New dog attacking its own legs

I would be very grateful for any advice - I can't believe how unhappy the current situation is making me.

we have a border collie called Kip that we got 4 years ago from the SPCA. Kip (male, neutered, about 11 or 12 yrs old) is great - the perfect dog.

We started to talk a few months ago about getting another dog & after speaking to others with dog experience about whether it was fair on Kip, decided to get another one.

so we went to the SPCA again last week & met Hoki, another bc - a bitch of about 5 or 6 yrs old.

Kip & Hoki got on ok at the shelter - not massively friendly, but no aggression & we decided to take her home.

For the 1st 5 days everything was great. evidently there were a few issues, but generally the dogs seemed to be getting on ok, Hoki was obedient & everything seemed to be working out well.

But then on Tuesday evening she started to attack her rear legs (doesn't seem to matter which). She is really really aggressive with it - snarling so that all teeth fully bared but then switching to a whine. She doesn't seem to actually bite herself - but I can't always make out what's happening as I won't risk putting my face too near her snarling teeth. Certainly her legs don't show any sign of damage (yet anyway).

I thought it may be an anal gland problem. Hoki is very overweight (40kg when first taken into the SPCA - down to 27.5kg now, but still some way to go to reach target weight of 19/20 kg). My husband took her to the vets the next day. The vet confirmed they were blocked - cleared them, couldn't find anything else wrong (apart from her being overweight of course) & everything seemed to be ok again.

But that evening she started again & basically hasn't stopped. Kip is now so frightened of her snarling that he has taken to hiding upstairs & looks at us as if to say "why are you letting this go on?". When he is not hiding, Hoki has now gone for him a couple of times.

I know there may be several reasons. BCs can do very strange things out of boredom - this might be the reason but we have been trying to make her think/work by doing different things and giving her much more exercise than she can have had before.

(Although I work my husband is at home most of the day).

I should also mention here that she had been biting her tail at the shelter - we did actually manage to stop her doing that just by saying no & distracting her but this is very different - there was no aggression when she was going for her tail).

There might also be an issue with working out who is top dog - but she carries on doing this even when Kip is hiding upstairs and I think she has accepted me & my husband as being above her - she will certainly respect most of our commands - walk to heal, recall, sit etc.

We just don't know whether to ignore her, tell her off, distract her or what and the effect it is having on our first dog, Kip, is deeply upsetting.

As I was away, I asked my husband to speak to the SPCA to see whether they could offer any advice. Unfortunately all they said was that it would sort itself out & that we couldn't return her anyway as they were now full (we weren't necessarily talking about returning her but were asking for help).

I know that I will have missed out lots of information, but difficult to set it all out...happy to provide any further info needed. Would just welcome any suggestions of what might be causing it & how we should deal with it.

I'm really sorry for your situation

My advice would be to perhaps go back to your vet but also to find a good behaviourist as your dog may have a compulsive disorder and if so you may need a lot of help and support, and a behavioural programme, to sort this out.

Patch on here is fab with difficult/problem dogs and has knowledge of BC so hopefully she will see this and give her thoughts

For a behaviourist, try www.apbc.org.uk (these are most likely to have a more in depth knowledge of behaviour problems, so may be the best bet) or else try www.apdt.co.uk (some are trainers, some are behaviourists too).

Good luck

Wys
x

Thanks for support - yes we want to find a good behaviourist but am worried about trying one without recommendation because you hear of people being ripped off & being told poor (or worse, wrong) advice.

I think you could be right about it being compulsive disorder - I wondered whether that was why she was so fat - i.e. did her previous owner just keep feeding her to stop her doing it (she certainly doesn't do it when she has got/or about to get fed).

It's great that you are thinking about this side of things - the links I gave to you should be OK. I only give linkies to peeps I would trust with my dog :smt002

It's fair to say experience varies and in the apdt esp. some will have behavioural experience whilst some not so much; for a top behaviourist I'd probably say APBC safest as they study at degree level plus must have hands on experience (or should do!).

Thanks again. Have just left a message with someone at apbc - hopefully they will get in touch soon.

This is a really horrible situation you find yourself in, and you and Kip have my sympathy. I'm afraid I am not qualified to comment on why Hoki is behaving this way, but there are some real experts on this forum, and I'm sure someone will be able to come up with some constructive help. In the meantime, hugs to you all, and especially Hoki who must also be suffering xx

I had a dog that used to bite it's front leg all the time until the hair came away, I asked advice and was told to use bitter apple it was alright for a day or so then I tried spraying TCP on the area and that worked the smell alone put her off and she never did it again. But I think this is a hard situation you find yourselves in and as above one for the experts

I have had a similar thing with a dog I used to have and reading your post I am suspecting the anal glands are still inflamed and sore.
If they were very full or blocked, it does take a little while for them to settle down again or in my dogs case they didn't they almost immiadiatly started filling again. In the end the vet was having trouble emptying anything out of them as the small gap was so inflamed it was closing over.
She ended up having her anal glands removed and the problem ceased.

Interesting point, as I said on Evie's thread about anal glands, we had Satunr's emptied last week. the vet then put him on a course of piriton to stop them refilling quickly, she said the other option (which neither of us wanted) was a steroid injection. I don't know why, I'm sure someone on here must know.
With that having been said to me last week and with your experience, perhaps another visit to the vet to double check things could be in order?
I hope you get this sorted out for all of you, it sounds very distressing. Axxxx

Hello Hali and welcome to Dogsey
My first thought having read about Hoki would be to try to get some more info from the rescue centre, has she any history of this behaviour? I know they said she has been tail biting . Then next to the vet to check for fleas/skin problems and as the others say anal glands.

If none of these things are the cause it could possibly be a severe type of displacement activity (this type of behaviour can become a habit with some dogs when they have been confined alone for long periods of time ) or even a neurological disorder of some kind.

There is also a type of OCD that can affect some breeds in particular , I will find the link I posted her the other day for LS,

http://home.gci.net/~divs/behavior/compulsive.html


..also do a Google seach for 'obsessive compulsive disorders in canines' if it proves to be this it is treatable with drugs
good luck , please keep us updated