[pyrnet] Re:

["Susan Irving" <sirving@rogers.com>]

Hi Julia,

I had this problem with Seamus and his trainer advised me to do the
following:  First of all, is he neutered?  If you do not intend to show him
for conformation then you should neuter him.  It will be better for his
health and make him less aggressive and easier to handle.  The trainer says
this growling and barking is because the dog thinks it is HIS call to decide
when you need protection.  He has to realize that YOU are his alpha and YOU
decide when he needs to protect you.

We were advised to get a haltie or a gentle leader and a spray bottle filled
with water.  Whenever he lunges or barks at a dog or a person, pull his head
toward you and spray him in the face and firmly tell him "NO".  If at all
possible, get the person and/or dog he is being aggressive towards to walk
with you, correcting him as often as needed. You should also remember that
after neutering, it takes several months for his testosterone levels to
decrease. With Seamus, it took about 5 months of doing this and now he is
wonderful with other dogs ,even off leash.  He still lunges and barks in the
car on the odd occasion, but we just aim the spray bottle at him.  He still
has some problems, like chasing joggers sometimes. Our trainer has suggested
ways we might deal with this, but I won't go into that yet as I have to wait
until the snow is gone to try them.

Above all, you must remember that he is a pyr.  Being guardy is natural to
him and as a breed that  was bred to be alone with his sheep and make his
own decisions, you will have to take extra care to socialize him and expose
him to as many new situations as possible. You may always have to keep him
on leash, supervised.  But that's better than having him hurt someone. There
are some interesting articles about aggression on a site called Penny
Pyrbred's Web Page http://www.pyrbred.org/ that I found  to be very helpful.

Good luck with George!

Susan
----- Original Message -----
From: "Juliana Sprister" <jsprister@hotmail.com>
To: <pyrnet-l@pyrnet.org>
Sent: Tuesday, March 19, 2002 12:54 PM


> I apologize if I am doing this wrong, I am new to the group.  My husband
and
> I fell in love with the Pyr breed this summer.  After a few months of
> research on the breed we finally purchased a little puppy and named him
> George.  We currently live in an apartment but are going to be buying a
new
> home in the next 6 months so he gets tons of walks and insists that we do
> not jog in the mornings more then 2 blocks.  So he is 8 months now and we
> have taken him and our Shih-tzu Keefer with us everywhere we go.  We do
some
> traveling and they go right with us.  He has been in puppy training and is
> now in beginning training with Keefer.  We took him for his longest trip
> this last week which was 12 hours in the car this last week.  He started
to
> show a little agression.  I didn't think it is much to worry about but I
> want to make sure we are doing everything right for him and training him
to
> be a good member of society :).  I know the breed barks, and I have been
> expecting him to start using his voice more and more but on this trip he
was
> growling and barking at everything in site and everyone.  Once we told him
> it was ok when he met new people and had him sit he was fine and was as
> lovey as can be... but his initial reaction was to growl and bark.  When
we
> got to my sister-in-laws, she has a Roughtie (sorry about the spelling)
and
> George growled at him.  We took him down and layed on top of him and he
> stopped but I have been told not to take him down and lie on top of him to
> show dominance any more because he can turn on me.  He is such a gentle
> giant with me and my husband.  Am I over reacting or am I doing something
> wrong with training?  Any advice or anything is welcome.
>
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