my springer spaniel bit me

[TheHeadlessLambrini]

not sure what to do. she has been getting really possessive over her toys / food etc but I was just walking past and she just went for me.

[Rhinestone]

You need to take her to the vet immediately to get thoroughly checked out, including hearing and sight. Highly possible there's a physical cause.

Other than that, how old is she and how long have you had her? What's her background and how much exercise does she normally get? Have you ever done any Cesar Milan type training on her such as alpha rolls to establish yourself as the alpha dog? PLEASE NOTE that is a question, NOT a suggestion.

[Rhinestone]

x post!

[TheHeadlessLambrini]

thanks for the replies - she will be a year old at the end of November. We have had her since she was about 4 weeks, young I know but there were reasons - they were feeding her pot noodles!!

how much are behaviourists?

[ChickensHaveNoEyebrows]

I paid £40 for a session yesterday, and it was well worth it. You can find someone via the APDT webpage. I'm sorry you were bitten :( Are you hurt?

[TheHeadlessLambrini]

she got my finger, broken the skin and a little blood but it's more bruised than anything.

£40 is reasonable so will look into that.

She's off her food at the moment as well.

[ChickensHaveNoEyebrows]

I wonder if her ears are sore. I have a spaniel, and when he had an ear infection he was very 'mouthy' if we approached his head. He was a much younger pup than your girl, though, so we just thought he was teething at first.

[TheHeadlessLambrini]

i'll make an appointment with the vet tomorrow. looking back she's been like this on and off since sept but she was doing alot of licking down there so we thought she was having her first season.

Chicken's - what food do you have your spaniel on?

[ChickensHaveNoEyebrows]

He's on Burns Alert. He suffers with various allergies, and goes a bit bonkers on other foods. Burns is expensive, but he is a much calmer, healthier dog on it.

[LoveDogs]

We've got a cocker spaniel x and she was exactly the same, we got her at 8 weeks, but we think she was taken away from mum to soon, we gave her lots of praise when she did ANYTHING good, we also got her a cuddly toy which she loved and started suckling it, she soon got over the aggression, and now at the age of 3 she is an amazing dog.
Hope that helps.

[AussieMam]

Please don't try cesar Milan alpha roles etc on her! I'm guessing rhinestone asked that to find out about your handling but as she said in her post it is not a ugliest ion!!

[Rhinestone]

4 weeks is far too young to leave mum. Note you didn't answer all my questions. And yes, I most definitely am not advocating CM, his methods can cause an aggression (through fear) problem where none existed.

Hope it goes well at the vet.

[TantrumsAndBalloons]

If the dog is not eating as well then definitley vet first as there could be a medical reason for the snappiness.

[Mrsjay]

HAs your dog been speyed if not she could have a phanotm pregnancy our old dog has 1 and she went the same she couldn't get 'done' because she didn't go right into season just the phantom pregnancy ,

[TheHeadlessLambrini]

not sure what cesar milan is TBH, the training which we do with her is based on ignoring bad behaviour and as rewarding the good with treats and praise etc. At the moment the treats are her complete dry food, as I'd prefer to get some of that into her rather than bits of sausage IYSWIM. She gets a short walk in the morning and a longer one off the lead and a good run at night. At the weekends she has two of these runs. I've got a bag of the Burns food now so will start to swap her over. Didn't get to the vet - RL got in the way. So will make this a priority for tomorrow.

It's hard to decribe her behaviour but the majority of the time she is happy, wagging tail, happy to play etc but without any warning she can just turn, her eyes are wide, teeth showing, heckles up, growling etc.