Agression towards Men!

[borzoimom]

Well I am sure you all remember when I brought Rocky home, that he had some issues with hubby right away. Well since then he has been fabulous. Unfortunately today he tried to Bite my father In-law! he actually had his hand in his mouth! he didnt draw blood or break skin, but we were all scared to death! He has no issues with women or children, but obviously does not like men! Which seems odd as he came from an older gentleman! I am just not sure what to do about it?? how can you fix this bahavior??? It scared the heck out of me, not to mention my FIL!!

I am assuming your FIL doesnt live with you right??
Critter Crazy- I doknow what happened, what the situation surrounding this ( were you actually in the room, or coming to the door behind the dogs), but I will tell you this- Rocky is a huge dog, and if he meant to hurt it, that would not have been hard to do AT ALL! Even sometimes a nick on the hand would have still been- the dog didnt mean to hurt him- just that Rocky was warning him. Take a real good look at the situation surrounding this.
Do you remember when you got him, with his reaction to hubby? Remember I told you if the dog loved his previous, he may have looked at your husband then became " confused, or angry" it wasnt he old owner he loved. Since I am also assuming the FIL is also a older gentlemen as well, it could have been the same thing.
Using this as a scenio- like your FIL comes in the door, Rocky comes around the corner -- and for a split second thinks " OMG- ITS MY DAD!". Gets close enough to determine its not, and strikes back.. Sounds crazy- I know- but dogs have no concept really of time, and older dogs have object permanence- meaning they believe their owner is coming back. I have even heard of dogs that look for their previous owner all their lives even though their other owner has died..
HOw to remedy this- do what we did with Femka. Femka was fearful of men because of the contacts she had previously with the other owner. What we did was, knowing she would flee and hide if a man came over- only reinforcing the behavior- I just let her observe the "new man" in the room. The person was told not to make eye contact with her, as we talked about the weather etc. My father was the biggest help with this, and my step son as well. I would let her observe, and at the signs of her calming down " IT WAS COOKIE TIME".. Didnt take her long to figure out if a person came to the house, it was cookie time.. Even the mail lady.. My dogs think, as posted by the videos borzoi alarm system- that when someone comes to the house- its cookie time. This is done also for another reason specific to this breed- BORZOI'S seldom if ever bark.. And this way- their activity of pacing back and forth from window to door tells me if someone is around- verses just having one of them casually glance out a window..
Rocky may need time. I do not think its aggression towards men- as much as what he thinks would take place- " is that my dad?".. Remember- he was fine at the vets- perfect reason with some dogs not too.. My question is- if this is a true man aggression- you would see it everywhere!!! I mean everywhere- in the yard, walking in the park on a leash, etc.. I thought at one point that Hottie had suddenly developed a problem with a certain race. Even justified it by that hottie lived in a area where this race was concerning and Hottie " labled it" in his mind. Knowing you cant see your own dog well enough for a problem like this, I went outside to someone that has never met hottie- has to only look at the situation by words etc- with the last incident when Hottie was in the van.. Giving Hottie the benefit of the doubt- I then started to really notice when Hottie was put in this situation, and when it occured. Its not consistant- not always there, and the situations that it was- Hottie acted that way to anyone approaching the van putting their face in the glass suddenly of his van. Whether its that Hottie suddenly feels trapped ( the van has only a few windows so the dogs can't see all the way around the van and suddenly here is this unknown face looking at him, or that he feels trapped- it is specifically van related. Putting a racing muzzle on him at first- I took him to the park, in town, by the shopping centers- and even with the racing muzzle off- there was no sign at all this was a race related thing- but a situation related incident.
You may have the same thing with Rocky- meaning if a man is coming to the house- instead of meeting in the house - take Rocky for a walk meet this person on your front walk ways so the dog realizes out there( out of the rhelm of protecting his home or the "OMG THERES DAD" situation, then come in the house.
Now when I take hottie somewhere in the van, I no longer park near other cars, where they could be suddenly surprised at the van to reinforce behavior I do not want..