Expert: Susan Downes - 1/23/2008

Question
I am fostering a 7 y/o standard Bull Terrier bitch who was spayed approximately 1.5 years ago. She was found tied to a car bumper when she was five and the owners released her to the finder. Lucy was kept for a year by her rescuer. The rescuer claims Lucy spent most of her life tied to the car bumper. There was an incident with a n'bor's small dog who squeezed under the fence and Lucy picked her up and threw her. The n'bor was upset and campaigned to have Lucy declared a "dangerous" dog. Lucy then went to live with a man in MT who worked full time, lived in a condo and had no yard so Lucy was walked several times a day. Lucy has lived with him for the past five months (with the exception of being boarded over Thanksgiving - the man boarding her made the mistake of letting her loose with his Belgian Sheepdogs and at the end of the conflagration, Lucy bit one of his dog's ears off) and then boarded again from mid-Dec to mid-Jan. He claims it is difficult to take her on walks as many other dog owners don't adhere to the leash law and there are too many dogs off-leash. Hence the risk of walking her.  

I have two Terriers (Ziggy is an 8 y/o neutered Kerry Blue Terrier and Diva a 2 y/o spayed Welsh Terrier).  I've fostered Kerries for about six years and not encountered this mounting behavior before. My dogs are kept separate from Lucy as I don't want to risk any problems. I rotate the dogs so mine are in my bedroom for a couple of hours and Lucy is free to play with her ball or sit on the couch with me. I keep her in a large wire crate in in my den with her bed and water bowl. Outside the crate she plays with handballs. The surface is so smooth that she can't get enough of a grip on the ball to puncture it and sometimes it shoots out from the side of her teeth and ricochets off wall and floors.

She arrived at my house on 1/18. The mounting behavior started about two days after she arrived and seems to follow her playing with the handball and when I am sitting at the computer. She comes up and grabs my upper arm with her front paws I tell her "no" and push her off with that arm's elbow. She returns to do it again and I stand up. When she approaches again, I put my knee up so she can't grab me. I tell her "no" and then put her in her crate til she settles down. So is this a dominance issue arising because of her past or is this because she's excited with playing with the handball and wants to engage me in her play?

Thank you for your time,
Barbara

Answer
Hello Barbara, It is kind of you to foster Lucy. Yes, your suspicions are correct, she is displaying dominant behavior when she attempts to mount you. You are right to correct her, by standing and telling her no. But please do not use her crate as a place of punishment. She must learn from you that this behavior will not be tolerated by people and other dogs. You may want to stand over her, have her sit or lay on the floor with your body over her. Be prepared in case she decides to challenge you. Leave me some feedback and follow-up if you have time to let me know how it goes for Lucy. Thank you for writing. Regards, Susan