Biting dog?

Holiday, get someone out to help you work your dog. You said that you are being nice to the dog still will bite you. You must be sending some other message to him while you are working with him. He could feel insecure to act out on you. It could be your body language. I do commend you that you are working with him, where most people would take him to the pound and be euthanized. You said that there is improvement, and it will take time working on his behaviors, but a trainer could get things moving a little faster. I have been working on food aggression since June, so it takes time. Now his episodes are further and further apart. When they do arise, I don't get upset over it, I just know this is who he is, and deal with it. A trainer will be able to look at you and see what your dog sees to reacting. It's worth the money.

With the trainer that I have for Khori, in the 30 years that she has worked with aggression there has only been two dogs she ever recommended to put down. Chances are he is very workable. You can't feel resentful towards the dog or he will pick up on it. You have to act like the elder and help him the way he is feeling. A trainer will help you achieve that.

If this trainer hasn't been able to help you, find another one who is good with working with the owners. Some trainers are good with the dogs, but if they can't change the behavior of the owner, then they can't change the behavior of the dog. I would seek out a different trainer if it was me. Don't know where you live, but the one that I have for my rottie is wonderful.

Autumn- slow your roll! She didn't say any details about the biting. My 4 pound dog bites me when were playing and I will NEVER put her down. She didnt say if it was a little nip, or if this dog is mauling her arm. She didnt say if a was 150 pound rottweiler or a 6 pound chihuahua. These things factor in heavily.

Certainly, this dog needs extensive training. But until it enters the "red zone",(killing a person or another dog, etc) it can almost certainly get better. Putting the dog down isn't fair to the dog, the dog is acting this way due to a lack of training. So to put the dog down for the owners ignorance would be ignorant. Seek training classes, and get a muzzle. Also, try and pinpoint what has happened right before the dog bites you every time. Maybe he's head shy, or doesn't like some part of his body touched by people other than his master and you dont know this. I had another dog who hated the sides of her stomach touched and was even sensitive when I did it. If someone was petting her and pushed on the side of her stomach, she would start to growl every time. So you need to figure out why. Dont put the dog down.

this sounds like an "alpha" thing going on with this dog. A trainer who deals with aggression issues would be good to work with this dog. I think you need to give this a try before you just give up on the dog. I have a 4 year old little lab who has never bitten anyone but she is very protective of me and lets other people know it. Your boyfriends dog is probably very protective of him, especially if they spend a lot of time together and he is the main caregiver. The other thing to do is make sure when the dog does bite you that he is put in his crate and told that it was bad what he did. It has to be constantly reinforced that this behavior won't be tolerated.

Good Luck.

There are no simple solutions to biting (aggression). But you can work with this dog, under the guidance of a qualified professional animal behaviorist. Initial consultation should tell you how much work will be involved, but it will likely be a lifetime management issue. Learning about the dog's triggers and thresholds will help tremendously. You can start by visiting this website and learning more about triggers and thresholds. I also highly recommend Jean Donaldson's book The Culture Clash. She does a great job explaining dog training from the dog's perspective and thus helping us humans understand our dogs better. Best wishes.

Without knowing the dog, hard to give you any advice.

Can you take the dog for group obedience classes? That would certainly help you handle the dog and would socialize it better too.

Short of that, I would say ignore the dog, don't try so hard to get it to like you. Sometimes the best thing is to let the dog come to you in its own time, just ignore it meanwhile - do not attempt to touch it or interact with it.

When it does come to you, give it a treat, but don't hug or touch it - some dogs are just wary of people and 6 months of dating may not be enough for the dog to consider you his own person yet. I have had dogs (I rescue) who needed a lot longer than that to want me to pick them up or hug them - I always wait for the dog to decide to come to me - don't rush it.

I wonder how you and your BF reacted when the dog bit you. It seems if it had been made perfectly clear the first time that that was NOT okay, the dog would have stopped. If you did do that and he has continued, you could really have a problem on your hands.

He could have aggression problems. Get some professional training. You need to find out if this dog can be changed and if not, you may need to put him down.

You and the B/f need to go see an animal behaviorist so that you can determine what is really happening with this dog and get it retrained STAT. This could be a pack possession issue and you need to reorder this dogs thinking. Furthermore, I would not bring children into a situation with a dominant/possessive dog under any circumstances. Good luck.

my dog has the same problem. i dont suggest taking the dogs life cause of the situation but you should have your bf out him on a chocker chain and every time he snaps spray him with water or pop him on the nose and tell him NO. after doin that lock him in his cage as a opunishment

this worked for my dog an now his snapping is stopping slowly.

jus be patient

Consult a professional behavioral trainer. Have your dog professionally analyzed. They can certainly tell you if it is a problem that is fixable,or not. Also, a complete vet checkup is in order to rule out any health issues. Good luck.

Sorry - but I think you need to put that dog down. If he bites you, who he knows, imagine what he'll do to someone else? What happens if this dog escapes? Or if a little kid walking by reaches out their hand to pet them. Your dog is dangerous - you need to seriously think about keeping this dog alive & trying to continur w/ training, the consequenses of this dog biting a stranger, and putting the pour guys down. It's not his fault he wasn't trained properly, but you can't have a dog that goes around biting people