Scared of Ddog - I'm really upset

[FluffyDogMother]

Ddog is an ESS. I've written about him on here before. He's just coming up for a year old. We have consulted a behaviourist over his jumping and nipping us, and behaviourist was happy with how we approached this (redirect if possible, exit room at home if that doesn't work).

The last two nights in a row he has growled at me when we are on the sofa together and grabbed his chew or toy. He had done this a month or so ago but I put it down to a one off as he had issues with his anal glands at the time - he actually snapped at me and caught my hand. It seems to happen when he is suddenly woken if I move for example. During the day and early evening he will quite happily snuggle on my lap with a chew for a few minutes.

I'm now wary about sitting with Ddog on the sofa in case he escalates to biting. I've been in tears over this. He's hard work a lot of the time, despite training, exercise and enrichment activities. It feels like 1 step forward 2 steps back.

Where do I go from here?

Re training him to settle elsewhere ie not the sofa - my 6 month old WCS is also a terrible chomper of vet bed, blankets etc, we have had to remove all such...but he is (so far) getting on well with a flat memory foam mattress in a waterproof cover. Have you tried something like that, or a canvas raised bed on a metal frame?

@fairylightsandwaxmelts we used to have his crate in the living room but he would not settle in it if we were in the living room (he happily settles in it at night when we go to bed). Teens, DH and I were then tiptoeing around the house so took the decision that the kitchen, being the quietest place in the evening, would be better.

Honestly? And this is going to be an unpopular opinion, but follow the advice of your vet even if they suggest having the dog put to sleep.

My parents dog started doing this when he was 2. Vet suggested euthanasia, parents declined.

They have tried dog psychologists, behaviourists, classes, 1:1 training, chemical castration (was awful and upsetting so stopped the medication), had him neutered, different medications, different diets, nothing had worked, he is 10 years old now and bigger and more aggressive than he ever has been.

He snarls, growls, has possession aggression that no one has ever been able to rectify and has bitten my dad a few times.

He is now managed very carefully at home, and has a permanent house lead that we use in an emergency to pull him away but honestly, every time I visit my parents' home with my own dog, I am scared of him. I'm also pregnant, and concerned of visiting their home when the baby arrives.

It is exhausting, and having tried everything they can afford, my parents are now just stuck in this cycle of wondering how he's going to react next time they walk in the room.

He is an extreme case, but a lot of heartache may have been avoided had they listened to the vet in the first place

@fairylightsandwaxmelts
Morning walk is with DH - walk to local park then a mix between ball chasing, playing with other dogs (which he loves!) and sniffing/bumbling about.

Evening with me is loose lead training and lots of opportunity to stop and sniff and occasionally I will drop food for him to sniff and find. I only stick to our local estate (we live semi rural) as going anywhere with too much traffic is too much for him. Being semi rural our roads are unlit and others walk with torches. Torches and headlights can also cause him to be super vigilant so I have to be mindful of that. Christmas lights were a nightmare...

BoodleBug51 just out of interest, what food did you switch to? Our dog is very fussy and we’ve got her on Aatu which has been the only kibble she consistently eats but I’m conscious it’s high protein. Have you found one with a lower protein mix that your dog enjoys? Thanks!

@BoodleBug51 he's still on Royal Canin Puppy but looking to change that. Friends with dogs are advising RAW. Behaviourist suggested hand feeding. Vet says he needed oats and sweet potato daily due to gland issues. Trying to make sense of it all!

I don't see how it could be sleep startle, as he bites on other occasions. Seems that a specialist behaviourist is the best bet.

Are you on this fb group OP? I’d really recommend joining, reading all their resource guides then posting for further help

Note the exact spelling / capitalisation of this one as there are some similar sites but this one is excellent and would be able to offer some advice

He sounds like a dog who is over-stimulated and lacking in boundaries. He has learned that if he jumps and nips, you'll offer a distraction, or leave the room. So maybe if he snaps, you'll leave the sofa.

So for now, no sofa. In your shoes, I would also try to get him to focus by teaching him things like sit-stay (which should also calm him down) and basic retrieving and learning to find things like tennis balls in grass (which should tire him out and make him happy).

@Curiousmouse

I don't see how it could be sleep startle, as he bites on other occasions. Seems that a specialist behaviourist is the best bet.

Because lots of dogs who have sleep-startle are anxious and stressed in the first place.

www.battersea.org.uk/pet-advice/dog-advice/sleep-startle-dogs

"Any dog can experience sleep startle, and it can often be a symptom of them feeling stressed"

Hand feeding was probably suggested to help attenuate resource guarding response and to build up the relationship between you and your dog whilst consolidating their understanding that you are the controller of resources and food, not them. It can be quite a good approach.

I don't think you are at this stage yet as you've got lots of behavioural training possibilities and management ideas to work through and they can be very effective and your dog is very young, but if over time you are still experiencing difficulties I would consider medication such as fluoxetine that can be helpful with anxiety, reactivity and aggression in dogs.

I started my dog (cocker spaniel) on it at the age of 5 after many years of dedicated behavioural and management work that was pretty effective but never completely eradicated explosive aggressive outbursts when the perfect storm of trigger stacking unexpectedly occurred. He hasn't bitten since starting the meds a year ago. It's hard to attribute this precisely to medication as these outbursts were generally about a year apart anyway, but he is certainly generally a more chilled, relaxed dog and I don't have to manage him as much as I used to (eg no problems whatsoever on the sofa now, follows instructions more readily without challenging).

'Mine!' by Jean Donaldson is a good book on managing / lessening guarding behaviours.

@EdithStourton
He knows sit, lay down, will wait until I say it's ok for him to have the treat in the palm of my hand or on the floor in front of him, will wait until I say ok for his interactive toys. He's almost there on 'waiting to go through the door on a walk until released' rather than rushing through. Can do some loose lead but easily distracted by smells (will follow his nose into the road). Will sit and lay down when out, unless distracted. Will sit at a kerb to cross the road when I stop.

Distractions can be anything from someone walking along the street, people talking, a child yelling/crying/talking loudly, a car door shutting, another dog at the end of the road, a leaf blowing past....

Once distracted that's it, he won't move until he is ready to move. Even with chicken, sausage, cheese he will not budge.

Sit/stay will work at home if it's just me and him, but not outside if there are any distractions.

@FluffyDogMother, I have a highly-strung working-line gundog who was a lot like this with distractions until she hit about 18 months, when she began to slowly improve.

With distractions, can you build him up gradually? Sit stay very close to you in a quiet corner of the park? Having him close will help, as will keeping it short before you release him. Very slowly increase distance, duration and distraction. Or perhaps work with him indoors with some distractions: clap your hands, waggle a foot - but he has to stay put. Loads of praise whenever he gets it right.

With scent, can you cover his eyes and roll a ball into deeper grass for him to track and find? Or get someone else to hide one for you, while you wait out of start, and then send him to find it? You want to switch him to hunting under control, which will make all his spaniel synapses very happy, chill him out and wear him out.

With loose lead walking, if treats and praise aren't cutting it, you might need to go to a gundog trainer. On MN they tend to be viewed as being old fashioned, but all the ones that I have encountered will always start with praise, and maybe treats, before suggesting any sort of boundary or correction. Corrections are VERY unpopular on the Doghouse, so I'd better go now...

Loads of dodgy advice and conclusions on here OP best to ignore mose of it . Get back to your qualififed behaviourist who can see the situation in rl. There will be a behavioural plan going forward that will help.

most

@FluffyDogMother my second ess was a grumpy stressed chap when we got him (rescue so an adult rather than an adolescent). We had the adaptil plug in and it was useless. Got a behaviourist and she said they're rubbish unless in a really small space. We switched to the collars and the reduction in his anxiety was remarkable. They need to be close fitting as the body heat causes the pheremones to activate but they were brilliant. He wore one all the time and was so much more chilled out.

@CalamityJaney I've got my dogs on Forthglade cold pressed dog food. He was on Millie's wolfheart but the high protein one (70/30) and he was literally like the duracell bunny on speed...... I would never have believed that food could make such a difference.

He's also uber fussy but touch wood he seems to really like this.

www.thewildest.com/dog-behavior/why-my-dog-aggressive-when-woken-suddenly

It sounds to me as though he's over-stimulated, over-tired and grumpy as a result. My working gundog SS was athe laziest creature on the face of the planet (we often had to drag him out for a walk, for example, and his idea of "play" involved destroying my then-small son's soft toys... and if he was walked for more than an hour a day, in total, he would grumble a fair bit (low rumble from the back of his throat) if he wasn't allowed to sleep deeply in his "safe space" in an evening. I found that a firm, deep voiced "No!" worked wonders when he did grumble, and I had to train the children to let him rest.

If you're scared of him, he will sense this - and yes; he will react to that, too, I'm afraid. I know it's not going to be easy but you really do need to keep him off the sofa - and be consistant and firm about doing so. Dogs really are happier when they have non-forceful boundaries in place... and springers are nutcases until they finish maturing around the age of 4 or 5. Get him fully checked out by a vet, though, because his grumpiness might be because he's in pain somewhere, or constantly feeling unwell.

As for his bedding, the only thing my spriinger would sleep on and not destroy was my small son's old cot duvet in a cover, folded up in his crate (which was in our living room with the door left open so that he could retreat there as and when he needed to). When the cover needed a wash, we'd just swap it for a clean one! He also had blankets, too, because he liked to burrow under them in the winter when he was cold or damp from his walk and defrost/dry himself off again.

Springers are incredibly hard work, and you get back what you put in with them, but they are so very worth the effort! I'd have another in a heartbeat.