alexachavez
New member
Hello everyone,
My wife and I just adopted an 11 year old dog from the shelter. I'm not sure what breed he is so I'll include a photo of him instead:
Brian
I'll answer some of the questions I saw in the questionnaire for the sub:
- We just got him a week ago, which I know is not a long time at all
- We walk him 4 times a day and play with him at home
- He weighs approximately 40 pounds
- He is very friendly to humans and completely nonreactive
- We live in a condo in Los Angeles. However, the area where we live has a lot of green space where we walk him
I'm posting here because of two things. When we're at home, Brian is completely calm and can sit, stay, etc. However, when we walk him he is completely unresponsive. His eyes dart everywhere and is clearly excited. Something we also noticed was that he wants to go after other dogs...but he's always begging or whining when he does as if he's excited. However, because he's a new dog we didn't let him meet any dogs on walks.
Yesterday we visited my parents who have two dogs, a 7 year old Blue Heeler mutt and a 9 year old Terrier/Chihuahua mutt. Brian saw the dogs through the glass door and he looked excited...but then bared his fangs. We took him to the backyard where he looked very anxious and was panting heavily while the dogs were inside separated from him. We tried bringing the small dog out but he immediately tried to nip at her while she was in my mom's arms.
What happened next is the incident in question. I let go of Brian because we thought the dogs were back inside (you can't see the backyard door from the yard, it's on the side) so that he can go smell the area. However, at the same time my mom was going back into the house and the small terrier popped out. Somehow Brian knew or was curious so when I let go of him he immediately sprinted around the house, found the small dog and bit her on the throat. I had to run over and pry his jaws open. Thankfully the small terrier was unharmed but I was shook. I grew up with that dog and began crying because I felt so bad.
My question here ultimately is...what do I do and why is my dog like this. I've seen dogs growl before or get defensive, but I've never seen a dog actively go after other dogs and then just bite them. I'm afraid now that when I'm walking him and he sees other dogs and whines/pulls, he's trying to bite them as well. Is there a chance that this dog was trained from his previous owner to be aggressive or attack dogs? Is he just nervous and fear aggressive? Is there anything we can even do with his behavior besides keep him away from dogs?
My wife and I just adopted an 11 year old dog from the shelter. I'm not sure what breed he is so I'll include a photo of him instead:
Brian
I'll answer some of the questions I saw in the questionnaire for the sub:
- We just got him a week ago, which I know is not a long time at all
- We walk him 4 times a day and play with him at home
- He weighs approximately 40 pounds
- He is very friendly to humans and completely nonreactive
- We live in a condo in Los Angeles. However, the area where we live has a lot of green space where we walk him
I'm posting here because of two things. When we're at home, Brian is completely calm and can sit, stay, etc. However, when we walk him he is completely unresponsive. His eyes dart everywhere and is clearly excited. Something we also noticed was that he wants to go after other dogs...but he's always begging or whining when he does as if he's excited. However, because he's a new dog we didn't let him meet any dogs on walks.
Yesterday we visited my parents who have two dogs, a 7 year old Blue Heeler mutt and a 9 year old Terrier/Chihuahua mutt. Brian saw the dogs through the glass door and he looked excited...but then bared his fangs. We took him to the backyard where he looked very anxious and was panting heavily while the dogs were inside separated from him. We tried bringing the small dog out but he immediately tried to nip at her while she was in my mom's arms.
What happened next is the incident in question. I let go of Brian because we thought the dogs were back inside (you can't see the backyard door from the yard, it's on the side) so that he can go smell the area. However, at the same time my mom was going back into the house and the small terrier popped out. Somehow Brian knew or was curious so when I let go of him he immediately sprinted around the house, found the small dog and bit her on the throat. I had to run over and pry his jaws open. Thankfully the small terrier was unharmed but I was shook. I grew up with that dog and began crying because I felt so bad.
My question here ultimately is...what do I do and why is my dog like this. I've seen dogs growl before or get defensive, but I've never seen a dog actively go after other dogs and then just bite them. I'm afraid now that when I'm walking him and he sees other dogs and whines/pulls, he's trying to bite them as well. Is there a chance that this dog was trained from his previous owner to be aggressive or attack dogs? Is he just nervous and fear aggressive? Is there anything we can even do with his behavior besides keep him away from dogs?