[Dailydrool] Aggressive hound

[Jane Hay]

Everyone has to handle their aggressive dog the way they are most
comfortable but there are some steps that you can take before you do
anything drastic. Make sure you get your vet involved and have your dog
have a good check up to make sure it's a personality thing, not an illness.
If it's your dog, get a trainer involved and make sure you get someone who
knows basset hounds. We all know our hounds are unique in a lot of ways and
I would talk to a trainer who is familiar with the breed. Our Ginger is our
aggressive Houndette. We had gotten to the point where we knew we had to do
something or she would have to go to a different home. Ginger will kill
another dog for a piece of kibble and she is very possessive of anything
that she considers hers....furniture, her person, toys, treats, anything
that she perceives as being hers and she will go into attack mode to
maintain possession. We got a wonderful trainer involved (Dawn Gardner who
is also on this list) who gave us very specific things to do and it WORKED!
Dawn visited us a couple of years ago and got to see Ginger in full attack
mode so was able to evaluate her and point us in the right direction. We
have learned Ginger's triggers over time and we spend a lot of time making
sure that she isn't put into certain situations. She is over five years old
now and is still crated when we aren't home and at night. Her crate is the
one thing that she is allowed to posses and claim as her own and she will
regularly go into it when she's stressed. She has never intentionally
bitten a person although she got the DH one time when he was breaking up a
fight but I do NOT allow my granddaughter to play house on a one to one
with Ginger like she's allowed to do with Suzy & Shadow (she's not allowed
to do a one on one with Jersey either). And we own a muzzle. I am a firm
believer in not setting my dogs up for failure and would rather muzzle them
in certain situations or avoid the situation altogether. I would hate to
have to punish them for something that I could have avoided. So the bottom
line in my book is to get a good, qualified trainer involved who knows
basset hounds. Dawn uses a positive reinforcement method of training
which is a much better fit for us than the whole dominance method so make
sure you're comfortable with the method of training that your trainer uses.
There are a lot of different training philosophies out there and, for us,
the positive reinforcement method is much more comfortable fit.

I've seen your posts about Gus and I think all of us know how much you love
him. Good luck! I know you and he can overcome this little glitch that
you're going through.

Jane & the Houndettes
Jersey, Shadow, Suzy & Ginger
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