Post by simplynaturalfarm on Aug 20, 2011 14:06:11 GMT -5
Well, I've mentioned our somewhat stupid mastiff x great Pyrenees Isabelle who I bottle fed from 3 weeks old. She did great for the first year of her life then we moved and in laws took her. I don't know if she learned weird habits from their dogs or just weird things as she aged, but a year and a half later we took her back and she was extremely dog aggressive (attacks my older dog) and chases all vehicles - I keep waiting for somebody to hit her!
Anyway, she has always had a mastiff quirk where she attacks her own tail and heaven forbid somebody is in the way or she knocks them over. I mean snarls and bites her own tail as she runs in circles - it is a behavioral thing mastiffs sometimes do.
We always tell our girls to be careful around her in case she does this for no reason when they are around and we don't want them bitten or otherwise. She is irritating in that she is not well behaved (she was very well behaved at 1 year, not when we took her back), she does not listen when we call, hovers over company (knocked over my MIL just running by her etc), but she keeps every predator off our property and everything would be dead if we did not have her. Seriously - we have coyotes that kill calves etc. We have another sissy dog who would do nothing if we had predators around.
I went through some horrible two/teen years with my last LGD so wrote all of Izzy's stuff off as growing up. But ithasn't gotten better and she is now 4.
When she jumps into my flower bed and I throw things at her (she knows she is NOT supposed to dig it up!), if I am close she seems like she would whip around and snap at me. But she never has - she just doesn't take off, just stands her ground.
Yesterday while moving fences I noticed something very odd. Selene (my 2 month old Dexter heifer) was laying down half way through the pasture and the others had all gotten up and were grazing in the new grass I had for them. Izzy went over to her and hovered just raising her lips at her until she got up and ran into the herd. My experience with LGD is not that they do THAT. They might stay with the calf but they don't snarl and stand over them until they run away. . But I thought maybe she was trying to protect them or something - nope, she will run at them and scatter them if they get near a bone.
I didn't tell DH, just thought I probably imagined it.
THen he told me he caught Izzy jumping a fence and getting into another garden and he threw a small stick her direction and told her to shoo to get her out and she turned and half ran at him very aggressively instead of away. He yelled again and she jumped out and left with tail between her legs.
This is starting to concern me. I do not euthanize for no reason, but I do not keep anything aggressive around as I have 3 little girls who are outside always. We talked about her this spring and I told DH I felt like I might be imagining things - maybe she is just a more aggressive LGD. . . but all of my large LGD have been wonderful around the children and I never have had these weird hesitations. And I told him I needed her for the spring/summer with the chickens and such.
WEll, my intuition is telling me something needs to be done. Practicality tells me I need her, but I keep thinking we are imagining this aggression (what an odd thing to think?), but if anything was to happen to my girls I don't know what I would do! I have always had a large dog but I am also now worried about if I don't have her, we have some whackos around . . . at least she scares them away.
Any thoughts guys? I have had large dogs for years and have trained dogs. I love my large dogs and woudl get another one in a second. DH worked on both the Mom and Dad of this dog and the Mom was very very independent and dumb and the Dad he just met for the first time last week and said he is very aggressive - tried to bite my husband. But that does not mean anything necessarily if he has not had good training or is not used to strangers working on him -KWIM?
I am tempted to tell my children they can't be outside or to start tying her when we are outside. In my heart I tell her I woudl rather have no dog and predators going after my pets than to have a child bitten. . I have NEVER euthanized anything for aggression ever in my life. I feel like I don't know what to do because this is a new scenario to me:(.
The more I type the more I feel like I know what the answer is.
Heather
Anyway, she has always had a mastiff quirk where she attacks her own tail and heaven forbid somebody is in the way or she knocks them over. I mean snarls and bites her own tail as she runs in circles - it is a behavioral thing mastiffs sometimes do.
We always tell our girls to be careful around her in case she does this for no reason when they are around and we don't want them bitten or otherwise. She is irritating in that she is not well behaved (she was very well behaved at 1 year, not when we took her back), she does not listen when we call, hovers over company (knocked over my MIL just running by her etc), but she keeps every predator off our property and everything would be dead if we did not have her. Seriously - we have coyotes that kill calves etc. We have another sissy dog who would do nothing if we had predators around.
I went through some horrible two/teen years with my last LGD so wrote all of Izzy's stuff off as growing up. But ithasn't gotten better and she is now 4.
When she jumps into my flower bed and I throw things at her (she knows she is NOT supposed to dig it up!), if I am close she seems like she would whip around and snap at me. But she never has - she just doesn't take off, just stands her ground.
Yesterday while moving fences I noticed something very odd. Selene (my 2 month old Dexter heifer) was laying down half way through the pasture and the others had all gotten up and were grazing in the new grass I had for them. Izzy went over to her and hovered just raising her lips at her until she got up and ran into the herd. My experience with LGD is not that they do THAT. They might stay with the calf but they don't snarl and stand over them until they run away. . But I thought maybe she was trying to protect them or something - nope, she will run at them and scatter them if they get near a bone.
I didn't tell DH, just thought I probably imagined it.
THen he told me he caught Izzy jumping a fence and getting into another garden and he threw a small stick her direction and told her to shoo to get her out and she turned and half ran at him very aggressively instead of away. He yelled again and she jumped out and left with tail between her legs.
This is starting to concern me. I do not euthanize for no reason, but I do not keep anything aggressive around as I have 3 little girls who are outside always. We talked about her this spring and I told DH I felt like I might be imagining things - maybe she is just a more aggressive LGD. . . but all of my large LGD have been wonderful around the children and I never have had these weird hesitations. And I told him I needed her for the spring/summer with the chickens and such.
WEll, my intuition is telling me something needs to be done. Practicality tells me I need her, but I keep thinking we are imagining this aggression (what an odd thing to think?), but if anything was to happen to my girls I don't know what I would do! I have always had a large dog but I am also now worried about if I don't have her, we have some whackos around . . . at least she scares them away.
Any thoughts guys? I have had large dogs for years and have trained dogs. I love my large dogs and woudl get another one in a second. DH worked on both the Mom and Dad of this dog and the Mom was very very independent and dumb and the Dad he just met for the first time last week and said he is very aggressive - tried to bite my husband. But that does not mean anything necessarily if he has not had good training or is not used to strangers working on him -KWIM?
I am tempted to tell my children they can't be outside or to start tying her when we are outside. In my heart I tell her I woudl rather have no dog and predators going after my pets than to have a child bitten. . I have NEVER euthanized anything for aggression ever in my life. I feel like I don't know what to do because this is a new scenario to me:(.
The more I type the more I feel like I know what the answer is.
Heather