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Dog has suddenly become very aggressive
Dog_Owner
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This is an alt account because I am a little sensitive about the issue and a lot of people know me by my main handle.
My dog who is a little over a year old mutt (The people said he was a lab/husky mix but he looks like he has some pitbull and other things in him) has suddenly become very aggressive. He was fine as a puppy and has been fine up until a couple months ago. It mostly triggers with my girlfriend and occurs around my room, his crate, and the couch. It is to the point where he actually bit my girlfriend and almost broke the skin. We have tried different training things to calm his aggression such as feeding him after we have eaten and stuff. He is never aggressive outside of the house and it is almost always triggered by my girlfriend, but once it is triggered it can go towards me or others as well. It is to the point where I think he is dangerous and need to figure out what to do about it. I love the dog dearly but I no longer feel that he is a safe pet unless this gets rectified.
I am really just looking for any advice on how to fix this, or what to do.
My dog who is a little over a year old mutt (The people said he was a lab/husky mix but he looks like he has some pitbull and other things in him) has suddenly become very aggressive. He was fine as a puppy and has been fine up until a couple months ago. It mostly triggers with my girlfriend and occurs around my room, his crate, and the couch. It is to the point where he actually bit my girlfriend and almost broke the skin. We have tried different training things to calm his aggression such as feeding him after we have eaten and stuff. He is never aggressive outside of the house and it is almost always triggered by my girlfriend, but once it is triggered it can go towards me or others as well. It is to the point where I think he is dangerous and need to figure out what to do about it. I love the dog dearly but I no longer feel that he is a safe pet unless this gets rectified.
I am really just looking for any advice on how to fix this, or what to do.
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I am in no ways a dog expert but maybe you can find a space for him that your girlfriend does not go near and have him sleep there? More experienced dog owners will have more useful things to add, but that is my opinion.
That said, if it isn't resolved soon it will likely only get worse - and in my personal opinion, going the "I'm the alpha, I'm going to hit you or pin you on the ground to show dominance" route will likely only enhance the aggression.
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I have not been paying less attention to him for my girlfriend, I've pretty much had a girlfriend since I got the dog and it has never been an issue up until recently. The couch and my bed are the two pieces of furniture that he is allowed to sit on. The aggression get's triggered whenever my girlfriend sits on the couch, or occasionally my room mate or when someone opens the door to my room. He is also neutered and is up to date on shots, he was neutered almost 7 or 8 months ago.
I plan on calling my vet tomorrow morning to speak with him. Sadly 1 on 1 or professional training is not really an option, I pretty much live pay check to pay check and it would take too long to save up for one on one training with how he is currently acting.
Is your girlfriend very permissive with your dog? In my (not professionally trained) opinion it sounds like your dog is resource guarding and sees your girlfriend as lower on the totem pole than he is. I had this issue with my beagle when he first came home from the pound, but he's A)15 pounds and
Have you done basic obedience training with him (sit stay down focus etc)? Has your girlfriend done the training with him as well? Would you be willing to assist your girlfriend in doing that training, perhaps in an area where he isn't with any of his trigger spots? I don't know how good a suggestion that is as I don't want to have her in a dangerous position.
Do take him to the vet. Maybe you could consult with a trainer in your area. I know that basic group training around here is 100$ for 6 sessions, maybe you could work out some sort of payment plan?
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My girlfriend is far less permissive with him than I am. He does have basic training down sit, stay, come, and most of it was taught to him by her. We came home tonight and moved his crate into the main room so he has less reason to be possessive of my room, we are also trying to enforce some strict rules on him, he's no longer allowed on the couch and when I am not home he is going to be in the crate.
So far tonight he has been fine and we are working on establishing his pecking order in the group. I have her feeding him now and he can't eat till she says for him to come to the food bowl. We looked at obedience training the other day and I think it was around 200$ for a six week class that interferes with my work schedule, she and I both work evenings when most of the classes are held. Like I said earlier I am going to give my vet a call in the morning and see what his advice is and if he recommends it I will certainly take the dog in to get checked out.
My girlfriend is far less permissive with him than I am. He does have basic training down sit, stay, come, and most of it was taught to him by her. We came home tonight and moved his crate into the main room so he has less reason to be possessive of my room, we are also trying to enforce some strict rules on him, he's no longer allowed on the couch and when I am not home he is going to be in the crate.
So far tonight he has been fine and we are working on establishing his pecking order in the group. I have her feeding him now and he can't eat till she says for him to come to the food bowl. We looked at obedience training the other day and I think it was around 200$ for a six week class that interferes with my work schedule, she and I both work evenings when most of the classes are held. Like I said earlier I am going to give my vet a call in the morning and see what his advice is and if he recommends it I will certainly take the dog in to get checked out.
Don't feel bad about the situation BTW. It honestly sounds like you've been doing everything right, shit happens sometimes. This could be an illness or teenage rebellion. It sounds like it's not an issue of you not training or caring for him. I hope you figure it out.
My only other suggestion is until you get this figured out, if you walk him, muzzle him. He takes a snap at some kid running up to him because their parents aren't watching and it's game over for your buddy. Safety first.
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Having her feed him is good. Having her take his food away is good, assuming he doesn't bite the shit out of her. If he growls just give him a quick correction and take the food away, I've had quite a few dogs try the resource domination stuff and I've never had one actually bite, but I wouldn't want to get your girl hurt.
My old husky did this kind of thing and I just taught it that it had to do what I wanted or it didn't get delicious food or treats. Positive reinforcement is IMO the best route, but obviously you have to take away things sometimes to get certain points across (remove yourself from playful fun if a puppy is biting too much, remove food/treats if they think they can guard them from you, etc). Have her train with him and give him lots of love and praise when he does things right (Everything from sit to lay down to come or whatever) and give him treats all the time. He'll love the shit out of her.
Getting him to completely be friendly to everyone ever is a much more complex thing, but I've always felt it's easiest to have new people that meet dogs like this to just give the dog treats via asking them to do simple commands you've trained and it almost instantly makes the person awesome in the dogs eyes.
The trick with taking something away from your dog is that you have to build trust for the animal that it's going to come out better, in the long run, if it doesn't fight you on things. This isn't dominance. You aren't teaching the animal, "I'm bigger than you and can take away your food when I want, because I'm higher in the pack." It's a long series of training that teaches the dog, "When my owner takes things away, they give them back eventually and sometimes I get treats and rewards, so I'm totally ok whenever owner takes my stuff. I LIKE it!" You do this consistently and reward as needed and the dog doesn't end up minding the times when something is taken away and NOT given back, because at a basic level he trusts that he's going to come out happier if he lets you take what you want. This helps when the dog decides to grab expensive shoes, for instance, but you start building this kind of trust with the dog's toys and food.
I thought he might have been improving a little only having one incident recently where he managed to get into my room and charge/snap at my girlfriend and myself until this morning. Today he was laying on ground just relaxing and my girlfriend went to pet him and he went off again breaking one of her bracelets and barely missing her hand. I immediately told him to go into his crate, I didn't do this as punishment but purely out of safety concerns for the dog and her, which he responded to but was still angry. Later when I went to tell him to go to bed, which is the command for going into the crate, he freaked out at me when I went to lock the doors.
He has given up on getting on the couch and into my room it seems which has been helpful I think but he is still being aggressive seemingly at random. That may just be because this is new and I don't expect him to be perfect or even really improved much by now.
I spoke with a vet earlier today who has known my family and I for years and he gave me some suggestions. He said to continue doing what we are doing and told me if he gets aggressive throw a rolled up news paper or an object. Not at the dog, and not to hit the dog, but just throwing it will apparently distract his attention and maybe diffuse the situation. He suggested a behaviorist which is sadly way out of my price range. Especially given that he said I would need to do about 6 weeks worth, 6-12 sessions depending on what they would recommend, at minimum 100$ a session. He also told me that if the dog hasn't improved dramatically in 6-8 weeks or if he continues to get worse I need to face the fact of putting him to sleep. He said medicine would be a temporary crutch for it and a lot of times when this emerges in Dog's it just continues to get worse and worse so that the animal can be a ticking time bomb and it leads to only a matter of time before someone gets maimed or badly injured.
So as of now we are going to continue what is going on and try our hardest to improve his aggression, but if he gets worse than I will take steps to have him put down. The same goes if he does not improve in the 6-8 week period I was told. I am sorry if this sounds a bit rambling I am fairly devastated at the idea of having to put him down. But I do trust this vets opinion more than anyone I know in regards to animals and I do believe he has given me the best advice that is available.
In response to how I am disciplining him it is mostly with telling him a loud firm "No!" There has not been any physical disciplining and I am following my vets advice and rewarding positive behavior and trying to give him positive associations with not being on the couch, people approaching his crate, etc. He gets aggressive it really feels at random. Someone can be on the other side of his crate and just touching it and he will be inside looking like Kujo. He has bitten my girlfriend after she pets him which he could have been allowing perfectly happy with for five minutes before hand.
This isn't a long term solution, but you might consider carrying a water bottle with you. I use water to break up dogs that fight during their introduction period.
I hope you find a happy solution, that is a hard situation.
Sounds like he is a bigger breed and may not have a normal outlet for pent up energy and is channeling that energy into his aggression.
if he was a setter mix, i would thnk about setter rage, but honestly he has already bitten twice at this point.
the dog needs to be examined by the vet
the dog likely needs to see a behaviorist
if he can't afford that, then he is going to need to make a rough decision. But the fact is, a people aggressive dog is a huge fucking liability especially one with an undetermined trigger. this is only going to get worse. I am all for giving every dog a chance, but aggressive dogs is where I draw the line.
http://bakerinstitute.vet.cornell.edu/animalhealth/page.php?id=1101
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But failing to get a dog the training it needs before aggressive behavior becomes more ingrained can result in what you'd call an "aggressive dog."
You do need to adjust the bad behavior but if he's acting defensively it won't stop just with obedience training. It's probably not even your girlfriend that's the cause. Anyone he interacts with commonly could be doing something to trigger this.
+1. Maybe you and your girlfriend should each get a pair of running shoes and try wearing the dog out with a long run, once in the morning and once at night.
She brought in a specialist to work with the dog for a few hours. It was expensive, but it also came with a training collar. The collar provided stimulation to the dog (although I don't think it was a shock perse) that would distract him whenever he did something bad or aggressive. I can't believe how amazingly this thing worked. You wouldn't even know it was the same dog. He's docile, obedient, and an absolutely joy to be around. I love her dog more then my own dogs now. I've never been a fan of "shock" collars, but seeing how effective theirs was (and again, I don't know if it was a shock collar, that isn't how they described it but that could just be a nomenclature thing) I would definitely recommend it, especially if the alternative is putting the dog down.
Also, take your dog to the vet.
Activity levels with the dog have been up and down throughout the whole thing. It started when we were being very active during early fall and the warmer part of winter with long hikes and Big long walks everyday. He was starting to be aggressive at this point. With winter setting in and school picking back up the level of activity has lowered a bit I tried to get him on a big walk everyday. Now it's getting to the point where I am nervous to take him on a long walk due to living in a pretty populated area with kids that will run right up to him and pet him. Before they would do it and it was fine, now I am afraid he is going to try and tear into them.
This kinda goes against what the vet I spoke with was saying. He did say that it may be fixable but would most likely require hiring a specialist, which is incredibly expensive and just not something I can afford to do.
I will be able to afford a vet visit once I get paid this week. My current plan is to keep up with the new discipline and rule changes and see if he improves. If he does not improve and it looks like he will need to be put down I will be taking him to a vet to get him checked out for any possible medical cause Before taking that option.
Edit: I should add that the dog has never been abused or treated harshly in any way. I bought the dog when he was only maybe 6 weeks old and he has been with me from that point on and has lived a pretty cushy good life. He has also known my girlfriend since the day after I picked him up. We were still friends so she wasn't over as much at that point but he got along with her and really liked her. He used to love people until this all started now he can snap at pretty much anyone myself included.
Did you get him from a breeder or from some dude with puppies
I disagree that aggression is solely an owner thing. It's a genetic trait that some breeds are bred to have. The onus is not entirely on the owner.