We have a weak nerve rescue dog that goes after other dogs and some people. She is 4 years old and it seems to be getting worse. What can we do?

Question

My dog, which is now 4 years old, is a lab mix whom we adopted from a shelter. Since she was a puppy (Mattie) she has exhibited signs of weak nerves. We always attributed her aggression toward people as acts based out of fear or lack of trust. She has also exhibited problems wanting to dominate relationships with other dogs and, in doing so, displayed signs of aggression.

    As far as we were concerned, we had raised and trained our dog very well. She follows all commands with the occasional exception of the Come command when she is distracted by other dogs or people (usually during this time she is exhibiting aggressive behavior). For this, I worked with her on a 100 foot rope and tried to introduce distractions. Additionally, we introduced a radio controlled electric collar. This tool has worked well and has all but eliminated that problem. However, the aggression is still there.

    During her four years, she has bitten someone unprovoked, has chased rollerbladers, snapped at people that have visited our house, and has gotten very aggressive with other dogs. In all these instances, we have blamed ourselves for lack of command or training and her background (as a shelter dog ? we adopted her at four months old). As such, we focused on correcting our actions and our control over her versus getting to the root of her problem (the aggression).

    With the latest incident, it has prompted me to investigate aggressive behavior in dogs. The latest incident has involved our dog acting aggressive toward another dog (my in-laws) that she has been very accepting of for the past several years. Our house has been under construction / renovation for the past few months and I am trying to blame my dog's recent behavior on her unrest about the construction. My dog weighs about 60 pounds and the dog that it attacked weighs 15. The dog suffered a nick on the ear, head, and under the eye where it seemed apparent that my dog had clamped down on it. This happened again at my in-law's house over the weekend. This time there wasn't any blood drawn but the behavior has all of us on edge.

    I have a nephew that is 1 year old and I don't trust our dog around him. To this point she has not acted aggressive to him as we have tried to introduce them in a happy setting with lots of praise. However, I am concerned that something could happen out of our supervision, especially as the child grows older.

    Based on the information that you have been provided, I would like to know what things we can do to correct her behavior. We have found her aggressiveness / mistrust toward people has almost been exclusively geared toward men. Our goal is to be able introduce her to children, adults (particularly males), and other dogs with confidence that she will act appropriately. We love her dearly and I don't want to put her to sleep but, the more I research, the more I fear this action is not correctable. Can you please advise?

    Kindest Regards,
 David

Accepted Answer

Your goals with this dog are 100% unrealistic. These goals set you up for failure. When one trains a dog they have to be realistic in any goals they set. You have not done that.

This dog is weak nerved, dog aggressive and a fear biter. Your goal should be “to establish a plan to live with this dog and learn to control its environment so that it does not hurt anyone or anything.”

Before I get into what I think you need to do I will say that a professional dog trainer may be able to accomplish what you want, but it will take a great deal of force and pressure on the dog. So much so that it could also cause health problems with the dog. Stress causes dogs to get sick - often their pancreas fails. So with that said I do not think that the force needed to do what you want is worth the problems it would create for the dog.

I NEVER allow my dog to come into contact with other dogs unless I know the other dog and unless I am 110% sure the dogs will get along. Your dog should NEVER be around other dogs. I also NEVER allow a dog to come in contact with another dog unless my dog is 100% solid in obedience under extreme distraction (i.e. another dog is extreme distraction).

Also I NEVER allow people to pet my dog. Why should I? Why should someone touch my dog? I have never come up with a reason to allow people to pet my dog. As far as I am concerned I want my dogs to think I am the center of their universe. I don’t want them to think that they can go to strangers or other people to be petted. Besides that when a dog goes to another person and expects to be petted it is often exhibiting a sign of dominance. (telling the stranger to pet it)

Read the article I wrote on dog parks. Read the Q&A on fear biters. You can go to my articles at http://leerburg.com/articles.htm

You need to get a dog crate and crate this dog when strange people or dogs visit. You need to keep the dog in the crate when children are around. When you take the dog outside you need to take it to places where there are not people or you need to make it wear a muzzle (we sell inexpensive plastic muzzles - but the wire basket muzzles we sell are the best). It should not be out without the electric collar on.

Dogs like this do not need to be put to sleep if the owners are responsible and understand what they are dealing with. I compare it to police officers with very very aggressive tough dogs. They seldom have accidents with their dogs because they train their dogs to mind under distraction. They also control the environment where they allow their dogs to be off leash or loose.

So with this said – this is more of a people issue than a dog issue. If you like this dog – control where it goes and whom it comes in contact with. Then continue to train it. Training NEVER stops.

Ed Frawley