Aggression towards other pets

Hi all, I am new to this forum and would like to ask a couple of questions regarding my dog. My main concern is the aggresive attitude he takes towards my other pets, especially the cats. The dog is 1year 6months old and was brought up with one of the cats, after a couple of months i introduced another 3 cats.

The dog has a very freindly nature with all the cats and they play together and some times even sleep together, but sometimes all hell breaks lose.

The aggresive nature appears when ever the dog is seated on the sofa while we are around, if any of the cats gets even whitin sight the dogs starts to growl. If a cat comes in close quarters to the dog , the dog attacks!!:( I think he is trying to be possesive over us.

This also happens sometimes without any notice and the dog just goes aggresive towards any cat around especially if toys or food are around. My only remedy till now is shouting and calling the dog naughty, this seems to work as he knows he did something wrong and lowers his head and takes a submissive attitude towards me. The funny bit here is that after being angry with him, he comes back to be patted and stands upright in a begging postion as if he was asking me to forgive him!!. Is it my impression or am i going bananas,as i find this behaviour very strange, or is it normal??

But this keeps happening over and over again and i wish that this attitude to end. I realise that this is difficult because of the dogs nature, but is there anything i can do to improve the situation. My main concern here is if i have children in the future will the dog act in the same manner?

Sorry for being lenghty in my post, but any tips or suggestions are more then welcome.

Thanks Gremlin

Unfortunately Gremlin I'm not sure what you should do. Hopefully someone in here will have an answer for you.

Good luck!

Hi,
What breed is your dog? Some breeds tend to be more animal aggressive. If your dog is one of these breeds you may want to contact someone who is familiar with that breed and it's tendencies.
I really don't have any experience with that sort of problem myself, but perhaps if you contacted some of the dog trainers in your area they could help.
Good luck! :)

Hello and welcome.

My 9 year old female Akita (Sheba) is that way with our
little female terrier, Pepper.

Sheba moved up to top dog after our Alpha little Terrier past away. Our Alpha Terrier was always putting Sheba in her
place till the day she past away.
Now Sheba is getting even and treats Pepper like our Old Terrier treated her.
I always repremand Sheba when she does this, to remind
her I am the boss and not her. But to be honest
she still growls at Pepper, when Pepper approaches
while we are next to Sheba.

So other than trying to reinforce yourself as Boss,
taking toys and food away, and basic obedience
with your dog, that's about all I can think of.
Oh and one thing I stopped doing, is when Sheba
comes up asking me for attention, (when Pepper is around)
I will ignore her and only pet her when I decide to.

P.S. I am still working on this problem too. :)

Sounds to me that you are enforcing this behavior in your dog. Here are your words...

Quote:

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The aggresive nature appears when ever the dog is seated on the sofa while we are around, if any of the cats gets even whitin sight the dogs starts to growl. If a cat comes in close quarters to the dog , the dog attacks!! I think he is trying to be possesive over us.

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Get the dog on the ground and off the furniture if this seems to be when the problem occurs. A dog who does not realize you don't need protected is what you are looking for. Show him you don't need protected and higher your position in the pack in his eyes by showing him as the alpha you sit on the couch and he sits on the ground. You go out the door first, eat first, everything first and you should see his tendency to protect you diminish.

Good Luck!

Hi again, Thanks for the answer, i will try keeping the dog off the sofa and see how that works. The breed of my dog is a mix between a doberman and an X ???? no idea what the other breed was since i found him as a new born and had to hand feed him, because some unhuman idiot threw him out on the road.

He resembles a doberman so its a guess at what he might have come from, but he also displays some hunting dog characteristics, but thats my point of view.

Grem

Dobies are a dominant breed by nature. Another thing you might add to what you're already doing is to go over and lavishly praise the pet who was growled at and give that pet your attention in front of your doberman mix while ignoring the dobie's attempts to "make up." I read that after punishing your pet you shouldn't make up to them right away, but ignore them for a period of time, because a punishment won't mean very much to them if they know they can be back in your good graces immediately afterward. That came from "How to Be Your Dog's Best Friend" by the Monks of New Skeete. (They are long-time dog trainers of German Shepards, another dominant breed.) I think that making your dobie stay off the couch is very good advice too. Other than that, you might call a dog behaviorist, or start reading all you can find on dog pack hierarchy and dominance/submissiveness. There are lots of books by dog trainers that can be found in the library. Good luck.