I know I have made reference in previous posts about my furbaby. She is a 22 month old Corgi.
A little background on her. We brought her home right after Thanksgiving in 2013. My husband and I had dogs growing up, but she was our first baby together. We would spend hours after work playing with her. She would do basic commands for treats. After awhile, she became very hyper. Typically puppy behavior. Everyone kept telling me, after she is “fixed” she will calm down.
March 2014, we had her surgery. We dropped her off in the morning, and we were allowed to bring her home after work. The next day, she was acting like her normal self again.
In April, she started to get slightly aggressive. She would growl and show her teeth. As the weeks went on, she started to get worse. She would corner me while showing her teeth. If I would move, she would lunge at me and she would bite me. *She is by no means vicious. She would go days, and show no signs of this aggression.*
With a baby on the way, we knew we need to do something to get her under control. In September 2014, we started basic obedience classes. We took her to 5 classes. We missed the last class because I went into labor early. This class taught her to listen on command, as long as she was receiving a treat as a reward.
My maternity leave I spent in my bedroom or the baby’s bedroom. When my husband wasn’t home, I was not able to control her. My husband and I had many conversations on the topic. It was hard for me to continue to want her around. I was afraid of her, and I was afraid of her hurting the baby.
She did well when the baby came home. We never let her very close, but she would lick his feet. Once he started to move around, we had to restrict her more. She no longer had free access to the whole house until he went to bed for the night. The baby loved to stand at the gate and just watch her. She would come over and give him kisses on the hands.
Fast forward to July 2015. The baby had been pulling up on the gate for a couple months at this point. For the most part, we could tell when the dog had had enough for the day and needed to be left alone. The baby and I were sitting on the floor next to the gate. He was not even touching the gate. He turned to put his hands on the floor so that he could crawl away. The dog reached through the gate and “bit” him. I’m not trying to make light of the situation because I do consider it a bite, but she does not actually bite hard. And again, that does not make it right. Obviously, it scared him.
I was fed up at this point. My husband was upset because I had already warned him that if she ever even attempted to hurt he baby, she would be gone. I waited to address the situation until the next day. I didn’t want to say anything rash. I HAD to calm down before I could talk to him.
We made her an appointment to rule out any medical issues (which we had already talked to our vet about her issues in the past.) She came back with a clean bill of health. I found this training online (thanks to a friend who loves watching dog videos!) It is a 2 week training.
We made an appointment to meet with the trainers. We went over our concerns, and her behavioral issues. They feel fully confident that they can help us with her. We don’t want to get rid of her, but she needs to listen to us. She needs to know how to act around us and other people.
Her journey starts today. We hope this training will bring our family a dog who can be apart of the family again.
Wish us luck!
Busy Momma Bear 