colonelsmom

I was wondering if agression in bassets is common. I have a one year old basset named Colonel. I love him so much and hes usually a good boy. Sometimes he'll be stubborn and run away from me when im trying to get him inside regular basset behaviors.

Though sometimes he'll randomly attack me and my friends. It used to be a a playful attack but lately it's been getting awfully aggressive. But it seems he only does it at random. Me and my friends try and get him to play with us but he won't. He'll only attack at random. Does anyone else's basset do this?

Mikey T

Doesn't sound like aggression at all but appropriate behavior on his part in regard to rude behavior on yours

see He Just Wants To Say "Hi!"
Aggression or appropriate response to rudeness? Far too many dogs suffer because handlers & trainers don't know the difference between the two.


Dog Behavior Q and A with Dr. Lore Haug,

one also must consider his age, he is an adolescent and with athe the behavioral bagage that goes with that life stage

Puppy Adolscence - or Demon Spawn
"Seems" is the important word it is extremely rare that dogs are random, If you start keeping a diary of incidents which include a complete discription of where, what how and when a pattern will emerge. Heck it can as obtuse of he only act agressively when you were green shoe but there is going to be predicability to it. Also it is likely you are missing or unaware if signal the dog is doing prior to acting out that would predict his behavior as we. body lanquage, calming signals, vocalizations etc,

as for the answer of the original question is aggression common. Well it actual depend on how you define aggression. There are people that will tell you growing should not be tollerated in a dog, yet in doggie communication it is the same as yelling for a human, is yelling never apporpriate, is it even realistic tha a person never yells, yet to expect that from a dog? So rather than focus on "aggression IMHO it is better to focus instead is the behavior appropriate. So the same behavior may be appropriate in one circumstance but not in another. But in general for all breeds when defining aggression as an inapproriate threatening response than aggression is not normal but it is far from being rare. Actual most aggression in dogs stems from fear. This fear may or may not be rational on the part of the dog but it is the emotional basis of the dogs reaction. This fear is very often the result of inadequite early socialization 9a dog not exposed to men early on ~ 16 weeks of age is much more likely to be fearful of men and much more difficult to impossible to teach the dog to trust men) but one can not discount genetic factors also come into play as well.

colonelsmom

I didn't know throwing a ball to get him to play = rude behavior.

Also when I try to get him to play by throwing a ball, he doesn't attack at that moment. It could be a day or a week from then. Bassets hold grudges against ball throwing?

It always happens when I'm sitting or laying down. I'm not even petting him and he gets on the bed or couch and lunges at me. I wasn't aware not bothering your dog was rude.

I don't push him or like put his ears in his mouth to make him play. I don't try to irritate him. I must be doing something unknowingly.

Thanks for your reply.

Mikey T

it is a very rare basset indeed that will fetch, chase maybe fetch not so much.


not so random after all.

can be if what the dog wants is your attention and you are avoiding the dog.

describe a lunge, i.e. does he make contact with skin, cause injury etc. Is it accompanied by any other behavior either proceeding or following the lunge, such as but not limited to vocalizations,.a bow front down hind end up. What action/reaction do you take when it happens.

that is generally the case. If you looked at the other links provided you would discover dogs his age test boundries. For example if the lunging is occuring when you are not paying attention to him, he could easily learn that by lunging he can get your attention. If you interact with him even if it what you percieve to be punishment it could actual be rewarding for the dog, because for many dogs any attention is better than no attention. So yes, you can be unkowingly be doing something wrong. If a behavior is getting worse over time it is because the behavior is being rewared. This can be inadvertently as the example above but some behavior are self rewarding. Say for example if the luging is motivated by fear, ie a small movement on your part is percieved by the dog as you are going to get up and move him to another spot. (doesn't matter what you were actual doing only what the dog percieves) then by lungeing he stops you from moving him, the lunging behavior is self rewarding because it prevent what the dog did not want to happen from happening.

What it takes is some careful analysis of the situation in which the behavior occurs and find the commonality between them This will give you a big clue on the triggers for the behavior, By carefully observing the dog you can obtain the emotional state of the dog at the time as well. With this information u can then craft a behavioral modification program to change the behavior successfully.

If you come into the process with the preconcievednotion that the behavior is random, the cause is genetic then you might as well give up, because there is no way to change such a behavior. But as can been seen when you provide some detail that the behavior is not really random at all there are at least some parameters for it to occur.

your welcome. When some one asks for help but scant detail is provided anyone seeking to help is going to have to connect some dots. Unfortunately those dot are not numbers so often the dot are not connected properly. It is why I always recommend anyone experience a behavior issue with a dog to seek out outside council that can observe the dogs inappropriate behavior in the context it is occuring. Those that are intimately involved in that context of the are natural going to be biased observers. They often miss or neglect relevant information that is critcal. So the caveate of any online advice is it is only as good as the information about the behavior provided. This is why even the best dog trainer in the world general have coach or at the very least video tape training session etc. Because things occut they miss because they are so immeresed in the other activites important to the context they can not devote there full atttention to actual observing what is going on like an outside pair of eye or a video camera lens can.

SophieB

I can't believe a topic for Basset Hounds could contain the word 'aggression' with this most docile breed!! We've rehomed many Bassets and had several pups over two generations of my family and never ever have we seen any aggression in any of our dogs!!!

PS: Quite the opposite is true as we have found them (of all ages) to be extremely gentle, laid-back dogs, but then so are we as a family! Are you sure that somebody... maybe children... has not been tormenting and annoying your Basset?!

Lightning&Stomps

My Stomps was a fear-aggressive dog who would take out his fear and stress on Lightning. They had some nasty fights before I figured out how to prevent them. From what I've encountered and gleaned from this site and others is that when bassets are aggressive, it is either fear-based or territorial. Certainly not aggressive like when you think of pit bulls (disclaimer: I only use pit bulls as an example because they are stereotyped as aggressive; I love pit bulls). But almost any adolescent will test his boundaries to see what he can get away with. Do you think your dog could be stressed when he gets aggressive? Or are you in "his" place and he's trying to keep you out or away from something (or someone) he thinks is "his"? Aggression can seem very complicated, but once you figure out what triggers it, you can try to avoid those situations.

Mom2Flash

When Flash wants to play, he head butts. Actually head butted me a couple of times, but he's since learned not to. My husband loves to rough house and wrestle with him and this is how Flash gets his attention. He'll head butt him while he's sitting down and then jump right down and bark and wag his tail. This signals that he is ready for the "fight". I, however, do not want to wrestle with the dog. Whenever Flash has gotten up in my face, I simply got up and walked away and ignored him for awhile. He's now learned that I do not play that way and I haven't been head butted in months. My husband is now the only person Flash will head butt. Sounds to me like your basset is just trying to get your attention for something.

colonelsmom

Colonel loves fetch. So I guess he's an exception.

That's not what I meant. I meant nothing provokes it, he just does it.

Thanks everyone for their replies. I believe it's an attention problem. He wants my attention at all times. lol

Mikey T

Not unprovoked, lack of attention is the provocation (cause) of the behavior. If you are interested is solving attention seeking behavioral problems I suggest Silvia's Kent's The Harmony Programme It is quite good if you overlook the new age psychobabble on "love energy" i.e. "
"Love was some kind of energy form that existed naturally between an owner and an animal and that was a major driver for otherwise completely inexplicable behavior."


The most common pro-offered advice on Atention seeking behaviors is to ignore them, because any behavior that is not rewarded will eventually become extinct. In theory it is good advise but from a practical standpoint it is not.

1. The attention seeking behavior is used by the dog in the first place because the owner can't ignore it.

2. When ingnoring a behavior to create extinct causes a phenonenom know as an Extinction Burst, in which the behavior actual gets worse much worse before it gets better. Considering that the behavior was hard enough to ignore to start with, it is impossible to ignore when it is 10 times worse.

3. It does not address the basic needs of the dog. The dog still has a need for attention. If the current behavior is eradicated the dog will come up with another even more obnoxious behavior to replace it.


4. The best way to overcome this is to teach a more appropriate behavior for the dog to use to get the attention it wants like sitting quitely in front of you. In order for this to work though You must consistently reward this new behavior with the attention the dog seeks otherwise the dog is going to try and find a more effective behavior on its own. see Stopping Negative Behavior Positively

Welshtyke

I would like a bit more rough house with Beau. If I do it in a controlled manner, that it stops when I want it to stop, is it OK, or will I be storing up problems.