I'm hoping you all can help me understand hounds a bit more than I do - and maybe can help us with Molly's 'behavior issue'. We picked up a puppy (8-10 weeks) from our local shelter about 4 years ago - turns out she is this amazing treeing walker coonhound. Beautiful dog! We live out in the country and have plenty of land and we go hiking a lot - she is a pretty happy girl. We don't hunt her, but tracking and treeing come naturally. We've done a lot of training with her, primarily to teach her patience, because she has a very low threshold for frustration and very little patience.

Everything I've read about hounds, they get on great with other dogs. But our hound doesn't - she loves other dogs, but... Molly has this like 'force field' around her - like 5 feet - and if another dog gets too close AND does something she thinks is rude (ie tries to play and Molly doesn't want to play, sniff first, takes her toy, etc.), she gets this pinched look on her face and then - bam! - will wrestle the other dog to the ground until it is pinned, often holding her teeth over the other dog. It looks and sounds horrible! As soon as the other dog submits, she gets up and the dogs are fine - although the other dog is then very careful around her. I've never seem her give up to any dog. But even when the other dog is biting Molly, Molly has never bitten back. I don't think she has ever put teeth on another dog, but I worry she may. I should add that she loves other dogs - sees them and her tail starts wagging. But she is happy if they keep their distance and Molly gets to call all the shots. She has zero aggression toward people (although I am pretty confident that if someone mistreated her or she felt threatened, she would go after that person). We have another dog (a small terrier mix) - they are best buddies and track, hunt and get into trouble together.

Finally, question - has anyone had similar problems with their hounds or is it just Molly? I keep feeling like there must be some training technique we can use to break her of it, but haven't found it yet. We had one behaviorist tell us that is she is too dominant and that we should 'get rid of her' - and I showed her the door. Any suggestions? Any help? We keep trying - was wondering if an e-collar might work.

Thanks for any help!!!

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I have had a similar dog. She grew out of it at about 5 years, but some dogs never do. Aggression can be taught(like if another dog or person has abused this dog), but sometimes it is genetic and if that is the case it will never be "trained" out of the dog.
An e-collar may work to curb the behavior WHEN YOU ARE AROUND, but I seriously doubt that you will totally break a 4 yr old hound. By 4 yrs they are pretty set in their ways.
My advice is to try to keep this dog away from a scenario where she would be aggressive- like always feeding her and the other dogs in separate places. And if she is possessive over toys, don't have toys around her if there is another dog.
You cannot keep another dog from sniffing or trying to play,but just keep a careful eye on her.
It sounds like y'all are pretty fond of MOLLY, so I wouldn't say to get rid of her. However,if she starts Biting.... You may have to. Hopefully she will get more mild with age. Good luck, and glad you got a hound- they are awesome dogs!

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Jeeppro, thanks for your reply - appreciate your thoughts! We pretty much manage Molly at this point - we don't let her interact with any dogs less two we know she doesn't have any issues with. She definitely has mellowed out a lot over the last two years, so maybe with time she'll hopefully grow out of it. It just makes it hard going hiking off-leash or someplace where we know there will be dogs off-leash. Always hoping we'll figure out what makes her tick, because she is a terrific dog otherwise...

Some dogs are just aggressive. Breaking an older dog of it is going to be harder. Some guys like some aggression in their hounds. It helps when they are on the tree with other dogs. I agree to try to avoid the scenarios that allow the dog to be aggressive and a shock collar for when you are around. I would not use physical discipline. The odds are worse that dog is going to snap and bite someone. Not saying its going to happen but more likely.

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