Aggression in older dog

[HildegardCrowe]

My beloved rescue JRT who’s about 12 has always been snappy on and off (although very affectionate) but over the last few months he’s become increasingly aggressive. It’s got to the stage where I’m scared to touch him and DD won’t go anywhere near him.

He hasn’t bitten anyone yet but the constant snarling and snapping is very worrying. I’ll take him to the vet but I suspect this might be doggy dementia. He’s also started peeing in the house when he didn’t before. Does anyone have any tips on how to handle the situation?

[StillMedusa]

Vet. Vet. Vet.
He may well be in pain, or ill (animals hide it much better than we do).
Even if it is doggy dementia there will probably medication that will help!

[AvocadosBeforeMortgages]

This is absolutely a matter for a vet trip. I'll bet there's a cause of pain that's making him grumpy and snappy. If there's nothing obvious, you could ask about giving a week's worth of painkillers to see if that improves things, and then go from there.

The peeing in the house could be a sign of a UTI (and indeed, UTIs can be agony, especially if they get as far as the kidneys)

I'd want the dog seen before the weekend.

[OldElPasoHadAChicken]

This is what we are going through with our ancient rescue mutt.

Around two months ago he really started behaving differently. He had started wetting himself on the sofa, sometimes standing and doing it (we've learnt not to leave anything valuable or any clean laundry etc on the sofa not) other times he has laid there, I've had him checked for a UTI but even with the extensive test nothing showed up. He saw the vet yesterday, we are trying an antibiotic in case he has something like Cushings and a UTI isn't showing up.

He has become real snarky and aggressive, he also whines and cries and we don't know why. The snapping is so out of character, he seems to have lost his ability to restrain himself from going for our food. He started getting up in the night which he hasn't done since we first rescued him. He also paces and doesn't relax in the day.

Today we tried to take him for a walk, but I had to pick him up and put him inside my hoodie. We abandoned the walk. He has been shaking more, and even the way he cuddles me has changed.

He's also seeking out my partner to sleep on or next to, he was never really into anyone else but me. Which seemed a pain until he didn't want me as much anymore.

Total personality transplant. It's really been making things hard at home and it's been worrying that he could actually harm someone if he gets cranky enough.

So the vet said if he doesn't respond to these pills, and a bloodtest doesn't show up something curable, then we have the option to say goodbye to him while he still has enough of his faculties left to know who we are and to feel loved and comforted and so on. I don't want to keep him going unecessarily past the point of comfort (he already sounds like he is in pain).

OP, I hope there was a curable reason why your dog has been off. This is a horrid feeling and I don't wish it on anyone.