Agressive behavior

[luzmery928]

O.k a minor set back on my part. Last night it was time for bed so I bribed our B to get off the bed with a treat. All good, my husband thought it was a wonderful idea and so on. The problem was that we decided to stay up a little longer, watch some tv, talk so our B did not want to stay in his bed and when I did not allow him up on the bed he decided to trash my side of the room. Yes my fault for leaving stuff out. Anyway, I was too lazy to clean up my mess so the B won and he got to sleep with us last night. But on the positive side, he tolerated being moved during the night without any aggresive behavior so maybe he might be getting the idea that if he behaves (at least no aggression)then he gets to sleep with us from time to time. I do have to make a mental note to clean my side of the room some time soon so our little taz can't use that against me to get his way. Smart little B!

[jys1011]

Once again..this is where crate training comes in handy..our Bs go into their crates for bed time & we can stay up & talk & do human socializing

[luzmery928]

This really won't be a problem once I clean my mess up since then he will just whine for a little bit and then go to sleep when he sees mommie is not paying attention. He's usually a good boy at night.

[luzmery928]

We've got a trainer. I got him form a list of certified positive reinforcement trainers from another thread. I love this forum for all it's helpful info. Anyway he will be coming to our home tonight for a meeting and see what we need to work on. Will let you all know how it goes. We are very excited.

[tanza]

That is great…. so happy to hear that.... and thanks for doing positive things to make your boy a happy member of your family....

[luzmery928]

We met with the trainer and although I'm a little dissapointed that he can't simply correct our B's nipping behavior he seems to have alot of positive background working with all types of issues. Right now he's training us to train our B the simple commands and as for his thoughts, nipping can't be trained away from the dog but needs to be diverted into something else, like into a special toy, etc. Does that sound right to those of you with nipping dogs. The aggresive behavior he says is more of a tantrum thing and we will work on that but the bases to it all starts with the simple things like the basic commands.

[tanza]

Basic commands are necessary for any training. And there is not way he would have been able to "just" correct the behavior of nipping? And it is really changing the behavior (of nipping) not training, so he is correct.. all the behaviors and basic commands are necessary to change the nipping behavior and let your Basenji know that you are "top dog". This is basic training for any behavior…

[luzmery928]

That's a relief. Other than that he was good. Positive reinforcment, praising the dog, patience, all that good stuff. Thanks again to that thread that led me to the trainers in my area.

[jys1011]

Sounds like he knows what he's talking about…you basically substituting nipping for something more constructive and less painful

[luzmery928]

Well last night was good. My daughter wasn't feeling to well so I went to lay with her on her bed and our B came with us. When it was time to get off the bed, my daughter took him down and he did not show any aggresive behavior and when it was time to exit the room he didn't growl or anything. This is a good step though I still haven't been able to stop the nipping but hey it's still good!