[Dailydrool] Moose

[Nancy Rife]

It's not surprising Moose has problems considering his history.  We've adopted Solo in February of last year.  He was abandoned, found in an airplane hangar, skin and bone with a very bad case of giardia.  We had behavior issues right away.  He wanted to sleep on anyone's lap but if you disturbed him or even approached him, he would growl and snap.  If he was on a piece of furniture or a bed and you wanted him to move, same thing growl and snap or bite.  He bit my husband three times and we almost gave up on him.  Someone suggested an animal behaviorist and we thought we'd give it a try.  We were so in love with this little guy, we wanted to save him.  The behaviorist we found has a masters degree in animal behavior so it's just not some fly-by-night, hocus-pocus treatment.  Solo needed to be taught who the boss is and what his boundaries are.  He was displaying what's called RESOURCE GUARDING; in other words protecting himself and his sleeping spot.  The first thing we did was remove him from ALL furniture - no laps, no sofas, no chairs, and in particular NO BEDS.  We have a nice heated room in the garage and we put a nice comfy dog bed, a kong with treats inside, and a water dish, close the door and leave him for the night.  Lots and lots of furious barking at first but he eventually stops and is a happy boy in the morning.  So, first things first, you decide where he should sleep, AWAY from the family.  Maybe it's a crate but wherever, that's where he sleeps for now and maybe forever.  He's safe and you're safe.

We are absolute beginners at this but I'm sharing what we've learned so far.

He must have obedience training to learn SIT, STAY, DOWN, and LEAVE IT.  Then at feeding time if there are other dogs in the house, they get fed first. They're the Alpha, he's not.  The first bite of food comes from you out of your hand.  Make him sit and make him stay, make him take a bite of food from your hand then put the dish down.  If he refuses, but the dish away and try again later.  You'll have to work with him at least two or three times every day with a small treat having him go through the sit, stay, and eating out of your hand, etc. This only takes two or three minutes at best, but do it at least three times a day.  You'll begin to see the aggression go out of him really fast.  That's as far as we've gotten with Solo and we are signed up to do the obedience class toward the end of this month.  But it's WORKING!  Good luck!


Nancy J. Rife
Land Records Analyst
McElvain Oil & Gas Properties, Inc.
1050 17th Street, Suite 1800
Denver, CO 80265
303-893-0933 x 320

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