Oh, don't get me wrong. I can handle him. I realize that most of you don't know me IRL but I am very tall and very strong. I used to be stronger than most men, but I'm older now so
some (only some
) of the younger men can out-do me now, that's why I have a desk job...
I can control the body, physically, but what I'm looking for is how do I control him mentally? Evidently, I have always been dominant enough, just naturally, that my dogs recognized it and fell in line. It hasn't happened with this boy. Now, we did have one "Come to Jesus" meeting over dead chickens (I realized later that he likely had not killed it, just snatched a dead one to eat) in which I tackled him, held him down by the scruff of his neck while he tried to bite and scratch his way free, and told him in NO UNCERTAIN terms that chickens were not to be eaten! I ended up bloody, sweaty, and dirty, but in the end, he gave in and just lay there without fighting. It took about 45 minutes. (A funny aside: After watching the whole thing, my 14 year old boy said, "Momma, I learned something watching you fight that dog." "You did? What did you learn, Son?" "I learned that I would rather fight Daddy than you!" Heh, heh, Smart kid.)
At work, this would be called an "alpha roll." I have always thought that the K9 trainers did this too often and many times when it was not necessary, but my big pup would not give me the dead chicken, and even growled a bit when I approached him to take it. I felt drastic measures were necessary. Now, he is a little better about listening to me and will even fall over if I approach him in with hard body language, but the look on his face is like "Oh, you act mad, but I know you want to scratch my belly." Then when I turn away, he jumps up and grabs my shirt tail. He is also much better about not bothering the chickens, although he still sometimes wants to chase them in play, he has not put his mouth on any that I know of and will only try to put his feet on them when they get close to him. He is still a puppy. I fully expect him to be out of that in another year.
He will lay around all day, chewing on sticks and anything cardboard he can find, but every so often, he will jerk his head up and look into the woods, jump up and take off running toward where his attention was drawn. He disappears into the woods and will stay gone for 15 or 20 minutes and then comes back and walks around all the coops before laying back down to chew. He looks at every large bird that flies overhead and follows them until they are gone. We have had no chicken losses since he came here even though he was just a baby (8 weeks) when he got here. I bedded him down in a dog crate in the coop at night until he was too big for it, then he was allowed to sleep with the old black lab who loved him dearly. I have since had to separate them because the pup will knock the old dog down, climb straddle his whole body and chew on poor old man's head! There is nothing the old dog can do to stop him. No amount of growling or snapping at the younger (but bigger) dog will discourage the behavior and like I said, I can scream "NO!" at him till I'm blue in the face, but he will not stop.
He really is a sweet dog. He gives the most gentle kisses on my chin when I put my face down close to him, and he sits on my feet when we stop and stand a while on a walk. He wants to sit in my lap if I am sitting on the ground or on a chair, and he is in the middle of whatever I am trying to work on around the farm. He plays with our 15lb house dog and is usually careful not to hurt her. She occasionally gets mad and snarls and spits and bites him hard, but he isn't put off by it, it is just more playing to him. They got into a fight one time. They were digging under the shop after some varmint and evidently getting close, because the little one tried to chase him off from the hole and he showed her that it was his hole. The smaller dog stepped lightly around him for an hour but they were soon running, chasing, playing and wrestling again. She is the one who wrestles, he just lays on his side and she wrestles his head. That is where the falling over comes from. She runs up to him and puts her front feet on his chest, and he falls over with a 'whomp' and she jumps on his head and neck, growling, biting and shaking him, and 'fleaing' his neck and face...it's adorable.
I want him to do his job, but to listen to me and look to me for leadership - like all the other dogs I've ever owned have done, my whole life! I've never had this breed, it's so different than what I'm used to. I had a wonderful Doberman in my teens, but most of the others have been hunting or herding breeds (labs, collie, fox terriers, daschunds, and lots of mutts.)
