Whippet Agression

Hi there,

I have a two year old female whippet. She is speyed. I live in a house with children, I think you can guess where this story is going...

She has had a few warning snaps at us in the past when she's either asleep and has been woken up or has food that she doesn't want to share. But yesterday she bit a young child on the foot, she was lying down on one of her favourite comfy spots in the house and he got too close from what I can tell by his story. She didn't draw blood but left a small scratch and gave him a fright.

Later in the day she caught an adult on the elbow with a snap while she was being pushed away from some food. Again, no blood but a fright.

Up until now she's never actually made contact but it's twice in one day and I'm scared she will do worse. She is fine most of the time but I have lost trust in her. I love her so much but can't think of another option than to re-home her or PTS.

I am trying to make sure she only sleeps in her bed now and stays away from children but it is not practical in the house to keep them separate.

As far as I have read and heard this is pretty unusual for whippets an I am completely lost what to do next.

Any advice?

I think there are a few clues in what you say.

Leivapool said:

She has had a few warning snaps at us in the past when she's either asleep and has been woken up or has food that she doesn't want to share

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Leivapool said:

while she was being pushed away from some food.

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These seem to be the flashpoints. I realise it has been a nasty and worrying experience but for a moment, try to think the way she does. If you were in a lovely restaurant enjoying a favourite meal and you believed that someone was going to try and get it from you, you would be pretty cross too (I would probably stab them with my fork but that's another story). And the more you try to get it from her, the harder she feels she has to work to keep it. So first of all, let her eat in peace. Alone, no interruptions and therefore no threats. There is no need to try to take food from her unless it is likely to cause her harm - so just don't do it (why would you?).

Similarly, if she is asleep or dozing in a comfy place, leave her be. There is a good reason for the saying "let sleeping dogs lie".

If you do have to take something from her, or get her off a sofa or something, use a high value piece of food as a swap or a lure. You are not rewarding bad behaviour, you are rewarding her giving over the item or the comfy space - remember to a dog, possession is ten tenths of the law. They don't see 'yours' and 'mine', they see something that is just available - no more, no less.

Also please do be aware of her body language. Dogs give a series of signals that they are unhappy, but unfortunately most people don't recognise them because they can be quite subtle. And in her case, I suspect this may have been what has happened. To begin with there is often wide eyes, lip licking and yawning. There is also muscular tension in the body. Then the ones we sometimes do see - growl, snarl, nip then bite. If the early signals are not seen (or, in the dog's view, ignored) he won't bother with them because us stupid humans pay no attention anyway; so he may go straight to the bite. So it's important never to ignore the early signals. As a friend says, she would rather be told verbally to sod off than be smacked in the face with no warning.

I think you can turn this round. Once she feels she doesn't have to literally fight to keep her dinner she should relax. If you wish, you could muzzle train her to keep everyone safe. Don't just slap a muzzle on her, it has to be introduced slowly as a good thing (you want her to think 'woo-hoo, it's muzzle time'). Squeezy cheese helps a lot! And I will attach a video too. Finally, I want to tag @JudyN into this as she has experience of guarders and muzzles.

Im hearing people invade dog space and expect dog to do nothing about it.

Teach the children to give the dog space and then start some gentle retraining as suggested by @JoanneF..

Or you could re-home the kids!

(sorry if that sounds harsh but really you wouldnt re-home a child with difficult behaviour so why is the first thought re-home the dog?)

The good news - if she meant to bit 'properly', she would have - these were warning snaps. And also, it is manageable.

The bad news - when you have children in the house, it does change things and of course you would never want to take risks with them and you can't always control their behaviour. How many are there, and how old are they?

Whippets are sensitive, and if the children are rowdy and unpredictable (which is normal, of course!) she might just find it all too much for her. Because of the involvement of children, I do think you should get a good behaviourist in to observe her and your children, and assess the risks. Choose one who talks in terms of helping your whippet feel safe, not one who says she's trying to be 'boss' and she needs to be shown her place in the hierarchy. That would go really badly...

As to management: My lurcher is guardy around food, and occasionally his bed, grumpy (potentially aggressive) if pushed, and isn't keen on children. As far as food goes, we keep all food out of his reach and if he does get something, then he's allowed to eat it. Trying to get it off him not only would be dangerous, but would make him more tense around food and more liable to be aggressive in anticipation of you trying to get it off him. In a dog's mind, possession is 10/10ths of the law. Imagine if every time you had food someone tried to take it off you... You'd end up snarking the moment they walk in the room.

Beds - dogs often aren't happy if their personal space is invaded when they're sleeping/resting. I would introduce a crate, or a bed in a quiet place in the house where she won't be disturbed, and encourage her to love it, and use it as much as possible. It can be difficult if she decides that the best sleeping place today is the sunny spot in the middle of the family room or in a doorway though...

Don't try to physically shift her, wherever she is. Instead, work on commands like 'off!' (when she's on the sofa), recall in the house, 'back' (back up, for if she's standing in a doorway), 'out of here' (leave the room you're in)... All taught really positively, as if she's just done the best, cleverest thing ever, never sounding like a firm 'command'). If all else fails, opening and closing the fridge door and calling 'Sausage!' works well for us.

My children were grown up, which meant that this sort of management, and working on him feeling more relaxed in his own skin, were enough. In your case, by making a few changes, and being careful about interactions, may be enough too... But it's up to you (with the help of a behaviourist) to decide whether you can keep your children safe. Bear in mind that it can be difficult to rehome a dog who has shown aggression - if you do want to go down this path, it is VITAL that you do it before she gives a serious bite.

I've just seen JoanneF's post - I'm not sure I'd go down the muzzle route, at least, not in the house, because you only need it if you're putting her in situations she might not be able to cope with. But it could be worth doing for walks, if you think something might go horribly wrong (a squealing toddler tries to cuddle her), or if she mostly plays brilliantly with the children but you're worried she might suddenly have a 'moment'. If you do go down that route, you need to choose the right sort of muzzle: one like this Whippet Muzzle - Don Pare 103 - Just Dogs Online Shop and never one that holds her mouth closed.

Hi,
I appreciate this must be really worrying for you, especially with children in the house. Not sure how old your children are, so these might not be suitable, but there are some useful videos which help teach children how to interact with their pet dog as well as giving advice on body language. We looked at these with our child when we first got our dog. Just google ‘Stop the 77 – The Family Dog’.

I have 3 whippets my oldest Marley is a very sensitive boy nearly everything startles him. He's tried to nip twice the first when a stranger walked into my home and then when my son tried to kiss him when he was sleeping, all my kids have been told how to behave around my dog's. Give her space , when you know if you do this she can react don't do it, leave her while feeding, sleeping etc give her a bed for herself so she has her own quiet place. My 2 are muzzled (the same @JudyN has suggested) only when I go out Rolo I'm still trying to train him to wear one if she wanted to be bite she would have her nipping is a warning. Watch for her licking her lips this a warning she's becoming uncomfortable.
Try training her with her favourite treats to get her to do what you want without physically removing her.

Please dont think about having her PTS ...if you come to a decision that you have to rehome her please send me a message as my friend rehomes whippets ....

You've had such good advice here there's nothing I can add but this: our Lab x whippet snipped a visiting child. It was my fault: the child ran on ahead of the four adults (one of which was me) into the house and I failed to catch up in time to stop her petting him; unfortunately he'd found a tidbit he'd hidden. He spun around and nipped her. Luckily for me the parents were old and good friends. And this was the one and only time because I learned my lesson. I was responsible for the dog and the child and I'd let them both down. I didn't put him in that position ever again. He lived a blameless life till he was 17! You just change the way you keep the dog because you can't change the dog. And don't think of your dog as bad- there's not a dog on earth that won't bite if it feels threatened. I have the scars to prove it.

We also have a guardy dog i have read all the messages which you have had but our grandchildren have grown up with edie they know not to interfere with her when she is eating or disturb her when she is in her basket. I will say that its not easy but i love her and now 2 and 1/2 years old she is so needy and loving its been hard work but i feel we have finally improved her behaviour with patience not dominance

I think this may be a situation where humans underestimated the effort it takes to have a dog. I certainly was one of such humans.

At the end of the day, there is only so much bandwidth and energy left, after dealing with kids, jobs, life... if you are running of juice and just don’t have the energy to invest is solving this problem (and it’s a kids/dog problem, not a dog problem) - I would suggest rehoming sooner than later. This way she will have better chances of happy life after she finds a new family

PTS would not even cross my mind, and I would hope no one will actually perform the procedure under these circumstances.

Hi everybody,

Thanks for all the replies I have a few points to add, the child she nipped is 4 and the other child in the house is 9. They both know to leave the dogs alone in their bed. This incident happened when she was asleep somewhere other than her bed. Which I am now working on. She has a quiet, cosy corner with her bed in and with positive reinforcement I am moving her to there to sleep whenever she starts to settle down elsewhere. She is taking it well and sits in her bed now looking for a treat which makes me laugh.

I got a fright when this happened and would never have actually considered PTS. I'm not even sure why I included that in my post, like I said I got a fright.

We are adjusting our expectations with her, we have never taken food off her or stressed her out (or so I thought) the snap happened when she was being nudged out of the way so someone could walk past. This obviously was more stressful to her than we realise, we have always had labs so have ignored us while eating. So we will make sure to remember she is different to our previous dogs.

I really appreciate all the helpful comments and advice, I have spent time reading through them and taking notes.

I'll keep working with her, I understand the work that needs to go into having a dog and just needed a bit of advice, I didn't expect so many replies so quickly!

Leivapool said:

I got a fright when this happened and would never have actually considered PTS. I'm not even sure why I included that in my post, like I said I got a fright.

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It's always a horrible shock when something like that happens, and your mind immediately runs through all the possibilities - what else might go wrong, what your options will be... I'm glad you're feeling more positive now and can see what you need to do