HELP! My APBT puppy is mean!

I do not know what to do. I have a puppy that is a little over a year old. She loves me to no end. Greets me with kisses at the door every day after work. She loves everyone she knows very much and always wants to play. She ALSO loves EVERY dog she meets, no matter how little or big it is. I love this dog more than anything in the world.....

HERE IS THE PROBLEM...


She hates strangers. I mean....hates them. My best friend who is a pilot came home yesterday and i thought my puppy would remember him (she only met him once) so he walks up and she bit him...hard, on the hand and made him bleed.

I socialized her EVERYDAY when she was young and it didnt help. I love this dog so much and I do not know what to do. If she knows you she will love you to death, but she is mean to people she doesnt know. I also dont want her to hurt someone.....HELP ME PLEASE!!!!!

 

with any dominant dog Socialization is a neverending process... If you're still calling her a puppy you should still be socializing...NEVER too much and if you quit when they're still young it may not help... Keep her socialized and when meeting new people on her turf have her leashed and collard and correct the behavior... CORRECT it for sure...

Enroll in OB classes with her ASAP.

 

You should probably seek a professional trainer that uses positive methods to help you. One way you can help with strangers is to enlist the help of friends that the dog considers to be strangers. Put the dog on a leash and have the person start to approach. Have that person stop at a distance where the dog still feels safe and does not react. Then have the person toss her a treat. You can repeat this and gradually have the person move closer but if at any point the dog reacts, you must back up to the last successful point. After doing this with several different people, you might try to enlist the help of people on the street.

The idea is you are teaching the dog that "stranger" equals "yummy treats". However, I would really suggest you get a trainer to help you out with this, since your dog has already drawn blood.

 

How does she react to strangers specifically? Does she lunge, bark, growl, try to back away, only react when they reach for her? Does this happen with strangers outside of the home?

I agree with Jamiya and wanted to offer a similar approach.
Assuming that she hates strangers outside of the home as well.....
You can help change this dogs emotional state at the sight of strangers using classical conditioning paired with postive reinforcement.
First, find some extra special tasty treats..something that she loves but that she will only get while you work with her on this particular problem. Start by taking the dog to the park or other area where there are likely to be strangers but try to go when its not so busy there. Keep her at a distance from strangers (she should be able see them) where she is not reactive and keep the treats coming while the strangers are in her view. If people are heading towards you simply walk away from them in the other direction to keep your "safe" distance. Once she seems really comfortable at this distance you can decrease distance moving a little bit closer towards strangers....if she reacts you have moved too much too soon and will need to increase your distance again. Keep the treats flowing consistantly each and everytime a stranger is in veiw as you continue to gradually decrease your distance. Stop the treat flow once the strangers are out of veiw and don't start again until another stranger appears. Soon enough your dog will be looking forward to seeing strangers because really good things happen when strangers are around. Strangers become a predictor of good things. Once she is fairly comfortable with strangers in view I would then start having a few strangers toss her treats.
This might take some time and patience on your part but I think you will be satisfied with the outcome.

The problem with "corrections" in this type of situation is that the dog is already emotionally stressed and corrections often only increase this stress. Sometimes this can have the opposite effect of what your trying to accomplish with the dog...the dog ends up seeing strangers as a prediction of bad things (punishment) and becomes even more stressed at the sight of them. Even if corrections appear to stop the behavior they do not fix the dogs emotional state. Without a correction collar on or in the absence of your presence this could turn ugly the next time a stranger comes around.

You may be able to find the following books at your local library. If so, I highly recommend them and think you would find both of them extremely helpful: "Aggression in Dogs" by Brenda Aloff and "Dogs are from Neptune" by Jean Donaldson.

 

what kind of dog is it

Sara, what kind of dog is that on the left side of your reply?

 

I am not Sarah, but her dog is Boerbal (sp) chekc our her thread Askaris babies are here, she just had puppies

honeybear

 

Definately go have the dog evaluated by a trainer, this cost me $30 and was the best money I ever spent. Look for an APDT certified /affiliated trainer. This issue will NOT be solved using rough or negative techniques. The second best money I spent when it comes to my guy Witt..was the $4.95 it cost me to buy a very thin booklet called "Cautious Canine" by Patricia B. McConnell, PH.D.
Witt is fear aggressive, I socialized the heck out of him as a puppy, but when he hit about 8 months (teenager time), things began to change. By a year we had already had an incident that made me seek help. Dogs(most) have excellent bite control, but the more incidents of biting they partake in the braver they get about doing it and the more severe the bite can become. IT IS NOT AN ACTION YOU WANT YOUR DOG TO GET TO PRACTICE. The book I mentioned above will literally walk you through, step by step, in easy straight forward English, a program to desensitize your dog to the things that set it off. If a step is too much...you back up and start again. Having the guidance of a trainer is invaluable..learning to read your dog is soooo very important. What looks to you like aggressive, mean behavior...may well be based in fear. A fearful dog pushed too far will/can become aggressive. Like being backed into a corner..they react. This is how it was with Witt, he actually was screaming with his body language ..telling me and the person approaching, that he was fearful, I didn't read him correctly and I feel guilty about that..but the good news is that you can learn to read your dog and once you do you can prevent that level of fear that causes a reaction and work on ultimately reducing the fear.
Lastly, your dog is NOT MEAN, please don't use that term, it is not accurate in the leaste.
Witt is now two years old and is doing very well. Would I turn him loose at the park?..hell no! It has taken alot of work and patience and learning on my part, but he goes to work with me frequently and has gone from reacting to strangers in a fearful way to now thinking that the person walking in the door may just be one of those treat machines he has been meeting. Every wag of his tail when he meets someone new is a huge step forward and we celebrate!

 

I wanted to add two things... nern is correct in saying that corrections can actually make it worse. That is why I suggested an APDT trainer, they work with positive methods.
I also wanted to tell you that before I sought the help of the trainer..I was myself making his reactions worse with my own. I would pull up on the leash, get tense and stiff, switch him to the other side..anticipating a reaction... all things that were telling him that he had very good reason to be fearful. Dogs are expert readers of body language. They see every little move we make, they note our breathing rate, if our eyes become wider, the leash is an extension of our arm and they feel every little move. We humans on the other hand suck at it! We make it very difficult for dogs to understand us, and often do not attempt to understand dogs. I am learning to become relaxed and show my dog that I am confident and capable, which in turn allows him to be more relaxed. My dog is part Catahoula and very colorful..his markings make him a magnet. People will make a b-line to him with arm outstretched wanting to pet him. I have learned to stop those people and ask that they back off. Witt finds people walking in a straight line at him threatening, people bending over him, arms waiving around quickly, grabbing at him, putting hands over the top of his head....all things he is not comfy with. At home or with people he knows and loves..those are all acceptable, but not with strangers.
He is such a different dog now, and I am such a different handler. Seek help and you will be amazed at what you gain.

 

I want to emphasize what Maisey said about your dog not being "mean". The way we think about our dogs (or our children or spouses or whatever) has a way of being revealed in the way we act towards them and does influence how they behave. If I think of Nala as my "demon dog" then she does actually behave worse. I find it helps when training to hold in your mind a picture of what you want the dog to do.

This was illustrated to me at the last agility trial. We put Nala up on a table to be measured. The lady told me to tell her to stay and take two steps backward. I'm sure she saw the doubt in my face, because I was thinking to myself that I have never taught Nala to stay while standing and she was nervous on the table so there was no way she would do it. Sure enough, I backed up and Nala tried to jump down. The measuring lady told me what I had done and said that I needed to believe she would stay, give her the command with confidence, and then step backwards like I have no doubts at all that she would obey. So I did......and Nala stayed.

I used the same thing later at the start line. I plunked her down, told her to stay, and walked away without a backward glance....and she did it!

Your dog's issues are more serious and difficult of course, but thinking about her correctly in your head cannot hurt.

 

Thats a great post and example Jimaya. After Witt reacted a few times, I myself became fearful, I didn't trust him and he felt it. When a situation would come up I was sure Witt was going to react...and of course he did. Everything about me told him he should. It was becoming a horrible cycle.