Re: [PyrNet-L] Aggression fear (long)

["Janice Swenson" <janices@jump.net>]

I don't necessarily agree either that pyrs are a dog-aggressive 
breed.  I also won't house male pyrs together where you do see 
problems.  I've never had a problem with either of my 2 being dog 
aggressive.  

Even Sonny who came in with problems from being bounced 
around from one home back to his breeder and rehomed here at an 
older age has never been what I consider a problem.  I did roll 
through a couple of fights with my old male newf and growling over 
sleeping places at first.  But then I won't let dogs work things out.  I 
think this is a common misconception that you're supposed to do 
this.  Coming back from the home he was in and being from a 
kennel he had no idea what was proper behavior in a household.  I 
had to give him guidance and set rules in what was considered 
proper.  

Now this same pyr moves for my old newf when he wants the 
sleeping spot.  My old newf can come up around his food bowl and 
pick up stray tidbits that get dropped and my pyr just keeps eating. 
They sleep side-by-side.  He comes up to Admiral actually looking 
concerned if Admiral has a bad day from his arthritis.  

I've been at shows and out and about with Sonny.  I've had a few 
youngsters come up in what I term kind of a challenging way and 
Sonny looks at them and then looks at me and I shake my head 
and turn his head off to the side and don't let them stare.  You're 
asking for trouble if you let 2 dogs get into a staring match.  It 
hasn't been that long since I was out at draft practice and I had 
Sonny tethered on a leash waiting while I was working Linsey.  
Lynne comes out with another pyr, Ted, and we were talking.  She 
didn't realize that Sonny could come up to Ted and I saw this pyr 
coming up to Ted and could see I want to be friends stuff from him.  
I said calmly Lynne, Ted and she moved him.  I said Sonny doesn't 
know any better anymore.  He thinks he's supposed to be friends.   
 
I do see pyr dog aggression from improper breeding practices, just 
plain bad temperamented pyrs, and what I term learned 
aggression.  I may get flamed for this.  It only takes once for any 
dog to get away with something for it to become learned if you 
don't take steps to correct it.  It will continue to escalate.  People 
have different expectations of what they expect and I see too much 
of well, pyrs are supposed to be that way, and they never really 
take the steps to correct.  Or they don't seek professional help and 
I'm starting to see misapplied advice and articles coming from the 
net.  Or the articles and advice are not completely correct or  
shouldn't be used for this situation.  You can only really evaluate a 
dog and owner if they are seen in person and really see how the 
dog and owner interact.  Or people have another dog or pyr in the 
house that acts up.  Sorry, but dogs do learn by monkey see 
monkey do.  So, if you've got another doing behaviors they 
shouldn't be then chances are one will learn off the other and 
aggression escalates that way.  

I actually know of a couple of cases from what I've just went 
through and there's no temperament problems.  One learned off of 
another dog in the household and proper steps weren't taken to 
correct behavior.  I went down on another and I can only 
hypothesize what happened here but I saw learned dog aggression 
and actually I would have taken this pyr because is an excellent 
working/obedience prospect and it was easy to retrain this behavior 
out but I've already got 2 here, pyr and newf, that I'm very busy 
with.  Anyway with guidance this pyr's behavior has improved.  

Janice, janices@jump.net
Admiral & Linsey (newfs), Bianca & Sonny (pyrs)  
http://www.jump.net/~janices/
Leander, TX
Visit Old West Newfoundland Club's website at  
http://www.jump.net/~janices/ownc/