Advice Please

[Athena GSD]

Sorry about the length but I wanted to give as much background and detail as possible.

We rescued a 7 year old desexed male GSD about 9 months ago. We knew he had some issues from talking to the original owners. The major one being storm phobias which caused relatively serious injuries on 2 occasions when he tried to escape the storms.

For the first few months we found him relatively timid, especially when it came to being touched in certain areas. He would be sensitive about his ears, hind end, legs and feet being touched.

He walks on a lead well and responds to basic commands.

Occasionally he would tail chase and mount legs but it seems to happen only when he gets very excited.

He has never shown any aggression to other dogs, even when a large dog ran at us and barked in his face in the street a few months ago.

I think the previous owner used to play a bit rough and allow him to mouth. We tried very hard to discourage this and now play with balls, toys, kongs.

He has never growled over food or toys, will let you touch him when he eats and take toys from his mouth.

Since we have had him he has calmed down considerably. He very rarely mounts/tail chases and if he does will stop immediately if you tell him to sit. He is still frightened during storms but as long as he has some human company and we act as if everything is alright he copes well, just sits somewhere quiet until it is all over.

He has been much happier and settled recently. he will happily roll over for a belly rub and let you touch his feet and ears.

The big problem is he has had a few occasions of seemingly being frightened and lashed out. He barks aggressively and snaps. It happened once when having a vaccination and today when I applied frontline on his neck.

Normally the frontline is fine, he does not like the smell but usually just turns to look at you. Today he turned around snapped, mouthed my arm and when I turned away he caught me on the back, barking at the same time.

After about 3 seconds it was all over and he was back to normal and did not seem to realise what had happened.

I realise there are triggers for these things and things I could have done wrong was 1. approach when he was eating and 2. touch him around the rump at the same time.

Can anyone give me any advice, I can not ignore this as a one off but I have become very attached to him and want to exhaust all possible ways to help him.

Thanks.

[Erny]

AthenaGSD ..... when it comes to biting, it is not wise for anyone to give you advice as to what you might try or do. No-one on the otherside of cyberspace knows your dog, you or your relationship with the dog, even though it sounds as if you've come a long way with the dog in improving its behaviours .

I would suggest you engage services from someone qualified to come out and visit you. It might be something from the dog's history that provokes reaction when touched/handled in certain ways and these will quite possibly be able to be overcome, but a behaviourist/trainer will be able to more properly observe the dog's body language to ascertain likely reactions - and work to not only avoid them, but desensitise him to them.

Your leadership status will (or should) also automatically be checked/assessed at the same time and if there's any room for adjustments to be made, they should be suggested.

Good on you for working with this dog to rehabilitate but I agree with you that this recent behaviour needs to be addressed, and addressed in a way that will not provoke the dog to escalate the behaviour - for primarily your sake, but also very importantly for the dog's sake.

[poodlefan]

I agree with what Erny says. However, I'd also suggest you take him to the vets for a complete physical and bloodwork. You want to eliminate any medical triggers for this behaviour, in addition to having a behavioural consult. This might be pain related or have a neurological trigger - you need to check for those kinds of issues.

A decent veterinary behaviouralist would be a good person to see.

Edited February 19, 2008 by poodlefan

[Erny]

Hi PF Long time no see!

You're right ..... it is always good to check on the physical/medical side of things. If something is amiss there, behaviour problem solving is going to be difficult and unneccessarily protracted, if successful at all.

[Athena GSD]

Thanks for the advice Erny and Poodle Fan, I really appreciate it.

I am in the process of contacting a behaviourist and I will take him into work to assess him medically. He has no other clinical signs to make me worry about a medical problem apart from his physical injuries caused by his escape attempts during storms at the previous owners.

I will keep you updated with his progress.