Help with fear-based territorially aggressive dog - meds?
July 6, 2016 5:21 PM   Subscribe

This is Pasquale (my user photo). I’m considering asking our vet to try a pharmacological approach to his fear-based territorial/visitor aggression. Have you gone this route? Do you possibly have another (non medicinal) approach we can try? Apologies for the length inside.

Pasquale’s an approximately 6 -year old Chihuahua-Terrier mix who my husband and I adopted about three years ago. In the last year, following a house move and the birth of our first baby, he has become extremely protective of our home – to the point where I’m worried he might one day bite someone who approaches it.

When we first adopted him three years ago, he was a dream dog. He loved everyone who came to our home – the only time he gave even a hint of this future behavior was when he’d occasionally bark at someone who surprised him while on a walk, or with excited (non aggressive) barking at the doorbell. We would have parties with several dozen people walking in and out and he wouldn’t bat an eye – letting people pet him and willingly jumping on their laps.

Then last summer, in anticipation of growing our family, we moved to our current house. We prepared him for the transition as best we could, bringing him by regularly for short visits and trying to keep his routine the same. Almost immediately, his behavior changed.

His barking at the mailman and anyone else that he could hear approaching the front door changed in tone to something much more aggressive. When visitors would come to the house, he’d spend at least 5-10 minutes barking, growling and, occasionally, even lunging at them. Last August, friends we had invited over came to the house, my husband had the dog under his arm and leaned in to greet the friend. Pasquale shrieked and nipped her shoulder. This is a same friend who a year earlier had been happily petting him as he sat on her lap.

Our baby was born shortly thereafter. Pasquale reacted with lots of barking and whining anytime she cried. We had a certified behaviorist out who diagnosed his reaction as one of fear and anxiety. She also believed his sudden onset of stranger-danger/territorialism was a dual reaction to my being pregnant (which dogs can supposedly sense) and the fact that our newer house, with larger windows than our old house, let far more outside noise into the home, triggering his fear and guard tendencies. She also noted that the time he nipped our friend was not unexpected – he was being restrained by my husband and was essentially being forced into close physical contact with a stranger when my husband went to greet her.

The behaviourist’s plan as it related to the baby worked like a charm. Anytime the baby made any noise, we ask Pasquale to sit or go to his crate and scattered treats for him. He quickly started to ignore her and now seems quite content with her – even approaching her for petting sessions now and again, slinking off if she ever gets too rough. Of course, I’m EXTREMELY careful to be closely monitoring their interactions. They are never alone together and I am always actively supervising and within arm’s reach of the baby when she is near the dog.

While Operation Baby worked, Operation Visitors has certainly not. The behaviorist gave us a plan where we would put Pasquale in a large ex-pen when visitors came to the house with a distracting food treat. When he would calm down and visitors were settled, we were told to let him out, with visitors being told to toss him additional treats to make him associate them with good things. All sounded good, but he’d never really get himself into a calm enough state where I’d be comfortable letting him out. As long as guests were sitting still, he’d tolerate them, accepting treats willingly but showing signs of displeasure like not making eye contact and the occasional whine. That said, the minute anyone moves – and especially if they approach the baby – off he’d go again with the barking, growling and occasional lunging.

We’ve had some success with some occasional longer term guests – most notably my family members who’ve stayed with us repeatedly in the past. He also seems to warm up eventually to most men but seems to be particular nasty around women. We now rely on crating him in an upstairs room when guests come over, which he has no audible complaints about (I think he may have been crate trained in the past, he hangs out in his crate often and is happen being contained in it every so often when we have visitors). That said, the crate is obviously management, not a solution.

The breaking point this morning came when UPS rang my doorbell. I honestly thought the dog was going to break through the door trying to get to the driver – and that if the door hadn’t been there, he would 100% have bit him.

Some further things I’m considering at this point:

- Getting him a basket muzzle for use when guests are over which will allow them to continue to toss him treats while allowing me to relax (my family is convinced he is reacting to my own stress levels!)

- Pharmaceutical interventions which will lower his response to strangers and allow me to better try to recondition him to accepting them

Mefites help! Surely there is something I can do that will help return my loving little dog to me. If you have any approaches you think might work and/or any experience where medication has helped in a similar situation, please let me know.

Other things to note:

- None of this behavior is apparent outside the home – he may be a bit standoffish, but is much faster to warm up to people when away from our house. In one infamous experiment, he happily sat on my mother in law’s lap in our car, but then started the barking, growling, lunging the minute she walked into our house

- His vet gave him a clean bill health as recently as two months ago (he had a UTI and a ruptured anal gland earlier in the year, but both have been resolved)

- His training is okay-ish (he knows sit, stay and off) but ignores commands when in a state of excitement. Given his short stature, I’ve never been able to get him to learn “lie down” – our trainer tried for a full lesson but he just wouldn’t do it

- We tried using a pheromone collar but it had no impact on his reactivity
posted by elkerette to Pets & Animals (11 answers total) 3 users marked this as a favorite
 
I would step it up with the behaviorist, specifically: have the behaviorist and one or two select guests (very dog aware, mellow, and not scared of dog barking) go through the desensitization exercise.

guest knocks on door
if no dog bark, treat
guest opens door
if no bark, treat
guest takes one step forward
if no bark, treat
guest continues to approach
treat
repeat

when the dog starts showing *any* signs of stressing and not waiting for awesome treat the guest leaves and you start again.

Do this with the behaviorist present so they can guide the exercise, not just perform it in the role of the guest. Do it with several guests if possible.
posted by zippy at 5:35 PM on July 6, 2016 [1 favorite]


I am far from a dog expert, but I just want to note that unless your dog is used to the muzzle, you might end up with a reaction you don't expect. My dog has to legally wear a muzzle for certain things (ferries, for instance) and I accidentally taught her to hate ferry rides as a result because she doesn't like the muzzle. I've had to do a lot of work since then to get her not to hate her muzzle completely.

You can muzzle train dogs, but note that it is a big deal by itself. And don't make the mistake I did and inadvertently train her to hate guests even more.
posted by frumiousb at 5:52 PM on July 6, 2016 [1 favorite]


It sounds like your behaviorist is doing a decent job so far, but just like with people there's no way to forcibly change an animal's mind. This may just be what your dog is like now. And that's OK! There's nothing wrong with managing this via crates, etc - solutions are just management strategies that you can live with.

Do make sure you are relaxed about this. Pets really do pick up on owner stress. Remember that dogs barking at delivery people or disliking visitors is actually very normal. We had to put up an outside mailbox instead of using a mail slot and have someone watch the dog if we opened the door to accept a delivery for years. It was just a thing we did as part of having dogs in our family.

Our dogs were pretty large and we had to manage introductions and constantly keep an eye on them when in company. Putting them in another room, away from visitors was often the best solution. Sometimes dogs don't like strangers in their turf, sometimes people don't like meeting strange dogs.

All that said, if your dog is unhappy even when visitors aren't around I would tackle that first. What about the new house might be making life harder for him? Some kind of important-to-dogs change happened and those can be hard to pick up on for us homo sapiens. He acts like his territory is constantly being invaded, it sounds like, do you know if previous occupants had a dog that he's constantly smelling but can't find? Do your crawlspaces have any entries for animals that he's smelling? Does he need better access to patrol the windows, or alternatively, could reducing his window access make him feel more secure?
posted by Ahniya at 6:03 PM on July 6, 2016 [1 favorite]


I've been really happy with Zylkene, which is basically a milk protein that's supposed to mimic the calming effect of a mother's milk. To me, it hits a sweet spot: it's a treatment that doesn't reach the level of doggy Prozac and the assorted possible side effects, but it's a couple steps above the herbal blends or pheromones that you see at the pet store.

It's not a magical fix-it, but along with careful training, it's definitely helped my anxious pup calm his shit down a little. After the first month, I had my doubts that it was working at all, but when I took him off of it suddenly (I know, I know!), some of the problem behaviors immediately returned.

Once our home life settles down a bit (he doesn't get along with our roommate's cats, who are leaving this week), I'll probably start work on weaning him off of the stuff, but for now, it relaxes him just enough that he can deal with the outside world and start to have some good experiences.
posted by redsparkler at 6:08 PM on July 6, 2016


We had a combination of things happen in a short period that caused my very mellow 7-yr old dog to exhibit signs of stress and anxiety. We lost our terrier to cancer, moved to another state and I starter working longer hours. My dog starter literally chewing on the walls while I was gone at work. He missed our other dog, my daughter, our neighbors and neighborhood and our house where he had free reign for his first 6.5 years.

I tried taking him to doggie day care but he hated it - he has always been ok with other dogs one-on-one but will shy away from groups of dogs. When day care didn't help, I tried the canine prozac. It helped him a lot. His anxiety lessened significantly and he stopped chewing on walls; his personality didn't change and he didn't seem drugged or anything like that.

After about 4 months I took other steps which included getting another dog and moving to a house with a bigger yard. Now he's a happy boy again and I'm going to talk to my vet about stopping the prozac, which I think you have to do over time, slowing lessening the dosage.

People may be judgmental about anti-anxiety meds for dogs but it's pretty horrible to watch a sweet dog you love become an emotional wreck.

The behaviorist work sounds promising but some sort of meds from your vet can help if things don't improve.

Wishing you all the best.
posted by mulcahy at 7:44 PM on July 6, 2016 [2 favorites]


When I moved from a small house in a small town to a much bigger house in the big city my terrier went nuts. All the behavior you are describing plus walking him became a nightmare. I did what you did with a behaviorist over a six month period. He improved a great deal BUT he still hates the mailman. And he will go after anything moving fast in his sight line. It's how he rolls. I have to mitigate things as much as I can.

I don't have a baby soon to be a toddler to worry about. That would change things for me and I would probably do both the meds and the trainer and if that didn't work I would look at the next step which would be rehoming him (no shooting me please).

You home must be safe for your child first. The dog comes second.
posted by cairnoflore at 11:28 PM on July 6, 2016


People may be judgmental about anti-anxiety meds for dogs but it's pretty horrible to watch a sweet dog you love become an emotional wreck.

Amen.

I love my Chihuahua-Terrier mix. He is loving, kind, energetic, as cuddly as a thirteen pound dog can manage to be (he sleeps behind my knees like a cat) (obligatory pic: https://goo.gl/photos/49CWXqRmi3tXvzEN6). He has also gotten to the point over time where he likes precisely 6 people: me, my wife, one of my roommates, two dear adopted cousins, and my DNA cousin. Everyone else... yea, the barking (please don't ring our doorbell), the snapping if I let him near other people, etc. We thundershirted. We did puppy school. My former vet advised "just pin him down in your lap like this and dominate him!" Then he started getting aggressive with me and having people-style panic attacks anytime someone else set foot in the house. I might have cried a lot.

So we went to my aunt and uncle's old school vet, and the vet put him on a low dose of fluoxetine (puppy prozac). It has not been a cure - he still hates the doorbell and, well, other people, including my one roommate1 - but it has taken the edge off and he's no longer aggressive with me. We need to spend some time with a behaviorist, and I just haven't had the bandwidth this year yet to set that up. But it takes the edge off and helps a lot. It certainly can't hurt to try and see if it helps your dog.

1. The only other place he's fine is the boarders. He hops up into the teenagers' arms, they croon "We love Lattimer" and he grins at me. Asshole.
posted by joycehealy at 5:35 AM on July 7, 2016 [2 favorites]


Joycehealy, being very people-selective is a hallmark trait of a Type A rat terrier. I've had several as fosters, and a few like only their owners, and no other people. They are hard to adopt out for this reason, but they are very loyal, sweet dogs to those they like. I tell potential owners that their dog might not ever like other people.
posted by answergrape at 7:54 AM on July 7, 2016 [1 favorite]


People may be judgmental about anti-anxiety meds for dogs but it's pretty horrible to watch a sweet dog you love become an emotional wreck.

100%

Meds aren't forever, either. Pair it with training. You can use the meds to take the edge off enough that your dog can learn to be calm with focused training and over time reduce the anxiety that accompanies the triggers.

My dog has separation anxiety and had taken to attempting to get out of the house any way she could. She went on anxiety meds for 2-3 months, which let her re-learn that us leaving wasn't the End of the World, then she tapered off and has been fine since. She's still a little anxious, but we practiced with her and the mental space she gained from anxiety meds let her learn to self-soothe.
posted by bookdragoness at 7:57 AM on July 7, 2016


Now that I'm looking Elkerette, your dog looks like a rat terrier as well. Rat terriers are known for being protective of their people, and sometimes their homes, moreso Type As than Type Bs.
posted by answergrape at 8:12 AM on July 7, 2016


I'm in a similar situation (minus a baby) and haven't tried anti-anxiety meds. I've read that many times, they can be a bit alarming for a reactive dog, as the dog is still aware of what is happening in his surroundings yet their mind is a bit groggier and they can potentially become more afraid since they are unable to "react" and thus "protect" themselves.

If your dog is fine being in a crate while guests are over, that sounds like a perfect solution. You've located your dog's threshold and it's wise not to push him above it. But I understand wanting to get your old dog back!

I've just read Grisha Stewart's BAT 2.0 and there is a lot of useful advice and training methods for your situation. A part of what she recommends is exposing your dog to a very low level of its trigger -- so low that they barely notice it, and then continually (over months, if not longer) increasing the intensity of the trigger.

For example, my dog used to bark crazily when I even approached the front door. What I did for about 5-10 minutes each day is I told my dog to go to her bed, then I approached the door. If she was silent, I clicked and treated. I did this for a full week (go to the door, click and treat) until she was comfortable with my turning the knob. I then gradually increased the intensity of the trigger and repeated the process with the door knob. Eventually, I was able to open the door, have an imaginary conversation at the door (neighbors thought I was crazy), and have her sit quietly in the bed. But this took over a month of daily short sessions of training. And patience.

Stewart (and lots of other trainers) recommend not giving your dog too many opportunities to "rehearse" the bad behavior. I find that in my daily life, that is nearly impossible, but I think the spirit of what she gets at is very helpful: Listen to your dog -- let him feel that he has an alternate behavior to barking his head off.

It sounds like Operation Baby worked because it was a process of desensitization -- the baby was now a fact of life and it was untenable for your dog to keep reacting. It's harder to reenact that with guests, but I think that a gradual desensitization to other triggers that he associates with guests (doors, other behavioral cues) would be a good first step.
posted by Cwell at 4:32 PM on July 8, 2016


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