Excessive Barking & Agressiveness

Hi there Ana,

It sounds like Duke may be bored and lacking in pack structure - and is taking out the boredom by finding his own entertainment. He is most likely becoming obsessive because he is not finding enough stimulus amongst his pack activities.

I would also say your leadership role is not strong enough to keep your particular pack balanced, so they are challenging each other - and other dogs to try and control their environment.

When a human leader is well defined and well established, the subordinate pack members will establish their own pecking order and peace will be found a lot faster. With younger dogs in the pack it is imperative that your leadership be established, because as they mature, they too will start trying to vie for a dominant position, and then you'll have an even larger problem.

Do you take your dogs on lengthy leashed walks and do a lot of obedience training with them? Danes are renowned for being laid back dogs, but even Danes, when young (puppy to 3 years) require a lot of mental stimulus, structure, and obedience to keep them from becoming destructive and acquire behavioural problems.

As always, I cannot stress how important alpha training is. Here are some important points on alpha training-
1) If you come across your dog while he is sleeping or lying on the floor then you can reinforce your position as alpha dog by making him move away from where you want to go, no the other way around.
2) Make sure that you always go through doorways first. Try reinforcing your position as alpha dog is to walk your dog around the house on the leash, making your dog wait while you walk through doorways first.
3) At mealtimes make sure that your dog or dogs eat after all of the humans have.
4) When your dog wants to go outside for a walk, make it sit and wait until you are ready to go
5) Do not feed your dogs tidbits or let it pester you at the table. Save the morsels and tidbits for training sessions instead.
6) Do not greet your dogs straightaway when you arrive home. Make it wait until you are ready and then call it to you.
7) Whenever your dogs want attention or anything wait till they are sitting and being well behaved

Also, it helps to disallow the dog access to human beds, this includes any couches or La-Z-boys too , this helps you retain your alpha status by being allowed the "best denning site" place - as what dog wouldn't prefer an elevated couch or bed over a on the ground dog bed!

First off I would suggest no more off leash activity, if it can be avoided, as Duke is not in control then, by you or himself. He becomes obsessive and this is a very bad state of mind.

Start taking each dog out - alone, for some on leash walks - at least twice a day. When you take any of your dogs for a walk on a leash, it is very useful for reestablishing your pack leadership. A priority while the dog is on leash is teaching heel, sit-stay and definitely no pulling.

In addition to this, when having Duke (or any other dogs) out in the backyard, have him on a leash for a few weeks while you are working on obedience and alpha training. Take him around the yard and teach him what the appropriate behaviour is while in the backyard. Any barking or misbehaviour, reprimand him immediately by giving a tug on the leash sideways (it should put him off balance slightly) and growling at him. If he continues to misbehave after three times, take him inside an ignore him for a while. Then you can try again 15-20 minutes later. As in other posts you mentioned reading in your PM, as his training progresses you can move to a longer leash and allow him more freedom. But as soon as he misbehaves, reprimand verbally and reel him in away from his freedom, 3 strikes and he's inside. Always reward his good behaviour - like if the other dog is out, praise him verbally if he's just going about doggy business (sniffing or listening to you!), you can call him to you to give him treats even!

An even better way to stop the behaviour is while he's on the leash, predict his behaviour before he can escalate to full on obsession. Watch his ears and his body language, as soon as his ears perk forward or his tail goes either right down or high up, give him a little tug and reprimand on the leash to keep him focused on his leashed walk. Always praise good behaviour and reward with some treats! Good body language is tail relaxed down and ears somewhat back - but not flat against his head.

The idea here is that he's not getting his freedom unless he's behaving, you are controlling what the pack does, not him.

Even if dogs are socialized at an early age, if their pack pecking order is not clear and their lives structured with clear rules and enough stimulus to keep their minds occupied they will become destructive and obsessive.

Use a collar that you have found most successful in controlling his strength - these are big dogs and you need to master your alpha position as quickly and assertively as possible.

As with other posts with barking dogs - it is imperative that you get this behaviour under control as soon as possible, especially with large breed dogs. As you are already experiencing aggression, it has the potential to escalate to worse, potentially very damaging behaviour.

When it comes to Duke being aggressive, or his younger pack-mate Drake, as alpha, you need to step in immediately. Either throw a bucket of water over him or a heavy blanket to stop the behaviour as soon as it begins. If you see Duke approaching a subordinate to steal a position or object, you can step in to 'referee' the dispute (leash Duke if you can - without any aggression towards you!), allow him to approach the other dog and praise him for doing it peaceably, but any signs of aggression you need to reprimand immediately. Don't take duke away as they need to sort out their pecking order, taking him away will result in frustration and more aggression. The idea is to just teach them that aggression is not acceptable. Period.

In a balanced pack, the subordinate dog should give way to the alpha without the alpha resulting to violence, just eye contact or the alpha approaching should do it for a subordinate dog. So when Duke resorts to being aggressive he is asserting his dominance because there is a lack of pack hierarchy.

It is hard to give advice in this situation - from a forum without seeing the dogs interact; there are so many different relationship dynamics in multi-dog households. You may even want to consider bringing a dog behaviourist to assess the full nature of your dogs' relationships with you and amongst each other. A dog behaviourist will be able to give you exactly the training/behaviour modification required to bring the dogs around to respectable canine citizens!

With proper pack structure, alpha training, obedience, and a regiment of reprimanding for bad behaviour and praise for good behaviour, you should see improvement.

I apologize if this seemed like a very serious reply to your post, but as I said before, with large breed dogs, they have the potential to become a very serious problem - but while you have puppies, you can still find a happy pack stability the sooner you work on the problem!

Hope this helps, if you have any further questions, feel free to ask!
Blue

Hi Ana
I forgot to mention in my first post - that even though Duke is now neutered, because he only recently underwent the surgery, it can take several months for the surgery to actually have effect on the level of hormones in his system. So the "calmer dog" results expected after a neuter surgery are more delayed in arriving! . Although, depending on disposition, some dogs don't actually calm down, they either remain the same, or, on very rare occasions can become worse.

To avoid potential issues (male hormones) with your other dogs, I recommend getting them all neutered sooner rather then later - before the hormones have a chance to start taking hold of their personalities! Also with two intact male dogs in the house you can expect trouble if there is a female nearby.

Is the female dog next door spayed?

Drake and Diesel are not yet affected the same way as Duke (frustrated/bored behaviour), probably because they are still puppies and do not vent their frustrations in the same way that a more mature dog will - they are more satisfied with playing with each other, and causing puppy mischief that is more manageable.

My recommendation first and foremost is still one on one obedience, daily leashed walks and alpha training for all three, it's a lot of work with three large dogs, but the results will be worth it, promise! As they grow older, they will mellow out and life will become easier too!

Let me know how you are progressing, and problems along the way. Feel free to post frequently if needed .
Blue