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?
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.
Our trainer would 100% say that the trauma of seeing you knocked on your ass is making him feel like he has to protect you.
Disagree with “dominance” like some harsh insistence on it, but he needs to relax, and it’s impossible for him to do that if he feels he must protect you. He has to know you can protect him, and take care of him.
Can you get professional help? It really helped us. Getting the whole family on the same page and using the same training strategies will help so much. And don’t worry, behavior can be modified.
I’ve found that talking to him calmly when correcting other bad behavior is more effective than being firm. He really doesn’t like when people aren’t chill. Lil dude has made huge improvements with his anxiety since I got him, and I know we can get through this as well. When I brought him home, any kind of precipitation would send him into panic attacks. I had to get him a raincoat so we could work on getting him used to rain and all that. Now he’ll go outside in the rain, but wants back in as soon as he finishes his business lol. It’s just gonna take time for this current issue. I have so much time since I’m laid up, so I can work on training constantly.
I’m looking into trainers, but there aren’t many around me that are affordable or have good reviews. I live in a rural area that has the “be the alpha” mentality when it comes to animals. I get judged a lot by other dog owners around me when I say that I don’t hit or yell at my dog. They say he’ll walk all over me, but he’s a good boy. He listens really well for the most part, aside from when his nose gets the better of him.
I’m going to try trading him stuff and teaching him to drop stuff and see how it goes. I told my sister to come get me or my mom if he has something he shouldn’t. My sister has a hard time grasping how to behave around animals, so I want my mom and I to do the training at first soy sister doesn’t get bit again. I’d rather get bit. My stepfather is a bit extreme with some things, so the rest of us have been downplaying the resource guarding so my stepfather doesn’t get mad and get mean with my boy or want him put down.
If I had to distill the training - there are dominance elements, but CALM and firm is the vibe, and giving them opportunities to be good. He has us sort of bark at the dog as a general “look at me” then pet them for paying attention, and a high pitched gentle “free” or “whee” to release them. Maintain a 2 foot bubble when eating or working from home, don’t let them cuddle up to me. I always made them wait until I walk through a door but he said make them wait until specifically released. So there is some dominance based discipline in there and it does help, but never violence, never use hands to correct them only voice or leash. Nothing that makes them afraid of you will make them respect you.
It was expensive as heck because we have 2 dogs but lifetime support and I can see it’s working. We didn’t have a free for all before the training either - always had standards of behavior for them, heel when walking, etc. We are trying to get to the point they can be walked together and not freak out even if another dog on a leash barks at them. It’s a long road but improving all the time.
I guess one good thing about being injured is plenty of time with the dog to work it out. And yes behavior problems after a traumatic event are normal as heck. Stay consistent, and manage the environment as much as you can at first, don’t give an opening to misbehave, reward with attention when they do what you want.
ETA: it really does depend on the dog. My daughter’s dog is just not emotional, he may ignore what you tell him to do but doesn’t freak out, like, ever. A little kid wanted to pet him at the park and literally screamed in his face and he just sat there, it didn’t phase him. So she can be quite rough with him and he is fine with it. Just “oh, THAT’S what you want, OK.”
There’s a bit of odd advice there. Not letting your dog cuddle with you and barking at them is very weird. Check your trainers qualifications. Leash corrections is a red flag too as is dominance based nonsense.
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.
This is such a good reply! I didn’t see it before I posted despite it being older, must have been a fedi hiccup.
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.
Has the dog had a checkup recently? Had a beagle once that had its health take a slide, and it feeling uncomfortable led to less than great behavior. I’d advise against the ‘tough guy’ route being suggested here. Even if it gets you the results you want in the moment, it isn’t necessary, stability and affection will get you farther.
