Ah MillieDear sweet increasingly misunderstood Millie. Millie has been with us for 10 months now. She has really calmed down a lot since she first came here, but I keep learning new things about her, and have to adjust how I do things to be able to counteract her newest quirk. This last time that I went home, I took both dogs again because it went so well last time. Only this time I decided not to give her Benadryl . Things did go well for a while, except for the day I had her at my mom's new house. We were there to bring things over and to meet my cousin who was taking the Kids playhouse that was left behind by the previous owners. He brought his little girl with him, who likes dogs and is use to being around them. Mom and I were inside eating lunch with my dogs. Arin came in too and started playing with Rooby, and as per Rooby's MO, she started using her load "play-with-me" puppy bark. This confuses Millie, I've seen her reaction at the dog park. Millie thinks that Rooby is in trouble and needs protection. She immediately starts barking, and not a playful bark, a serious one. She then advances. Millie did this with Arin. I grabbed her right away and had to keep her by my side the whole time Arin was in the house. I was really worried that she would bite Arin, although I really can't see Millie actually biting anyone. She doesn't bite other dogs at the dog park, but she does do a herding move that looks like she is biting, but she is nipping and pushing the dog away from Rooby. This worried me though, because she wouldn't stop barking. Once we were back home in CO, I was dog sitting Bubba and Dell. Liz can over to pick them up. Millie has stayed at Liz's house a couple of times. But when they came in, Rooby started her excited barking, and Millie went into her aggressive mode again. I had to hold her the whole time. The weird part was that Liz let her smell her hand and petted her, and Millie licked her and continued to bark at her at the same time. At the dog park, Millie has to be on her leash much if the time. She is getting better at times, but I have to talk her through an encounter with a dog. I know that I must not be doing something right when people come over, some how I am not acting dominant enough or something, I don't know. Does anyone know what I should be doing? Millie is really so sweet, and I know that she thinks she needs to protect her family, but I need her to learn that difference between playing and someone attacking us. You know, without someone actually attacking us!;)
3 comments:
Oh, man. THAT is scary. Poor Millie. I'll ask Nora at PetSmart. She's the one who came up with the idea of the Alpha Dog t-shirt thing.
Maybe Millie could be on "The Dog Whisperer."
Everything I know about dogs I know from the Dog Whisperer, and I think Cesar Milan would say that you are not being dominant enough, and so Millie feels that she has to be the protector.
Now, how you behave as the dominant one, I'm not sure I can coach you on! I've learned with my two beasts that it's so much about attitude and tone in my voice. If I command them to do something, but my heart isn't in it, they don't obey or are very slow to do so. But, if I'm firm, if my body language says I'm being serious and in charge, and my voice echoes that, they respond. I think that's why Cesar says that he trains people (if my memory of his slogan is right). We're the ones that have to learn our place in the pack, and for a healthy pack the human must be the dominant one. But, becoming that isn't easy.
Yeah, I figured that was the case, me not being dominant enough. That I learned from the Dog Whisperer too. But like you said, I am not sure what I am not doing. I have been working on being the dominent one for sometime now. And in some ways it is working. They don't get to come inside unless they are invited. They walk at my sides. They have to have permission to get on furniture. But I know I am falling short when people come over somehow. I can't get people to knee Rooby when she starts jumping. They let her, and she knows she doesn't have to listen to me because they are letting her. Then she gets more excited and barks. That's when Millie starts to take over. It is SO hard to get them to sit a distance from the door and wait until they are called over. That is one episode I saw on the Dog Whisperer. I feel like an idiot because I can't seem to keep control during those times. I think I am going to have to watch some morfe episodes.
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