Very Dominant Aussie Pup Still Not Potty Trained And Shows Signs Of Aggression

by Ashton
(Columbia, Mo)

Me and my boyfriend got our 5 month old female Aussie at 8 weeks! She's a beautiful dog but we never asked about her temperament. When we got her we noticed she was not shy at all but very dominant, she came from a small litter of four so we figured her attitude was from being the dominant puppy in her litter. We also have a 3 year old male lab (best dog in the world and very submissive).

We began training her at day one. We never let her be the first one to do anything far as eat or go outside so she would learn that we were alpha and she was the last one in our pack. At first when we would hold her on her back she would freak out and try to bite. She finally figured out that we weren't doing her harm and calmed down when we hold her. We also made sure she was comfortable with physical touch rubbing on her ears, nose, teeth, and paws. Because of her temperament we made sure to never play fight with her or play tug a war instead we play games like fetch which she loves or go hiking.

We have crate trained her from day one and will kennel up when asked we always put her in her crate at night, she also understands commands like sit, lay, and shake. We make her sit before we give her anything or let her outside. The biggest issue has been potty training. The first method I used to train her was positive reinforcement when she used the restroom outside we would go "yay potty outside and be excited" and if she used the restroom in the house or we caught her in the act we would say "no" and take her outside to finish but she still continued to mess up in the house about twice a day sometimes even after we had sat outside and waited for her to go.

Finally at four months and after a ruined carpet we started rubbing her nose in it, spanking her and telling her "no" then putting her outside. Since I've been spanking her she started to get it a little better by only using the house every other day and sometimes going two or three day without going in the house. Now at 5 months she is starting to pee on objects like blankets and our lab's dog bed. This last week when we've been scolding her she has been yelping and trying to bite and fight back. Even though we aren't harming her because we don't spank her hard. I feel like she will never be potty trained... and worried about her aggressive dominance which only shows now when we get on to her.

She has been the hardest most dominant puppy I have ever trained and I've never had trouble before with my other dogs in the past. She does love people and is great when people come over other then just being really excited. On a positive note our training has paid off when she's with other dogs when she was little she would try to climb on top of other dogs and dominate them and now she rolls over on her back and is totally submissive with them. Do you have any advice or tips I could use!

Housetraining Your Aussie? Australian Shepherd Lover's Guide To Australian Shepherd Training & Care

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