So upset over our aggressive dog, how's this going to end?

[Speckledhen617]

I feel devastated over this. Our pup is just 12 months old, he's an entire terrier.5 months ago we had a succession of incidents in the space of 2 weeks triggered by a child screaming at him and our DS accidentally scaring him whilst he was asleep. He snapped and growled at DS and started growling when he saw the child who screamed at him. We saw a behaviourist and the issues resolved.

Over the last couple of weeks we've now had him shaking and lip curling at fil and bil when they've been in our house and last night whilst I was sat on the sofa and he was on the floor with a new toy he went very stiff, started staring at me and shaking. DH called him out of the room, played with him outside for a while and all was fine. A few hours later as I hugged DH good night he jumped up at us growling.

Its really upset me. I know the advice is to see a behaviourist again, which I'll do on Monday but I'm so worried about it all.

I feel like its a bite waiting to happen. I'd never let him around DS friends or the children in our family, I feel like I can't have any male visitors in the house. We tip toe around him while he's sleeping, what next-no new toys? DS adores him. All we wanted was a family dog. DS's an only child, we waited 12 years to get a dog. We've put in so much love, time and effort and money. We're all so gentle with him. I just feel lost with it all.

[Veterinari]

@Speckledhen617

Thank you. It is a dreadful feeling. I'm hoping we'll be able to manage this behaviour and control the environment for him.We don't have lots of people round (especially not now due 5o covid!) and we can keep him separate from ds friends etc. Its just sad as that's not how you want things to be when you get a dog.

His parents both have lovely temperaments. He was the runt of the litter, about half the size of the other pups (he's caught up now). I wonder if that's relevant at all.

Yes @Speckledhen617 his runtiness probably does have an impact. Runts are often overwhelmed by their siblings, have to compete hard for access to mum, food etc and this can result in resource guarding and anxiety over resources.

I'd generally recommend picking a calm confident pup that will willingly explore and has good sibling relationships.

[Veterinari]

@Bajalaluna

Castration will definitely help to curb his behaviour and "mellow" him out, BUT it has to be timed right. We learnt this the hard way with our fear aggressive dog, (dog reactive, not people) we got him neutered before 18 months as a "quick fix" to try and stop his fearful barking and lunging at other dogs, and it made matters so much worse. He's now 9 and never grown out of the puppy stage I feel like we've almost frozen him in by getting him castrated too early. My other dog was dog aggressive when we acquired him at a year old, but we didn't neuter him until 3ish, and he is now the most chilled out friendly dog, I think because he had time to mature fully first.
Don't take any chances op, make sure the opportunity to bite a child is never presented and watch him like a hawk, could just be behaviour he grows out of, could be a personality trait. Can you distract with food? Have you tried clicker training? Terriers are very intelligent, high energy dogs, and if left bored, like others, can start displaying undesirable behaviour. What about some doggie brain training games? Kongs? Treat balls? Things to engage his brain in a positive way. Treasure hunts around a room are popular with ours. Let them sniff some treats, make them wait out the room while you hide them, and then let them back in to search and find the treats.

Please read the thread! Dog-directed aggression and human-directed aggression have totally different motivations. Yes castrations can help in confident male dog aggression. But that's totally different to human or child directed aggression. It's not just the age of dog that matters but the type of aggression. Please do some research, or at least bother to read the thread before spouting incorrect and dangerous advice that's already bean corrected multiple times!

[Ponchy]

Is he from a proper breeder or is from a backyard breeder? I know it's not wildly helpful at this point but this is why you should only get pups from someone who really knows what they're doing. An unstable temperament isn't fun and likely to be a likfelong issue.

[vanillandhoney]

Hi OP :) I hope you're okay - some of the comments on here have been less than helpful - please don't take them too much to heart.

I would make the vet my first port of call - get a full health check done including bloods if possible. Rule out any potential health issues including pain. I would also see if you can video his episodes of freezing/shaking as it potentially could be epilepsy or fits. Medication could get this under control fairly easily.

If he has a clean bill of health, then go back to your behaviourist. Use the videos to show them your dogs' behaviour and see if she can see something that triggers it. You're right that lockdown and building work won't be helping the situation!

Good luck

[Tardigrade001]

I wouldn't rush to neuter him in the hope that it will solve the problem. It may in fact make it worse, particularly if it's fear-based aggression.
Some data:
@https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/canine-corner/201805/neutering-causes-behavior-problems-in-male-dogs%3famp

[FAQs]

The house noise might have stressed him out. With our family JRT I was her go to person, she was my shadow and when I left home she came with me.

I’m currently signed with a JRT rescue waiting for a puppy (we have cats so it’s got to be trained) they are amazing, funny dogs but so so clever so very open to training.

[Ihaventgottimeforthis]

I really like that bucket analogy for trigger stacking, I'm going to remember that.
You could have a point that the activity next door could be keeping his stress levels topped up...
Good luck OP & I hope the behaviourist has good practical advice!

[Speckledhen617]

I definitely think lockdown hasn't helped. We kept up the socialisation outside, he really is fine with everything (except motorbikes, he barks at them if they zoom past). We've had no one in the house though so 6 months! At his age thats bound to have an impact. I'd like the behaviourist to advise us on that too as he was very nervous of fil and bil.

[ChickensMightFly]

Maybe the quiet of covid has regressed his socialisation. If he hasn't been routinely experiencing contact with people a child's shriek would be a shock. Perhaps you could work on him observing safe things from a comfortable distance and getting gradually closer etc. Dh and ds won't ever be able to enjoy a wrestle if he is very sensitised

[Speckledhen617]

He's a JRT, DH is definitely his person but he loves us all.

[Speckledhen617]

We've got an adaptil plug in from the first incident with DS.

He gets plenty of exercise and playtime. We are slacking a bit on the training though. Every walk is a training session and at home we treat him for all his good behaviour but we haven't been doing little training sessions like we used to when he was a pup so that's something we'll go back to.

[Wolfiefan]

The worlds next door could be related. Worth trying the doggy calming spray or plug in? (Adaptil?)
They also go through a secondary fear period. Can’t remember what age. Sorry.
My 11 month old is being a bit more nervous than her usual bomb proof self. Including growling at hot air balloons and a factory that was emitting something from a chimney.

[Bajalaluna]

Castration will definitely help to curb his behaviour and "mellow" him out, BUT it has to be timed right. We learnt this the hard way with our fear aggressive dog, (dog reactive, not people) we got him neutered before 18 months as a "quick fix" to try and stop his fearful barking and lunging at other dogs, and it made matters so much worse. He's now 9 and never grown out of the puppy stage I feel like we've almost frozen him in by getting him castrated too early. My other dog was dog aggressive when we acquired him at a year old, but we didn't neuter him until 3ish, and he is now the most chilled out friendly dog, I think because he had time to mature fully first.
Don't take any chances op, make sure the opportunity to bite a child is never presented and watch him like a hawk, could just be behaviour he grows out of, could be a personality trait. Can you distract with food? Have you tried clicker training? Terriers are very intelligent, high energy dogs, and if left bored, like others, can start displaying undesirable behaviour. What about some doggie brain training games? Kongs? Treat balls? Things to engage his brain in a positive way. Treasure hunts around a room are popular with ours. Let them sniff some treats, make them wait out the room while you hide them, and then let them back in to search and find the treats.

[Speckledhen617]

Thank you. It is a dreadful feeling. I'm hoping we'll be able to manage this behaviour and control the environment for him.We don't have lots of people round (especially not now due 5o covid!) and we can keep him separate from ds friends etc. Its just sad as that's not how you want things to be when you get a dog.

His parents both have lovely temperaments. He was the runt of the litter, about half the size of the other pups (he's caught up now). I wonder if that's relevant at all.

[Floralnomad]

Sorry if I’ve missed it but what sort of terrier are we talking about ? We have a patterdale x and although he never growls he does get very upset if I hug anyone else and will try to intervene .Some terriers are very people orientated and can get a bit over attached .

[Bonkersblond]

Good luck with him OP, we had a completely different issue with our terrier (DD had what we thought was an allergy DDog), at one time I thought we might have to send her back to breeder , but that feeling of having to give up on our much loved family dog was awful, I really hope it works out for you.

[Speckledhen617]

We'd definitely go down the chemical route first if we were advised to castrate him.

[Speckledhen617]

Re the sofa. He's not allowed to sleep on the sofa (even though he loves to snuggle up) this had been working well but I think we now need to make the sofa a no-go area. Hes happy enough in his bed.

We've never had him crated but we're going to buy one and cover it just to see if that helps. We won't shut him in there but he could use it as a safe den if he wanted to.

We'll also get him checked at the vet. Hes on good quality food too.

[FightMilkTM]

Further to what everyone has said about castration, obviously talk to experts and take their advice, but you could try a chemical castration (unlikely to be the best choice RIGHT NOW). Then if it helps his behaviour you can go for surgical castration, but if not you haven’t made a permanent decision.

[Helencatz]

Some people think castration is the answer but I've heard sometimes it makes them worse and sometimes it makes no difference it's not a magical cure however I'm not a behaviourist.

[Speckledhen617]

Thanks again for all the replies, I've taken on board all the sensible ones.

DS is 13 next week. We're a very calm household, DS is very sensible. I think we just need time to see how this develops. Our dog needs time to finish growing and maturing and we need time to implement whatever the behaviourist suggests.

He's a wonderful dog in so many ways, very sweet and settles well when left home alone. He's never shown any issue with other dogs or people or children when out on walks although I don't allow anyone to stroke him.

Something DH has just thought of is that we've got new neighbours. They've spent 2 weeks renovating next door-lots of workmen and noise. The dogs been barking at them in the garden a fair bit but has seemed calm inside the home but maybe this has contributed to his stresslevels. Mine have certainly gone up!

[Veterinari]

[quote Purpledaisychain]@Veterinari I'm sorry.

@Sertchgi123 The collie wasn't hers. It happened to her when she was out and about. I think it was a working dog that nipped her. All I'm trying to say is it is daft to turn on an entire breed just because some individuals are aggressive.[/quote]
No worries 

OP, @PollyRoulson has given excellent advice. If you're still reading then follow that and ignore 90% of this thread as nonsense.

He's still young and finding his feet, with time and support I'm sure you'll see improvements

[Hemlock2013]

We have a terrier here.

The castration thing is really relevant. For dogs who exhibit fear based aggression castrations just isn’t the answer. Ours is a really confident dog which is why we were happy to castrate, but it’s not always best.

Terriers are often snappy dogs, ours a very soft but he has triggers which could make him snappy, he’s not great tied up for example so not a dog to take to the pub or school run. Off lead he’s happy and confident and I have no fear of him snapping. I also don’t let any children approach him whilst he’s resting. I’m probably paranoid but I just know he’s lovely with kids but when he gets to approach them and play. He does like to be in control.

Yours is still young, adolescence does change their character somewhat so if you can, stick with it. I do also think letting them on sofas etc can be bad as they start to guard territory. Mine got silly guarding us on the sofa so I put him on the floor for a while and always make a point of moving him off for the kids and he’s better now.

I hope this is of done help. I think I was worried about mine for a while when he was younger but we just worked out when he is at his best and worked with that. He’s gorgeous now x

[PollyRoulson]

OP i gave up reading this thread after the first two pages due to uninformed posts.

1. Get a vet check - pain, injury, physical causes need to be ruled out.

1. Yuo are correct in getting in contact with your behavourist only in RL can this situation be assessed correctly

1. Castration is unlikely to help probably make things much worse.

4.Rememeber you did sort* out the previous problem with qualified advice so it is very likely this will be sorted to.

5.The behaviour you describe does not worry me hugely . He had a new prized possession.

1. Your behaviourist will help you understand your dogs body language and how to diffuse the situation, prevent it from happening if required.

1. If toys are too overstimulating for him dont give him toys or only give him tug toys that can be removed or played with at a distance so you feel mmore confident.

1. Hide this thread it will not do your mental healty any good . THe behaviourist is the person to help you.

This too will be sorted in an easy and painless way.

[Pringlemonster]

My min pin had not been done when we rescued him .
Huge difference now he is