My sister has 2 Boston Terriers, the younger male shows excitement around people but then snaps, growls and barks. Yesterday the male escaped his cage and attacked my daughter while she was laying on the couch watching TV. Nobody can figure out this behavior, any thoughts?

My sister has 2 Boston Terrier's. The older female is smart and has an excellent temperament. They purchased a male when he was 4 months old, he is now 2. When they first got him he would run up to people and was very playful, then around 1 he still comes up to people all excited but the second he gets close he snaps, growls and barks. They've tried everything including medication. Yesterday my daughter 12, was over and she was laying on the couch watching TV and he managed to escape his cage, ran into the room, jumped on the couch and attacked her, 1 bite 2nd bite shake. The female BT heard her scream and came running and attacked the male, successfully stopping him from mauling her. The ER doctor immediately thought rabies but thankfully all shots up to date. Nobody can figure out this behaviour. I think it's bad breeding. Any thoughts? Thanks

Cindy's Answer

It's not possible for me to know why he's like this but it's not an uncommon issue. If dogs aren't given structure, training and rules they will often become overly territorial and that means aggression for some individuals. Boston Terriers are tough little dogs with a lot of drive and energy. Sounds more like he has a history of overly excited behavior when greeting people and excitement can very quickly turn into overarousal which can lead to an aggressive incident.

Dogs like this need training and supervision and since he's been practicing it for a while it can be much more difficult to work on than if he had been given the right type of training from puppyhood.

We have a lot of resources for managing and training dogs like this, if your sister wants to change this dog's behavior it will require daily training and management and taking away some of his freedoms so that he can stop practicing the wrong thing.

Sidenote, rabies in domestic dogs in this country is extremely rare.