home to now. She normally takes any chance she gets to get "free loving" from complete strangers, and has only not liked the two males from above in the post.
At the cabin we're at, there are other guests in the area. She's met all of them with no problems. Her only issues with other animals seems to be that she is afraid of cats or anything smaller then her....but she still likes to try to make friends with them after getting reassured that the smaller animals won't attack her. As for dogs her size, or bigger animals (horses, etc), she's thrilled to sniff them and claim them as her friends.
When there's a male dog around thats getting a little to friendly, she'll just growl at him in warning and then either lay down or sit down behind the nearest human.
When there's a female dog around thats being territorial, Shayleigh will growl slightly back, then lay down and roll over to show that she's not trying to take over the territory.
<sighs> Any thoughts?