Why does a dog bite when approached or physically moved against his wishes?
They have had the two-year-old Golden Retriever for just a few months.
The recent and worst bite sent the young man to A & E.
Danny came from a family with children. This may account for his behaviour towards being physically interfered with.
Very likely, having snapped at children to get them to leave him alone, he was punished. This is only guesswork, but his behaviour points to something like that.
The man now has a stitched and bandaged hand.
This bite followed a chain of things that will have built up Danny’s arousal levels.
The young man had just brought him back from a walk. Danny’s always on lead as not trusted to come back. They gave up using a long line after he pulled the young lady over.
All the things Danny wants – squirrels, other dogs, running free – are out of his reach. Frustration.
That morning the man had started to take the harness off. Danny doesn’t like them putting his harness on or taking it off. It was still half off him when the dog had gone into his open crate. This wasn’t usual. As it was now breakfast time, the man threw in a handful of his breakfast kibble.
The final straw
The harness hadn’t quite come off and was dangling. Approaching the crate where Danny was eating, the man went to slip the harness away from the dog’s foot where it was caught.
Danny attacked him. No warning. No growling.
Danny will have already learnt that body language signals don’t work. They do now back off when he growls, but I would bet that in his previous life growling would result in punishment. This is understandable if the people thought it was the way to protect their children.
Anyway, questioning clarified the things in common with each of the times he has bitten.
Common denominators
Danny has only ever actually bitten the man.
Each time, it’s been when the young man has approached Danny.
Each time, he has touched Danny to get him to do something the dog doesn’t want to do. He doesn’t like them putting on and removing his harness. He may be lying on their bed or on the sofa and the man pushes him over.
The plan to change how Danny feels, and thus behaves:
When he is eating, they will keep away from him.
If he is on their bed – having very likely moved into the man’s place when he got out of bed- the young man will now get his willing cooperation. I suggest a pot of kibble high up near the door. He calls Danny off the bed to him and feeds him as a thank you. Then he will be free to get back into bed. Everyone’s happy.
If he wants Danny to move up the sofa he can do the same thing. Call Danny off, reward him, go and sit down and invite Danny up again.
Is this ‘giving in’ to the dog and in some way losing?
It’s easy to feel that this is ‘giving in’ to a dog and you are allowing him to be ‘the boss’. I see it more that the dog is touchy and not happy. He’s defending his personal space. He’s wound up.
But the outcome really is a win. With everyone happy, that there are no losers.
Hands-on rough and tumble type play isn’t good for a dog that may bite – so this will stop. I believe this contributes to the reason it’s so often the man who is the one who’s bitten. Particularly if he then tries to impose discipline of some kind.
Getting to the root of the behaviour and deal with that.
A willing dog won’t be on the defensive so will have no need to bite.
Everything is in the context of Danny being as stable as possible. Good enrichment, calming activities and reduced frustration. Walks on a longer lead so that he can sniff.
We both found the meeting extremely useful and have taken away a lot of techniques to help Danny empty his stress bucket, it was great to get us thinking on the same page
