# Aggressive behaviour after walks



## Jochan (Jun 16, 2012)

Our Alaskan Malamute is now 12 weeks old. She has been going out now for just over a week (the Vet said we could take her out as of last Wednesday) and she goes out twice or three times a day. The problem is that when she gets back, she goes ballistic, growling, attacking her toys and us and generally ripping through the house like whirlwind. It culminated today in her launching herself at my son's face with her teeth out (not good. No blood drawn but more by luck than judgement). We put her outside and then two minutes later she was calm, came in and conked out on the kitchen floor. Is this normal or are we doing something wrong?? Does anyone else's dog do this??


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## Phoolf (Jun 13, 2012)

How long are his walks? It sounds to me like he's frustrated at not being able to use up his energy.


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## sandersb (Dec 7, 2011)

How olds your son? Doesn't sound good at all. Whatever the problem is it does need to be sorted. I would not allow the dog near my child without an adult present at any time from now on.

Hope you get to the bottom of this :001_smile:


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## RAINYBOW (Aug 27, 2009)

This sounds like an over stimulation response.

It would be extremely rare for a pup of this age to be displaying "aggression" 

I would suggest putting the pup somewhere nice and quiet as soon as you get in from a walk (a crate is the best place if the dog is used to it or a kitchen/utility) Then ignore it and let it sleep for a while, if it is too phsyched to sleep try stuffing a KONG toy (google) and giving it that. Make this the "routine" when you get home from every walk  

Training classes would also be a great help


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## Guest (Jul 3, 2012)

She might simply be overstimulated by all the sights and sounds after her walk, and blows off steam when shes home and feels safe. Sounds like a good time to do some more structured play with her with some training mixed in.


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## lemmsy (May 12, 2008)

My guess:

Not aggression. Sounds like the zoomies! 

Cued generally by over-stimulation on her walk and a lack of any previous opportunity to release any such pent up frustration.

1. Work out what she is finding over-stimulating. Too much ball play, over arousal when greeting other dogs, too many new experiences all at once? 
Lessen intensity of exposure to these things and gradually increase exposure over a period until she can tolerate it without getting wound up, like currently.
2. Teach her to make better choices- practice stimulus (+ self) control exercises.

3. Teach a positive interrupter to prevent such unwanted behaviour, so that you can then redirect her onto something else or ask her to offer a more desirable behaviour (a sit or hand touch) and then reward that. If she can't offer you the behaviour you ask for at this point she is still too wound up. 

How to stop unwanted behavior- the positive interrupter- dog training clicker training - YouTube


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## MollySmith (May 7, 2012)

Sound like Molly when we first got her. I agree with the last three posts.

We put Molly into a quiet room with a Kong and usually found her asleep. Now she knows that if she starts to go to the zombie land, she's gently but assertively taken to the quiet room to chill out.


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## Jochan (Jun 16, 2012)

sandersb said:


> How olds your son? Doesn't sound good at all. Whatever the problem is it does need to be sorted. I would not allow the dog near my child without an adult present at any time from now on.
> 
> Hope you get to the bottom of this :001_smile:


Well, he is nearly 18 and used to Mals as his dad has one (who is nearly two-ish now) and her walks are usually around 40 mins to an hour. She only acts like this when she comes back from a walk and isn't usually aggressive to him or anyone else for that matter.

Reading the rest of the replies, I think over-stimulation is the answer. Will try putting her somewhere quiet on her own for a few minutes when we get back and see how that goes.


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## Tacey (Mar 4, 2012)

I think you're walking her far too much for her age, 40 mins to an hour 2 or 3 times a day is much more than my 8 month pup gets! It sounds as though she is just getting overtired.


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## Wiz201 (Jun 13, 2012)

My oldest goldie was allowed off lead on her walks when she was a pup (she had ten mins off lead in the woods) and then it usually took about 5 mins each side on lead to get to and from the woods, so in all about twenty to twenty-five mins. Are you letting her off lead or keeping her on lead?


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## RAINYBOW (Aug 27, 2009)

Jochan said:


> Well, he is nearly 18 and used to Mals as his dad has one (who is nearly two-ish now) and her walks are usually around 40 mins to an hour. She only acts like this when she comes back from a walk and isn't usually aggressive to him or anyone else for that matter.
> 
> Reading the rest of the replies, I think over-stimulation is the answer. Will try putting her somewhere quiet on her own for a few minutes when we get back and see how that goes.


I would leave her longer than a few minutes and see if she settles to sleep. Overtiredness in puppies can cause bratish behaviour


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## Sled dog hotel (Aug 11, 2010)

Jochan said:


> Our Alaskan Malamute is now 12 weeks old. She has been going out now for just over a week (the Vet said we could take her out as of last Wednesday) and she goes out twice or three times a day. The problem is that when she gets back, she goes ballistic, growling, attacking her toys and us and generally ripping through the house like whirlwind. It culminated today in her launching herself at my son's face with her teeth out (not good. No blood drawn but more by luck than judgement). We put her outside and then two minutes later she was calm, came in and conked out on the kitchen floor. Is this normal or are we doing something wrong?? Does anyone else's dog do this??


Its sensory overload and also adrenaline. If you load her up with too much and shes unsure of things, they produce adrenaline, that in turn manifests in loopy uncontrolled behaviour snapping biting and totally wild.

How long are you having her out for and what sort of environmental stimulus is she having, if its ultra busy and noisy then that will over stimulate her. You need to take a step back and build up the habituation more slowly and not take her over threshold. If your not careful she will be starting the wild nipping behaviour on the walk too.


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## Sled dog hotel (Aug 11, 2010)

Would add give her something to take it out on like a chew or a kong and keep her in a confined area. or something you can do is to stay with her and use distraction, like getting her to do things for treats to keep her brain focused on something else if you sit quietly with them, and distract and feed treats for calmness then she should re-focus. If you do it every time as a routine then it should become an alternative behaviour instead, once calm, just give her a chew or Kong and leave her to it, you should find she will crash out.


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## Sled dog hotel (Aug 11, 2010)

Jochan said:


> Well, he is nearly 18 and used to Mals as his dad has one (who is nearly two-ish now) and her walks are usually around 40 mins to an hour. She only acts like this when she comes back from a walk and isn't usually aggressive to him or anyone else for that matter.
> 
> Reading the rest of the replies, I think over-stimulation is the answer. Will try putting her somewhere quiet on her own for a few minutes when we get back and see how that goes.


The walks are far too long not only for over stimulus and sensory overload, but also for impact on the joints. Malamutes are incredibly fast growing and you can easily damage the growth plates at the end of the long bones not to mention the hips and other joints. She shouldnt be having much more then 15 minutes at 3 months old. They need to sleep a lot too or should, but some dont know when to quit.


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## BoredomBusters (Dec 8, 2011)

I've usually found a nasty temper after a walk is not enough sleep coupled with too long a walk. On average young pups need 16-20 hours sleep a day, depending on how much they will need as an adult. So a Greyhound would probably want all 20 hours even as an adult! While a more active breed might only want 12-16 hours sleep. 

At 12 weeks 3 walks isn't too much if they are calm, controlled and of around 15 mins each. I usually do circular walks to the front door, so they learn local knowledge and it shouldn't encourage pulling on the lead.

I like the idea of crating as soon as the dog gets in, I haven't tried that, but usually I feed after a (gentle) walk, and they fall asleep on their own after that.


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## Jochan (Jun 16, 2012)

Possibly we have been overdoing it a bit and she is getting over-tired.
I suppose I was worried that we were't walking her enough and we didn't want to be mean in the walkies department (the GSD next door only gets out once a day if that and she is going a bit mental - I don't want ours going the same way).

Is there any hard and fast rule about how you increase the length of time you take them out? I read somewhere that its 5 mins per month per walk but given that that means she will only be having a 30 minute walk at a time at 6 months old, that doesn't seem enough. When she isn't out for a walk she does have full access to the garden so can run about out there whenever she wants to.


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## Jochan (Jun 16, 2012)

I would add that walks are a mixture of road and fields. We have three parks nearby and a lot of farmland that is used for dog walking.


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## BoredomBusters (Dec 8, 2011)

I roughly follow the 5 months per month of life, but different breeds are fully grown at different stages. At 6 months you could do an early morning 30 mins, then an early evening 30. The important bit is that she's not over exercised all at once.


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## WhippetyAmey (Mar 4, 2012)

I would agree with everyone in the fact that he is getting too much walking and also too much stimulation so is over-tired, hence the zoomies. 

I would also add though, there are a lot more ways to tire out a pup than taking them for a walk. Training is a great way, and at that age they learn soo quickly 

Also chews/kongs and that sort of thing. 

I would also say 'find it' if he uses his nose at all, Merlin loves it when I hide a toy and get him to find it, but only does it 5-10 times and then it becomes too much!


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## EmCHammer (Dec 28, 2009)

> She might simply be overstimulated by all the sights and sounds after her walk, and blows off steam when shes home and feels safe. Sounds like a good time to do some more structured play with her with some training mixed in.


I have a 12-13 week old pup. He is into his first week of going out and before work we go to the park for 15 minutes and he LOVES it. There are lots of dogs and he is off lead when theres nothing to distract him.

The OH carries on his walk, and when I try to get him to walk back to the car without the other dog he gets very bratty - lead grabbing and this morning took off at my sleeve like a police dog. When we got home he was yappy and making noises that you imagine a tired cross puppy would make. I just ignored him and he settled down after about 10 minutes. I definately can see its over tiredness/ stimulation.

We take him out for a 15 minute potter in the park before and after work (generally a bit of walking, a bit of sitting down seeing who comes by). He has a little potter round the block maybe at lunchtime (10 mins) or a ride out, or like today went to the town centre (in the car) to watch the world go by. Thats not a hard and fast rule, sunday we had no walks at all but went to a friends for sunday lunch which was a different kind of socialisation and tiring.


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