my dog bit my little sister

rex my terrier x bit my sister earlier today and this is not the first time he has bitten. not really sure what to do about it as i am scared the next time it might be even worse.
he was on the stairs barking out the window so she told him to come down, so instead he ran upstairs and woukdn;t come down. so she went to get him by his collar and he bit her arm, went through her top and skin. didn;t even growl or warm her first.
my sister is 10 years old. any advice would be appreciated
thanks

Sorry to hear this.

I would go to www.apbc.org.uk and find a behaviourist in your area and they will do a home visit and assessment.

What ever happens, he does not need to be put down, but if you can't work through it then you might consider rehoming.

Your little sister should not approach him, he can come to her if he wants to, and she definately should not be reprimanding him or trying to get hold of his collar.

As you have already found out this will not go away on its own so if she tries to get hold of his collar (for example) again, he may well do it again.

I pressume a lot of work needs to be done with positive training, not getting into confrontations with him and building up his tollerance to having his collar touched at the same time. For example, if his recall was very good he wouldn't need his collar touched to pull him away from the window. Personally in these situations i feel that confrontations should be avoided and a lot of work will need to be done of showing why it is so beneficial to him to do as you ask.

what else do you think hes crossed with ? sounds a bit like maybe your sis was a little too confident and he was telling her off, without any background like who usually deals with him, the type of situation he thought he was in its hard to say... can you tell us more ?

What age is this dog? How long have you had him?

all we know is that his mum was a yorkshire terrier, must be crossed with something bigger though as he is alot bigger than a yorkie. he normally does it when me or my step dad is not around, he must think he is the boss of my sis and brother because he did a a similar thing a few months ago... noone was in apart from my brother who is 14, so rex decides to go upstairs which he wouldnt normally do, my brother goes up to get him and he is sat on my bed!
he doesn't listen to my brother so he went near to get him down and he bit him, again without warning.
He is also very nasty when it comes to the poor postman putting letter through the door..he literally wants to kill him

hes about 5 or 6. weve had him from a puppy, but not sure exactly how old he was. someone had him and then took him back because he was too much for them, the mum then tried to kill him. so our next door neighbour offerd him to us

I would adopt the NILIF programme asap and have your brother and sister handle resources..(such as have them feed him after he has sat nice for them etc..)

http://k9deb.com/nilif.htm

thsnkyou i will have a read through

I'd advise getting someone in (but do make sure they are reputable - if you can't get an APBC member in, try www.apdt.co.uk as some members are also behaviourists).

I think as he is biting, you need professional help.

With such help, hopefully things will be improved to the extent you can live happily with him.

Agree to avoid confrontation (if he needs to be moved, the behaviourist will probably suggest using a house line which should be removed when owners are out as dog could get caught up on something) as well as training.

Meanwhile, avoid his "triggers" - if you know he bites when barking and someone takes his collar, distract him by say, ringing the doorbell or something like that - or just let him do it for the moment. Keep bedroom doors closed and if he is somewhere he should not be, again distract him if you can - don't whatever you do try to grab his collar or tell him off.

Hth a bit.

Good luck

Wys
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