Aggression

[debbie]

My Pyr is 21 months old and is really difficlt when anyone new comes into our house. He acts as though he is going to bite the person (especially men ) who he has not seen before. Once he knows someone he is fine. He acts the same when I wak him and someone is walking down the street. Yet if I take him in the car somewhere, to the vet , grooming etc., he is fine. I would appreciate if someone could help me with this. I had a Certified trainer evaluate him and she said he is not aggressive. I'm not so sure.

[risestar]

It sounds like he is getting a bit overprotective and likely just needs some solid socialization, focusing particularly on the thing that causes the aggression.

Take him for frequent walks somewhere where you will encounter a lot of people, especially men. When people approach, put him in a sit position and allow the people to approach and pet him if they want. If needed, distract him when they approach by petting him roughly on the head, like you are messing up his hair. When the person can approach without him taking an aggressive posture, pet him and praise him thoughly to reinforce the good behavoir. He needs to get used to men and them approaching him, it may take a bit or it may come quickly but once he comes to learn its a normal thing, he will either ignore the men or he will want to solicit some attention from them, depending on weather he has an introverted or extroverted personality.

He will still act more protective at home, but there will be an improvement and he will learn to look to you to see if the stranger has permission to be there. Once he knows the stranger is ok, he will warm up to them.

Think of him as a 5 year old kid at the amusement park for the fist time, it may be a bit scary with all the noise, lights, clowns etc but once hes gone on a couple rides and enjoys them, his behavior will change radically

[Momlady]

Debbie, I also have a 21 month old pyr (female) who displays similar behaviour. Risestar has good advice, and I would only add that when we have people visiting our home, we have Nika in the kennel to start off with (or on a leash out of reach of our guests). This gives her time to sniff the air and watch MY reaction to the company (if Mommy thinks these people are okay, maybe they aren't food!).

I then ask the company to ignore the dog (this puts them at a higher level of pack order in dog's mind) and I give them a couple of really precious treats to give Nika when she comes over for a sniff. This seems to be working :)

Hope that helps!

Lisa

[marie]

We have a seven year old female pyr who is pretty agressive but mostly to other dogs not humans. We've dealt with it in a couple of ways. When we lived in the city and went for walks we always had her sit and talked her through the encounter with another dog. We also let other dog owners with unleashed dogs know that our dog was agressive and we were doing what we could. It was always hard to have a happy lab come and jump on her when we were talking her through her anxiety about the other dog! Now that we live in the country we only have problems with the UPS and Culligan man! To get her used to them we gave them her favorite treats and now our pry runs to see the UPS man looking for treats.

Our pyr was tough until she was about three and now she is the best dog. We love her and the more we love her the more she responds to us.