Loren Kristunas
04-10-2005, 09:55 AM
Hi. I wrote about my rescue Sage on the Doggie Door. She is a 1 1/2 year lab/border collie mix. We rescued her from the shelter 3 months ago. The history we know of her from information we received and are own guesses are she was adopted fro the pound at 8 weeks by one family with a young child, I think had another same age lab puppy as a friend and not much other socialization with dogs, had alot of ground to roam on but wasn't taken out much. I suspect from the way she cringes in certain situations she may have been hit or kicked, I don't think she was brutalized but more was roughly disciplined by ignorant people, perhaps when she jumped up on people or knocked over the toddler. When we first got her she was friendly but anxious, eager to please, always quite friendly with our older Golden Retriever except for the very first day when she gave a quick snap over a toy. Very friendly with a friends dog she sees every day after an initial few days of occasional low growls. For the first month she was friendly but shy and fearful with new dogs, hackles raised, tail between legs, head down. We tried to build confidence, started her on NILIF, obedience training. She seemed to do very well and was relaxing, for a few weeks, but then began to do this stalking, charging, stopping, staring, and then giving one snap right in the dogs face. Many people said this may be herding type behaviors and it may have been, but I think there is more going on here. We put her back on leash and we tried distracting her, giving some commands when another dog approaches, etc, but something, maybe our tension seemed to make the behaviors worse. Holding her back on leash she has taken to lunging on leash, growling and snapping at other dogs. Not all other dogs, maybe about 30%, with the others she is fine. We pull her back and put her in a sit stay, if the other person stops and talks to us for a few minutes she seems to relax and even has some friendly interactions with the same dog. With dogs she is accustomed to we don't get the aggression, but she is sometimes quite rough and somewhat bullying in her play. When another dog disciplines her she backs right down, but if they aggess towards her she aggresses back. Please, any suggestions are appreciated, we are racking our brains trying to figure her our and give her the help she needs. She is very sweet, never aggressive with people, although often shy with strangers.