I’ll start off by saying that he has a bad past life. He was obviously abused by his previous owners and straight up abandoned in the woods. He has bad anxiety that he is on Prozac for, and it seems to be helping for the most part.
Lately he has been grabbing random shit and snapping and growling when someone tries to take it. He’ll grab the stuff off tables and counters to chew, so it’s not like he’s finding random stuff on the floor.
Last night he grabbed tape off of a table and when my sister tried to take it, he bit her hand. It wasn’t hard and barely left a mark, but it is still incredibly concerning. I was the victim of a severe dog attack as a child, so any aggression is not okay. I don’t want to have to get rid of him because he’s my baby boy and I love him so much.
I have no idea how to stop this behavior. I’ve never had a dog act like this. It started in August and has gotten worse in the past month because our living conditions changed. I broke my ankle/leg and I’m laid up for a while at my parents’ place.
Do y’all have any suggestions?
You are getting some dangerous advice in this thread that can make things worse.
You already have a bite, that’s a huge sign that you have escalated past the normal behavior stuff. Talk to a professional, talk to a local organization, like the local humane society, respected training center, or your vet, and get some real advice.
Pushing back and acting violent towards a violent dog can get you hurt and the dog put down.
I’m not going to be violent with my dog. He has enough issues. I wanted ways to get this behavior stopped in a way that has positive reinforcement or some shit.
Professional advice is the best route to go. In the meantime there is a wonderful YT channel called “No Bad Dogs” out of NYC I believe. Their approach is full-spectrum regarding positive reinforcement, positive punishment, etc. Also, one of the main ways I work with my (non-abused puppies & not a professional) with resource guarding is as follows: grab a low-value and high-value item. Give the dog the low-value item, tell them “out” after a short time (no touching/forcing), the moment they drop it say “yes” and give them the high-value item. Do this randomly, short and sweet. Best of luck.
I’m a fosterer with quite a bit of dog training education. I second the advice that you need a good qualified behaviourist, this means degree level study or above.
However, for the meantime, nobody should be taking anything from him by force. This will worsen the behaviour. The things he’s taking don’t sound like they pose danger to him so take all the urgency out of the response. It’s anxiety driven so you want to make everything really chill.
Firstly, clear everything away, as much as possible get things in drawers or too high to reach. The less he can get that he shouldn’t the better.
Work on swapping with a low value item like a toy he doesn’t play with much, so say an old ball, give him the ball, get a treat and offer the treat while holding your hand for the ball. What should happen is he drops the ball, give him the treat, then hand the ball back. He’s learned that nothing bad happens here. He gets the treat AND the ball. Do this 5 times in a row, then leave the ball with him. He’s learned here that it’s all very chill and you’ve reduced his anxiety.
As he gets better at this, increase the challenge slowly, maybe a toy he likes a bit better, then better again. At this point you can also start swapping items, so you take a teddy, give him a treat, then give him a ball. If this makes him anxious then slow down, you want it to be really chill for him.
Eventually he’ll start giving you stuff just to see what he can get. It’s a fun game.
Another exercise you can try if he does get something you don’t want him to have is to throw treats away. If he has something you can throw a treat in one place, then another, then another, while he’s having a great time, quietly remove whatever he had, he’ll probably have forgotten he had it, but make sure it’s quickly hidden to help, give him loads of fuss when it’s gone for extra memory wiping!
Also make sure he is getting enough exercise and attention, and he’s not in pain, these kinds of problems usually start if a dog is feeling crappy for whatever reason.
Thank you so much for all the advice! I’ll definitely try out what you said. He just got a checkup and the vet said he is fine. He could probably use more exercise, but I physically can’t take him out because my leg is messed up. My sister is in charge of that during the day until my parents get home.
Exercise doesn’t have to be walking, how mobile can you be? Can you hide food around the house? Or throw a frisbee?
It might be tricky to teach but if you’re stuck in one spot you can get a couple of balls and play fetch, you hold the second ball, refuse to throw it until he brings the first one within reaching distance, smart dogs get that quite quickly. It also helps their brain cause they have to work out what you want them to do.
Talking of the brain, sometimes thinking is as good as doing, so you can set up puzzles, set up a frozen kong, all sorts.
The room I’m in isn’t good for fetch or stuff like that. I’m going to see if my parents can help me into the yard tomorrow so I can play with all of the dogs. My sister said she made up a new game with them that they love but won’t go into more detail lol.
I’ve given my dogs kongs, but the beagle loses interest if he can’t easily get the stuff out. If I make the kings easy, he’ll eat it all in 30 seconds. The puppy isn’t food motivated and just ignores the kongs.
This is such a good reply! I didn’t see it before I posted despite it being older, must have been a fedi hiccup.
Not a professional and you should reach out to a dog trainer if possible.
In the meantime, negative reinforcement will not give you the desired responses. You could end up increasing reactiveness, justifying their behavior or having them only fear and listen when you’re around.
Instead a lot of the basic rules of parenting a toddler applies. Positive reinforcement and distraction techniques are preferred from trainers I’ve worked with. Treating the chewing is easier than responding to the aggression. But training overall will help both.
If you have something they want more, they should give up what they took.
- Training them the leave it command can be helpful.
- see if you can get more toys or other things they want to chew. Chewing can be a sign of boredom.
- It may be substantially easier to train in a more neutral environment, indoors, on leash, etc (such as a room they don’t normally go in)
- as others said, keep items out of reach. Only give him things they enjoy when they are in their space (such as a create or room)
This article has some information about possessive aggression that seems to provide good information.
Thank you so much for the advice! I’m looking into trainers. My boy knows “leave it” when he is actively trying to get something he shouldn’t. I think I’m going to use “drop it” when he has things in his mouth. I don’t want him to get “leave it” confused after taking almost a year to learn it.
Just because your parents have dogs doesn’t mean they can offer a safe environment or know what to do with them. All the changes and the environment posed for your dog are incredibly stressful for the dog. Please be compassionate that your dog is going through more than you even though you literally broke your leg and probably experienced the worst pain in your life. Changes in living situations are the biggest adjustments for dogs ever.
Please don’t listen to people suggesting anything with the word dominance, pack mentality, wolf study, punishment or anything forcefull. All of that is guaranteed to make things worse.
A certified trainer (CCPDT and the various acronyms associated, the dog academy, anyone force force free) will get you on course faster than any website or book.
If you want your dog to make it out of this, your dog has to be a priority, make it your part time job.
My quick advice if you can’t afford a trainer and will only look up free internet advice from strangers:
Start with giving them something low value to chew on in a distraction free room. Have 10 minutes worth of super high value treats. When they are chewing the low value, walk up to them and give them the treat. Let them chew on the low value again. Repeat. Try for 10 minutes at a time. Adjust value of chew and treat so they don’t react when you walk up to them.
Next session, If they start wagging their tail when you approach. Try making it harder by taking the item for 1 second then, give them the treat then give it back. Ramp up duration or value of chew and items as progress is made
All of this has to be a happy and joyful affair. You are using a happy and friendly puppy voice the whole time. The dog has to feel good about this the whole time. So make sure you and the dog are in as good of a place mentally when doing it. This will all be harder if the dog doesn’t have other prerequisites like a leave it or drop it command.
There are so many ways you need to modify the above strategy for your particular dog that I can’t stress enough how valuable you’ll find a certified force free trainer to be. A vet check might also be suggested by the trainer. I think my advice is barely scratching the surface of what to do and how to do it, I haven’t even met your dog so what do I even know? Very little!
If you need proof that force free methods are a way, the AVSAB statements are quick and easy to read with tonnes of source citations: https://avsab.org/resources/position-statements/
My dog used to resource guard pretty bad - we would always trade him. If he had a chew and it was time to given it up, offer him something different in exchange. Reward him when he grabs the new item you give him.
If it’s a food bowl, trade him a treat for the bowl. We used to use the “find it” game by throwing treats and he would run for those and then we could grab the item we wanted.
