My wife and I adopted a 7-8 year old boxer-bull mastiff mix from a rescue in June 2009. I read Ed's e-books and watched his 'Groundwork' and 'Obedience' DVDs in preparation for the dog's arrival. I adopted his training methods, and I've been very happy with the behavior of our dog (up until a week ago). He's never gone after our cat, he's great on walks, and he's never shown any aggression towards our guests or towards other dogs.

A week ago, my wife was moving a loaf of bread from the dining table to the counter. As she picked it up, our dog jumped up and bit her arm. This action was not preceded by any growling or barking, so it was totally unforeseen. She managed to shake him off her arm, but he came back and bit her thigh. I managed to get him off her after a couple seconds later by kicking him. Her injuries did not require a hospital visit, but he broke skin and drew blood in several places and caused severe bruising. I am ready to give him back to the rescue (and most likely euthanize him), but my wife would like to give him another chance. The problem is that I don’t know how to fix an aggression problem in a dog that has been rather docile for the past 8 months.

When viewed in hindsight, he exhibited one behavior that indicated he viewed my wife as a rival/competition. When she is standing at the counter preparing food, he occasionally walks at her and pushes her with his muzzle and/or nips at any loose clothing. In these circumstances, I’ve told my wife to make him go lie down in the other room and stay there.

I have been the primary trainer and caretaker for our dog, although my wife spends more time with him since she works from home. He’s absolutely obsessed with me and will follow me all over the house and whimpers when I give my wife a hug when I get home. He gets at least 40 minutes of exercise a day, but I’ve fallen off a bit on doing regular training with him. Any ideas on what caused this dog to attack, or how we can prevent a future incident like this?

First and foremost I wouldn't think this dog just snapped. Often times we don't see the warning behavior and if your wife was moving bread she was likely focusing on that. Just because there was no growling or barking doesn't mean there weren't signs.

If this dog has never shown aggression before in any way shape or form I'd first take the dog to the vet and rule out any health problems. You just never know.

It's always hard to tell through these situations it's very hard to give any advice based on such limited details about the dog. Especially an older dog who we don't know his history. Do you feel you are capable of handling this type of training and work with a dog who may be possessive of you?

I would say it could be any number of things. Though your wife spends the days with him does she really bond with him or work with him? Is he sufficiently tired with 40 minutes of work a day? For now at least, I would keep him separated from your wife if she feels she can't handle the situation or is now nervous around the dog. I would at LEAST put the dog in his crate/room whenever your wife is in the kitchen for any prolonged amount of time until you've got a game plan.

Did she step over him when she went to move the bread? Did he growl when he bit her the 2nd time?

I am not offering any advice here, but just trying to figure out what might have triggered that reaction.

Any chance to get a trainer to come in and observe you and your wife interacting w/ the dog?

Thomas,

This sounds pretty dangerous and I take this as a warning sign that you need to work on structure within your dog's life. I would strongly encourage you to get an assessment by a qualified behaviorist and then a second opinion before making the decision to return this dog or PTS.

In the mean time it's time to go back to square one with this dog on groundwork. I would also get a vet assessment of this dog. 7-8 years old is fairly advanced in age for a mastiff and getting to be later in age for boxers which are lucky to reach double digits. It's possible that something neurological is going on or that he has a perception issue causing him problems.

Good luck!

Our dog's treats might have been on the table at the time when my wife was bitten. She didn't step on him or over him, and he was growling when he came at her a second time (after she had initially shaken him off her arm).

In trying understand why this happened, the conjecture that I came up with is that he wants to be number 2 in my pack, and he saw an opportunity to move himself up a notch. When he is home alone with my wife, he is completely docile and listens to her instructions. When I come home and we start cooking dinner in the kitchen, he's usually pretty relaxed but will sometimes try to push around my wife with his muzzle and/or nip at her loose clothing.

I went through the groundwork and obedience training with our dog, and I don't think there's any question that I'm in charge. My wife has done very little training with him, but she'll walk him a couple of times a week and feeds him most nights. How can I get our dog to understand that she's in charge of him as well? If we go back to doing groundwork training, should she be in charge of it? Or, is there something I can do with him to show that she outranks him and always will?

I've considered bringing in a behaviorist, but how can I verify that he/she is qualified? Is there a professional organization?

Hi Thomas, even if your wife is "not in charge" of your dog (maybe she is not into it, doesn't feel like being a pack leader etc.) it does not mean your dog can do whatever he wants. You as a pack leader could explain it to him in very clear terms that this kind of behavior is not tolerated. Cannot really expect every family member to be in charge? But off-limits? Definitely. I was advised to put my dogs in down-stay (platz) if there are any doubts as to what is allowed. It works with my dogs. This is a submissive position and puts them into a certain frame of mind.

I have very limited dog experience but had to deal with dog aggression (still dealing with it, actually). You should definitely ask advice of a behavior specialist. It helps a lot to get an opinion of an outside person because it could get very emotional within the family. I hope you get this fixed and don't have to take any drastic measures like pts.

eta: don't let the dog near your wife till you have a very clear plan of action and know exactly what you are going to do in every possible situation. You need to be 100% in control of the dog at all times to insure everybody's safety.

-Ana

Thank you for the replies. The consensus seems to be that I should take our dog to the vet to make sure he doesn't have any health problems that would cause him to lash out and hire a dog behaviorist to help us create a plan of action.

I have a couple of reservations about hiring a behaviorist. First, how can I be sure that they know anything more about dog behavior than me? I don't want to drop $50+ for a session to find out. Second, a lot of the behaviorists that I've found searching the internet advocate purely motivational training without any corrections whatsoever. This seems like the type of the problem that requires some sort of correction. If anyone has hired a behaviorist in the past, how did you go about finding one that you liked?

I've been more observant of our dog's behavior since this incident. I noticed that whenever my wife will walk towards me, he will pop up and run in between us and try to get me to pet him or block her path. He only does this in the evening and when there is food around. He knows better than to eat food out of the trash or off the table, but he gets really on edge around dinner time. Any thoughts on whether using an e-collar to correct him for blocking my wife or pushing her with his muzzle is a bad idea?

Thomas

The way to find a decent behaviorist for your issue is to find out if they have experience in aggression (many wont), experience solving the aggression issue with a large dog, methods they use for it, and experience level. They will also have references you can check. You can also do a search of trainers in your area who deal with aggressive dogs (few actually will or should). Again, references, and an idea of what solutions they use is needed.

IF the problems begin around dinner time I'd just employ using a crate or my personal favorite outside to watch dinner and dinner prep from a door. IMO this is not something you simply correct the dog out of. This is a structure/behavior issue that runs a bit deeper and IMO you are running seriously hurting someone with just using a stim to correct the issue.

Best of luck!

 Quote: Thomas Bridges

... I've been more observant of our dog's behavior since this incident. I noticed that whenever my wife will walk towards me, he will pop up and run in between us and try to get me to pet him or block her path. He only does this in the evening and when there is food around. He knows better than to eat food out of the trash or off the table, but he gets really on edge around dinner time. Any thoughts on whether using an e-collar to correct him for blocking my wife or pushing her with his muzzle is a bad idea?

This is a bigger issue than dinnertime behavior, and I don't see it as an eCollar situation at all. JMO. I'd crate him throughout this food-time period, and I'd be looking seriously at pack structure here. For example, what has your response been to the pushy attempts to control your physical movements?

I am not one of the experts but something that strikes me is that it appears the instances involve wifey and food. Could it be extreme food aggression?