Posted by Lynne Is this because of her "maturity" at 14 months? There were 2 obnoxious dogs in my opinion owned by the same person there. One was a border collie?/mix and the other was a medium sized German shephard/sharpei? mix. The smaller dog snapped "don't look at me/get close to me" anytime another dog approached, and the larger dog decided he/she had some issues of dominance with Scarlett. When we were working in the class, I tried to keep Scarlett away from these two. I was working with Scarlett on some weave poles when the GSD type dog got too close to Scarlett and decided to "start something." I just kept moving away from these guys, but it seemed to me that the other owner was oblivious to keeping the peace, and wasn't smart enough to stay away from Scarlett. Scarlett was actually kind of funny. She wanted to know where these unruly ones were at all times and I had my hands full just trying to keep her working "somewhere else". It was very obvious to me that Scarlett wanted to "TEACH THEM SOME MANNERS MOM". Secretly, I agreed with her, but hate confrontation and I was trying to do everything I could to avoid it. There was a 4 month (boxer/golden mix?) old puppy in this class and he was making everybody laugh at his obvious joy of living and his clumsiness. He was having a ball, alternately being "humped" by some for a few minutes, and "bowled over" by others, all in good fun, he didn't appear to be in any distress from all the commotion. The larger problem dog decided to go after him and Scarlett took great offense at that. She jumped into the fray and backed him off. The trainer said to the group that boxers are highly intelligent/maternal dogs and that Scarlett was just protecting the puppy which made sense if you were there. Scarlett's behavior was not bad exactly, but very nerve wracking for her mom. None of them ever drew any blood, but there certainly were a lot of "discussion" going on between Scarlett and this group of two dogs. Scarlett has always been the alpha dog in this group and usually is not challenged as ring leader in the group. When it came time to "let them play" before we left, I turned her loose with some misgvings because of those two specific dogs. It went fine for about a minute, until Scarlett went up to the really mouthy/border collie mix who proceeded to "act out" by showing Scarlett all her teeth. Of course, Scarlett took offense, and pinned the little "**tch**. I say that because that is the best way to describe her behavior when any of the other dogs approached her. The trainer had to run across the field, (I was too slow to get there, he was younger/faster), and pull Scarlett off the dog. He picked her up by her collar and told her NO in a loud voice and said SIT SCARLETT which she promptly did to end the scuffle. Scarlett wasn't hurting the dog even though she was making a lot of growling noises. She just pinned her on her back and wouldn't let her up. The trainer said that Scarlett was doing the right thing to teach the other dog manners, but I decided I had had enough. It became apparent to me that there was not going to be any peace between them, and I took Scarlett home. I had hoped that Scarlett would play with the other dogs and just stay away from this dog, but it appeared to me that Scarlett had an agenda that day to be to teach this dog to play well with others without snapping. Sorry Scarlett, it would take a bottle of nerve pills on my part to allow this even though it probably was the right behavior for a good doggy behavior police dog. Thank you Lord, for my normally very sweet boxer girl. Thank you that she doesn't usually act like this with other dogs.
on October 7, 2001, 7:52 am
I took Scarlett to her training class and have noticed a change in her behavior. Before and after class, the dogs are turned loose to play and socialize with each other. Previously she would lay down and inch up to smaller dogs but this time, she wants to pin them.
Message Thread:
« Back to thread