Train to INSTANTLY stop behavior?

4oh4error

This morning Cinnamon (7.5 y/o pitX) and Pepper (3.5 m/o husky/blue heeler) were having their morning "play". In other words, they'd both gotten up and eaten and were crazily playing after a night of nothing lol. Pepper likes to run under the coffee table where Cinnamon can't reach her until Cinnamon pretends she's lost interest, and then Pepper comes flying out and they play some more, repeat.

This morning they were playing behind my chair when I heard Pepper start yelping her head off, I turned around and I couldn't see her, Cinnamon was standing about 8 feet away staring at the coffee table like "WTF is that racket?". I jumped up and ran to the coffee table and I'm assuming she got herself stuck under there, or thought she was stuck, so I grabbed the bottom and lifted it up. She continued yelping and crawling towards me, and by this time Cinnamon was standing a couple feet away watching the whole thing. As soon as Pepper got almost out (still yelping) Cinnamon suddenly lunged for her, growling and snarling. I told her to "get back" a command she understands, but she completely ignored me so I had to grab her collar with one hand and pull her back as best I could while holding the coffee table up. I knew something bad could very likely happen, considering I'm not the biggest and strongest person and I have a 70 lb dog in one hand and a 80 lb coffee table in the other, but luckily nothing did and as soon as Pepper got out she stopped yelping, Cinnamon quit going for her, and they were the best of friends again.

Needless to say Pepper isn't allowed under the coffee table anymore and they have both been closely monitored, but there hasn't been any kind of change from their normal interaction they usually have together. This is the first sign of aggression Cinnamon has showed toward Pepper and I don't understand why she chose to do it while the dog was trapped and crying. Is there any way I can teach her something to get her to immediately stop her behavior and lay down or something, in case it does happen again? She usually minds well, does what you tell her, and I don't have any problems with her, but this is something that really concerns me considering she COULD hurt Pepper if she chose to.

BG info on Cinnamon if it helps: When she was 9 months old we took her to relatives for Christmas where everyone had their dogs, so it was something like 2 red heelers, a good size mutt, a schnauzer, a shar pei, a few chihuahuas not to mention a couple cats. She got along fine with all the dogs, although the schnauzer wouldn't let her get near her, she was an old dog and really cranky. At one point the schnauzer backed up into Cinnamon, which scared the schnauzer, so she turned around growling and snapping at Cinnamon, which then scared Cinnamon, so Cinnamon turned around bit the schnauzer in the stomach and it took 3 of us to get her to let go. The schnauzer lived thankfully, but she had to have stitches and tubes to drain fluid and stuff. This was when she wasn't even a year old and full grown, so I'd REALLY like to prevent something like that happening now.

This post got much longer than I thought it would but basically, please if anyone knows a way to get through her complete and utter focus and make her mind when she's riled up I'd feel a lot better.

Criosphynx

she chose to do it BECAUSE she was trapped and crying. This is fairly common in dogs...they either switch to a prey mode, or they become really confused and som'times that results in aggression. It can even be that the crying scared her and she wanted to make the scary thing stop...could be a number of things...but her reaction was within the realm of normal IMO. (normal doesn't have to mean OK tho)


Many people teach an "out" type word, primarily for dogs that play to rough or get played with too rough etc etc. Personally I teach som'thing I call 'stop" which is a pause and wait for instruction type of thing.

That said, in a super arrousing situation like that even the most robotically trained dogs can loose their heads. Are you familiar with the correct way to break up a dog fight?

4oh4error

Thanks I feel a LOT better after your explanation of why she did it.

Cinnamon knows out, which basically just means if you're on the carpet, go to the tile, on the tile, go to the carpet, mostly used when we're eating so she gets out of the kitchen. She knows get back, normally she'll back up a few feet and then sit down. Both of those were tried during the 20-30 second time period this happened in. She knows stop too, it basically just means, whatever you're doing stop now, she'll usually just wait to see what you have to say after that so I supposed it's similar to yours? She was never "formally" trained beyond sit, stay, go potty outside not in lol. She knows a ton of commands but they were just picked up over the years of repetition.


And I have no idea how to break up a dog fight, other than don't stick your hands in the middle, but you can bet I'm going to study up on that too now.

Mikey

Ditto! I see this at the dogpark all the time-A dog will roll but get stuck in the deep snow and like four dogs run up and start barking aggressively at the dog who is upside down, trapped and rolled. It just seems to be instinct and normal. Usually as soon as it happens-everyone just calls their dogs and lets the trapped dog get up and it's fine -never had a problem but we always seen it right away



And like Crio said you can teach them to stop or leave it or come or what have you-but just having a dog who will respond to that command in a few places isn't enough. I see people training their dogs at the dog park -they will put the dog in a stay -walk hundreds of meters away and even though other dogs are coming up to that dog to play-the dog stays. That doesn't happen overnight-you'd need to train train train, practice practice-in all kinds of situations with distractions and excitement. That's how a guide dog can walk a busy street or a police dog can ignore everything thats going on and follow someones smell-lots of training.

4oh4error

Thanks for the replies! I'm going to go get a clicker today, spent hours yesterday reading about clicker training for Pepper. Will work with Cinnamon too now!

Mikey

Clicker is sooo much fun and it works so quickly. I really enjoy freeshaping with the clicker-impressed my mom by not leading Mikey at all and just freeshaping him to nudge her feet