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  • 1.  Aggressive Dog Help

    Posted 10-16-2020 07:33 AM
    Background
    I work for the Humane Society of Northeast Georgia, right now we have a dog that we believe to be a Pekingese-Shih Tzu mix, who has history of biting people once he's adopted out. When we first got him, he was relatively docile with the exception of he did snap at some of our medical team members when they were trying to prep him for his neuter surgery. After speaking with the medical team they believed it may of been because he either didn't like being held, or being touched around his face area. After his surgery he was adopted within days, and lived in a home with dogs, cats, a girl, her husband, and her kid. The Pekingese-Shih Tzu mix (Named Fonzie) did not end up staying in this home for long. During his stay in the house it was reported that he did great with the dogs, cats, the wife/mother, and the husband/father, but anytime the kid would get near Fonzie, Fonzie would snap. Eventually the snapping did break skin, and Fonzie was returned and put on a bite hold.

    After his bite hold Fonzie was put under some trials (Trial 1) for a behavior exam. After there being nothing consequential about it, Fonzie was adopted out again, this time with a behavior waiver, telling the owner his previous history and our recommendations. Fonzie was in this home for a bit longer, and there were reports of Fonzie just growling and snapping at the owner (adult male). He stated these primarily happened when he was on his bed. Although this return did not end in a bite, I believe the final straw was when Fonzie was being measured for a new harness and Fonzie came really close to biting. After this Fonzie went through another behavior exam (Trial 2).

    Fonzie after a few days was once again put on the adoption floor. It was made very clear to the adopter that Fonzie has a bite history, and that he likely shouldn't be introduced to a whole lot of people too fast. The adopter called a couple days later saying Fonzie bit someone, upon intake of Fonzie it was reported he actually bit multiple people. Once again Fonzie was on Bite Hold, where we did a third smaller exam (Trial 3). We currently don't know if it's safe to adopt him out, a lot of people may target adopt him for his breed without understanding his issues, some people just won't listen, and we're not sure if it's completely safe for an adopter.

    Trials
    Trial 1: The first behavior exam was focused around common types of aggression he may have, such as resource guarding, toy guarding, child aggression. We gave him toys and food, and he showed no care in the world about guarding them. We also had him around children of varying ages ranging from very young (around 5), all the way up to 12 year old children. During these controlled tests he wasn't snapping, biting, growling, or showing any sign of concern or aggression. Despite this due to his bite history we still recommended that he didn't go home with children.

    Trial 2: Since at this point we learned that it may of been due to his body we focused this behavior exam around that. We still circled back to resource guarding, and toy guarding just in case. Safely we tried holding him in different positions, even ways that might of been considered irritating. We emulated measuring him for a harness, we touched around his face area. Nothing to show for it (each of these tests were also tested with multiple people to vary the audience).  We recommended slower introductions to groups of people, and still recommended no children as well as descriptions of the previous events.

    Trial 3: On the third trial we did not loop back around to resource guarding, or toy guarding, but continued checking for possible uncomfortable behaviors. On this exam since the latest adopter said it might be a guarding issue we let Fonzie spend some time with a female. Then a group of varying people all came in and took Fonzie off of her directly. Fonzie did not seem to care and was not provoked in the slightest.

    Help
    At this point we don't believe Fonzie is a good candidate for adoption, but because he is not showing the behaviors at the shelter at all, it's hard to correct behaviors that don't seem existent. To us it appears to be almost regressive behavior in the home. Right now we don't have a skilled enough foster available to take him on and see exactly what might be causing the behaviors. On top of it, most canine facilities we could transfer to don't take any form of offensive aggression. Any help would be appreciated.
    #AdmissionsandIntake
    #AnimalBehavior,TrainingandEnrichment

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    Micah Davis
    Humane Society of Northeast Georgia
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  • 2.  RE: Aggressive Dog Help

    Posted 10-16-2020 11:26 AM
    Have you thought about reaching out to Victoria Stillwell? She lives in Atlanta and (assuming she would be willing to assess the dog) might be able to provide both insight and instruction that future pet parents would follow. WELL DONE on continuing to work with him! :-)

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    Shari Cahill
    silvercometawa.org
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    Original Message


  • 3.  RE: Aggressive Dog Help

    Posted 10-16-2020 03:16 PM
    Bring in an anti-aversives (force free) aggression specialist.  
    I have some thoughts but it's really not good to try to diagnose without taking a detailed history first.  
    There are several very effective protocols for aggression, but the owners must, must fully participate in learning and consistently implementing the protocols, without distressing the dog.  Further distress will likely result in more bites, and since the dog only bites when homed, that may also suggest that a new environment is a trigger and/or possibly (depending on how long dog is in home before bite happens) that once the dog begins to feel 'at home' (more comfortable) then the behavior appears that may have been previously suppressed in a shelter environment (coping).

    --
    Rain Jordan, CBCC-KA, CPDT-KA, KPA CTP
    Fearful Dogs Specialist

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