Rescue with fear aggression and guarding

[tresleches]

Hello, I have a 4.5 year old maltipoochon (possibly) I rehomed a year and a half ago. He’s extremely cute and friendly and is the sort of dog that people smile at when we walk past. Very friendly, confident in familiar places, good fun. Terrible history of aggression at groomer, now solved with a great groomer, I don’t know the specifics of his history.

He used to be very reactive with other dogs and joggers etc but responded well to training and hardly does it anymore. However, he attacks me in the house. When I tell people this they don’t believe it.

Sometimes it’s resource based, but it won’t involve me taking anything, I will just notice he is staring at my feet then he will attack. Yesterday, this was followed up by a second attack when I was kneeling down to reassure him and he bit my arm. He hadn’t done this for a while and I thought the “outside” training was calming him inside. But then this evening he went for me again while sitting on my bed, which seemed entirely unprovoked.

When it happens, I don’t feel safe in my own home. This seems odd to say as he’s so small, but I don’t. Is more training an option or is this more serious than I have been assuming? It’s the spontaneous attacks that worry me. If he was bigger and capable of more damage I know this would be a very different situation. The 95% of the time that he is great is great, but the 5% of aggression is awful and makes me wonder if he is really bonded with me as he seems to be outdoors. After the last two days, I’m feeling very demoralised. I have a teenage daughter and worry he will do it to her one day but so far hasn’t.

Advice and experiences welcome

Is this handler directed agression?

How severe are his bites?

Write down every scenario that has led to an attack to see what his triggers are.

Work with a trainer to desensitise his triggers.

Handler directed aggression can never be cured, only managed, but it's possible to eradicate triggers.

I’ve had dogs for over 50 years, several breeds, trained them, shown them and had four litters of pups. However, your situation is specific and worrying so, rather than get advice from random people (no doubt conflicting advice), I’d suggest you enrol with a free Facebook group ‘Dog training and advice’ which is run by professional dog behaviourists.

They publish free guides, or you can buy their book from Amazon. The advice is detailed and specific and covers your situation. They advise you try their methods and if there is still an issue, they will reply to individual comments. They follow modern behaviour methods, free of aggression and dominance.

A lot of the comments are sending thanks to them for their successful guidance and advice. My daughter follows this site for her 2 dogs and I have many friends who also use it.

When there is a radical change in a dog’s behaviour, their advice is to have your dog checked by a vet to see if there is an underlying medical reason. If the vet gives an all clear result, then start reading and following the guides.

This is a horrible situation for you and your daughter so sending you sympathy and good wishes in the hope you can get this sorted.

Thank you - this type of aggression is new to me! I've now read about this and it sounds exactly like it, so I can see that the work we did with the trainer reduced his reactivity and some aspects of fear aggression, but this is another thing, or perhaps another dimension of the "complex".

The things I read also articulated how awful it feels for the owner, which I needed to hear from someone else.

One account I read tried to explain the combination of outgoing nature/affection with these bursts, and it was so accurate. He has high social needs and is clearly quite insecure, but also has an assertive streak that (the author reasoned) means he lashes out rather than becoming inhibited when scared or just annoyed. This combination also means he doesn't like going away to a "quiet place" - he has to be where the action is but then gets overwhelmed!

The bites rarely draw blood, usually bruising, I don't know if this is because he's small or because he's deliberately holding back. He lunges and keeps going, grabbing onto any clothing, usually, then after does seem quite bewildered but will stay "trigger able" for a while (maybe resulting in this cluster over the last couple of days)

Writing down the scenarios is a good plan and one that will help me feel more in "control" of what's been happening.

@Honeysuckle16 thank you, I'll join that group. I agree on trainer vs internet, but I was quite upset last night and needed to feel like I could do something to understand it right away

He needs a full vet check and then an appointment with a registered behaviourist.

It's not personal, but it usually always inevitably affects your bond and of course your trust in them.

He is wildly over reacting at mild annoyances/frustration.

Yes he is in total control of his bite severity - the reason he's not biting with more damage is inhibition/lack of confidence. With each bite, you risk a much more severe one. If he has broken skin, and caused bruising, that's extremely concerning.

He will have triggers, once you identify all of them then eradicate them immediately (post here if you need ideas/workarounds).

With his improvement in other areas and responsiveness to training, there's a lot of hope.

But I really stress that getting a professional is a must to then help identify which triggers can be slowly desensitised.

Thanks, that's worrying about bite escalation, it's perhaps been slowed by these episodes tending to be a few weeks apart, or even months sometimes.

I think the "he's a rescue" can lull me into a false sense of what's normal/acceptable. I don't expect him to function like a dog that's never been rehomed or had negative experiences, but when I don't feel safe in my home it feels like a line has been crossed. Last night was the first time I wondered if it would end up with him being pts if it couldn't be addressed, and if he ever attacked my daughter that would be a crisis point. Again, if you saw him out on a walk or being his "usual" friendly self, this would sound completely unreasonable.

We have the vet this morning for vaccines (which he has taken sedatives for as they know he's bitey), so I'll mention it to them as they know about the other behavioural issues.

Thank you. I'll start the list and make an appointment with the trainer once I have a bit of a pattern to get working with. We have a small flat so avoidance may be key as there aren't lots of different spaces to allocate for different things, as I've read other people doing. The size of flat also means he relaxes less generally - it has occurred to me he would be happier somewhere quieter and with less activity around him (live in city) to keep general stress down but I can't move for a few years!

You need a proper accredited behaviourist- NOT a trainer.

No one could judge you if this was a behaviour you couldn't deal with.

Often small dogs are given more leeway before intervention which means it's trickier to deal with.

Best of luck.

Deal with it as the dog is a pit bull. A bite is a bite. Your DD really shouldn't be near such an unpredictable dog. I'd start with the dog not being on the bed or sofa ever. If you want to sort this dog out you need an accredited behaviourist.

Feeling unsafe and out of control in your own home is awful. You mentioned the dog bit you while on the bed? Access to the bed needs to stop now for your own safety.

I’d start by keeping your bedroom at the very least a dog free zone. Can you put a stair gate up?

If it were me I would introduce a crate for a couple of hours every day, toys and treats supplied. Ignore him completely. Give yourself and him some time out and space away from each other as part of your daily routine. And then yes definitely a behavior specialist asap.

Did you see this article OP? It's really interesting I think on a similar sort of case. This is definitely something you need help with and avoiding triggers is key, at least for now. I would certainly say if you see your dog giving you a hard stare then the best thing for now is to back off and give them space, I'd also avoid reassuring them over this as this is not something you can reassure them out of.

It sounds like you're not sure what the triggers are as you were just sat in bed at one point. You said that the dog was staring at your feet and the other time you were sat on your bed - with your feet on it perhaps? So I was wondering if feet are the trigger for your dog perhaps? He might have been punished by his owner by being kicked and may now be afraid of feet and being kicked again - so gets in there first. Just a thought.

I have a friend with a dog who doesn't like certain parts of her body being touched where she was probably abused and she will go for anyone who tries to touch her there - the rest of the time she's a sweetie though. As long as her boundaries are respected she is fine so please don't give up just yet. If you can find the trigger and just avoid that then hopefully all will be ok. Who know what trauma your poor dog has been through, I hope you can get to the bottom of it.

https://www.drjensdogblog.com/biting-the-hand-that-feeds-dealing-with-owner-directed-aggression/

Thank you. Yes, I think this will be a thing. Living in a small flat means curtailing access to one room is quite a big proportion of the overall space, and there is probably something going on with his most "secure" places being the places he can also kick off

I also stopped having an office at work so have been WFH full time and just around a lot more than I was, when perhaps he needs me to be away as he solidly sleeps then rather than being alert/stressed on my behalf with comings and goings. And I need some away time too!

@Jessie1259 This is the article when the penny dropped! It sounds exactly like my situation

I agree with the feet thing, it has been a theme - not always but definitely one of the things, and I had wondered about him being kicked in the past. He has had kind of blackouts where he's staring at my feet and after one attack, I removed my slippers and socks to show him that it was my bare feet underneath and he was transfixed by it like the bare feet were ok but covered feet an imminent danger.

Thank you everyone! As I mentioned, we had a vet appt this morning anyway and I was crying from the moment I got through the door so they knew it wasn't just about the second vaccine!

A vet with behaviour interest was on shift and she talked me through the possible explanations and the options. She suspects "complex layered aggression" rather than neuro or pain (latter checked before, he's on metacam for luxating patella), and has referred us to a behaviourist, also on site (it's a brilliant university vet practice). Probably expedited since biting in home, but if a delay she will start a low dose of SSRI.

She also talked about options if it's not resolvable, like going back to the rescue and seeing if they have experienced foster carers who would be able to cope, but I can't go there yet. He's come on so far it would be awful if this is the thing that defeats us. He's the sort of dog where you can tell he's doing his best and wants to be happy.

Really, thanks. When things happen at home it's difficult to explain to people what it's like. Thanks for understanding

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