Wild Dingo

Confession: I have a dominant aggressive dog. There. I wrote it. In the beginning I made so many excuses for him. People who first met Loki didn’t think he’s dominant or aggressive. They thought he was cute the way he sat on them or playfully mouthed their hands and may have made excuses for his “excitement” as well. But make no mistake, this dog can and will be dominant and/or aggressive if he can. His dominance comes out during obedience training. He loves to train for play and for food and occasionally for praise, but for pure obedience, I drag him kicking and screaming.

No, Loki will not go up to a person or a child or even a dog and just bite them. He’s not that kind of aggressive. In fact, if he’s roaming around on his own, he’s friendly to people and dogs. He’s not even food possessive/aggressive which I was told he was. He and Juno can eat dinner and bones side by side without any issues and with people close to them petting them. Sure, Loki tried to bully Juno out of her dinner the first week she was here, and he tried possessing a bone or even my sweater around her, but honestly, possessive aggression was the easiest form of aggression to cure him of. He had two choices when he finished his bowl of dinner: look at me or leave the room. He was never allowed to even look at Juno while she ate. He got the picture fast.

Loki’s main aggression problems are redirected aggression (taking out his stress on person or a dog), handler aggression (taking out his stress on his handler –me– similar to redirected aggression) and territorial aggression, a high drive to protect the home or the pack boundaries. His territorial aggression can exist at home or in a dog park or wherever he believes he owns.

So why does he have this type of aggression if he’s so good just hanging out on his own? One reason is because he’s dominant. And he wants things his way. Because he’s not obedient for the sake of obedience. He will work for something to please him but he will not obey for the sake of obedience. Obedience is the most important thing you can teach a dog, as it can save his life. In the begininng, he dispised the leash and would easily try to bite me or the leash. The leash is a form of submission and being dominant, he naturally resisted it. Correct that: he REFUSED it by biting or tugging it.

Another reason is his aggression stems from getting excited either from pleasure or out of nervous anxiety. Even happy excitement can build and culminate into aggression. He “loads up.” In obedience training we use a prong collar. In most cases, prong collars provide the dog a quick reminder to focus on his handler to do his command. In Loki’s case, the prong can–but not every time–stimulate him into higher drive, excitement and then aggression. When Loki’s calm and confident, the prong does what it’s supposed to do and he looks up at me and follows the command. But if he’s already loaded up, anxious or nervous, the prong just stimulates him more until he finally bites the leash then my arm.

Thankfully, between all the reading I’m doing about dominant/aggressive dogs and the trainers at k-9 clinic, I’m learning how to work with a dog like Loki with his high drive and high anxiety. His training becomes an hour of making judgment calls of when to use the prong to correct him or when to “unload him” by touching and walking him easily.

For example after our daily walks, I would let Loki and Juno into the dog yard and used to unhook their collars and let them run. But Loki would be loaded with some low level excitement and anxiety, for whatever reason, either from the prong or just the walk itself. His favorite method to release that anxiety was to dominate Juno with a growl and play-bite. While it’s not exactly a dog fight, it’s definitely not a form of play, therefore it’s unacceptable. Juno loves chasing and wrestling when its play but hates it when he bullies her. Who wouldn’t? So now, after our walks, Juno gets released while Loki and I spend some alone time together while I unload his stress and anxiety through touch and praise for his excellent walking. Which by the way, he is perfectly obedient on his walks. After unloading him, I give him the release command and he looks up at me completely surprised like, “really, I can go now?” and he calmly walks away, instead of sprinting after Juno for a bite.

Unloading Loki has become a way of living but the rewards are gaining quickly. He’s already learned not to bully Juno randomly. Though it’s not recommended to leave dog toys out for a dominant dog, I do leave one or two “low drive” tug toys he can put in his mouth to redirect his anxiety instead of taking it out on Juno. He now goes and reaches for his toy when he has anxiety building from his natural need to possess us (a Shepherd trait) while we’re spending time with Juno. I don’t know why I didn’t think of it sooner. His biggest form of anxiety release is through biting and tugging.

Still, the fight for leadership isn’t over between Loki and me. He still rants and rages occasionally in obedience class. Over time, it’s gotten better. The first class I couldn’t shut him up or keep him from wigging out. The stimulation of dogs running on recall exercises and running up agility walls was all too much for him to handle. It’s been 9 weeks since we started training and he’s come so far. He still protests like a defiant teenager, and he talks back a lot, but he can now make it through an entire group class without a trainer pulling me aside to work one on one with us. Now that I’m starting to socialize with other dog owners after class, though I don’t remember them from that first day, they all say the same thing to me “Yah, I remember you and your first day here.” And they acknowledge how far Loki has come. He made THAT much of an impression that first day. Think two year old temper tantrum during a quiet moment at a movie theater and envision the two year old having chomping fangs and 64 lbs of muscle and you’ll begin to get the picture. Most people would probably run. Not me. I seem to have a few screws loose.

To me, Loki is like a special edition corvette, with unique engineering and steering capacity that an ordinary person who can drive a car won’t necessarily figure out. I won’t let just anyone drive my corvette. He is dominant and he will ALWAYS test his handler. I see it every time I do a leash hand off to a trainer Loki may not know. He’ll spend 5 seconds wigging out and trying to dominate the handler. He learns pretty quickly the handler has driven that type of car before so he falls into place. I, myself, am still learning how to drive this corvette.

The truth is Loki’s got some special gifts that make him an exceptional dog. He’s got a high drive to work and especially do all the agility exercises. He gloats and prances around like a star quarterback when he can complete an agility exercise that other dogs cannot complete. He’s also strong as hell and super athletic. There isn’t an ounce of fat on this dog. He’s also silly and likes to cuddle. But the two things he’s got working against him: his anxiety and his ability to be easily distracted.

I’m finding his anxiety is already starting to slowly go away and once he realizes that obedience work gets him in the door to the fun stuff, distraction won’t be anything but a thing. I almost peed my pants one day last week when I left him in a down/stay at the dog park and a Labrador puppy came over to him to distract him. That lab walked over him, stood over him (Loki’s favorite way to play dominate other dogs but hates having done on him), sniffed him, licked him and basically did every single thing to tease him out of his down. Loki, having just been corrected for breaking his down stay, had amazing resilience and stayed down for several minutes until I released him. It did me proud. I know he can do this. I know he can become obedient. And I’m so thrilled to be the person who can help him become a model canine citizen.

Happy 6-Month Anniversary Loki! You light up our home and soul.