Return to Website

Dr. MacGregor's westie online help

Master with behavior problems? Too bossy? Thinks he owns the house? Not enough treats? Ask Dr. MacGregor and master your master's will !

Dr. MacGregor's westie online help
Start a New Topic 
Author
Comment
View Entire Thread
Re: My westie bites !

Sorry to read your news about bites; facts is Westies are Terriers and moast Terriers bite. Being very active and "intense" dogs thay get wound up and sometimes bite. I have seen it many times and it's one of the reasons some people give up their dogs for adoption; they think they got a cuddly puppy and they end up with a dog that bite: big shock!

Westies have a strong personality and they like to show it, they must be loved for what they areL small dogs with a BIG dog atitude.

Personally I think your problems can be controled avoiding wound up situations now that he is still young. Dont raise your voice in this situations, just take the dog away from the place and talk to the dog in a calm voice. If you have a crate never crate him as a punishment, the crate should be his place of safety not a place of punishment.

Don't let the situations escalate, as you see he is getting too excited take him away from the situation and talk to him in a reasuring voice. Give him the idea it's nothing special and we shouldn't waste our time with neighbour's dogs or childreen playing.

Hope this helps,
MacGregor

Re: Re: My westie bites !


I'm very sorry to hear that your dog has such a bad temper!
I have my Westy for almost a year now and she never has biten or even tried to. The worst thing she does is sometimes barking but as soon as I say "Hoy" wich is her word to stop. She stops (sometimes )imediatly!

They are, as I read somewhere, a small dog with a Great Dane inside! You must show him who's the boss.

The best punishment is not looking at him. pretend you don't care about him. For my Westie, that works very good.

I have a pet shop in Portugal and my Westie goes there everyday with me. She's the Welcoming party of the shop asking for petting and licking everybody. I have people that goes there everyday just to say "hello" to Wendy!

When I started to hear stories about bad tempered Westie, I was very surprised!

Hope you can figure out how to stop his bitting habit. He seems a very nervous dog.

All the best!

Jose and Wendy!!!

Re: Re: Re: My westie bites !

Mainly the problem is that Lori's dog is still a puppy and has too much energy. Also males are ususally a bit more bossy than female Westies.

I don't think that we are talking about a "bad dog", he just gets too excited and kind of looses it. While he is young it's important to get him off this habit and control too exciting situations, so that he doesn't get scared or too wind up and also that this behaviour doesn;t become usual.

All the best,
Dr. MacGregor