Melissa said...
Honestly before this post I was pondering the effects of male male vs. male female or female female confrontations. Made me chuckle when your thoughts went a little the same direction.
My question, do you think Shaker's original incident would have been different if a female would have been the attacker? Before the incident he treated the females much differently than the male here. He already had it worked out how far he could go with them and had a very great respect. On the other hand, with the male, because interactions were closely monitored he never was able to safely work that out. I know he had experiences with other males before wintering here. Just wonder if more of his dog education was with girls? Also in my opinion a lot of males neutered young tend to act more like bitches than dogs. Did he have much education with intact males?
I think you've mentioned his bullying is of males or females. What about his fear? Dogs he shows discomfort with? Ever female?
Unless the history of the dog indicates otherwise; I’ll always start transgender.
Shaker had been well socialized with intact males as well as those recently fixed. It wasn’t Shaker’s lack of social skills that caused the attack by the other male. If the other male had backed off when Shaker went submissive to him, we wouldn’t be discussing this. From what you told me there was nothing Shaker could have done to appease this guy.
For all of his social experience, Shaker was only a baby of ten months when he was attacked. He was a soft puppy. It takes a good two years for a dog to reach adult maturity. This includes mental maturity.
I honestly believe that if this had happened to Shaker at 2 years, he would have handled it much like Stormy has handled his attack.
In the acute phase post attack a scared and angry Shaker lashed out without thinking. Male or female did not really matter which pushed his buttons. Good management was why he didn’t injure more dogs or get hurt himself.
Some dogs get stuck in that scared reactive post trauma acute phase.
With Shaker I could sense his fear when he started back to day care.
My hope was that getting him back with his buds would trigger his old, familiar behaviors. I put him with Klondyke, a ten year old sibe. Klondyke rules the yard as my boss dog. He is everything we wanted Shaker to be. To this day Shaker has never had a problem with Klon. They ride in the car together. Isn’t that interesting?
The last dog Shaker went for in the reactive phase was Roxie, a leggy lab x great dane. She flipped him. Baby boy was on his back so fast. Each encounter teaches a dog something. He learned who not to mess with. That’s when he made the leap to chronic or bully.
In bully stage any sensed weak or vulnerable are subject to reprimand or attack. With Shaker gender didn’t seem to matter, if I’d let him he’d be one bullying little asshole. Some of the looks he’s given me, when I correct his behavior have been withering. He softens immediately, so it’s a non issue.
Since Shaker’s first day with me I have taught him but two things.
1) I like this. 2) I don’t like that.
One thing for sure is he knows I don’t like him attacking other dogs.
His fear is another long topic; let’s save that for another post.
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I definitely did not mean to imply I thought his attack had anything to do with him, as it clearly did not. He was not to blame for any of it. I just wondered if his post trauma insecurities showed any gender specifics.
ReplyDeleteMy only point was that he was very savvy with my girls and any new girls that he met. I did not see how he acted with other males so just wondered if his education in dog included intact males. Sounds like it did.