Dog bite

[Despairingdogowner]

Our dog is nearly 3, we have had him since he was a puppy and we also have a toddler. Dog has shown anxiety before (despite lots of socialisation as a puppy, classes, never being left for long etc). We have had a trainer do some one to one in our house before as he was barking at people coming to the door etc. This seemed to help and although he would still bark sometimes he wasn't aggressive as such, he would bark but keep his distance from the person.

Since lockdown and obviously people not coming to our home our dog has become worse. He constantly barks at the front door or if people are working in our garden etc. Tonight I came home from work and was carrying my son. As I opened the door the dog started trying to come out and bark at the gardener. I tried to pull him back in with one hand and as I did so the gardener leant forward to also try and keep him in. I then put my son down and caught the dog (who was now outside barking) and put him in the kitchen. The gardener then showed me that when he had leant forward our dog had bitten his finger drawing blood.

I am gutted. I feel like we have really failed our dog and I've no idea what to do now. I've emailed a few trainers again to try and get some advice. It all happened so quickly and I had no idea he had even bitten the poor gardener until he showed me. Our dog has always barked but i didn't think he'd bite. He's so gentle with our son (although I never trust them to be together unsupervised anyway as he is after all an animal).

I've text the gardener to check he's okay (he said he was fine when he left and that he'd had worse) and he's now rang me to say his finger has swollen so he is going to ring 111.

Any advice or knowledge would be great.

The best way forward is management to start with.

Simple things like doorgates to prevent your dog ever getting access to the external doors.

Do not let your dog approach people he does not know. Also muzzle train for when out and about.

It does sound like fear based reactivity but only a rl behaviourist could help with this. You can make huge steps forward if you are able to be consistent with some behavioral work.

If your dog's only trigger is people he does not know then your son is no more at risk than a child with any other dog. However that would need to be assessed by a qualified behaviourist. Pop to your vet for a check up to make sure there are no pain issues and they will give you the name of a qualified behaviourist.

It is a traumatic thing to have been involved in and you have not failed your dog.

Yes i think that's why I'm so gutted it's happened tonight, I knew he barks and I'm aware people who don't have dogs can be spooked so I've always made sure to keep him in the kitchen etc when I've answered the door so that he isn't put in a position where he could bite.

Hes such a lovely dog (I know I'm biased but his dog walkers have always said the same!) so I'm so sad this has happened :-(

I've spoken to a behaviourist just now and he's going to come see us next week.

I've spoken to a behaviourist just now and he's going to come see us next week.
This is really good. A family member had a dog that bit and with the help of a behaviourist has completely transformed him. He is literally like a different dog.

What breed is it?

Hes a beagle and pug cross. We got him from a friend of ours when he was about 15 weeks old (long story!) and I was aware we needed to socialise him ASAP as I don't think he'd had much before that. We went to puppy classes etc, the park, organised dog walks constantly. He's amazing with our son, so patient and even when the baby would cry as a newborn baby he would just go hide in his bed. He's obviously so anxious now though as he's barking non stop when people come near the house. Lockdown has definitely not helped him :-(

He’s bound to be a barker anyway then. Not that a good behaviourist won’t be able to help but just keep in mind that the barking might be half anxiety and half his nature.

Do you mean because of his breed? He has always barked, but he definitely barked less before lockdown when we had some training and he was much better when people came into the house etc.

Dogs can be genetically nervous and reactive, my own dog has this tendency and there is simply no way of knowing until they start to grow up and display the behaviour. Socialising genetically nervous pups is difficult and you have to adopt a desensitisation/counter conditioning approach right from the off which is hard because it runs counter to what most people think socialisation is (plenty of solid temperament dogs receive socialisation that would really harm one with fearful tendencies). If I could go back I would do some things differently but it would largely just involve beginning reactivity specific training earlier.

Don't beat yourself up too badly, this is very fixable even though your dog is wired to react, new alternative behaviours can be taught. Would strongly recommend an IMDT trainer or behaviourist ideally one who has personal experience of training a reactive dog. I would also ask in the initial conversation whether they will be using classical conditioning and desensitisation (trigger= treat irrespective of what the dog does) or operant conditioning (dog is only treated for the right behaviour). If they don't know the difference, run a mile. If they focus on operant conditioning (ignore the trigger, look at me, do something else instead of reacting) I would avoid as this can be too hard for dogs initially and can raise anxiety by removing choice. A mix of classical and operant conditioning will be best. To be honest, finding the right trainer is probably one of the hardest parts of the reactivity journey but a good one will definitely help you retrain.

In the meantime, look at management. Use pet gates to create a system where the dog can't accidentally get out. If you have guests, visitors or tradesmen keep the dog well away where they are ideally unaware that there is a visitor. Every time a dog practices a behaviour it is reinforced. Therefore the first step is to manage the dog so the unwanted behaviour (barking; anxiety) does not occur. Once you have a calm baseline you can start working with your dog to reframe the way they see strangers and eventually turn them into a good thing.