What to do about my special snowflake of a dog?
June 26, 2015 4:15 PM   Subscribe

I had a ton of questions about our feral rescue when he first came to live with us last spring. And now I have a new one. He has become super unruly lately and I'm not sure what to do. In particular, he has been getting really weird with people who cut through the off leash area. He'll run over and start barking at them. He runs in circles around them and barks loudly. When he's this keyed up, he won't listen to me at all. I can usually eventually get a stick in his line of vision and convince him that the stick is way more interesting than this poor person, but I don't like it. I'd love some advice about what we should be doing about this!

a collection of additional details ...

The dog run isn't fenced. The other accessible off leash area for us is a beach, also not fenced. So people do cut through (or there are other people walking on the beach). If I'm alert I'll notice that he noticed someone coming, with enough time to call him over and distract him until they have passed through.

He's done it to me a few times (and bit me hard enough to bruise my calf). And he was nipping at one woman last week. She was very chill about it. "Oh, yeah, he nipped me a few times there. But he's a puppy." which was reassuring but ... so not okay.

He's fearful of people in general -- won't let strangers pet him, barks at people who come into our house. At home, we have guests play "touch" and "sit" with him for treats. That helps calm him down.

We moved cross country this Spring. He went from a house with two kids and two adults to an airplane to a house with one adult and two new strangers (my parents, who my husband stayed with while he looked for an apartment). From there it was to an apartment with no one home all day and a perfectly nice but still random dude showing up to walk him. I work from home a lot so he was used to having someone around during the day. We had foster kids, who didn't move with us (they are back with their parents) so half his family is gone.

We used to live in a pretty dense area with limited off leash hours. Our new area doesn't limit the off leash hours, so there's no particular reason to get your dog out for a romp before 9 AM. There are just fewer dogs in general and we're way more likely not to see a dog that wants to play with him.

He really (really) likes a good romp. He wants to run and chase and bear hug and pin the other dog down and get pinned down and romp. Hearty romp. If he's playing with another dog, he couldn't care less who walks through the dog run. One obvious solution is not to let him off leash, but I just don't know how he is going to get any exercise if I keep him on leash.

I don't know if he's trying to engage people in play or trying to protect the dog run (his turf) from intruders.

Good suggestions? I think that my "goal" right now is to get him to stop what he's doing and come to me, even when he's riled up. Should I be thinking of the goal differently?
posted by amandabee to Pets & Animals (8 answers total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
He should not be allowed off leash until he responds to your commands and learns how to behave appropriately. Enroll in obedience school. Walk or run with him on leash. Toss a ball in the house.

If he bites someone you could be sued and he could be removed from your care and possibly be put down.

Part of the responsibility of pet ownership is making sure your animal is not a threat to others.
posted by cat_link at 4:28 PM on June 26, 2015 [17 favorites]


If has bitten or nipped people while off leash, keep him on leash.
If he bites someone and hurts them, you could end up losing him permanently.

I say this as someone who has neighbors with an extremely aggressive dog who they persist in walking off leash. The dog attacks people and other dogs. The police have been called. They will be called again until either the owners keep the dog on leash or the dog is removed from them. This isn't fair to the dog.

Find a fenced place to run him on his own. You may have to drive some distance to achieve this.
Obedience classes seem like a good idea.
posted by sciencegeek at 4:35 PM on June 26, 2015


I moved from an area that had more open space and less dogs to Portland OR. My dog had become very very reactive to other dogs and people. I have been working with a dog behaviorist to help me train him. We are doing the following:

No off leash dog park. It is triggering his fear and he flips out.

Lots and lots and lots of itty bitty treats on his leashed walks. We are changing his fear of others to a positive thing by giving him a reward instantly and saying lets go and turning away from the approaching dog.

I cannot tell you how much this one thing has changed him. He now sees another dog and turns his head and looks at whoever is walking him for a treat. His tolerance of other dogs and approaching people has improved so much.

I am a big fan of Paricia McConnells' books on dog training.
Good luck with your pup. It can get better.
posted by cairnoflore at 4:42 PM on June 26, 2015 [8 favorites]


My dog likes to chase joggers, so I started calling him to me when I saw one in the distance (before he noticed them), giving him a treat, leashing him, having him sit and stay when they passed, and giving him another treat. He eventually got to the point where if he sees a jogger coming he runs to me now. Turning the intruder into a GOOD thing in his mind, if possible, would be ideal!

When I had super high energy puppies, I did my best to make doggy play dates for him; finding friends or neighbors with dogs who were willing to play. If you can't do that, a lot of dog walkers will have a group that they'll collect and monitor as they play. If you can afford that it may be worth doing while you're at work so he's not spending as much time bored.

If there are trails you can take him off-leash, taking hikes with him may end up being better exercise than hanging out at an empty dog park... more engaging, and possibly not setting off the territoriality that's leading to his behavior.

Good luck- it's so hard to be a good dog parent!
posted by metasarah at 4:47 PM on June 26, 2015 [5 favorites]


My dog isn't great with recall so for "off-leash" play in our unfenced backyard, I leave her on a 30-foot lead attached to a harness (long leads should NEVER be used on a collar). That way, you retain control (and some hope of catching him) even from afar. The weight of dragging the lead is fairly negligible.

I linked to a Lupine product because they replace it even if your dog eats it, which my doog has done a couple times...
posted by bookdragoness at 5:31 PM on June 26, 2015


Best answer: My formerly feral dog needed pretty intensive obedience/clicker/positive reinforcement training, for a pretty long time, beyond anything my ex and I were able to handle on our own, before he was able to be socially acceptable not just in human society but in domesticated dog society. It will be hard work but so worth it in the end. You're going to have to deal immediately with the extreme territorial behavior, resource guarding, and high prey drive that you've already seen so far.

Right now I think good off-leash behavior is a hell of a lot of expect of him with all the changes he's had to go through with housing and people around him; what you've described would make ME hyper and uncontrollable, much less a feral rescue pup. I really suggest you find somewhere he can run around in a supervised fenced area with no intruding humans or dogs. At the very least you should go to off-leash areas at the least crowded times possible. You might be able to use a basketball court or something similar if no one else is around, but depending on your area you could be risking a fine.

Either way, it's better than having him bite another human seriously or another dog. Again, these are both serious issues that should be addressed as soon as possible, and as positively as possible. He's scared right now, scared and confused. He doesn't really understand how he's supposed to behave, and when he learns what's good and what's bad, with only positive reinforcement, he will be much happier.
posted by poffin boffin at 6:36 PM on June 26, 2015 [1 favorite]


Ymmv of course, but my former roommate had a dog like this and the story ended with him having to go live with his family far away after he bit two people and our freaking landlord in rapid succession... and all of them decided to follow up. Basically had to overnight disappear him and send him out of state to avoid Serious Consequences and possibly him getting put down.

It started out pretty much exactly like this with people he didn't know setting him off and weird behavior and then... that.

It wasn't even that long after the new weird behavior, and this was also a former street dog.

Independent of any of the recommendations above, you really need to step in and stop letting him be off leash until you sort this or you'll end up in a serious and similar SNAFU situation.
posted by emptythought at 2:59 AM on June 27, 2015 [1 favorite]


You need to get in touch with a qualified positive-behavior dog trainer. A few private sessions in your own home AND public spaces will transform your life and help to prevent this from escalating.
posted by barnone at 10:32 AM on June 27, 2015


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