My dog attacks me - advice please

We have a small yorkie/pomeranian, and he definitely has a 'dark side'. He loves visitors, but can be territorial and snappy, and needs watching.

The forum members at Champ Dogs, are often specialists is various pet issues, definitely worth taking a look. There are many behaviour issues listed, along with help offered.

forum.champdogs.co.uk/

Good luck

My friend came round some years ago in tears as their beagle had taken to attacking members of the family. DH was still working as a vet then, and he pointed out that if the dog attacked a child and it was found that they had known about his aggression they could be sued. They took the sad decision to have him put down.

Thank you both for your responses. I don't think that we're at the stage of having him put down yet. As I said, our vet doesn't think he's an aggressive dog and that he's trying to be dominant. It could be that but I think something is triggering these outbursts. We don't have children visiting and he's never shown any signs of aggression to our visitors or other dogs.

Tail docking is usually done at a few days old so doubt he remembers that but it does sound like fear aggression in as much as he reacts to brushes etc he may have been whacked with one for not keeping still when being groomed. He may have also been hit with a rolled up newspaper by the farmer. Dogs usually go for hands etc because that's what people generally use to hit them with. Although if you've had him from 8 weeks that would have meant the farmer abusing him from a very young age.
Usually if dogs are trying to be dominant they'd try to stop you from sitting down by guarding the sofa or stop you leaving the room etc. tbh it's impossible to say without seeing him in action. Lots of terriers are feisty little oiks who need to know the boundaries but from your description it's difficult to say.

We have three dogs and a cat with not a tail between them for various reasons, they don't have a problem so I doubt the tail docking is a reason for your dog's behaviour.
I am at a bit of a loss with this one, but terriers do like to be in charge ( we have 2 ) As he only goes for you and your husband I would think he wants to be top dog. You have to regain your authority as pack leader. I find Victoria Stillwell's approach works well. If you can watch her programme 'It's me or the dog ' you will find it helpful.

Just a thought but do you think he can see properly? We had a cat which attacked from being a kitten and we finally discovered he had very bad eyesight so would attack when surprised.

My current cat always attacks me when I try to groom her and we have to have her sedated to have her claws clipped and fur brushed - I know cats are not dogs but he could have very sensitive skin and hate being brushed. She also come running in if she hears the printed set off - she seems fascinated with it

We had a terrier with similar tendencies. It got to the point that we couldn't even sit on the floor without being attacked. As soon as he hit doggie puberty the problems began. I fear that he was bred for his looks, and the temperament of the parents wasn't taken into consideration.
After consulting with the vet he diagnosed something called "rage syndrome ". We made the decision to have the dog euthanized as the vet didn't think neutering or behaviour modification classes would help. He was 18 months old.
We were sorry to do it, but could see no solution otherwise.

Yes Willow has a point there, I just assumed your vet had checked to see if the dog has any sight or hearing impairment.

A muzzle.

I am wondering if you can try clicker training. Has helped my dog, who was reactive to other dogs. If you get him used to the clicker (ie coming to you for a treat on hearing the click), then maybe you could use the clicker as a diversion for when he is about to attack? The click is loud enough to divert attention. I would suggest having a look on YouTube. There are lots of advice from various dog trainers on there. I have found it very useful.

He can see and hear well. These incidents happen once every two weeks or less frequently but that is because we take great care to avoid the trigger points. As regards docked tails dogs show how they are feeling with their tails but Django has such a small stump there is nothing to wag. I shall investigate rage syndrome and also champdogs.

My terrier who has just died aged 12 was like this. There was no obvious reason for it as we had had him since a puppy and none of our other terriers had behaved like this.

He didn't like other dogs, and we always had to be very careful with him or he would bite us. For instance, once he was asleep by the side of my chair and, without thinking, I stroked him. I was badly bitten.

We learned how to handle him and always had to warn visitors about him. If he was let alone he would be fine.

He was also agressive with the vet and had to be sedated to be examined.

I often thought about having him PTS but we persevered and eventually he died a natural death. It was hard work and quite honestly I don't know that it was worth it.

The problem is they get into your heart.

I really think you are reading too much into the docked tail Dinahmo all my dogs with stumpy tails just waggle their stumps and bottoms when they are pleased.

I'm afraid I couldn't live with an animal like that. I would have him put to sleep. I wouldn't have him rehomed to inflict him on someone. You have to consider how badly bitten you (or someone else has to be) before he's put down.

It suprises me that your vet didn't find anything wrong, as behaviour like this in cats or dogs can either be insanity or a brain tumour.

I trust he is vaccinated against rabies! Otherwise you really are at risk.

The scissors I can understand, whoever mutilated his tail may well have used a pair of shears, the rest to be honest scares me.

If strict but kind rebukes do no good, I feel you are facing having to have the dog put down.

I don't know the law in France, here (Denmark) you would definitely be sued if a dog you knew could be vicious bit someone, and the court might well order you to have the dog destroyed.

My friend Karen was having the same problem and it was diagnosed as fear and anxiety especially if something happened unexpectedly.

She bought a soft muzzle and Jack wore it for quite a long time, day and night unless he was eating.

Whilst he was wearing it, she talked to him softly, stroked him and groomed him very, vary gently, things he hadn't allowed before.
The theory was that once he learned that repeated touch was not going to harm him, he'd be less fearful ad it certainly seemed to work.
Perhaps you could try that?
I'm sending you a PM too.

My first thought given your dogs behaviour with your bitch is was properly neutered. Usually an older bitch will help keep a younger dog in its place.
Our rescue collie can be unpredictable,but I recognise the expression in his eyes now and if I see his expression turn worried I walk away and ignore him until he comes to me. If we need to do anything to him around his head he has to be sedated, he will never walk through a doorway if we stand in it and is always reluctant to be caught outside and will snap, so we use a slip lead which he accepts.
Whatever we do dogs can be unpredicable and turn and snap, if we are in the way we get bitten.
Researching different ways to address his dominant behaviours if there is no local resource is a good start, but keeping calm and firm and avoiding making situations you know he will react to, works for us.

Here's a link to someone who trains dogs with 'issues'.
She is often on the radio doing phone-ins. Her name is Sharon Bolt and she is also on Facebook and YouTube.

httpss://www.good-dogs.co.uk

Sorry, couldn't 'blue' the link!

That's strange Hilltopgran The one bit of behaviour which has stayed with my cruelly treated rescue terrier is the doorway thing. She is very reluctant to go through unless we move aside. We wondered if she had been kicked through doorways, she had so many injuries.

A followup - since my original post I have bought 2 plug in adaptors which diffuse pheromones. They've been in for about 2 weeks and there has been a radical change in Django's behaviour. During that time there's only been one reaction to one of the triggers and that was half hearted. Overall he is a lot calmer and a friend who was here yesterday commented on that. I'm relieved as it means I won't need to take any drastic action.

I'm so glad you found something that works for your dog. I've use the plug-in pheromones for cats but didn't know that there are made for dogs too.

I have always had rescue dogs and rescue dogs come with baggage. It is essential that a human in the family is the "alpha", which doesn't mean being aggressive but does mean being in charge.

We have had several dogs but we once had a Jack Russell terrier, a farm dog. He regularly “set” me and was aggressive and snarling towards female particularly. My husband and I tried loving him, then that didn't work so we chastised him, again, no change in behaviour. We rehomed him, thinking he needed more space than we had. We checked with the new owners how he was getting on in his New home, they said “fine, he is fitting in well”. With that we got a border terrier pup. A few weeks later, the people who had our Jack Russell phoned and said they couldn’t keep him - he had been behaving aggressively towards his wife and child. We said we would reluctantly take him back. We phoned our friend who was a vet who examined him. He told us that the dog would never change his behaviour, despite us rehousing him and we reluctantly had him put down on the vet’s advice. It was very sad and very regrettable, but could not see what else we could have done.