Anybody else have this problem?

I was wondering does anybody else get this with their dog(s)
Shadow is usually brill with people that she knows or even new people that come in to the house but iv noticed her getting uneasy with people sometimes. She's even snapped once or twice but i see it coming so no harm is ever done, its only with people who seem nervous of her or people that are overly friendly with her before she decides she wants to meet them. Im always telling people just ignor her and let her come to you and get a good smell of you before trying to pet her but if their unsure of her shadow can tell right away and acts the same towards them. The trouble starts when someone who is unsure of her and starts trying to pet her she will back away with her tail between her legs but most people will keep moving towards her when she acts like this and thats when she will snap, I almost always manage to stop the person before this happens but once or twice i was to slow but she never connected with the person she was just trying to tell them back away. Pretty much the same thing happens with people who come in and start hanging out of her straight away she gets nervous because she doesnt no or trust them and they dont read the signs that shes not sure about them so I have to step in before she resorts to snapping at them. Is this just normal or is there anything I can do?

ppl coming into ur house would want to listen to you and just ignore her and when she is good and ready she will introduce herself. she prob feels nervous about the person approaching her and it freaks her out alittle. one of my dogs sassie is like that but if you leave her to it and not annoy her she is fine. she will go to the person when she is ready. just be very strict on no touch no talk no eye contact..... go cesar on there asses....lol

I try but then people think if she walks over to get a sniff its time to be all over her haha supose I'll just have to keep telling them untill they listen

Ellie you seem to be doing everything right. Shadow is defo picking up on peoples nervousness and acting accordingly. You have to insist people follow the rules when they first come in....Dont look Dont touch and Dont speak to her. I have to to the same with Delilah with certain people, she makes it very obvious she doesnt want anything to do with people until she is ready. It is often the case that people become very nervous & cant help themselves and start talking to Delilah this only makes the situation worse. I usually have to step in and put her in her basket untill my visitor becomes more relaxed. I usually know by Delilah when this happens because she comes out of her bed and wants to say hello.

haha Yeah go ceasar he rules!

no talky no touchy no looky :@)

even if she comes to them tell them not to touch her until they feel calm and relaxed with her as she will feed off it

People seem to have a habit of saying its fine, their not nervous etc but I can soon tell they aint Its obvious when shadows ready to meet someone because she'll plonk her head in their lap haha

I think you have had some really good advice from all the comments above, i also think from shadows point of view when people come in and start eyeballing her is when she gets freaked out, think about it this way, imagine walking down the street and a person walking towards you that you don't know is looking at you strange, straight away you will go into defensive mode, that's just from her point of view, if you can explain this in them words to people they might just get the message, i think again the comments above hit the nail on the head, tell people to leave her alone till she is convertible enough to be rubbed, having a smell doesn't mean she wants affection this is her just sussing them out, try giving a treat to these people that she loves before they come into the house, maybe have some hanging out side the door so they can take some on the way in and put it in their pocket, she will smell this and will approach them with a different state of mind, ie looking for the treat instead of being defensive, as soon as they see the bright eyed wagging tail tell them to give the treat, never give it if she is still nerves only when she relaxes so that you nurture the wright state of mind.

Yeah everybodies been great with the advice :) thanks a mill. I that it was a normal reaction but wanted to be sure of the right thing to do. I'm going to try the treats for sure, great idea thank :)

good luck, also the pack walks this year will do her good, when you come try passing her around to different people so she starts to get used to them, it works i have seen it, all she needs is to build up a little trust with a little socializing around more people and dogs.

Get yourself a vari kennel and put her in there when you allow people to enter your home. She could be an accident waiting to happen so best be on the safe side and shut her away. It's only take's a split second for most accident's to happen.

To be honest I think that would make her worse I would rather deal with it when it happens. If she wanted to bite someone I think she would of all ready when she snaps she doesn't aim for the person it's just a warning to back up or she will bite. I'd love to do that at the walk but just a warning she isn't good with other bitches, I'll just make sure who ever holds her knows to keep her on a short leash, wouldn't want any accidents

Get yourself a vari kennel and put her in there when you allow people to enter your home. She could be an accident waiting to happen so best be on the safe side and shut her away. It's only take's a split second for most accident's to happen.

United I respect your being extra careful but you do seem to want to lock a problem away or destroy it. Apart from being a place for Pit Bull fanciers to get to know each other this forum is also here to help and give advice. It is my opinion that we have to do everything we can to socialise our dogs and keep everyone safe at the same time. There is nothing gained by locking a problem away in fact I think it would make the situation worse. As I said before I have a dog with a similar problem to shadow but I can guarantee anyone that comes into my home and follows the rules wont get so much as a growl. I must also stress that my dog in question is NOT a Pit Bull. She is a Lab X with a back ground I know nothing about and I have to say with patience, understanding and the help from the rest of my pack she has come a long long way. Some of these problems cannot be fixed overnight except of course if you can only see locking them up or putting them to sleep as the only way out.

Ell2011 wrote:To be honest I think that would make her worse I would rather deal with it when it happens. If she wanted to bite someone I think she would of all ready when she snaps she doesn't aim for the person it's just a warning to back up or she will bite. I'd love to do that at the walk but just a warning she isn't good with other bitches, I'll just make sure who ever holds her knows to keep her on a short leash, wouldn't want any accidents

fair play ellie, get stuck in and get working on getting shadow back to herself, no point in locking the problems away it doesn't work and makes things worse,,, using common seance wont let you down.

most of the dogs at the walk are not very sociable, but that's what these walks are all about they fall into place in no time and can be civil around each other, no1 here is saying that all these dogs will run off into the sunset playing with each other but its about being civil around each other and getting used to being in environments with other dogs.

I think being a dog whisperer fanatic helps as well

Thats good then, ye i do find once shadows walking with a dog (even a female) she gets in the zone of walking and isnt really bothered about any dogs around her, its just the initial walk over and meeting them when she tends to act up. She might find herself a boyfriend at the walk never know (she can be a right flirt with the boys )

Ell2011 wrote: She might find herself a boyfriend at the walk never know (she can be a right flirt with the boys )

YENALED1 wrote:

Get yourself a vari kennel and put her in there when you allow people to enter your home. She could be an accident waiting to happen so best be on the safe side and shut her away. It's only take's a split second for most accident's to happen.

United I respect your being extra careful but you do seem to want to lock a problem away or destroy it. Apart from being a place for Pit Bull fanciers to get to know each other this forum is also here to help and give advice. It is my opinion that we have to do everything we can to socialise our dogs and keep everyone safe at the same time. There is nothing gained by locking a problem away in fact I think it would make the situation worse. As I said before I have a dog with a similar problem to shadow but I can guarantee anyone that comes into my home and follows the rules wont get so much as a growl. I must also stress that my dog in question is NOT a Pit Bull. She is a Lab X with a back ground I know nothing about and I have to say with patience, understanding and the help from the rest of my pack she has come a long long way. Some of these problems cannot be fixed overnight except of course if you can only see locking them up or putting them to sleep as the only way out.

Nowt to do with being careful, more to do with all visitor's to my home feeling safe and comfortable around my dog's, and my dog getting use to stranger's. It's not locking the problem away it's making the dog itself feel comfortable and relaxed in it's own place around stranger's to the home, so that it won't feel any need to act aggresive. If it had of been a child it acted aggresive towards, then I would have said PTS.

The thing is with these dog's they are NOT the same as other breed's and to maintain and improve the dog's we have to cull and eradicate those freak's that have temeramental flaw's. We don't have the luxury of excuses as the rare time accident's happen they make headline's.

lol Google dog attacks buddy you will find that all breeds not just the bullys are capable to attack or kill some1, again these are behavior problems that can happen to any breed of dog and yes in most cases caused by the owners and not the fault of the breed or particular breeds.

saying things like this is why BSL is rampant, problem dogs are down to people and should never be based on breed. if people where to except that they could have possibly being the cause of a problem then they might gain somewhat knowledge rather than destroying the evidence without even trying to fix it.

Reading these posts i was thinking a bit of healthy debate is good but im starting to get peed off now .
Im fairly new here and if this was the view of the this forum id be gone .
My first dog was a mongrel i got at 3months and spent most of its time just with me , i remember on a visit to my mothers my little sister was giveing my dog a treat on the floor , he didnt see it straight away so she pushed it closer and he attacked her , no warning just sraight in with a bite , i felt it wasnt going to be a one off and had him P/S .
Fast forward sis grows up and gets her mongral, he didnt like small kids thanks to my small son at the time pokeing his fingers into every hole , and i mean every hole the dog had but he gave warnings and it was up to the adults to listen , very few animals or humans like been poked .
After that it was the "dangerous dogs " a shepperd / 2 roths , one of the roths did growl at my son once just after we took her in and i screamed so loud both dog and child got such a fright , we had her for 8yrs and it never happened againn , if evrybody ran to the vets everytime a dog growls thered be no dogs left , now that iv down sized to bull breeds i dont treat them any different to any of the other dogs iv had with the exception of my first mongrel , he just wasnt socialised enough , my fault not his but he paid for it .
And one last thing , what pisses me off most is when i have a visitor and i ask them not to pet the dog untill he sits and behaves and they insist its ok they dont mind him jumping up , well i do, also if you tell a visitor your dog is not happy been pounced on by strangers they should respect that .
Dogs arnt dumb they do talk , its the humans that dont listen .
Sorry folks Rant over

Hold up so because my dog was abused by people who tried to force her to fight, encouraged her to attack small animals (before i got her) means she should be killed? She is now best friends with my cat they sleep together, she is buddies with two small terriers that she walks with almost every day and she also is walked by my friends 5 year old sister who loves to give her cuddles. Im a strong believer that every dog can be rehabilitated and in my eyes shadow is proof to this yes she still has flaws that we still work on with her every day but shes not a danger to anybody except people who dont know how to behave around a dog properly.
If she had ended up in the hands of someone who seen things your way she'd be dead now, her behavour was brought on because of people no dog is born mean. Its up to the people who have the dog to choose what road a dog goes down. This is why people need more education when it comes to dogs no matter if its a pitbull or a collie.

RANT RANT RANT

so proud of these last posts, thanks very much you both explained things very well fair play.

Can I just ask this,

You buy two puppies, one Pitbull and one Labrador, they're both born the same day, you get both on the same day. You do the same training with both everyday.

Who really thinks the 2 dogs would end up the same?

well all dogs are different just like people, but if you bring them up socializing and exposing them to every day life, children and different environment, plenty of exercise mentally and physically, understand how to control and care for them along with TLC you may bet both dogs will be of sound temperament.

They would pretty much have the same behaviour. I agree that all dog are different like people but i say they would act pretty much the same when it comes to how they are with other dogs, children, cat etc, they would have the same kind of temperament

Question 2:

Would you trust the Pit off lead the same as the Lab (with other dogs)

Depends if both dogs were well socialized with other dogs and had no problem in the past then yes defo wouldnt think twice about it (except that by law you cant do that in ireland )