Louis
This has never happened before and Louis was put in another room for 2 hours. We have another male Baxter in the family who is from the same litter and he is very docile, he is with Louis at least once a week. On Christmas Day Louis growled quite a lot at Baxter before he turned on my niece. They are both neutered, can anyone help this has really upset our family and Louis is usually so wonderful. Thank you Ian East Sussex, England |
|
|
| The minute he started to growl, petting should have stopped and your niece walked away. I suspect he was giving plenty of other signals everyone ignored. No yelling as that might have escalated him immediately. You did right by removing him. He may not be able to tolerate strangers, many people around him, his early social training didn't take. If Louis and Baxter are OK together when other people are not around, they can remain visitors. Louis should not be trusted around strangers or even groups of people he knows and you need to improve your dog-message reading. They often give off signals before they explode like this, you need to recognize them and diffuse them by removing him from the stimulus or often just a quite reproach to turn his brain away from this tunnel vision journey to disaster. If he must be around groups of people, use a muzzle and "joke" it is to prevent him from finding "snacks" or picking people's pockets for treats. But never put him into a situation where he is uncomfortable until retraining is successful. Resocializing is difficult after puppyhood where they learn their manners......but it can be done. You will need a knowledgeable trainer who doesn't immediately want to put the dog down.......you will find them now that the dog has attacked. Also have Baxter examined by a vet......use a muzzle to protect the vet. Could be he was in pain or something was bothering him.......but to use such explosive behavior makes me think this is not the total reason. I'm sorry this happened. Sheepdogs have a reputation of being nasty.......I blame uprights for not being able to read the dog's signals and pushing on. |
| Muzzle/vet ASAP brief Vet fully |
| When a dog's behavior changes like this, out of the blue, I would check out possible medical issues first. It sounds like he was first warning off his littermate, possibly because he wasn't feeling well. Please get him to the vet for a thorough exam, including the thyroid. Hypothyroidism can cause sudden behavioral changes that disappear when the dog receives the proper meds. Laurie and Oscar |
| Is he used to being around little kids? Was it a bigger family gathering than he is used to? Both these can be stressful to some dogs... If either of these is true - and when his warning messages didn't save him, he responded in what he thought was the best way to save himself from the situation. This would be a case of his humans not paying attention and preventing the very unfortunate situation.  |
Didn't find exactly what you're looking for? Search again here:
Custom Search
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|