Just got a Mal Questions

Hi! I'm new here & would like some advice on my new Alaskan malamute. Mila will be 1yr old Dec 9th & is very snappy & growly with my kids (have 4 kids ages 7yrs & under). Shes a sweet dog & loves to play with the kids but they dont like her nipping & growling at them. (FYI shes not fixed). I've owned a Siberian husky waay before kids entered the picture. So a malamute I've noticed is a bit different! Lol and I've never owned a female either. She hates being brushed & snaps at me & complains the whole time! She also doesnt like her...lady area messed with (cuz i try to keep it clean & brushed). Lol shes a very vocal dog! my question is, will she grow out of this stage & what can I do to get her to quit snapping at everyone?
See the girl I bought the dog off of didn't really work with Mila. So now I'm trying to teach her doggy manners & brush her every day even though she hates it! Lol. Im hoping she'll get over this stage! Any advice & tips will help!

Hi Jessica
I can’t give you much advice on what you are going through other than we chose “ crate training “ and it worked beautifully for us, he is 10 months old now and we are already having conversations about putting it away, so, it doesn’t have to be forever. What it will do is give your dog chance to be away from the children at your chosen time. Just don’t treat the crate as a prison make it a pleasure for her to be in. She may enjoy the time away from everything too
We got our pup early and we have worked really hard with him and he still has a few issues, so, maybe all Milas issues won’t go away completely
I’m going to follow your post with interest and see if I can pick up any tips from other members
Keep us posted on your progress, if you have time, it sounds as if you have a busy life
Philippa

i copied this from an earlier post as im lazy..

Bite inhibition training - Malamutes are boisterous, they are also fairly large pups and although mouthing is natural, there are ways to reduce it. We found that the "puppy yelp" method was just a way of winding her up and she would bite more and play rougher. We started our bite training by just abruptly saying "NO" and getting up and walking away, ideally to another side of the room, potentially out of the room for a minute or 2 if she persisted. we did this whenever teeth touched skin and i mean touched skin. not on a slightly harder bite than before, not 90% of the time. 100% of the time, abrupt and consistent. We also tried some soft "alpha techniques" i.e not pinning her down but scratching her tummy so she would be on her back but never pinning, always eating first, walking through doors first, always winning tug of war etc. this was more as a basis for how we want her to behave when she is big rather than for pack dominance roles though. I have to say she clicked with bite inhibition very fast. As she got older we would remove her from the room i.e putting her in the kitchen for a few minutes when mouthing happened which again works well.

As an update from the bulk of the text was from when Everest was <6 months and is now 18 months. We still maintain an absolute zero tolerance position to teeth on skin. Doesnt matter if its during play, over reaching during tug of war or just pawing and pulling for attention. we arent quite so abrupt now but a quick and stern "no teeth" and 2-3 minute exile, we feel, maintains what has become absolutely excellent behaviour.

Even during fairly frantic play with children in the garden only ever results in the odd shoulder barge or a nose butt now...in almost 9 months not a tooth.

we felt the key was the absolute consistancy. no different rules for different family members or at different times or "she didnt mean it, she just was grabbing her rope etc".

Hopefully it might help..

on

Thank you so much for your advice! Mila is indeed very boisterous & needs a lot of work. If I had her when she was a wee pup I wouldn't be having these issues! lol with my Sibe he had his moments but he had manners & was great with my neighbors kids. But hey a little work & she'll be straightened around!
My thing I do not tolerate is when she begs & tries to steal food off me & the kids. So when we eat I shut her off from us til we are done with eating. Its a learning process!

the bite inhibition info i read when we were working through training was awesome. cant remember the exact website but ill have a look. think it might have been a dogslife.com or something but i cant remember.

regardless, she caught on real quick.

You don’t say how long you have had her and if she is used to young children, it can take months for a rescue dog to settle.
I agree with Allan about teaching bite inhibition, I prefer to teach mine ‘acceptable biting’ and bite control.
It’s a two way street so you have to teach the children to give her space and act calmly around her, as not to get her to hyped up, baby gates are ideal to keep her separated from the children when you are not able to supervise, or give her a break on her own.
Grooming
I had a similar problem with Kyra who was a rescue, I found using a rubber curry comb that slips through hand did the trick to get her used to grooming, I would sit on floor/chair and get her to lie beside me and gently stroke her once or twice with the rubber curry comb then treat with a titbit, so it was brush treat brush treat, gradually building it up, to be able to use other tools.

Thanks for the tips! Im sorry I forgot to mention when I got Mila! I got her 1 week ago. And yes I certainly did have a chat with the kids before I bought her. When Mila has enough of the kids she goes somewhere quiet & I make sure the kids leave her be
As far as grooming her goes, I bought a slicker brush & brush her every day. As I mentioned before she snaps & protests the whole time! lol she seems to be getting used to it but I will try a curry comb too & give her a treat then brush...ect The day I brought her home she needed a bath badly! Idk when the last time she got bathed but after I scrubbed her down she was a gorgeous gal! she actually liked the bath. I think next time I'll try for a groomer only because they can clean her ears, teeth & all that. But she looks great now! Any tips on keeping her...lady area clean? She hasn't gone into heat yet but from what I read I wanna get her fixed before that happens for now i thought about (carefully...lol) trimming the hair around it to keep it clean

Just one - get her spayed asap before she does come into heat.

And - well done for giving her a loving home, and welcome to Breedia from Tikki Tikva and from me.

Thank you! This place has been very helpful! Oh I definitely will get her fixed before she goes into heat! lol

It is very early days yet. It does take a while for them to feel relaxed in a new home, especially if they have not met children before - or previously had rough treatment from them. Baby gates are a good way to prevent snapping or grumbling at the children when you are not there to supervise.
Does she have a discharge from her vulva? I wouldn't normally expect a bitch to be unclean in that area.

Are those your GSD in your profile pic? Beautiful dogs!

The girl I bought Mila from had one 4yr old. She said Mila did do well with her son. But I have 4 rambunctious kiddos! lol I think Mila is doing great so far with the kids. She needs ME time & I make sure the kids respect that (cuz hey THIS momma needs me time too!) lol.
Whats it sopost to look like when shes in heat? All I've noticed is its a little dirty & starting to get matted around her lady parts. I wanna brush it out badly but I need hubs to hold her while I brush that area. Either that or trim around it. She wont let me near it. Lol. I am trying the treat/brush method. Will let you know how that goes!

Why the rush to have her spayed, with large breeds its advised to wait till at least they are two years old. Spaying is done half way between seasons, so unless you know when her last season was , best to wait till she comes into season.

Re: Heat Season

Everest has just come out of her 3rd "heat" and i have to say we were surprised by her cleanliness.
There was occasional spotting of blood on floors and her bed but it would be minimal and never noticable on her fur. lasting about 10 days or so.

We havent trimmed at all or in fact groomed beyond vigorous brushing during shedding and she seems to keep herself immaculately clean. actually we've never bathed her in 18m. Would if the situation called for it but i wouldn't plan for it.

Perhaps if your girl has a longer coat it would matt and get discoloured but its not a problem we have experienced. with previous dogs with problems with matting/staining around those parts we just shaved/trimmed back the hair a bit shorter than if left "au naturale" of coat and that lasted a few months at a time.

I have a friend with a very long coated GSD and he basically has a shaved belly to prevent matting which i think is a bit overkill.

Behaviour changes: She calms way down in terms of wanting to play, run, zoom, tug at things during heat and for about the following month, bit more unsettled and will pace and do an in and out game with the garden and gets a bit grumpier with our daughter (not our son strangely and hes much more of a pest) over particular items, maybe because shes physicaly smaller...dont know.

I keep forgetting about waiting to spay/neuter large dogs until they have matured as I have only had small ones and they have always come into season at quite a young age. Sorry about giving the wrong advice.

Thanks! She has not gone into heat yet. I've been keeping an eye out for when she does so I can write it down. I will wait tho
The brush/treat method seems to be working well so far! I discovered if shes distracted I can brush her good each day shes getting better & better! time & patience!

Are those your GSD dogs in your profile pic? I love those dogs too! My parents had a GSD but this past week he had an accident & had to be put down :'( he was 8yrs old. My parents are very upset over that...so am I :'( He was a great dog

Its ok! Why do you have to wait to get large breed dogs fixed? I only had a male Siberian husky & never got him fixed. This is my first female dog experience & as I've read large breed dogs go into heat between 12-18 months. She'll turn 1yr next month. So I shall wait then

Vee - @GsdSlave and others know far more than about large breed dogs than I. I really cannot remember when my little Griffons from years back usually had their first season but the mutts [sorry Tikva - you are a cross-breed not a mutt] I have had the pleasure of sharing my life with for the last ~20 years have all been small or like Pereg in my avatar, small to medium. Lexi had her first season at just five-months-old but it was hardly noticeable - however she was spayed three months later. Pereg was also ~five-months-old and that was, to put it mildly, messy!

Little Tikva was spayed at six-months-old, before she had come into season, once she had reached 6 kilos - because it was considered too risky to wait, due to the fact that she goes out into my unfenced yard and there are too many loose and stray dogs that can get in. In none of the three was I being pushed by my vet so he could earn money, because as all three had had their rabies shot and were microchipped, the Ministry of Agriculture covered half the cost of the surgery.

I have never owned a male dog so do not know anything about neutering them.

Everest's first season was at 8 months, which we believe was pretty early, it was 6 months later for 2nd and then only 4 months gap for 3rd, we were initially planning to breed but have since decided not too after a hereditary juvenile cataract issue. planning on spaying at some point after 2 yrs old to avoid being caught out by any roaming playboys, but since our house is about 4 miles from any neighbour its not too much of a concern, though we were advised to wait till after 2 years fully mature at least.

Yes sadly I lost Kyra in 2014.

One of the reasons in neutering to young is that it can affect skeletal growth, as it delays the closure of the growth plates in bones that are still growing, causing those bones to end up longer than in intact dogs or those spay/neutered after maturity.

Thank you for that info! I had no idea about that. I will certainly wait then til shes at least 2yrs old. As Allan mentioned in his previous post his dog kept herself pretty clean. So I'm sure Mila will keep herself clean!