My dog bit a recently bit a lady while on a walk. She is great around the family, but is the complete opposite around other dogs and people. What should I do?

Question

Dear Ed,

    Our family is in a terrible position and we have a very difficult decision to make. We have a 5 year old Wheaton terrier, Reilly, that is a sweet and very loving dog with our family. We have 5 children ranging from 9-19 and she has been incredibly docile with them. She was the tiny one in her litter and very scared of her siblings. In retrospect we should have known that this could become a problem. She has a very weak stomach and requires special food. We tried to board her twice but the resulting bouts of diarrhea put an end to that. She is petrified of loud sounds and even runs to her room (a small gated mud room) when I call the children to dinner. She doesn't like any roughness and we have to send her to her room if my husband and son wrestle because she gets too upset running around them and barking. With us she is completely calm and loving and so well behaved. She doesn't chew anything, doesn't go to the bathroom in the house, and is intelligent enough to have different behaviors that she'll perform with each of the children. She's so peaceful that you wouldn't even know she's around except that she loves to cuddle. However, she turns into a maniac when anyone comes to the front door and charges the door barking and growling. When I get to the door and tell her to go to her room, she does. She has bitten at the ankles of guests (always from behind) but has never broken their skin - she grabs their pants. We now put her away when we have company. She is horrible with almost all other dogs. She ran out when just a puppy and attacked the daschund next door and punctured the skin on his ear so we NEVER let her out without being on a leash. Unfortunately, just last month she broke free from my husbands grip (she's so calm so much of the time that you forget how quickly she can change) and she attacked the dog next door again. Thankfully, my husband got her before she bit it. It just seems that lately that she has become more scared and unpredictable. We walk her at least two miles a day to keep her well exercised, but we have to make sure that we are on guard at all times because sometimes she'll just pass people and dogs and sometimes she goes nuts. Last week she was so spooked by the wind or the shadows that she laid down and we had to just about drag her. It was very weird. It has always been a case of knowing that there are problems, but knowing that within our walls she's a great pet. Unfortunately, 5 years of small stuff came to a head last week when she attacked a lady while we were walking. Our children are home schooled and so we went for our walk in the middle of the morning when no one was around. Reilly had used the bathroom and I handed her leash to my 9 year old son while I threw the bag in the trash can (a horrible decision). A lady came around the corner and Reilly beelined it for her dragging my son and bit the woman in the thigh. She is now being quarantined for 10 days. The whole situation was horrendous. We all feel responsible. The lady was very kind, but we realize just how fortunate we are that it wasn't worse. We are deciding what we need to do when her 10 days of quarantine are up. We are in a neighborhood with children at the door all day and my husband's business is in the house so we have deliveries all day. I would love to send her to training and be hopeful for her future, but we're afraid that even with intense training, nothing's 100% guaranteed. I don't want her to hurt anyone else, I don't want her to live in a crate all day, and I don't want to take the chance of losing our home and the business that supports so many other families because we kept what's now known as a dangerous dog even though we love her dearly. My in-laws want to take her because they don't want us to put her to sleep. I'm just wondering if that will be too much stress on an already nervous dog and whether going through training will be enough for a dog like Reilly. What do you think?

    Erin

Accepted Answer

I hate to be the bearer of bad news but this is 100% a owner problem and not a dog problem. It’s a perfect example of owners who don’t understand pack behavior, who don’t become pack leaders and who don’t train their dog properly.

Sorry but I don’t have time for the sweet talk.

Your dog has weak nerves, these are easy dogs to train – properly train with corrections. They want to find the comfortable place to be – when they show unwarranted aggression they need firm corrections EVERY TIME !!! They need to learn to respect their pack leader's position on aggression more than they fear the ghosts in their head.

Your family has allowed this dog to become a pain in the rear – you have allowed bad behavior and you have not properly trained this dog. I have written a great deal on pack structure - My web site has a large number of FREE eBooks that I have written.

I believe that the DVD I recently finished could really help you. It’s titled DEALING WITH DOMINANT AND AGGRESSIVE DOGS and was a 5 year project.

I also recommend that you read the article I recently wrote titled THE THEORY OF CORRECTIONS IN DOG TRAINING.

While obedience training is not the solution to all behavioral issue it most defiantly is part of the solution for every single behavioral problem.

The fact is this is a solvable problem, I can't tell you if you have the ability to learn what needs to be done and then to do it. For your dog's sake I hope you do the right thing.