Dominant Dog .

 Good Morning,

I\’m hoping you might be able to help me with an issue I am having with one of my 4 dogs that I can\’t seem to figure out.  I have 2 - 5 year old \”Shipoos\”, a 2 year old Lab, and a 1.5 year old German Shepherd that we adopted earlier this year.  Overall everyone gets along really well and there are very rarely any issues beyond one consistent issue with our German Shepherd.  The problem is that she is constantly walking up to one of the two small dogs, stands over them, then puts her paw on their back and just stares them down.  This obviously irritates them so they do growl at her but she just keeps on doing it and after a few seconds if she doesn’t\’t stop they will nip at her which makes her upset and she fights back.  I try and stop it when I see it happen but I simply don\’t understand why she is doing it and have not been able to get rid of problem.  It\’s almost like she\’s trying to show dominance over them as she literally hovers over them when she\’s doing it, just staring them down with her paw on their back.  I’ve tried distracting her, rewarding her for stopping, crating her, etc when she does it and nothing seems to work. She\’s just so focused on doing it and if you pull her away when she\’s doing it she will go right back to them and do it again.  If you have ANY advice I\’d really appreciate it, I\’m at a total loss!

Thank you kindly, Kristin

Hello Kristin,

It sounds as though your German Shepherd is being dominant.  You can control this behavior if you take over as your dogs pack leader, and this can be done through positive obedience training.  The pack leader decides how the pack behaves and if you are an established leader of your pack you will be able to stop any behavior you do not want.  If you are not their leader and in charge then some dogs decide THEY are in charge and this is where problems develop.  If you want the most successful relationship with your dog and a dog that trusts you and is happy, you need to do obedience training.  In order for obedience training to work you have to be a well-established pack leader.  A dog will only listen well to you when they trust you and see you as their leader. 

For some dogs seeing you as leader is hard for them.  If you feel you have difficulty with your dog being dominant than it is a good idea to add a few more things, such as changing the way you feed them, in addition to your daily obedience routine to solve this problem.  Since food is an important part of their lives they will see whoever has their food as very important, so instead of just putting down the food bowl and walking away you can carry the food with you and only hand out the kibbles here and there over a period of a couple of hours.  They will begin to see you as very important.  Also, ask them to sit or perform a task BEFORE offering food to them.  Dominant dogs should ALWAYS be asked to perform a command before being given food. 

Also, exercise and drain your dog’s energy to the point they are so tired they lay down, every day at least twice a day.  At age 1 ½ your dog is in its teenage years and will need a lot of energy drained or you won’t be successful at managing any of these behaviors.

I have great information on my training site that can help you resolve these issues with your dog if you need more assistance along the way AND I am available 7 days a week to work with you through email support to help you through it.  Here’s the link:  http://www.webdogtrainer.com/join.php

You CAN resolve this and you’ll all be much happier.  Good luck!!

Julie