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?
I’m more of a cat guy, but I grew up with dogs, and I always dealt with them by participating in their doggo-world hierarchy, but making absolutely 100% certain that there was zero question who sat atop it. I am much larger than a dog, so this was not difficult for me. Just a little animal intimidation was all that was necessary.
Having a lot of them though, it was always really apparent that they have strong pecking-order style ways of arranging themselves. So, I just participated in their lifestyle. I was young, but it did work, they always listened pretty well to me.
How did you assert your dominance? I don’t want to be rough with my dog and make him more anxious.
I did occasionally do nose thwaps, not hard, but it was what I was taught. It was rare though, and I doubt it was actually necessary. I would growl, and if necessary storm after them and loom over them. That would always get the roll over belly up surrender posture.
I’ve tried that and he would just get very scared. I don’t want him to be scared.
Do not listen to this guy. This is such a dangerous, outdated and bad advice that will only scare your dog and worst will make him bite you. Get some real help with professionals in your area. Abused dogs are really hard to train so please stay away from advice from strangers on the internet.
Dogs are pack animals, you need to be the leader of the pack.
Dogs assert themselves over other dogs.
You need to assert yourself, make sure they know you’re in charge
How should I do that without being rough or scaring him? I don’t want him to regress psychologically. He’s improved so much in regards to his anxiety, and I don’t want that to get messed up.
I’m not sure, maybe his improvements come from feeling that he’s the alpha now.
This is incorrect.
Every reputable source and organisation recognize this pack and dominance theory as an outdated idea, especially for human animal interactions.
The American vetinary society of animal behaviour has very direct and well written statements on that and where the ideas came from and what the modern solutions are.
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.
You said the living conditions changed and you’re at your parents primarily? Maybe just too many changes and it’s stressed him out. Reassurance and some new toys to chew might be worth it.
Yeah. We are going to be at my parents until at least January. My ankle/leg got super fucked up. The accident was also traumatic for my dog. I was screaming with pain when it happened and had to drag myself inside to call for help. My boy got so scared that he ran off into the woods. I wouldn’t let my mom call an ambulance until she got him back. She said he was so scared he was shaking. Throughout this whole ordeal, I’ve cried a lot and I’m sure it makes my dog upset. He has been up my ass since I got hurt and does his best to comfort me.
My parents also have two dogs and one is an anxious mess, which doesn’t help my boy. The anxious dog freaks out over the littlest things and has to be consoled constantly. My parents’ dogs also love to sneak in and eat my dogs’ (I have a goldendoodle puppy as well) food. My dogs also had a very strict routine before all this happened and it’s completely different now.
I’m going to make some toys for my dogs to keep my hands busy and hopefully help my boy. All of his fave stuff is at my house, and my parents haven’t had time to grab it for me
My little sister has also been getting very frustrated with all of the dogs running around and/or misbehaving. She has autism and doesn’t understand that yelling at them and lecturing them doesn’t help. In fact, yelling and lecturing makes my beagle very upset. I’ve been working with her to try to make her understand what is and isn’t appropriate behavior towards the dogs. I’ve been helping her with how to recognize what the dogs need to do in situations where they are being crazy. Sometimes they need a nap, or to run outside, or they’re hungry.
I’m going to call my vet today and see if they think upping his Prozac temporarily will help at all.
To reiterate what others have said, this has reached a point of needing professional help. Violence will not put a stop to violence, it will only make him more fearful and escelate the issue. There are so many factors that could go into this that people online can’t account for.
That being said, I really wish you and your beagle buddy all the best. It’s definitely a tough situation to be in.
EDIT: To try and provide something practical in the meantime, it may be good to remove his access to these random objects as best you can. If he’s grabbing at anything and everything then naturally you can’t completely prevent, but if you can block access to tables and counters and keep other areas cleared off that could stave off the symptoms somewhat until you can get help treating the main cause. Especially if he’s chewing them up, we don’t want him to get hurt that way.
