I’ll start off by saying that he has a bad past life. He was obviously abused by his previous owners and straight up abandoned in the woods. He has bad anxiety that he is on Prozac for, and it seems to be helping for the most part.
Lately he has been grabbing random shit and snapping and growling when someone tries to take it. He’ll grab the stuff off tables and counters to chew, so it’s not like he’s finding random stuff on the floor.
Last night he grabbed tape off of a table and when my sister tried to take it, he bit her hand. It wasn’t hard and barely left a mark, but it is still incredibly concerning. I was the victim of a severe dog attack as a child, so any aggression is not okay. I don’t want to have to get rid of him because he’s my baby boy and I love him so much.
I have no idea how to stop this behavior. I’ve never had a dog act like this. It started in August and has gotten worse in the past month because our living conditions changed. I broke my ankle/leg and I’m laid up for a while at my parents’ place.
Do y’all have any suggestions?
Our trainer would 100% say that the trauma of seeing you knocked on your ass is making him feel like he has to protect you.
Disagree with “dominance” like some harsh insistence on it, but he needs to relax, and it’s impossible for him to do that if he feels he must protect you. He has to know you can protect him, and take care of him.
Can you get professional help? It really helped us. Getting the whole family on the same page and using the same training strategies will help so much. And don’t worry, behavior can be modified.
I’ve found that talking to him calmly when correcting other bad behavior is more effective than being firm. He really doesn’t like when people aren’t chill. Lil dude has made huge improvements with his anxiety since I got him, and I know we can get through this as well. When I brought him home, any kind of precipitation would send him into panic attacks. I had to get him a raincoat so we could work on getting him used to rain and all that. Now he’ll go outside in the rain, but wants back in as soon as he finishes his business lol. It’s just gonna take time for this current issue. I have so much time since I’m laid up, so I can work on training constantly.
I’m looking into trainers, but there aren’t many around me that are affordable or have good reviews. I live in a rural area that has the “be the alpha” mentality when it comes to animals. I get judged a lot by other dog owners around me when I say that I don’t hit or yell at my dog. They say he’ll walk all over me, but he’s a good boy. He listens really well for the most part, aside from when his nose gets the better of him.
I’m going to try trading him stuff and teaching him to drop stuff and see how it goes. I told my sister to come get me or my mom if he has something he shouldn’t. My sister has a hard time grasping how to behave around animals, so I want my mom and I to do the training at first soy sister doesn’t get bit again. I’d rather get bit. My stepfather is a bit extreme with some things, so the rest of us have been downplaying the resource guarding so my stepfather doesn’t get mad and get mean with my boy or want him put down.
If I had to distill the training - there are dominance elements, but CALM and firm is the vibe, and giving them opportunities to be good. He has us sort of bark at the dog as a general “look at me” then pet them for paying attention, and a high pitched gentle “free” or “whee” to release them. Maintain a 2 foot bubble when eating or working from home, don’t let them cuddle up to me. I always made them wait until I walk through a door but he said make them wait until specifically released. So there is some dominance based discipline in there and it does help, but never violence, never use hands to correct them only voice or leash. Nothing that makes them afraid of you will make them respect you.
It was expensive as heck because we have 2 dogs but lifetime support and I can see it’s working. We didn’t have a free for all before the training either - always had standards of behavior for them, heel when walking, etc. We are trying to get to the point they can be walked together and not freak out even if another dog on a leash barks at them. It’s a long road but improving all the time.
I guess one good thing about being injured is plenty of time with the dog to work it out. And yes behavior problems after a traumatic event are normal as heck. Stay consistent, and manage the environment as much as you can at first, don’t give an opening to misbehave, reward with attention when they do what you want.
ETA: it really does depend on the dog. My daughter’s dog is just not emotional, he may ignore what you tell him to do but doesn’t freak out, like, ever. A little kid wanted to pet him at the park and literally screamed in his face and he just sat there, it didn’t phase him. So she can be quite rough with him and he is fine with it. Just “oh, THAT’S what you want, OK.”
There’s a bit of odd advice there. Not letting your dog cuddle with you and barking at them is very weird. Check your trainers qualifications. Leash corrections is a red flag too as is dominance based nonsense.
Barking is an overstatement, lol. But a rough noise to get their attention, a soft and high pitched word for praise and plenty of cuddling just on my terms, not when working at home.
It’s certainly working, can’t argue with results. Both dogs are calmer and behaving better, easier to train now. Not as reactive.
It’s just all very weird. The thing is, there’s things that work short term but ruin your dogs confidence and bond which cause bigger issues in the long term, punishing the dog falls in this box. I mean, you can train your dog by kicking it every time it does something wrong if you like, it might work, but it ruins your dog. A lot of these fake trainers fall into these things and cause real harm.
Ah. There is no punishment built in here, unless you consider removing attention to be punishment. It’s positive reinforcement when they do something right, the happy words and pets. Ignoring them sometimes to convince them you are ok and so are they, not reassuring them. Odd, sure, but not at all mean. They don’t seem ruined, I probably just am not explaining it right. Certainly not kicking them, what the heck?
Lead pops are a punishment.
As is not cuddling them.