Terrible Teenager, or just growing up? (LONG)

[carolynnl4]

All right, Athena is right at 15 months, and she's adorable and wonderful and all that good stuff. Now I'm wondering if she's either no longer willing to take any "crap" or if she's doing some social climbing. Here's a few scenarios that worry me:

1. I'd been hoping to get a cat/kitten. And knowing how prey driven rottweilers can be, I've been careful when introducing her to a few. As a puppy, she licked on them and loved them. A few months ago, she stared at them a lot (making me very uneasy). She chases them if she sees them "in the wild". Last month, I had a behavorist test her with a few, and Paula (the doggie behavorist) told me "It's time to get a kitten". I was thrilled. Then we went to the humane society (located in a pet store), and she was introduced to a kitten. She made this horrible deep growling bark, lunged at it through a kiddie gate, knocked the kiddie gate down, and tried to get to the tiny little kitten being cuddled by the volunteer. (I've never heard her make that noise before.). I was devastated, but figured all that staring was some kind of prey-hunting stare. So no cat.

2. A week later we were visiting at the same humane society (this is something we do at least 3 times a week). As always, we stood outside and watched the puppies having fun playing with each other, and people walking by admired Athena and compared her to the two baby rottweilers inside. (We figure it's good publicity). On this particular day, they had this beagle that barked *incessantly*. Shrill annoying barking at Athena. A couple of people were admiring what "good girl" Athena was, and how hideous the beagle was. All of a sudden, Athena did the same thing she did to the kitten. Lunged at it, making terrifying noises, and knocked over the baby gate to get at the beagle.
Now she's always adored playing with other dogs, and she has only once shown aggression (overly enthusiastic great dane), and even then you could tell she was very reluctant and terrified. As soon as I rush over to take control of the situation she's anxious in, though, she's always been calm and happy to stand behind me. This time, I was holding onto the leash and beagle wasn't in her space at all... I don't know if she did that to the beagle because she's older and she's no longer frightened, just annoyed, OR if it's because she's wanting to show dominance. (And I do have a sneaky fear that she's showing some of her parentage, which I know nothing about.)

3. She's very respectful of people, and rarely jumps anymore. She adores getting loved on, so she usually just leans against people while they're scratching her, or licks feet (shoes and all). Lately, she's started climbing into guests' laps and trying to get affection. Never to us. Does this equal social climbing?

4. We got her to stop mouthing as a puppy, but now she seems to be testing us...while we pet her when we come in, she leans against us, and as we pet her, she kind of puts her teeth on us...no pressure. Just a brush of teeth.

Currently, she's in advanced obedience, and we correct her with a "no" or a light tug on her pinch collar (which has the smallest link/pinch available). She stops whatever she's doing immediately.

Sorry about the long post, but this has been weighing on my mind for a couple of weeks now...

Carolyn

[Patty1231]

I'm certainly no expert and I'm sure you'll get loads of good advice coming up but this sounds like similar stuff my male did, although he started a little sooner than 15 months. Exposure, correction, and training eased us both through the difficult times. He's only 22 months now so I know the difficult times are far from behind us but it's been good training for watching out for what still may come. I'm proud to walk him down the street now with barking, maniacal little furballs standing on their porches having fits and my boy just looking at them like, "what's YOUR problem"! (There was a time.....) My HS girl, Perle, was very reactive to aggressive dogs when I first got her but now even she is taking the "what's YOUR problem" attitude...although she does whine a little sometimes. I always praise them both for being good boy/girl!

[Judi W]

Well, I'd just suggest that you not worry so much about the "why", because you know she is a good girl but is now acting like a not-good-girl, you become more assertive as to her boundaries. Twice, is starting a pattern. One of the first things you need someone to show you is how to manage her leash and collar so that there will not be a repeat of lunging and being successful in it. In order to fix this you will need to be very attentive to her rather than what is going on "out there". When you see her going into her preliminary stance, give a verbal caution, correct, change the direction she is facing, move her around with some nice collar pops, then return while repeating the verbal correction. Repeat this and repeat this until she understands what she is being corrected and redirected for. It will take some time and in different situations for her to get the message that she is not going to be allowed to indulge herself. Remember, with this type of action, you want to correct for the thought, do not wait until she fires off as that is too late. Don't start thinking "well, she's only looking" and avoid taking the preemptive correction. She has already demonstrated what she is thinking about. This is fairly easy to solve if you will be attentive to her. Eyes are an excellent telegraph, but it is not always easy to see your dog's eyes in such a situation, so you will be watching her ears, the skin on the top of her skull, whether she is leaning forward while up on her toes, lack of motion as she fixates and so on.

[Canadianrotti]

No expert here but I can tell you that we have been there and will be there again soon (we have a 6 m/o). What got us through was training, very consistent training. If you tell your dog for 5 years not to go on the bed, and one day say ok, up ya go, he will think "I can do it again and again". We have had this happen to us with our now 4 y/o Dogue de bordeaux. What happend to us was, we thought he was old enought at about 3 y/o and in good controll so we started to back off a little on the rules. WHAT A HUGE MISTAKE!!!! We now have to work extra hard to keep him in line and let him know that we are in charge.

I dont know that this will ever stop with him or any other dogs (kids too), they keep testing to see how far they can go with the rules. I think that as the dogs (and kids) get older, they test less frequently but it still happens.

It sounds like overall she is a fantastic dog and you have been a loving and supportive mom. Just keep working on your relationship with her, building on the solid foundation you have work so hard to develop.

[carolynnl4]

Perle and Candian,
I know objectively that everyone goes through this, but it really helps to hear it. I talked to the behaviorist this morning, and she reinforced the fact that Athena is just finding her social feet. I wonder if spaying her at 4 months contributed to the fact that she's going through this a little late in life. (We didn't know about the controversies of spaying early.) Also, Paula wants me to try Athena with a kitten again. Apparently,t he way she tested Athena, was she let kitten on the ground, and let Athena do her thing. (She just licked and sniffed the kitten.) So we'll see. The lunging really scared me.

Judi,
thanks for putting things in perspective. This is not the first time I've made things way too complicated.

Carolyn

[Judi W]

No, early spay did not affect this. Most dogs have a point where they know they are bigger and stronger and feel less intimidated and want to try out doing what they want instead of what you want.

Yep, not everything needs to be analyzed to pieces before we tackle changing it. (I secretly believe that idea is often a delaying tatic!)