Sudden change in behaviour

[Mocha]

Mocha was (and still is) the sweetest boy ever, but when we got a kitten, his behaviour changed quite abit. The thing is, he's never mean to the kitten (except when it comes to his food), and they play and sleep together every night. But of late he's started to pee all over the house and has started growling at us when we want to give him a bath. He is also noticeably more aggressive. This never happened before, and we're wondering if it's because of the kitten, or if it's because he's reaching maturity and just wants to assert himself (3yrs + now). Has anyone had a similar experience? Any suggestions as to what we can do to make him less aggressive?

[carrie]

Hello Mocha, and welcome.

It sounds like a combination of things has changed your dogs behaviour and I think you have a pretty good angle on what is going on. His age may be a factor, although I suspect that there were signs before now that your dog was pretty dominant?
The new kitten is a certain factor - as is the way we tend to treat cats and dogs differently. Cats do not tend to have the same restrictions that dogs have and to a dog that feels it is king of the heap this can be a trigger for it to assert it's dominance more strongly.

I wonder what you mean when you say the dog is, "more aggressive"?

Get a muzzle or get your vet to show you how to put on a safe tape muzzle and continue to bathe the dog - ignore all protests.
You need to get control here and make it clear that you are the boss - not the dog.
Have a look through the other behaviour problems on this site and you will find a lot of suggestions that will help you - eating problems and separation anxiety posts will probably have the most useful to you.

Hope this helps - if not - just ask again!

[mary_jsn]

i agree with carrie. Also you tend to pet and spend more time with new members. Maybe your dog is feeling left out and is feeling more insecure. Give your dog some more petting and give him some biscuits. Just treat both pets equally. Maybe that's what's making your dog more aggressive.

[MichelleN]

Good luck! The advice Carrie has given on other posts will really help, and you've done half the work by admitting there's a problem!

[yorkster]

Well, I am glad that Carrie answered this for you, because I would have had NO idea. What she says sounds good.

I have a dog and 2 cats, and I know sometimes the dog gets frustrated because the cats are allowed on the bed, couch, etc............she justs gives us these looks like "hey! what about me???"
I think it helped a lot that we had the cats BEFORE we got the dog.

Anyway, good luck!

[Mocha]

Thanks guys I really appreciate the advice! Looks like we'll have to give Mocha more attention... Hope the cat doesn't get jealous instead hehehe....

[carrie]

Good luck - be very careful that it is the right kind of attention. No free fuss or food from now on. If your dog knows how to sit then every time you want to stroke him tell him to sit - if he does he gets the fuss - if he doesn't he gets nothing. NOTHING! If he asks for fuss he gets nothing - only when you choose and after he has done something for you.
Let us know how you are getting on.

[mary_jsn]

Hope that he eats his food 'till the last bit.

[Mocha]

Hi everyone! Well, what we did was positive reinforcement when he did'nt widdle around the house, and so far it seems to be working better than any negative reinforcement we'd been trying. The thing is, he knows when he's been a bad boy because it shows in his behaviour - he gets awfully "shifty"and won't come when he's called. So we tried to give him the fuss when he was a good boy and now he doesn't seem to do it as often. But I suspect the last groomer we sent him to must have hurt him, because he won't let us shower or comb him (and this is really difficult, since he's a shi-tzu), and this has never happened till about 4mths ago, the last time he was sent to a grooming shop. Unfortunately, this has also been around the time when we got the kitten, so we're still trying to figure out if it's the kitty or us or the groomer..sigh.

[sabies]

Poor Mocha, I'm sure his world was all shook up by the arrival of the kitten. I'm sure he's trying to figure out just what his position is as far as dominance goes now that the kitten is in the picture. It's important that you let him know you are still boss.

Perhaps the bath issue is associated in his mind with the kitten or it could just be a time when he feels he can act up cause he has your attention and the more he fusses about the combing the more you try to comb him, the more attention he gets - is that what happens?

[Mocha]

Hi everyone... sorry for sounding so pathetic, but he's gone and done it again!!!!! I woke up this morning and found out that he had widdled EVERYWHERE. I'm just so tired of cleaning up after him.... He's sitting in a corner now because I yelled at him, and I feel so bad for doing that. Since my last post about positive reinforcement, he's gone and done it for four days running!!! The whole apartment smells of dog pee and my boyfriend's mom is driving me up the wall with her complaints.... can somebody please help??

[carrie]

Here's a few things to try.

Get the dog to the vet - it is possible that there is a medical reason for this behaviour as it seems to have happened suddenly.

Confine the dog to an easily cleaned area at night - a hard floor rather than carpet - this will not stop the behaviour but will make life a lot easier for you and the house a lot less smelly.

Start from scratch again - pretend that you have just brought home a brand new puppy and it knows nothing. It is hard when you feel so frustrated and especially when you have someone moaning at you but try to think like you would with a tiny pup. That means ignoring, really ignoring, mistakes and concentrating on the times that the dog toilets in the right place.
Try and forget about the fact that you have done all this before and think of it as brand new for the dog too.

If the dog checks out at the vet OK then I think you need to make it feel more secure. Oddly you would think this meant fussing over it - it doesn't. Ignore the dog when you leave the house ( always give it a chance to toilet at least ten minutes before you leave), when you come home and any time it asks for attention in any way. When you come home ignore (don't look at or talk to it) until it goes and lies down (this may take a LONG time at first). When it has been settled for at least ten minutes call it over, ask for a sit and only if it does what you ask do you then praise and fuss it. If it doesn't sit, get up and walk away until it has been settled for ten minutes again.

Please look in the other posts for the feeding stratetgy - you are trying to give the dog as much security as possible and lessen it's stress. Giving it as many gentle signals that are clearly understood about it's position in the pack and that the pack has a strong and able leader (you!) will ease it's anxiety and lessen it's need to assert itself.

Any questions - please feel free to email me, use private message or post again on the site.

Hope this helps - it sounds easy but ignoring a dog is a lot harder than it sounds so good luck - let us know how you are doing.

Vet first, though.

[Logan]

Please don't get angry with him. He is obviously confused, or as Carrie says, has a medical problem. While you are getting through this, make it easier on yourself, put him in a smaller area so that it is easier to clean up after him while this is going on. I'd use gates versus closed doors. That way he can still interact with sounds and sights in the rest of the house.

And after ruling out a medical problem, do as was suggested, start over with him. In addition to retraining, he will be getting the attention from you that he probably needs right now, on a consistent basis.

One more thing. Are you taking up his water at night? I would do that. Pick a time, maybe 7-8 pm and take the water up until the following morning. He's old enough to go without the water during the night. Make sure you take him out and he "goes" right before bedtime, and then again, first thing in the morning.

These things take time to correct, but they can be corrected with lots of love and positive reinforcement.

Good luck.
Logan