10 month old pup is biting and drawing blood

[SWCharlie]

Has anyone had a similar issue and what did you do? My 10 month old Westie cross is biting every so often despite lots of one-on-one training and I’m about to throw in the towel and hand him to a shelter which will break all of our hearts. He has bitten from 8 weeks old when we first got him; family members, the vet and the groomer. We have enlisted the help of a behaviourist and put everything in place to prevent any biting opportunities, some of which were related to resource guarding. This evening my 15 year old son went to stroke him and he bit his hand for absolutely no reason, drawing blood. Aside from these incidents, which are infrequent, he is very loving towards all of us. Whenever I tentatively ask friends if their dog has ever bitten they say no, never. Even his siblings seemingly never bite. I would feel embarrassed to admit that ours does and I have not told anyone. I pretend he is the cute, adorable dog they assume he is. I’m so upset that everyone I know has trustworthy dogs that wouldn’t hurt anyone and I don’t. I didn’t expect to have this issue. I can of course carry on with endless training but the trust that he will never bite a stranger will always be there. Had anyone had a pup with this issue?

Well done. I agree. Work our what they value enough to bite over it and restrict access and warn if necessary eg. Our dog loves the sofa and doesn't like dd lifting her off it for a cuddle. She growls. Now I try to get dd to let her know before she lifts her and ideally tempt her down first with a treat. If it had worsened to biting she'd not be allowed up at all.
Knowing the trigger will help you work out what to do. I didn't allow one dog pigs ears as he would resource guard them. It's hard but a good behaviourist should be able to help identify triggers and work out how to minimise risk.

Don't be ashamed of letting people know to stay clear though. It's vital.

@SWCharlie

catsrus. Kind of had a light bulb moment and have pulled my big girl pants on and am cracking on with training. Don’t give him anything to resource guard and teach him good things happen when he’s eating and I’m near his food. Fingers crossed.

Brilliant - let us know how it goes

Hey! We have a similar problem with our Aussie that is 10 months old. Ever since he was a puppy he’s been scared of strangers but recently it’s gotten a lot better and he’s very friendly with people that he’s gotten to know. Our guard started to finally come down with him even though my partner and I were still aware that his trigger is being randomly pet by people he doesn’t know (especially children). Yesterday we were on a walk and two children came up to us and tried to pet him - I quickly tried to warn them to not touch him but I was too late and right when one of the girls touched him, he bit her arm. She was wearing a thick coat so we quickly pulled him off and corrected him, and she was fine. Similar to your post, I’m incredibly embarrassed and have lost trust in my otherwise perfectly trained dog. I would love to hear how your dog is doing now that it’s been a few years. I would love to better understand better from you, or those that have gone through similar experiences, how much I can expect him to change with consistent training and maturity.

OP, please sign up to the FB group Dog Training Advice and Support - https://www.facebook.com/groups/dogtrainingadviceandsupport - they have loads of guides which will help you understand why you shouldn't reprimand, why none of this is about who's boss, how to deal with resource guarding, and you can also ask for advice (and they have really good, really reasonable premium groups too where you can get one-to-one help).

If you haven't done already, talk to your vet too - they will be able to recommend a proper behaviourist; many will only take you on with a vet's recommendation. They can also do a pain trial if needed - pain can make dogs react like this.

Given his age it's perhaps more likely that, as others have said, you've unknowingly frightened him by telling him off when he's tried to tell people he's scared or uncomfortable, and now he goes straight to biting because nothing else works.

For others on the thread, please, please stop 'correcting' your dogs when they growl or snap - all you're doing is showing them that there's nobody safe they can turn to, and they have to defend themselves.

I disagree with all of the softly softly behaviourist stuff I'm reading, the dog isn't scared it's downright rude. Scared biters cower and shrink and try to leave or might snap if taken by surprise but they'll usually try and leave unless they're in a corner, this dog is just being a twat. If it was mine and it was biting for having it's head stroked by my child I'd smack the couch with a sweeping brush or a bottle full of rocks so I didn't get bitten and chase it off.

The soft approach with dogs like this is very popular because it's never resolved and you keep going back to a trainer, but if this dog did the same to another dog it would be bitten or put in it's place and I'm a firm believer in speaking dog to dogs.

I've also never let a dog growl at me - I don't care if it's nail clipping or taking a bone from their mouth or getting them off a couch they don't want to leave, and my dogs are all very respectful of me and of each other in the house. Never had a rude dog escalate into biting when I've told it off for growling, but I've seen plenty of coddled dogs that will bite and snap at their owners because they're indulged. You won't ruin the relationship with your dog by confronting it's bad behaviour if you're doing suitable bonding and exercise and training together.