We adopted a rescue dog 2.5 years ago, she was just over 1 at the time from a reputable rescue. No reported aggression and none displayed when she was assessed at the rescue either towards other dogs or humans. She was handed in as apparently she could be kept in the flat she was living in and she wasn’t being given enough exercise and left alone all day with the result that she was destructive. She is a mix of two fairly high energy breeds. The advice was to slowly socialise and train which is what we did. With structure and physical and mental enrichment we never saw any ‘bad’ behaviours from her although she did from time to time tell off other dogs for getting up in her business, usually if she was on lead. We would avoid those situations so as not to prompt any such reaction but in any event it was always a measured telling off.
She has regularly attended a local daycare who slowly built her up and worked with her. They are a good team with what I think is a good mix of qualifications and experience. She has loved going and aside from the odd report of grumpiness we’ve never had any issues until last week. It seems that she was snuggling with one of the handlers when another dog approach and she and/or the other dog became jealous and ran snapping at the other dog. We’ve never seen her do that or display any other jealous behaviour, we have a 12 month old puppy at home as well and she’s never really cared when he’s had attention nor has she displayed any aggression towards him and he has had his annoying puppy moments.
The handler intervened and it seems tried to grab her and she turned around and but them without any other warning such as a growl or snap. Needless to say she can no longer attend.
We don’t know what to do. Although we work mostly out of the home daycare is a big help to us and we would never have got a second dog if we didn’t think she was comfortable there and with other dogs. I’m also concerned that we may never go anywhere like a couple of days away or even an evening out without worrying what might happen if she is in kennels or with a sitter. She can be left for a few hrs no problems but we tend to use a sitter for both if we need longer and although it’s not often I feel like we need that time after a few difficult personal years. We also can’t leave her alone all day on the odd days we both need to be in the office.
I’m concerned that a behaviourist may simply say just not to put her in that situation again which doesn’t really help.
I love her so much but I also don’t want to end up living like hermits because she is unpredictable. I’m also worried we did this to her somehow but we’ve always did everything slowly and taken all the advice we’ve had along the way.