At a complete loss with our rescue, he’s attacking feet aggressively, what on earth do we do?

[HowdoIgetbacktothe80s]

Sorry this may be a bit of a ramble.
I am a life long dog owner but am honestly at a loss right now, I feel so sad and worried as I just don’t know what to do.
6 months ago we rescued a dog. He is a Jack Russell/Yorkshire terrier cross, fairly small (ish), 11kg.
The poor mite hasn’t had the best start in life. He was born in November 2020 and purchased at 7 weeks old (this not only makes him a lockdown dog but probably a Christmas dog too!). The owners (sick bastards from hell!), crated him from just 7 weeks old, for at least 12 hours each daytime (that’s not including night time), every single day. They lived in a flat with no garden and never walked him. He was totally unaware there was an outside world beyond the flat. I also believe he was probably mistreated in other ways.
He suffers from a lot of anxiety due to his past life with these arseholes.
At approx a year old he ended up at a rescue centre (not sure if he was surrendered?) They worked with him and got him to a better place, at first they couldn’t even put a harness or lead on him, that can still be an issue at times, he is scared of many, many things.
A couple adopted him in April 22 but returned him 3 months later because he was too high energy and the anxiety was too much for them (they were an older couple apparently).
He stayed at the rescue for a further 3 months and then we adopted him.
The rescue reassured us that although he had anxiety issues, he had never shown any aggression during his time with them.
So the first 3 months were ok. Of course he was very anxious and nervous but settled in ok, he seemed fine with us all, snoozing on the sofa with 14 year old dd and even sitting on 17 year old ds bed with him at times. Most of the time he is a happy dog and loves a cuddle and dh especially.
He did toilet in the house a lot and is really quite vocal at times. He hates getting into cars and we were working on that and the various other things which scare him. He does get quite frustrated at times and will take it out on cushions and throws etc but we were heading in the right direction giving him times, space and keeping his world small. I spent a small fortune on activity toys, walk him every day and try to keep him occupied and allow him space/ time out etc. He has an open crate (don’t close it because of his history with a crate) in a quiet corner of the kitchen. We’ve done all the things we should and things I’ve learnt to do as a life long dog owner.

But something happened in December and things have not been right since.

Mid December I took him for a walk, he ran and slipped on ice, kind of skidding on his head/side of his face. I checked him over and he seemed fine. 2 hours later, he snapped at my dd, he had never done this to any of us before. An hour later he snapped at my finger and caught it making it bleed.
We took him to the vet and they said it looked like he had a double ear infection. They put a month long lasting ear drop to tackle it. The ear infection cleared in that month. I did mention the incident where he fell into his face/side of head but they didn’t seem interested, I mentioned this several times but they were never interested in that.

But since that time he started to attack my sons feet. Every time ds came downstairs (we have a stair gate preventing the dog from going upstairs as he was constantly peeing on the landing) he would make a beeline for his feet and go crazy.
It is like a frenzied attack, as though something comes over him and he is dead set on attacking his feet. He doesn’t appear to be interested in any other part of him. The problem is this happened a few times over the Christmas period and since then my son won’t go near the dog and the dog is now wary of ds because he hardly comes down anymore and when he does he insists that the dog is shut in another room. Obviously, this is putting quite a bit of distance between ds and the dog and making the dog anxious around ds.

The problem is that in the last few days has started to do the same with dd, twice in this week he has done this same ‘attack’ but on dd’s feet, again in a frenzied kind of way. He doesn’t appear to be interested in any other part of the body, just feet and trying to tear at and pull at their socks. The first time dh pulled him off and his teeth caught dd foot bruising it. He has just done it again this evening (when he’d been fine with dd since she got home at 3.30pm). Luckily, we were there again and pulled him away. He seems to then come to and goes and sits in his crate like he knows he’s done wrong. It really is like something has come over him.
We had a behaviourist come to us in January, she gave us tips and exercises to do for other things we are working on but wasn’t really able to offer much help with this frenzied sock/feet attacking.
I just don’t know what to do. The rescue is of no help at all. I have contacted them several times since we have adopted him but each time they just put me onto their behaviourist. She is lovely but is 400 miles away from us so any contact is over the phone. She mainly suggests herbal anti anxiety meds but I’ve tried so many and they all make him vomit and give him diarrhoea. Plug ins and calming collars do very little either. The vet is hesitant to prescribe anything and has basically suggested we get rid of him. I am planning on taking him to another vet soon although vets are a huge trigger, so too is travelling in a car so it’s no mean feat getting him there and then he’ll scream like a banshee when we get there.
I am feeling so low about this. I knew that getting a rescue would be hard work but it’s turned into a nightmare with our 2 dc now not warming to the dog at all and scared they’ll be attacked and I am now on constant edge worrying that the feet attacking may progress into something more.
We have spent almost £1000 on him in these last 6 months, I can’t afford much more as money is now a bit tight.
He really is a lovely dog who has been greatly let down by horrible humans and didn’t deserve to be abused as a little puppy, I don’t want to let him down as well.
Although he obviously has this past and has many issues he is fine with dh and I and we do love him but obviously our dc have to come first although they say they don’t want him to go. Returning him to the rescue would be heartbreaking as it is a 6 hour round trip and was a very noisy/loud place and the thought of him going back there makes me weep. He would very much regress if he went back and who would want to rehome a dog who has been retuned twice?
I am feeling heartbroken as we lost our beloved little 10 year dog last summer. We just wanted to give a dog a loving forever home and although I have had dogs all my life I am having constant worries that we have taken on so much more than we can deal with, that he the dc will never be ok with him.
I just don’t know how to deal with this as it comes out of nowhere and we just can not see what triggers it. Obviously if we knew the trigger, like a reactive dog on his walk for instance, we could work on that. How can we stop this attacking behaviour if we don’t know what triggers it as it’s not all the time.
He is currently snoozing in front of the log burner like nothing has happened.
Any suggestions? Anyone experienced anything like this? We are at such a loss.

This is a sad situation but honestly your DC are more important than a dog.

I would look to return the dog. You need to show your DC their happiness in their own home is more important.

There is no shame here. You have done more than most people would to try to make this work. But DC are more important.

Agree with many others. Our dog does this regularly with socked feet! And it's usually a demand for attention so she does it to whoever has given her the least attention! I certainly can look aggressive but it's not, it's like rough play but it's bloody painful.

Maybe test it by getting your DC to carry a long tug toy when they walk and using that as a distraction and see if she engages with rough play with them or just goes back to the socks.

I like the Vicks idea though! I might try that myself!

I feel for you OP. I don’t know the answer to the problem, although I think seeking advice from dog trainers/behaviourists and doing more training/playing with him to use his brain and energy up are things I would try.
As a dog owner myself I understand how difficult it would be to give him back to the rescue centre but I would say to you that sometimes it’s not possible or sensible to keep a dog and you are allowed to take that decision in the best interests of your family and the dog.

A firm “no” and grab him by the scruff of the neck.

this is how you escalate things to being properly bitten without teaching him anything. Dogs don’t know what no means.

I would go to the Facebook group “dog training advice and support”. make sure you join the right one - it’s got over 330k members. It’s run by qualified behaviourists. There are guides for you to read, you can post for further advice, and if you really need it you can join their premium group for £20 a month to get access to a group where you can post as much as you like and get advice much quicker than you do in the normal group. If they don’t think they can help then they’ll direct you to an approved behaviourist.

Just to add I used their premium group with my rescue dog and it saved my sanity

He is still young; have some patience.

Both of my chihuahuas nipped and pounced at feet when puppies and young dogs. It was playful.

Now the one remaining alive wouldn't pounce at a filet mignon; he'd rather sleep. Give him some time.

As PP said Vicks on shoes or get moth repellent sachets (amazon - some smell quite flowery) and put them in kid's sock drawers. Or drop essential oils on shoes and socks.

Have a look at Southend dog training on Facebook. They do online help for a small fee and they have helped a lot of owners with dogs that were going to be put down . You can view their videos of progress with dogs and see what you think.

Peppermint essential oil is used to deter rodents.

I second the Dog Training advice Fb group mentioned above, really good.

Avoid Southend like the plague - awful "trainer".

I still have pots of tiny treats dotted around the house to scatter to interrupt behaviours like this if it makes you feel better. Mine would bite my ankles when I came downstairs but now hovers in the hallway because I scattered treats on the floor instead every morning. An alternative behaviour/interrupt or may help?

Good luck.

I second Southend Dog Training, life changing.

I have a Yorkie. They can be snappy.

He sounds like a little champ and lucky to have you

I second the slipper suggestion - get your whole family wearing Glerups boot-slippers:

www.glerups.com/collections/boots

I hope that and the Facebook support group help - you sound like you're doing a really great job.

Here's a link to the UK Glerups site (the previous one I posted was US):

www.glerups.co.uk/collections/boots

Our JRT attacked feet, mostly in later life. Vet diagnosed dementia and told us the dog was partially blind /deaf. We remain dubious about this looking back on it. He would glaze over during an attack, bite, then go back to ‘normal’. JRT’s can suffer from called rage syndrome- looking back we think it could’ve been that. He was also very vocal, suffered with separation anxiety.

We wore slippers, tough boot slippers that go up to your ankle and never put our faces by him.

Any investigations mri etc likely to be costly. We were offered mri following an ear infection but my dog is very elderly so we opted for the monthly ear gel too- which cleared it. Surprised the vet didn’t offer you better solutions.

Can you video a biting episode for a different vet? Could your son have accidentally booted the dog at some point or stood on him?

Hope you are able to sort it.

Check whether your insurance covers behavioural issues, some will pay for it.

Totally agree with pps who have terrier experience. My 2 year old terrier-cross still does the crazy feet attacking thing and it's very much related to over stimulation and/or him wanting to play. The incidences of it have decreased considerably as he's got older but sometimes when he was a puppy it was very wearing.

We used two tactics (1) trying to stop the behaviour from happening by not getting him over tired and giving him plenty of playing opportunities at appropriate times; and (2) giving him a different behaviour to do - we worked very hard on "stay" so that he would remain where he was while we walked across the room or garden. We would then call him to us and give him treats/toy/praise.

I also use the Dog Training Advice and Support Facebook group mentioned above for guidance on how to manage (and understand) behaviour. I'm a first time dog owner and it's been invaluable in helping me.

I think this is really good advice. I was about to suggest the lead when he's around anyone who he might bite the feet of until he is calm

Op does he do it to bare feet or slippers? If socks are a trigger then the answer is to stop with the socks immediately. You can get him over this, it’s not fair otherwise, and your children need to be more mature about it to help this little dog. He can’t have another family let him down.

as others said, it’s unlikely to be aggression , so take the trigger away and make your kids make an effort

They have no qualifications and have been shown to hurt animals , incorrectly using adverse methods .

No from me and (-most other qualified folk on this )

• vet second opinion
• physio check over
• buy a tug e nuf
• indoor lead
• wear shoes indoors - house shoes whatever

Whatever the reason for the dog’s behaviour I think it highly unfair to allow the OP’s children to feel intimidated in their own home. This is a situation that in the long run cannot be happy for both the dog and the DCs. Making the DCs ‘make an effort’ - wtf? “Here kids, wear some protective slippers and make a bit more effort with the dog while he attacks your feet so aggressively you are scared to come down the stairs!” Top way to alienate your kids. Having said said that, I know of some people who would put their ‘fur babies’ needs over their real kids’ need every time.

Plenty of good advice here but one that I would add, maybe try hemp / cbd oil. I have seen a lot of success in calming dogs where other things have failed. It isn't an alternative to the other behaviour modification techniques, but it can help to calm a dog to be able to better cope with life around them.

Thank you all for the advice. I will get some Vicks today and some slippers each for them. He doesn’t do this with dh and I but we both wear slippers, the dc wear only socks which does appear to be the issue.
Orangebadger thanks, I will get them to take a distraction with them, will definitely try that.
BaroldFromEastenders I am already a member of that fb group but didn’t realise they had a premium membership, I will check that out.
Unsure33 I follow him on sm and he’s not a million miles from me either

Mochinated please don’t make sweeping statements like that, you have no idea what I have done for my dc. They are my life and I am not showing them that the dog comes before them. I am showing them how to have compassion for a poor sentient creature who has been let down my human beings. It’s very easy to tell a stranger on sm to get rid of a pet but so much harder to do so in real life. We will do what we can for our poor dog but obviously if after exhausting all avenues then we will have to face a heartbreaking decision for him.

We have a Jack Russel mix who’s generally very mellow and he does it too! Mostly with our son. He also attacks the vacuum cleaner.

Personally I would not use vicks (unless you have a cough) or any strong smelling odour.

Vicks or camphor is toxic to dogs

Dogs sense of smell is powerful

You have an over aroused dog that then gets a mega smell, it will either over excite and stress the dog or just conflict the dog who stills wants to chase the feet but have to be more over excited due to the strong smell.