Territorial Aggressive Behaviour in our 6 year old dog.

[Willow7]

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Hello, we are at our wits end with our dog ( not the dog in the picture ) The dog in question is a female who is 6 years old, we got willow from a shop that got her from a puppy farm in Wales. Willow is a cocker spaniel and she has always had resource guarding issues which we have dealt with over the years.

Over the past months willow has been ( only way Of saying it is holding us hostage in our own home) . The last two days and nights she has been barking growling and snarling at us, we had to go upstairs as we couldn’t get into the front room. On Saturday evening 31st July 2021, my daughter came home from work and took Willow for her walk, because my daughter was tired she didn’t walk willow the usual route so when she came back willow started growling, barking and snarling at her, my daughter tried calming her down but it didn’t work, willow went for my daughter and bite her 5 times on her left arm. Willow has never done this before, my daughter had to go to A and E to have a tetanus jab and antibiotics given. we are now thinking of re homing her at Battersea Dogs home as we have tried everything to help Willow, we love her to bits and this is difficult. We do have a new puppy called Benjy who is 6 months old but willow was like this before he came along. Willow was going to Halo dogs when we went away on holidays ect without any problems, ( I wasn’t impressed with the guy from halo attitude when I emailed him for advice, when he rang me up ) All the years we have sent willow there and the cost.

we cannot afford training for her as it’s too expensive, my daughter keeps changing her mind what she wants to do. I am scared of willow she is a big dog. I look after her most of the time while my daughter is at work. I cannot do it anymore.
Any help or advice would be appreciated, thank you for reading.

 

[Finsky]

Hi there, before others come up with their helpful ideas & advice....I wanted to ask, have you been to vets to have her checked out? Even if she has had this kind of behavioural trends before, if she has something wrong with her without you otherwise noticing it...it can bring up this extreme behaviour out of her. Does she eat/drink/wee & poo normally? Does she seem to sleep more/less? Is she stretching her body more than normally or do other kind of movements more? Have you changed her diet/food/been given something different to eat from normal?

 

[JoanneF]

To be very honest, this sounds so serious that people on an Internet forum are probably not going to be able to give as much help as you need. And if the bite was serious enough for your daughter to need stitches, it would be misleading to let you think it was going to be something that can be fixed without seeing your dog. There are management strategies that can help, but this really shouldn’t be treated lightly, I agree your first step is a vet but then I think you need a properly qualified behaviourist who uses a modern, science based approach. Look for someone who uses words like reward based, force free - anyone who talks about pack leadership, alpha or dominance should be avoided. Do you have insurance? That may cover the cost.

You should also be aware that Battersea and other rescues may not be able to rehome a dog with a bite history and might refuse to accept her.