agressive behavior in my jack Russell

Question
QUESTION: Dear Beth,
I have a 3 year old female jack Russell terrier. We have had her for over a year.  The problem I am having is she is aggressive and has tried to bite my husband and my son.  Some times all they have done is stood up from the chair they are sitting. And She goes after them.  I have tried everything from scolding her to punishing her.  What can we do to correct this?
ANSWER: Wendy -

Who feeds her ?  The first thing I would try is for them to do all the feeding. If that does not make any difference, then you will need to back up all the way to the beginning of training her.

We often call this "Nothing in Life is Free"  Basically all decisions are taken away from her and she has to earn all privileges.  I would leash her to your husband and son at all times that either of them is home. She is not allowed to do anything except follow them around... They should just ignore her.

Once she is accepting that, you can then have them untie her, but make her drag the leash all the time. They are the  only ones to take her in and out of the house, feed her, etc.... and every single time, she has to sit and wait before they open the door (only for a few seconds is necessary).

Basically, you are looking for her to accept their direction and increase her self control while not forcing any confrontations or negative discipline.

I also strongly recommend that one of them take her to obedience classes and be her handler. This is not really for the purpose of obedience itself;f, but rather to teach her how to learn from them, and them learn how to shape her behavior easier.

I sure hope this gets you started. Terriers are not for everyone, that is for sure. If this persists, you are going to need professional training help.

Let me know how you make out.

-Beth

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: I guess i should explain she is my dog.  So i care for her, but she is not are only dog.  We have three other dogs but she is are only terrier and only female, And she doesn't seem to do this to me, my daughter or my youngest son or my adult nephew whom lives with us. If she starts to bark or carry on the rest of us just look at her and call her by her name, she quiets and her tail starts wagging and she rolls over in her submissive postion.  So could it be that when my son or husband yells she is picking up on there aggressive behavior?  But this is not the only time she reacts to them, last night she was lieing on the bed with me and my son attempted to walk in the room and she went after him. Could there be something I am missing?  I will try what you have sugguested and see what happens.

Answer
Wendy -

This sounds more like resource guarding than unpredictable aggression.  People can be the reource and it sounds like she is guarding the resource of you against the people she sees as the threat.

The things I suggested should work well for this too since she will need to submit to their wishes and experience that nothing bad happens when she does.  We use the leashing the dog to ourselves a lot when working with rescue dogs who may have resource guarding or some moderate aggression problems.

You could also have her with you, and have them approach with a VERY high value treat to give to her -tiny bits of it that they give her one after another for 30 seconds.  She needs to learn to accept their being near you.

Remember treats have different values and if one is not really turning her on, you need to up the ante... For example biscuits are better than kibble, human crackers are higher than biscuits, bacon or hot dogs are higher than crackers and for many dogs, cheese is the highest.

If she is not working for treats, skip a meal and try again.  She will be fine without one meal and it will increase her willingness to participate.

-Beth