Dog Training: Be The Alpha Right Off The Bat!

We are dog-sitting for a family that's out of town. He's 40lbs. of "mutt of unknown parentage", looking a bit like a mix between a great dane and a german shepherd. He's almost a yearling and still has his testes.

My Darling Wife went and picked up Tex and brought him home. I put our two chihuahuas outside and, when Tex arrived, let him sniff around the house with a firm hand on his lead. Everything was very interesting. Then I had my Darling Wife go pick up the barking rats and hold them while I held Tex, as we introduced them in the back yard. It went better than expected, with no barking and only a bit of growling. Tex walked around the yard (still on a leash) saying with various bodily emissions what he thought about the local pissing pecking order and then he went to say hi to the smaller dogs. They were a bit freaked out (as usual) by a larger dog trying to sniff at them, and jumped sideways. He would proceed to try to stand over their backs at right angles (dominating), which activity I interrupted by yanking his chain. Okay, inside we go. Into the kennel. No difficulties. Whew!

Just as we were turning in for the night, Tex was whining to go out. He went out and, as he was being put back into his crate, he decided to growl at my Darling Wife, just a little.

Hold on there.

"Get out of the way," I said and moved her aside. I had a 3-D Maglite with me and shone it on my face to let him see I was staring him straight in the eyeballs. I started telling him what's what and he decided to talk back and snarl at my hand.

I showed him the other use for a Maglite, right on the side of the muzzle. That quieted him right down and I did a bit of snarly-sounding talk of my own. I kept staring at him until he looked away and stayed looking away, with his nasty thang hanging out in submission. My Darling Wife commented on the similarity between my attitude and that of Tex's master, on our opinions of who is boss of that dog and how it is expressed.

This morning, #1 (who is already friends with Tex) let all 3 dogs out in the backyard together, on her own initiative. I asked her is she wanted him to kill both of them. He hadn't (yet) but I put him in his room again straightaway.

He's here for a week; we'll see how it goes.