What to do with agresssion problems

Hello, I am hoping for some advice regarding my mother in laws dog.

Poppy is a 2 year old whippet my mother in law has adopted from our local rescue centre, the information from the rescue centre was a bit sketchy, they picked her up as a stray but believe she has been abused .

She is a beautiful dog excellent with children and most people very gentle and nice natured if a bit nervous, but she has a loathing for men in hats and teenage boys and other dogs.

Because she is so gentle and kind with children etc it makes it all the more shocking to see her behaviour when she meets other dogs, or as mentioned teenager boys or men in hats, she reacts by snarling, barking, foaming at the mouth, pulling to get at them and looking to all intents and purposes like she want to rip ther heads off, it's terrifying.

She reacts like this when she is on the lead or in the car or at the living room window, we obviously haven't dared to try her off the lead. People understandably think she is the devil dog but she has such a loving gentle side we think she only reacts like she does out of fear.

We as a family don't want to give up on her, but are a bit stumped as to what to do with her, we have contacted a couple of dog training classes in our area, one will not let poppy come to her sessions and the other has no places for the next few months at least. So walking poppy at the moment is a nightmare, we have to try to take her in the early hours which is not alway practical and we still always seem to meet up with other people and thier dogs, we have considered muzzling her the vet doesn't think this would help her as she is quite nervous and anxious. But we don't want to risk causing harm to another dog or thier owner.

We have already asked the advice of the rescue centre and thier reply was 'oh no your not going to bring her back as well are you' she has been returned by two other families who have tried to adopt her and we are her last chance.

Any suggestions or advice would be very gratefully recieved.

Thank you

I would, personally, take her for a walk then start by putting a basket muzzle on her and then getting a room full of men and teenage boys, get them all to give her cheese, keeping her on the lead and walking her around them (Either they should be in a cirlce or in a straight line) get them to say good girl/you say it as she takes cheese off each man/boy (cheese is unrivaled in the treat world ) I would do this a couple of times each week and then work the way up to these men and boys wearing hats, first just having the hat on the floor by their side, then in their lap and then on their shoulder, then finally on their head. If you do this slowly a couple of times a week, she should get better. (You could start with a room of men/boys or week by week add more)

Alternativly, do the same exercise but with you keeping her focus instead of them giving her treats. In fact you could probably start off with this first then move to them giving her treats - this then builds trust with you and her/whoever walks her and also shows her that the men wont hurt her.

Then when she is completely calm and relaxed with men sitting in hats move from men sitting, to men standing, for a couple of days a week (starting with no hat, hat on floor/hands/shoulder/head. Then when she's completely comfortable with that do it with men walking round again with no hat, hats on floor/hands/shoulder/head.

These exercises will take time and the men/boys you recruit to volunteer will have to stay calm and quiet - then when she's totally ok with all this have them talking and if there is no noise from her - you've cracked it - almost (nothing is to say her fear wont come back)

If she barks when she meets these men/boys at any time during the training, take her out of the room or say "Ahha" loudly and calmly then continue with the exercise when she is quiet.

I am currently in the middle on working with my dog's - Benjie - aggression so if I crack it I will share my secret.

However, if these tips I've given you dont work, I would consult a proffessional.

Good luck with her and remember rescues take a lot of time and patience (I dont mean to sound patronising)

I personally think this sounds like too much too soon for a fearful dog. The aim of desensitization is to always stop before the dog reacts - a reacting dog will not be able to think rationally.

As there is aggression involved, fearful or not, I would personally suggest a behaviourist. If you go to the APBC website you can find a local behaviourist - do check that the behaviourist uses positive methods of training as it's very important to not use negative methods that could worsen an aggression issue.
http://www.apbc.org.uk/

I thought it may be, but I did mention only a couple a times a week and take each step slowly. We did this sort of thing with Benjie as he was fear reactive to people but after doing some of these steps myself it worked.

Thank you for the replies.

I have passed your suggestions onto my mother in law this evening and she can see where shes need to be heading, thank you for the link krlyr I am going to track down a local behavourist and see if we can get someone who can help us.

We understand its going to take time but we are in for the long haul, she is a lovely dog and worth the effort.

Thanks again

Firstly, if you think there is any chance she may bite another person (ie if you don't think you can always go down a side street etc when you see men/boys) then I would buy a baskerville muzzle and start putting it on her in the home when she is getting fuss, or give her treats with it on. Start that as positive experiences, and then carry it with you when you walk so if you feel out of your depth you can put it on her.

Then I would start by training her the 'watch me' command, once she knows that around the home, use it on a walk when you see something she may react to in the distance.

Try for several weeks to take a wide berth around anything she is fearful of, and get her focused on you with plenty of treats and the watch me command.

I don't think I would advise throwing her into any situations she will get herself into a state about. I have one dog who is fear-reactive to people (not aggressive, just gobby), and one who is fear-reactive to dogs and a rescue so pretty stressed generally and I use this technique with them.

After several weeks you may find when she sees something that worries her, it's not hard to get her focus and she would rather look at you and work for some treats than react anyway, and then you may find you can get allow scary things to pass closer and closer while she is focusing on you.

Plan your walks - know the side streets and where you can turn her into should you meet anything.

It's now your responsibility to never let her get into such a state about men/boys again, in fact you need to start working her with the watch me command as soon as YOU see anything she might react to, not when SHE sees it, then you may find that before she knows it, this totally scary person has passed before she's even noticed anything is amiss.

If you are worried about people approaching her, perhaps buy a reflective tabard - that tends to make most people think twice before approaching your dog I've found.

You need to work at her pace though, if you can't get her focus back and she ends up foaming and lunging on the lead, you haven't worked hard enough to get her focus or you've allowed the scary thing to pass too close.

I have no qualms about making a U-turn on the street and walking back to a side street to walk a few metres up there and let another dog/scary people pass, and this is preferrable to allowing your dog to react.

I would definitely try and get in touch with a good behaviourist though, as they will be able to meet Poppy and advise what is best for her individually. It may she is very stressed about walks and needs some guided walking to help her to think rather than react to things on walks.

You could even try clicker training to really hone that watch me command. I find working my youngest reactive dog with a clicker and the 'watch me' command works a treat. we can pass people within a metre now with no reaction.

Best of luck and keep us updated!

good post vicki

SLB, i think your suggestion would just freak the OP's dog out, judging by the description of it.

aside from that, have you considered 2 straightforward issues?
1) if the dog is stressed it wont eat, stress and fear kills the appetite.
2) how can all these men and boys feed the dog if its wearing a muzzle

Again, I said slowly, I didnt mean do everything at once...I should've put it more clearly I know.

A basket muzzle allows a dog to drink and eat because of the gaps in it.

But it was just how I would have tried to handle things. I didnt say the OP had to choose to use mine - it was a suggestion.

Brilliant post Vicki, spot on I too have a fear reactive dog but lots and time and patience is working well and he's much better now. I also agree with getting a professionally behaviourist involved, it may be a bit pricy but a good one may only need to do one session to shoe you the methods to work with her.

I absolutely agree with AVOIDING anything that freaks her out for a while. One thing my dog trainer told me that turned out to be totally true is that each time the dog freaks out, stress hormones are released into the blood keeping the dog on "high alert" for sone time after. This makes it more likely to react again and again. After a stressful situation you need to take time out to calm down and let the stress hormones disappate. If Cain freaked out at something, we'd then avoid all dogs and people for the next three days, now he's much better and usually recovers by the next day.

With the "watch me" command, we found food wasn't enough to get Cains attention, but a squeaky ball worked well. So don't be afraid to experiment to find her motivation.

When you are ready to start introducing men, you may need to engineer some situations and rope some makes friends in. You need to work out her comfort distance and not push her past it. You need to fund out how far away a man can be when she can walk past without reacting, it may be the other aide of a field but that's ok! Walk back and forth a few times and rewards her greatly with treats and praise for being calm. Go slowly, don't push her. Over time creep a step closet and walk by. If she reacts, take it back a step. The idea is to try and never push her to react. Eventually she will let then get closer. Eventually you can move on to men throwing her treats, but I thunk it'll take a lot if work until she's at that stage.

With the hat thing, is there a father in law or son that she is ok with? How is she when they wear a hat? Maybe introduce hats on a man she knows? Let her sniff it etc. Let them wear ot when they feed her, play with her, walk her, give treats, so she starts to associate it with fun things. Go slow and when she's ready start then wearing different kinds of hats. Eventually you might be able to introduce hats to them men in the field, but be aware that you'll probably need to go back to the starting distance again.

Good luck, it will be a slow and gradual process with will take much time and patience but it will be work it. My dog used to lunge and growl at almost everyone in the street, after 8 months of desensetisation training, he will greet 95% of people and let them pat him. It will take time but age just sounds terrified and needsher confidence building up.

Just to add, if she's insured, many insurance companies allow you to claim for behavioural consultations. Good luck again and let us know how it goes /)

Hoiw long has your mum had this dog? It takes a long time for a dog to settle and learn to trust if all he`s had are bad experiences. The dog doesn`t know that this home will be different.
It takes time and gentle patience with a frightened dog. I would recommend your mum slow down a bit, and simply not take her anywhere crowded till she`s more confident. In the meantime, work on confidence-building things like positive training and short, quiet walks.
The best thing to do if she does react, I`ve found, is simply to turn round and walk away then reward the dog (praise) when she is calm again. Try not to react yourself while she is upset.