Dog snapped at daughter, totally unprovoked

[BarbarAnna]

Our rescue lurcher snapped at my eldest daughter tonight. We have had him about 18 months. He snapped at her once before but she approached him when we had a bone so we put it down to resource guarding. He growled at my youngest daughter the other day, but I thought he may have been asleep when she approached him. But tonight, I was watching. He was wide awake and my daughter went up to him to give him a gentle stroke to say goodnight. Out of the blue he growled and very quickly followed up with a snap. The girls are older and very sensible. They adore him and he seemed very close to them. He sought them out this afternoon, to go and sit near them and this is typical behaviour for him. We just don’t know what to do. My youngest was sobbing and terrified. My eldest defended him as she loves him so much, but I saw this with my own eyes. Me and my husband are devastated. He can be reactive on the lead on walks but otherwise is a gentle, loving boy. What are our options? Please help and he kind.

Seeing him this morning, it’s definitely his ear. :-( we did have a wash with a bit of steroids in that the vet prescribed but he wouldn’t let us near him with it. We have held him down and squirted it in this morning, and after let’s if head shaking and kicking off his ear, he seems a bit better.

The vet said to either give him salmon or duck. We feed him raw so been giving him a duck 80-10-10. He was doing ok on this but we had to switch brand and just noticed the new brand has tripe in.

I so wish we could sort this for him.

I had to switch out lurcher to a fish based (grain free) diet due to sensitive stomach admittedly we don’t do raw but he does much better on fish. We’ve been less careful with treats and the pouch of wet food we mix with the kibble but I’m going to order tins of fish based wet food now and treats from the same place we get his kibble and see if that helps his ears. He’s had them checked and vet said they just need cleaning but hoping to avoid it becoming a continuing issue.

Poor dog, it must be really painful. Ears are a nightmare when they get issues like this, my dog has occasional ear problems .

@BarbarAnna

Seeing him this morning, it’s definitely his ear. :-( we did have a wash with a bit of steroids in that the vet prescribed but he wouldn’t let us near him with it. We have held him down and squirted it in this morning, and after let’s if head shaking and kicking off his ear, he seems a bit better.

The vet said to either give him salmon or duck. We feed him raw so been giving him a duck 80-10-10. He was doing ok on this but we had to switch brand and just noticed the new brand has tripe in.

I so wish we could sort this for him.

Google the bucket game - it's a great training technique for situations like this and helps to prevent the aversive learning. He'll possible need lifelong management so you have to tackle stress-free ear exam/medication training as a priority