Dog reacting badly to owner pregnancy?

Dublin141

This is such a long story but our oldest dog is about fifteen months old. She had some behaviour problems when she came to us but she improved a huge amount. She's a great dog aside from that. There have been a couple of problems recently however.

We had a visit from the DSPCA saying they had an anonymous phone call saying the dog had been beaten that morning. The inspector was very nice about it and said that the dog was clearly well treated and said that maybe it was really a noise problem (apparently a lot of their complaints are really because people are pissed about dogs barking ).

This sort of makes sense because she has gotten into the habit of growling at some of the neighbours from a distance. If she's really intimidated she will bark once or twice at them too. She's on a lead when it happens and it's only because she feels threatened because she has seen and heard them have loud drunken arguments right outside our house. They upset her so it's not her fault that she gets a bit freaked when she sees them but should we get a muzzle or something for her walks so they feel safer? She is quite nervous sometimes and sometimes cries loudly if she gets a fright from a loud noise so I suppose that could contribute to noise too.

The growling and crying was a very, very irregular, minor thing but over the last two months or so, it's increased a good bit. We were a bit puzzled because we couldn't see why but then I found out I was pregnant. She suddenly started jumping up at me from behind if my back was to her. Not playfully but roughly and she's started to disobey me quite a bit. If she gets too over-excited for example, and I tell her to sit down, she will jump up at me instead. The biggest problem with that is that she is a strong dog and she's hurt me a couple of times now. If it doesn't stop then she'll easily knock me over when I'm further along. She's started to ignore our younger children (walk away from them or turn her back to them if they try to pet her or play) when before she was extremely tolerant of them and always happy to be around them. She's also started to go to the toilet in the house, even straight after she has been for a walk. This is very unusual for her. We've increased her walks but it hasn't helped.

Somebody said it might be that she senses a change in my hormonal levels because of the pregnancy and is sort of acting out because of it. Could that be right? The time frame works out about right. Has anyone any experience dealing with that sort of thing? Should I be worried about how she will act around a new baby? Any advice at all on how to deal with it? Or could there be a medical reason for the changes?

She's a house dog so we really need to sort this out so any advice is appreciated.

Sigma Force

If you can enroll her in training classes it would probably be better for a trainer to see the issues one on one. Dog training ireland or a similar training place that uses humane methods would be good.

star-pants

Would agree with Guinea - this is something you need to fix now, before you get further along and potentially get hurt from being pushed, and before the baby comes/the behaviour gets worse.

peasant

I would say that this has nothing to do with your hormonal levels, but rather with hers.
At 15 months, she being a large dog, she would just be entering her "rebellious teenager" phase.

Main thing to do would be to tighten down on the consistency side as far as the house rules are concerned. You (and your rules) have to be predictable (ie. the same reaction to the same transgression every time) and she musn't be let away with any transgressions.

If that doesn't work or you don't know how to approach it, a (good) trainer would certainly be able to help.

Paul91

I reckon peasant has knocked it on the head there, but just wondered if she may have been injured or possibly sick - change in diet?

the_syco

Agreed about the training.

Also, one way to stop her from jumping on you, is to knee her in the stomach. After a few times, she learns that jumping up on you = unexplainable pain in her stomach, and thus stops.

Paul91

the_syco wrote: »

Also, one way to stop her from jumping on you, is to knee her in the stomach. After a few times, she learns that jumping up on you = unexplainable pain in her stomach, and thus stops.

i REALLY don't like the idea of that and strongly disagree!!!! besides how do you knee a dog when it jumps on your back?

AFAIK the most affective way to get a dog to stop jumping on you is to ignore it, but in the cases where it is dangerous for the dog to jump obviously something else needs to be done

funkyjebus

Paul91 wrote: »

i REALLY don't like the idea of that and strongly disagree!!!! besides how do you knee a dog when it jumps on your back?

AFAIK the most affective way to get a dog to stop jumping on you is to ignore it, but in the cases where it is dangerous for the dog to jump obviously something else needs to be done

Dogs jumping up is all about dominance and capturing the space between you and them. If the jump you need to step forward and take the space they just did. This will also put you dog off balance (you don't want to knock it over, just put it off so it goes down by itself). A stern deep No at teh same time should do it.

But this is again a domenace issue, therefore you need to display in dominance in all aspects. Dog should eat after you, walk through doors / gates after you, never walk in front, make her sit before you feed, sit on their bed, make her obey you for the sake of it (with tricks, etc - take up small training sessions if you've stopped).

Let her know who's boss. Peasent is right, doggie teenage years are from 1 to about 3 depending on the breed. So it probably just rebelling.

peasant

funkyjebus wrote: »

Dogs jumping up is all about dominance.

Nope, it isn't. Nothing is about "dominance". A (long) bit of reading material here: http://www.dogwelfarecampaign.org/why-not-dominance.php

Jumping up is something she was allowed to do as a pup and it has now become a habit. Plus, trying to fend her off while she's doing it has also taken on the form of a "game" in her head. She jumps - she gets attention/interaction - that's fun!

Withdraw the attention, turn away, keep your hands to yourself, ignore her.
Once she's got the message that the funny game is no more, catch her with a "no" before she jumps and get her to sit instead - reward the sit, ignore the bad behaviour. Keep at it, give it time.

Dublin141

Thanks for all the advice. I won't be trying kneeing her in the stomach. People keep telling me things like that...I think we would have to get a trainer out to the house because there isn't any centres nearby as far as I know.

She's definitely a teenager, I had sort of forgotten how immature she is because she had settled down so much with us. She was absolutely allowed to jump up on people as a pup and we had worked on that when we took her but it's more than possible that I haven't been as stern as I should be because I've been so tired.

Tried to take on board some of the tips and I did notice that she didn't take me seriously at first and became even more excited. It took a couple of stern no's and stopping the attention completely to get it into her head that I wasn't playing a game with her. She will sit for me if I tell her to but she gets so excited that sometimes she bounces back up unexpectedly. It's just going to take a long time to get her out of the habit I think, but as long as we know it's doable. Thanks for the reassurance that it can be done everyone, I was half afraid to post in case people said to get rid of her.

The main thing I'm worried about is the neighbours complaining about her. I mean, if they went through the trouble of calling the DSPCA with a fake complaint then what else could they do? I hate the idea of a muzzle but would it be a good idea?

I was worried that she might be sick or injured herself but she seems fine...she's been known to run into things when she's out in the field off the lead but she hasn't done that for a good while. The only difference in food has been a few extra tidbits in her bowl over the Christmas.

Interesting article - we have always been told and thought ourselves that some of her behaviours were down to trying to be dominant.