Hello,

I have an 11 month old male Boston Terrier (Otis) I'll try to make my long story, not so long.
At 5 months old, he started chasing his tail and chasing shadows really bad to the point I had to shut lights off and close blinds from the sun. I tried scolding him and ingoring him neither one was working. My vet (who brushed me off) told me he could be having seizures, I went to a neurologist, he told me he has complusive disorder and anxiety. This got worse by him not sleeping at night. I kept him in another room in his crate and all he would do is bark for hours. I never went to him when he was barking and this went on for 2 weeks straight. (my husband and I got no sleep) I tried different things, letting him sleep in my room in his crate seemed to be the only thing that makes him sleep through the night.
I changed vets and got one who wanted to help me. Otis is now taking 40mg per day of Clomicalm.
he is much calmer. He has had extensive obedience training. which has changed him, he sits and stays he knows down stay very well, he can stay for 15 minutes before he tries to get up. He has started to growl and go for my hand at certain times. He growls if I pet him when he eats. A few times he was on my lap and my husband got the growl, this morning he was sitting on the floor and I nicely said something to him and reached to the side of his face to pet him and I got a growl. I grabbed his collar, and calmly escorted him to his crate where he stayed. I went to work. He growls when he is on his own bed (not sleeping) and I even approach him, he growls before I get to even touch him.When he does this, His ears go back and he turns his head away from me. almost fearful looking. a couple of nights ago I came home, he greeting me. I make him sit before he gets a hello. He rolled on his back very sumissive looking, and let me pet his belly, he has never done this.( I thought this might be a step in the right direction, is it???) I have done some stupid things that I am trying to change, like not letting him in my lap or on the furniture. so far he knows not to, he is a work in progress. I want a good dog and I am wondering if these things can actually be controlled and eventually go away. I read your dominance aggression article and I am doing the things you suggested. knowing he has other issues, I'm not sure if this can be changed.what do you think?? I also had a DNA parentage verification done on him because I didn't trust the breeder (after I bought the dog of course) and he looks more like a little Boxer than he does a boston terrier. I received a letter from the AKC saying they are pulling back the litter beacuse the offspring does not match the sire..This has been quite a ride. I hope I can turn this around.
can you imagine if my story was the long version.

Thanks for your time.

Pat Moquin

Keep doing what you are doing, sounds like you are moving in the right direction. I would only offer this in addition to your other work. Try find some fun things to do, during the day, that will wear him out. Some positive play time (bonding) will go a long way to helping the situation. Keep up with the dominance stuff. I don't know how much time you have to spend, but about an hour of fetch, chase, speed walking, or whatever will help with the dogs mood and yours. Do it late enough in the evening and the little monster may just sleep on his own.

I am assuming that all the vets said that he doesn't have any problems that are causing pain or discomfort?

Good luck, have fun. You're lucky he looks like a little boxer, Bostons are ugly. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

this was posted by me a couple days ago."Here is another spin on your dogs OCD. If all else fails ie. VanCamps advice.I would see a Vet. Last year I read this book written by a Vet who became a animal behavior specialist. I can't remember the name of the book. If someone can help me out. When chasing a tail becomes an OCD he found that alot of dogs were suffering mini seizures. The use of phenobarbital helped in many cases. The breed that suffers the highest risk of OCD (tail chasing) is the bull terrier. That is why I asked the question before." I wish I can remember the books name it went into great deal about tail chaing shadow chasing and imaginary fly snapping.This vet did a electrogram to meaure the brain waves.
Milt

Hi Pat,

I'm assuming since you saw a neurologist, that Otis has been checked for a brain tumor. I understand that brain tumors, among other things, can sometimes cause odd behavior of this sort.

I have a GSD who has some strange and aggressive behaviors, although thankfully, he's never tried to bite me or my family. My dog is being treated homeopathically, and we have had some success with getting his behavior under control. Email me privately if you'd like to know more about this.

Good luck with Otis. I'm sure the experts on the board will be able to give you some great advice.

Melissa

What do you think Richard?

There are a lot of mixed signals with this dog, but my guess is a fear based aggression. Combined with some sort of personality problem (probably genetic). I would also question how well he sees. It sounds like the primary things that set off the growling involve hands comming in from the side or above, or when his attention is diverted. That could be an eyesight problem, particularly if the dog calms right down when he realizes it is you. Our little dog has seperation anxiety from being spoiled by her momma. The Vet put her on Prozac. It is expensive ($50 a month, giving it every other day), but it does help. Behavior modification is helping also. Primarily ignoring the anxious behaviors that previously got her attention.

She is also very possesive of my wife. If they go to bed before I do, she will take over my pillow and growl at me when I come to bed to move her. It doesn't get very far and she knows better than to attempt to bite me. She did try that once, but only once.

Start by having the new Vet give him a through check up. After that I would increase the time you spend on obedience training with this dog. Work up to 30 min a day. Start with preferably 2 short sessions and then start to lengthen them out. Lots of happy praise for proper obedience, maybe use treats, and attempt to ignore bad behavior. I wouldn't use a lot of correction with his dog until it is a little older and maybe not even then depending on weather or not the fear seems to improve with confidence.

Richard,

You reason so well here that I've got this mental picture of you talking your dog out of growling at you. Something like "You don't want to do that now....think of the risk reward factor and the impact it will have on the bond between us"

How did I do?LOL <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

Chuck F,

Fairly well. All four of her little feet were of the ground at the time we had the discussion though. Like I said, it only took once.

I would have to research it further, but I vaguely recall Boston Terriers having hereditary eye problems. I was thinking the same thing about vision problems when I was reading that post. It's worth checking into.

Beth,

You are right. The breeds with the buggy eyes (Bostons, Peke's, and others) do have problems with their eyes. Part of the problem with those protruding eyes is that they can prevent the dogs eyes from closing properly.