# Naughty



## Adelle25 (Sep 4, 2011)

Well Copper is now 11 months and as crazy as ever, but last night he took a funny turn. 

My Sister looks after Copper on a Thursday and stays on a Wednesday night, she is staying the week this week and last night Copper was really "off" with her, acted like he didn't know her and was scared of her. 

He was tired as he had been to doggy nursery and i think my sister was being over familiar with him while he was trying to sleep, which put him in a grump!

We all know that Vizslas are the Velcro dogs and he can be protective of me. 

Then this morning he came upstairs for a cuddle, when my sister went to give him a kiss goodbye he nipped her face!!!! i thought he had gone for a kiss and caught her but after he became very wide eyed and kept sticking his tongue out. I told her to come and stroke him as he looked wide eyed, panic and he just layed still on his back.

Do you think he was just tired and was telling her to leave him alone or has he turned against her? 

How do i handle this? 

Thanks 

Adelle


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## hotmischief (Mar 11, 2012)

Sounds like he was sorry for nipping your sister afterwards. Do you think he was just being protective of you? I would have thought if your sister has Cooper every week he must be very attached to her as well as you.

With out reading too much into what you have described, I would try and tactfully ask your sister whether anything untoward happened when she had Cooper that upset him.

Cooper is just reaching the teenage years when his testosterone is starting to affect his behaviour, and he is just starting to showing alpha behaviour. Some one on the forum suggested to another member a couple of youtube videos on the subject - one was by Caesar Millan. You could do a search.

I will be interested to read posts by other forum members with more experience - but I hope you manage to sort the problem. Hope your sister is OK?


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## born36 (Jun 28, 2011)

He is resource guarding! Can happen with a bone but also with space if lying down on a bed or space. This needs to be corrected as over time he could become very defensive over his space when sleeping. Think about ...dog sleeping children touch him...bite! So it needs correcting. You can google resource guarding and get some advice. There are also some posts on here. You can treat it the same way you would guarding food or bones. If you have a trainer mention it to them as they will also provide advice.


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## gunnr (Aug 14, 2009)

It's something that needs to be monitored at this point.

It appears that Copper knew he did something wrong by your description in the latter half of your 5th paragraph. 
You also did exactly what you should have done. You re introduced your sister, and had her "bring him down". 
I highly doubt he has "turned against her". That would require a forethought of malice that dogs aren't capable of. A dog can be conditioned to react in such a manner, but it's external conditioning and not not free thought that precipitates the response. Dogs can also sense skittishness on the part of humans that can cause a similar behavior, but that's a defense mechanism.
Truth told, I think you guys just caught him off guard a bit by possibly applying too much stimulus, possibly pressure, from different direction. Dogs, like people, can react incorrectly. It's what happens after they matters, and it does appear that Copper offered his own form of an apology.

Cut him a little slack this time but monitor him. If he's intact he's only a few months away from you having to show him just exactly whom is in charge. It's also time to start "setting him up", and putting him in controlled situations that would cause a response, bring pressure and moderate his reaction. I call it "kid proofing".


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## Adelle25 (Sep 4, 2011)

Thank you for your comments. 

I only worry as i have children in the family, he can act a bit sheepish if a child is scared or moves fast but with children who are confident he is fine and wants to play with them. 

I think you are right gunnr i need to cut him some slack, he was tired and she did invade his space, I'm just a worrier and i know she wouldn't do anything to hurt him. 

Where can i find out about this "kid proofing"? 

i do have a trainer and as class he can grumble at people who approaches him, he doesn't seem to like people being over familiar with him and likes to go to them rather than being crowed around. 

I think you have hit the nail on the head in regards to the space issue. 

I shall look up the youtube clips and start really working on this now as he is still a puppy. 

Have you guys had these kinds of problems? 

Thanks 

Adelle


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## jjohnson (Nov 9, 2011)

Some of the things you say Copper does are similar to what our 11-month old Gus does, although I think Gus is much more extreme as he will often growl at strangers and is terrified of all kids (he has snapped at a child once when 10 weeks old, and has snapped at the vet when cornered, and has snapped when startled). But given what you describe, that he can be shy around kids, and now that he has snapped once when startled, I would be very, very cautious with him, especially around kids. All it takes is one time, with one kid, for him to be startled and bite a child in the face. It's not outward aggressive behavior, but ANY dog will bite if scared enough- and a scared or shy dog can be a dangerous dog! Like I said, sounds like your case isn't as bad as ours yet, but from someone who has a more extreme case, I would just advise to work on this a lot with your trainer before it gets worse, because it is no fun to have to worry about your dog biting kids or strangers!


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