JL - I made that number up. The point I was trying to make is that when people give me anecdotal stories about how they alpha rolled their dog and it was fine, their dog is the exception - or possibly they just don't recognize the signs.
For example - Bhikku said that Cesar Milan's dogs are not afraid of him. Actually the dogs on the show that he trains do show major stress signals. They obey him because they fear him or fear the consequences. I prefer training that helps my dog to trust me, not fear me.
Also this subject of dominance is taken out of context. A dog is not submissive or dominant. A dog can be confident or not confidence, however submission & dominance are fluid. You said Sammy might be submissive - actually she is dominant in most situations over Loki (in that he defers to her) but she is submissive to new dogs she meets. Dogs also know that we are not dogs and while they can see us as leaders and look to us for cues, they do not see us as "alpha" anything. Dog body language is complicated and difficult to understand. Dogs understand other dogs. We can understand them if we practice enough and read enough and train enough.
What methods? Though positive reinforcement (which I suggest the OP find a trainer to help with specific methods) you can train the dog that the child is a good thing - that being in the room with the child and being calm means they get treats. It's called conditioning. Only a trainer can look at the situation and say "OK the dog bites when the child shrieks" - then you desensitize the dog to that noise. Why do you think dogs bark at the UPS man? Dog barks=UPS man goes away. It's self rewarding and a conditioned response. Of course the UPS man is going to go away whether the dog barks or not, but the dog doesn't know that.
Loki barks at strange dogs. Through training I not only know his body language to see when he is nervous so I can begin to re-direct him, but I trained him to look at ME for further instructions and a treat.
It sounds like the OP has a dog that has no confidence and doesn't know what to do about the situation so he bites. I would be willing to bet there are some warning signals first before he bites, but without training the OP won't be clued into what they are.
Very few dogs are actually "dominant aggressive" And they aren't like this dog who obviously has triggers that set him off, which to me says fear. This sounds like one specific behavior with a specific trigger. If she had said the dog was biting over food, over resources like the couch, whenever people pet him, etc. that is different. A dominant aggressive dog would not be "so sweet otherwise" Something is setting him off. She has to figure out what that is.
To the OP: I'm sorry this has gotten out of hand. We only want what is best for your dog. Please seek out a trainer who can come to your home and address this immediately. Some steps can be taken right away and others will need to be done on a daily basis for months, but there is hope. |