One of their little dogs bites a friend entering the house. Everything changes.
He is now muzzled when people come and when he’s out.
The whole situation is very stressful for everyone in the family. The first goal, before doing anything else, is to see how much we can calm things down.
Luka
‘Operation calm’
With calmer little dogs should come a less stressed lady. She and her husband have a lot on their plate with a teenage daughter who needs round the clock care.
The dogs help the girl to feel happy. Some alarm barking makes her feel safe. Unfortunately the barking is uncontrollable.
We sat at the kitchen table and the two dogs rushed into the room, barking. Luka, a 21-month-old Jack Russell Chihuahua mix, was muzzled. Jack Russell Sasha, 5, was friendly and soon stopped her barking.
Luka’s muzzle was removed. He seemed okay with me for a while and then began to bark again. The muzzle was put back on – they are understandably nervous.
The muzzle actually seemed to calm him right down as I have found can sometimes be the case with a certain kind of muzzle. It may work like a calming band. When it came off he was friendly and chilled for a while.
I took my photos when the dogs were being held – the only time they were sufficiently still!
The dogs barked at the slightest sound. They leapt all over us, springing up from the floor, even onto the table itself.
Because the lovely daughter is physically unable to pick them up, it’s necessary that they jump. They jump onto her lap when she’s in her wheelchair and they leap onto her bed where she spends quite a lot of time. They slee
p on her bed with her.
When highly aroused, Luka may also redirect onto Sasha.
This is a case of picking our battles. We will forget about the jumping up as working on that could cause even more stress for all concerned.
My first goal is to calm everything down. A stressed owner creates stressed dogs and visa versa.
Life changes when our dog bites.
One can imagine how distressing it is when our much-loved dog bites someone. A lady friend was walking into the house. The dogs somehow got out of the kitchen.
It is absolutely certain that this would not have happened were it not for stress. Stress builds up to the point where all self control goes out of the window and one final, sometimes minor, trigger is the last straw.
They have had building work for the past few weeks which has led to constant barking. The highly aroused dogs somehow got out of the kitchen. The person was carrying food. They were jumping all over her – Luka barking. She fussed them. The lady owner will have been extremely anxious. The jumping up may have aggravated Luka’s knee problem.
The lady takes a step forward.
Luka goes for her.
He bites the lady – twice.
They will now gate the kitchen doorway so they have a bit more control over where the dogs go.
The dogs can be helped to calm down with something to chew or do, marrow bones or a stuffed Kong each, for instance. To avoid trouble between them they will be one each side of the gate.
The family has so much on their plate just now that simply calming things down has to be the place to start. After all, arousal and stress is at the bottom of both the barking and bites.
