DCollie snapped at vet....

[despondentatwork]

Background: she’s 2. A Collie Springer cross, but you’d never guess to look at her she’s a mix. Very ‘herdy’ & high energy. We have 4 kids, youngest was 2 when we got her. He adores her & is very physical & tactile with her. No issues. She also obeys him & my DH more than me (despite me doing the walks/training/feeding etc 🙄). She has a nasty runny eye ATM. TOOK HER TO THE VET ON DAY 3; when it showed no sign of clearing & her eyes looked really irritated-so maybe she was in pain. She didn’t Luke the surgery-paced. She didn’t like having her drops in-low level growling. The injection-she snapped as he injected the ruff from behind. I was holding her head. It wasn’t a huge deal to the vet, but it unnerved me. I really don’t think she’d have bitten him, but I’ve never seen that side of her & I’m uncomfortable with it. I asked him if I should be concerned -we get lots of kiddie visitors, have a huge garden & they all play freely with us ‘supervising’ nearby. He said to observ closely & ‘nip it in the bud’. Not really sure what he meant or how We’d go about ‘nipping it in the bud’. Any thought. She’s a bitch BTW-not spayed.

If it's the first time any of this behaviour has been displayed I would say she was in pain and afraid and had clearly displayed that she was unhappy by growling etc beforehand and therefore the snapping was a reaction to that.

You wouldn't allow your children or visitors to scare your dog or cause her pain, so it's highly unlikely she would display this kind of behaviour to them.

I'd keep a much closer eye whilst she is still unwell but otherwise I really wouldn't worry too much unless she starts displaying more unhappy behaviour.

My Ddog is absolutely fine with everyone he meets and is everyone’s best friend
Except for the vet if she goes near his back end - I think it’s because when he was neutered last year he got an abscess and had to have a lot of unwelcome attention back there. He’s not in pain because he’s happy for me to touch him anywhere
He gets muzzled at the vet and I hate it but I would hate it more if he bit anyone. I am thinking about changing vet to see if it helps but it is very disturbing to see your soppy pet change character like that.
I wouldn’t read more into it than not being happy with what was going on

The vet is a scary place.

Dogs are like people, they can only take so much before they snap. Sometimes energy, like excitement, can quickly changed to nervousness and then to aggression.

I wouldn’t worry. Practice being in new situations and make them positive. If you take her to the vet again run her out as much as possible before hand.

Spaying, in my experience, does not make them less aggressive (nor do I think she is aggressive).

I wouldn’t worry, the vet will be quite used to dogs behaving that way.

On a side note, any of my pets who have had eye issues have been cleared up by golden eye.

She's not well, in pain and in a vets surgery full of other smells and sounds. Her reaction isn't uncommon at all.

Please gey her neutered. She's not pedigree, there's no need for any more dogs in this country, and continual heat cycles without breeding can result in pyometra which can be fatal.

My last dog was a lovely placid lab very good with everyone, but she hated the vet.

Honestly I really don't think you should be concerned. Going to the vets can be very scary and she was in pain and being messed with. She effectively escalated things to the point of shouting fuck off to the vet, she wasn't actually trying to bite him.

The fact she had growled first is really positive. That shows that she didn't just go straight to the snapping.

Other than being extra cautious with young DC, whilst she is in pain (obviously don't have DC nearby when you do her eye drops either) and trying to make some positive associations with the vet there isn't really anything to worry about massively.

It's always good to look up about dog body language, so you can see when dogs are first saying "I don't like this, please stop", which comes well before the growling (a warning that is a "you need to back off right now!"). That way you should be able to ensure, that with DC, you never really get to the point where dog even feels the need to escalate to a growl, never mind snapping.

A vet recently took a blood sample from my dog's front leg. He did so with his face right in her face I said something helpful like 'don't you think she might bite you in the face?' He replied that I could hold her then, but he doubted that she would. My dog is placid, lovely, great with kids and strangers but I had no idea how she would react in that situation and I expected the worst! I wouldn't have been too surprised if she snapped due to pain/stressful surroundings. She didn't actually, but I though the vet was taking chances. I wouldn't be too worried if I were you, and if there's been no cause for concern before.

Your dog just doesn't like the vet!
Our dear departed jrt was a sweetie with everyone, especially children. But the vet? He was muzzled the minute he went in the examination room and would growl like a buzz saw the entire time. We had had two close shaves with him snapping at the vet and it was the only way to deal with him.

This sort of thing is a classic example of the fact that any dog can reach the end of its patience.

She's spent ages telling you she's not happy (pacing; there were probably other signs too) then she's given a final warning (growl) and finally she's felt she had no option but to snap because nothing else has worked. It's unfortunate, but absolutely not the sign of a dangerous dog.

I would, however, always brief children on what the signs are that a dog looks uncomfortable, long before it gets to the growling stage - but I'd always advocate that, so this isn't because of what happened at the vet.

You may also like to take her to visit the vet waiting room a few times and make really good things happen there - nice treats, for instance. I did it twice and now DDog, the eternal optimist, tries to pull me into the vets every time we pass, even when it's shut!

Thanks everyone, she was sitting on my lap earlier & licking my face with adoring eyes like she often does, and I knew in my heart that y’day was not an indication of a suddenly aggressive dog. Took her straight to the park with the kids & her frisbee so hopefully she’ll associate the vets with that next time.
I asked about spaying & vet said that at her age, the health benefits were minimal...better as a younger bitch.

Dogs are totally different at the vets, it really isn't an indicator of a dog's true character in my opinion and I would always express that to my clients. What I do reccommend is happy trips to the vet - just take her and sit in the waiting room for 5 mins and feed her treats, or take her just for the vet to run his hands over her and do a general health and weight check then leave without any unpleasantness. Work at home too, check her feet and lift her tail and grasp her ruff so she becomes used to all these things.

I'm a vet nurse and I don't think you have a problem.

Dogs are terrified when they come to the vets and even the nicest dogs snap when they are at the vets. We are trained to deal with this and generally we are able to make their experience as fear free as possible but sometimes it is all too much for them and they bite.

My own dog who is the sweetest dog who i trust 100% whois so loving turns into satan the minute i take him to work. Hes even bitten me! At home i can do anything to him

I would make some visits to the vets and get the nurses to offer him some treats and fuss. We do this alot to make a pisitive association.

Goes without saying dogs and kids never alone together anyway so nothing has changed. You just kniw he doesn't like the vet

Oh and go to another vet!! I've just read your second post with my face like you absolutely should spay your dog. The health benefits are multiple as are the risks of leaving her unspayed! Terrible advice from your vet

lemon there are negatives risks and benefits both to neutering and not neutering.

Vet here. Unfortunately the nature of our job is that we have to do uncomfortable things to scared animals. We are good at reading body language and at finding less aversive ways to manage animals but at the end if the day, we know that lots of our patients are anxious and unhappy at being in our presence. Just do remind your vet that your dog has snapped in the past. It's really important that we know the story so that we can ensure that all parties are as safe and happy as possible. Having said that most vets are rightly especially wary of collies and spaniels, both breeds ime being rather over-represented in the fear aggression stakes.

We had an old rescue collie, supposedly 10 when we got him. He was great with my daughter, too many other kids and he was overwhelmed, so we always shut him away or told the visitors that he bites.
However the Vet was another matter, he hated any vet and would snap at them. I'm sure he'd had a bad vet experience and the smell of the surgery reminded him

Thinking about It, my childhood collie always wore a muzzle at the vets. Was a lovely dog rest of the time

DDog is the cutest sweetest non aggressive thing ever but he bit the vet for an injection. Highly embarrassing. He is now automatically muzzled at the vet and groomer.

I'd probably snap if someone shoved a needle in my neck without me knowing anything about it.

In france when we get his injections for coming home they numb them first with an atopic liquid, he doesn't mind that.