Owners Grappling with Aggressive Dog Behavior
Multiple posts detail incidents of dogs exhibiting aggressive behavior towards veterinarians and other dogs, leading to difficult conversations about potential euthanasia (BE). Owners express concern about their dog's pain, quality of life, and the safety of others.
SOURCES (24)
“My dog has now had 3 bites level 3-4 in the past 6 months at 6 years old. Third was me yesterday who he has never bitten previously. He has been reactive at the vet regardless of my attempts to work on it. He is…”
“I am still full of adrenaline and I needed to write about this interaction. I am not good with conflict lol. I have a one year old large breed mutt who is experiencing excitement based reactivity towards other dogs. Today I was taking him on a walk in a secluded trail and spotted a couple with three dogs ahead before my dog managed to spot them. I guided my dog off the trail and awaited for them to pass however every time I did this they would also stop. I decided to just keep going as there was”
“Hi all. We have a 3yo spaniel/beagle cross. We’re struggling to understand a call we’ve just had with our vet, and we’d love some other perspectives. Backstory: Our dog, Angus, has been with us since he was 8 weeks old. We got him from a family friend, and in hindsight he probably didn’t have the best time with them before coming to us. We brought him home and he had giardia. This led to weeks of treatment and one of us being with 24 hours a day, and it massively set him back in his socialisatio”
“Another post from me (😓) Context : my family has been using aversive (prong + E) collars on my (reactive and anxious) dog for a while, but I don’t feel good about it and I’m looking into positive reinforcement, trainers, and generally just trying to make a plan to retrain him I’ve done a bunch of research on positive reinforcement and I’ve looked at IAABC trainers in my area, and I’ve talked with my mom about the trainers and I think I can convince her to at least do a consultation. :D Anyways.”
“Hey everyone, so we adopted a doggo a while back his a bull Arab x and he got “happy tail” at one point and he absolutely painted the house bashing it on EVERYTHING and it is an absolute nightmare to get off the walls and the roller blinds. We are wanting to move houses hopefully in the next three months and I’ve managed to with great difficulty get some spots off the walls but the hardest area is the blinds that is coated in spots. Does anyone have any advice on cleaning tips or products that w”
“My mother sent me this video. I would normally step in if this were me, and tell the puppy to back off since my dog was saying she isn’t comfortable. What are your guys’s thoughts? Good correction from my adult shep? submitted by /u/picklelyjuice [link] [comments]”
“This is a really difficult problem to diagnose via text on Reddit. It's time to work with a professional. I would recommend consulting with an experienced trainer or veterinary behaviorist. Is your friend working with a trainer for their esa? Second, a word of warning, this Norwegian Elkhound doesn't sound like a great ESA candidate dog. If they're already showing aggression (dog and food) and anxiety. They're not going to be able to be in public places without causing a disturba”
“Thanks for getting back to me. The vet did give her a clean bill of health earlier this year, but this behavior has persisted both before and after the visit. Is there anything in particular that I should be asking the vet to check? Also, is there any reason why this might be happening only with some dogs at random?”
“Did the trainer suggest anything when you tried to correct the dog and it didn't work? Corrections aren't corrections if they don't work, so I would have expected the trainer would advise you, when they could see your dog and its behaviour.”
“Dont re-direct after correcting. That will stop her from reacting in the moment, but not the future. Mark the behavior with “no,” Correct her to stop the behavior, and once she has stopped, follow up with another “no” and one or 2 more corrections. Punishment has to be inescapable, meaning the only way to avoid the aversive consequence in the future is to not do the thing. Correcting and re-directing inadvertently teaches that she can still react, she just has to stop when you tell her to. It’s”
“You're doing nothing to punish the bad behavior. treats aren't more rewarding than the barking and lunging, which are going to be self reinforcing. I would put a leash on the dog and correct the behavior when it happens before putting them back onto place and then rewarding when they're calm again. Just rewarding good behavior in this scenario is proving to not be enough because the dog enjoys barking. Another thing that funny enough may help is teaching to dog to bark on a queue and”
“This poor dog is living in fear and terror. And now you are too. Do the kind thing for him and put him out of his misery before he does serious harm.”
“Thank you! We just got back from our vet appt and the vet actually recommended the in-home trainer we were leaning towards before I even told her, so that made me feel better. We are going to try that first and then she said if that doesn’t work, we’ll look at vet behaviorist referral and meds. As for allergies - he hasn’t had an allergy test, he just has a flare up once a year around this time, this being the second time. It’s concentrated to his groin. Last time and today they prescribed predn”
“God, that’s horrible. I’m so sorry that happened. Yeah, it’s the same situation here. Both dogs were on the leash and that dachshund came out of nowhere flying over to us. I didn’t have much time to react in that situation. The owner did reach out to me to ask if the dogs were up to date on rabies, but that’s all I’ve heard. So I have no idea what happened to that little dachshund. We have leash laws in my town as well.”
“Yeah, it is super weird. That’s why I wasn’t sure on what to do there. I don’t know if this situation would be considered my fault or not, but the owners of the dachshund sure thought it was. Even though their dog ran up on the two I was walking”
“Ill quickly do that because I really dont trust her with it. Im worried she'd hurt him or traumatize him.”
“JRT brought into ER after a big dog little dog fight. Poor thing was so torn open we could see its lungs moving as it breathed. Clearly in shock, and we immediately euthanized. A man carrying his Doberman into the ER, the dog was pouring blood and pus onto the floor, and the owner lost his grip and the whole enormous dog just…oozed onto the floor bonelessly. I believe it was a ruptured pyo. A malnourished chameleon so covered in stuck shed that i”
“Honestly, from reading this, it sounds like you're being really thoughtful about both dogs and doing a lot of the right things already. A week is such a short amount of time in dog terms, especially for a rescue who suddenly has a tiny puppy living in his space 24/7. The fact that he's growling and then removing himself instead of escalating actually sounds like he's communicating pretty clearly. I totally get why you're worried though. Seeing a no”
“Yes, a huge problem is people sticking with bad trainers for months or even years.”
“I commented elsewhere, but just wanted to say that your current trainer is clearly unskilled. It really should not take anywhere near this long and obviously should be be getting worse I would recommend get a new trainer, let the puppy go to daycare and play with other dogs, but with rules where she needs to be calm on the approach and be willing to call off on command in order to be able to continue play. Her desire to play is normal and healthy, and yo”
“Here is what I wrote: Thank you for the comment. Use of the word “maul” is a good flag. I used it in the context not in the way your thinking (causing extreme physical injury) but on the other side of it being the “violent physical attack”. The muzzle did stop the bite but it didn’t stop the scratches and she had to be dragged off of him. At home I question her happiness in life. She’s very reactive towards our other dog (we have a whole x panel a”
“I’m not trying to talk you out of anything, but I do think you need to factor in that your dog has a medical issue and could be in a fair amount of pain. And my experience is that dogs can exhibit very extreme reactivity when in pain. My dog nearly bit the vets hand off when he had a painful hot spot. My vet just kind of waved his hand and didn’t seem to take it badly at all, saying it was obvious how painful it was to my dog. Normally they shave”
“Trigger warning: potential for BE For context: 5 year old large dog, on Amitriptyline, fluoxetine, gabapentin, methocarbomol, carprofen, and at veterinarian Acepromazine Medical issues: extreme undiagnosable pain in rear end, chronic pancreatitis, unconfirmed generalized seizures (talked about at veterinarian today, she exhibits all the symptoms fairly continuously, but this diagnosis is not confirmed, but it makes everything make sense to me)”