My lovable 3 year old cross bites while on a lead or cornered!! Please help.

We rescued our gorgeous Dog Alan in the Caribbean when he was 1 years old..We have bought him back to the UK and have now found that he is very nervous of being on the lead and we have had a couple ofincidents where he has lashed out and bitten/more like nipped but has gone through bottom of jeans but not drawn blood ..I am so concerened that we wont take him out in public. He is 3 yrs old now, we think that he was mis-treated while in the Caribbean and is now very nervous. Has anyone got any solutions..I really dont want o put a muzzle on him as \i think this will make him more nervous.
Nikki

Oh well done for bringing him home with you. I was out on Graned Cayman for a while when my son lived there. Have to say, all the 'Cayman Mutts' I saw were in superb condition.

We sailed over to Rum Point on my son's boat one day and these large mutts were waiting on the landing stage. Son said 'they won't hurt you they are Cayman Mutts'.

I got off the boat, said 'hello boy' and the mutt bit my ****! I was following my son to the bar and saying 'it bit my ****!' He was just laughing!

What sort of dog is yours? And where in the Caribbean did you get him from?

*have to say whether it made him more nervy or not, if he was BITING people - I would muzzle him in public.

A muzzle won`t make him more nervous but it might save him from getting put down as a dangerous dog.
You have to do your job and protect him - and teach him to trust that you will. If he is getting stressed, turn around and walk him out of there.

I recommend you read up on Behaviour Adjustment Therapy for dogs. (google BAT or Grisha Stewart).

With a nervous dog you have to progress at their pace.
Go back to basics. Get a DAP Diffuser for the house, and give him a routine. Dogs with a regular routine start to relax.
Never approach him - always call him to you.

Begin lead-training in the house with a loose lead and a treat. Lure him to you and reward. When he is comfortable with the lead, try going up the path and back. If he starts to stress, go back a step.
It will not hurt him if he doesn`t go Walkies provided he has company.
Once a dog begins to fear, he ceases to learn, so you have to keep him below that threshold for him to progress.
This means you move forward very slowly. But there is no pressure - you will have a happy dog, and I assume that is what you want.

There is a Yahoo group for people with frightened dogs called shy-K9. It has some good articles on coping.

So - for now, go back a step and consider what your dog can manage without stress, and go from there.
I will be interested to see how you get on. I have a very frightened dog. It took me a year to get a collar on him, so I know how worrying it is.

How very true. I see the proof of that in Bella. She comes to me for everything she needs but, when she is REALLY frightened - very loud clap of thunder or very loud fireworks or something that hurts her - I cannot comfort her by holding or reassuring her - she will run away from me and hide under my bed.

When she was a puppy she bolted into her airline kennel that I used as a crate if anything scared her or hurt her. And sat right at the back where you couldn't reach her (it was oversized for her).

Thank you so much for this advice..Really helpful..What is a DAP diffuser?
I..and I will get a muzzle and intriduce it slowly to him.

Thank you so much for this advice..Really Helpful!!
What is a DAP diffuser?

Thanks again. I will keep you posted and I will get a muzzle for him and introduce it slowly.

N

DAP = Dog Appeasing Pheromone. Diffuser = one of thos plug in fresh air type thingies.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/?ie=UTF8&k...l_7yrxsg7xij_b

Thanks..have ordered the book already and will get my Dap diffuser now..thanks again
N x