Levi The Aussome Australian Shepherd

by Anton

My bestest buddy in the whole world is my Australian Shepherd, Levi. Before we got him from the breeder we were originally going to get his sister. We named her "Cyan". But tragedy struck and she suffered a fatal injury when a cat got in the puppy pen before she was old enough to come home with us. It was upsetting but my wife and I still wanted to get a puppy so we went back to the breeder to select another one.






We picked Levi and brought him home. He was the smartest dog I've ever had right from the start. He learned the stairs on the first try, was housebroken in no time and never chewed anything that wasn't his.

But then he got to be a teenager! Yikes! We had been a bit too lenient should have been better "pack leaders". We noticed that Levi started to get aggressive.

He would have attitude around his food and would growl if you came too near. He wouldn't get out of the way and would get snippy if you made him move. But at bedtime it was the worst. We didn't have kids and we let him up on our bed. It got to the point where I had to be careful when I came near the bed when he was already on it. He would actually snap at me.

Eventually, he even tried to stop me from entering the bedroom and bit at my hand...

Time for a crack-down! First we recognized that this was not Levi's fault. Many owners of dogs that become aggressive blame the dog and drop him off at the nearest rescue shelter. But this was our fault.

We had left food out for him all the time. Since in dog pack hierarchy the top dog eats first and doesn't have to wait. When we let him outside we would open the door and he would zip out to do his business. When he hopped up on the bed we moved around him. Bad. Bad. Bad.

We taught him that he was the leader of our pack and we had to tow the line for him. This might sound great for him but it actually wasn't. It created conflict and he was under stress and unhappy as a result.

By taking simple steps like making him sit and wait for our permission when we put his food bowl down or let him out and by kicking him off of the bed (and for a while right out of the bedroom) he quickly learned that he was no longer in charge. Surprisingly this only took about a week and he settled in to his new place in our family pack. He was also much more relaxed and happy!

Levi was the inspiration for my website about Australian Shepherds, Australian-Shepherd-Lovers.com. Drop by if you have an Aussie or are thinking of getting one.