My dog bit 2 people on Thanksgiving :(

[MrsE]

I can't believe I'm writing this post. Sorry for the drop in as I am not a regular over here, but I posted back on TN a few times around the time we rescued T 2 years ago and you ladies were extremely helpful. T is a lab/beagle/min pin mix, weighs just under 20 pounds and is (usually) friendly but has had some slight leash aggression lately.

When we rescued her we went to puppy socialization once a week and then did two rounds of obedience classes. She went to doggy daycare once a week up until this summer when the daycare moved locations. Now she goes once a month or every two months when we can find the time to take her.

She bit DH's cousin and a family friend on two separate instances on Thanksgiving. Both times it was when they were entering the front door. She has become very protective/ almost territorial at front doors lately and we are at a loss for why this is happening and what we can do to correct this ASAP.

This also happened once before, about a month ago, when DH's friend came in our front door when we were both in another room. I should have known then that it was a very bad sign but we brushed it off bc his friend said she just nipped him and he did walk in without us present. Stupid me. I should have known better.

I know that biting is not OK, ever, under any circumstance. I feel terrible. DH thinks we need to take T back for more obedience training, but I'm thinking we may need to see a behavioralist or someone who is a behavior specialist. What would you do in this situation? Any advice is greatly appreciated. T is such a great dog and we need to fix this ASAP.


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[patches31709]

I agree with you that I would bring a behaviorist in if you can.

Our dog cannot handle the stress of people coming in the door either. What we did was teach him to go to his "spot" - his bed in the corner of the living room, a good distance from the front door. He has to stay in his spot and allow me to open the door. If he moves, he gets sent back to his spot (my poor sister helped us practice this and she would be out there for a while sometimes). As he got better, I got super over-the-top animated about answering the door (running down the stairs, banging the wall, shouting HELLO and saying Hello in funny voices). By doing this, we can have our family come in now, and he stays in his spot until everyone is settled. The key for him is that the environment needs to calm back down.
However, if someone he doesn't see often is coming over, I'll put him on a leash and make him stay in his spot, and let DH get the door. He has to stay on his own, but the leash is there so that nothing happens.
You can fix this, I promise!

[MrsE]

Thank you so much, this is really helpful. Did your dog already have a "spot" or is this something you created? Would it be OK to use her crate? Or is it ideal to have a "spot" in the same room? She understands the command, "T crate" or "puppy crate" so maybe we can try this or teach her "spot" for another location.

Also, does this method work at someone else's home? We were at the IL's for Thanksgiving. Thanks again for the advice!!


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[Norticprincess]

We have friends that use the crate as the spot when they open the door. If it is someone the dogs haven't met before they stay in the crate until things settle down. Then they get to come out and do a meet and greet. Their crates are off to the side in the living room.

I don't use the crate with mine (she has SA the crate makes it worse). She has to go up the stairs and sit before I'll open the door. It took a while and a lot if treats using DH and my sister coming in the door. Practicing every time the UPS guy rang the doorbell. She is allowed to go down and look out the window, but she has to go back up the stairs and sit before the door is opened. She gets it 95% of the time. She is impossible to keep upstairs if my mum comes over, I have no worries about her doing anything to mum other than blocking the door. She proved herself quite well on Halloween with all of the random kids.

Haven't really tried it at my parents' house, she usually follows whatever their four are doing. At the MIL's she was a bit freaked out and barked a lot whenever she noticed someone coming in, the different doors confused her a bit. At home visitors only use the front door. At MIL people were going in and out the front and back doors. If she was told to go sit by the couch she was listening to that part. Going to try it again at Christmas.

[redheadbaker]

At this point, you know that people coming in the front door freak her out. You need to keep her away from the front door (set her up for success, don't put her in positions that freak her out), and definitely find a behaviorist (not a trainer) to help you deal with her behavior.

Did she break skin? Draw blood? Do they plan on reporting the bite?

[MrsE]

Thank you all for the tips. I'm not sure if she broke skin or drew blood (I was upstairs blow drying my hair when it happened) and DH just told me about it afterward.

I don't think either of them will report it, but I haven't asked. DH's cousin has a bruise where T bit him though. I feel terrible.


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[patches31709]

I don't use the crate as his spot because we do flyball and agility and more often than not, the crate lives in the trunk of my car. If we have contractors coming over or something, then we use his crate, but really I'm just lazy and haven't bought a second one yet, so his spot is his bed in the corner of the living room. No reason why you can't use the crate if she likes it though.

We did create "the spot" just for this. He picks things up super quickly, so we sat down one afternoon and taught him that when we say spot, he goes to his corner. Another good trick is to sometimes just make them go to their spot even when no one is there, otherwise they just associate the command spot with people coming in.

[kellbell191]

I would definitely try to talk to a behaviorist and work on NILF (nothing in life is free). It sounds like he is trying to protect you; he needs to be taught to trust that you gives have this under control. Are there any other signs of anxiety?

[Deleted]

Ditto PPs about a behaviorist. We had this issue with a previous dog. He did not like anyone entering our apartment. The behaviorist actually taught us a method to bring him outside into the parking lot (a neutral space) to greet strangers and get him comfortable before we all walked back up into the apartment. We often gave our friends/family cookies/treats to throw to him and taught them how to greet him in non-confrontational ways to get him comfortable.