Help - How to Reintroduce Dogs after an Attack

[Natasha]

Hi Everyone,

I'm so sad to say that Rouser was attacked by one of our fellow agility dogs at class today. Actually, he was attacked twice.  The first time it was a small scuffle that no one saw what started it so we assumed Rouser (the class clown) was just too much energy and maybe tried to take our friend's dog's toy.  We went on with class (Rouser just had a little scrape on the nose) and then, after class, we decided to walk our dogs on leash together to reinforce the pack/who's in charge etc.  Out of nowhere, our friend's dog just lunged at Rouser, attacked him, grabbed his ear and wouldn't let go.

Rouser is OK (DH has him at the vet to get cleaned up right now). He has a big scrape on his ear and a little puncture on his ear as well.  However, he's petrified of our friend's dog. 

Rouser is not, in any way, the alpha dog.  He's 2 1/2 years old and totally submissive to even the smallest of dogs (he rolls on his back around the littlest dogs you can imagine).  He is, however, very large and can get quite excited when we first get to training.  We've been going to the same place for about 1 1/2 years - every Saturday. We've been doing agility for about 5 months every week as well.  Rouser has trained with our friend's dog at the same facility - almost always twice a week - for the last year.

Our friend's dog is about 14 months and is 40 pounds to Rouser's 90 pounds. He was rescued as a puppy (he was under 8 weeks which can cause some behavior issues) and is some kind of cattle dog mix. He's super intelligent and really good at agility. He's also pretty obedient - HOWEVER - over the last month we've been watching his obedience wane.  First it was getting up from long stays.  Then it was a little ignoring of his owners from time to time. This past Saturday, he actually started barking at his owner and wouldn't stop as his owner was trying to get him into a down. It was really surprising to see him challenge his owner like that - not the dog we all know.

I think our friend's dog has something going on. They're responsible dog owners so I know they will do everything they can to get to the bottom of it, but, in the meantime, does anyone have any advice about what we should do to ensure that we can train with them again.  All of our training, at this point, is off-leash so I need to make sure Rouser won't be in harms way. We will, of course, consult the head trainer at our facility, but I'd really like to know if anyone has successfully addressed this and has some do/don't do tips.

Thanks for your help!

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I'm as far from an expert on this as I could possibly be, but the one thing that I do know is that if a dog is ever going to be reactive/aggressive to another dog, it's going to be while he's on leash and making eye contact with the other dog.
I'm willing to bet that if you watched the dogs eyes just before these confrontations, you'd see some inappropriate eye contact between them.
I never ever let JD get close to a strange dog (or one he's had problems with) while he's on leash, and when we are out walking, I pay a lot of attention to other dogs body language and any attempts to make eye contact with him, and I never allow him to look at them if humanly possible.
I know this isn't much help with your particular situation, but maybe something in this could help give a clue as to the problem.

[Natasha]

I agree regarding the eye contact. We've seen that before. We don't know what happened the first time, but the second time there wasn't any eye contact as they were side by side about 4 feet apart and Rouser was looking at us for training commands as he would normally during obedience class. Our friend's dog then lurched and the owner couldn't stop him from attacking Rouser.

Apparently, this isn't the first time the dog has lurched aggressively at other dogs - it appears to have been happening to them over the last month (on walks - so they would be approaching each other) although this is the first time that he has made contact. It's such a surprise to all of us as he has been, up until the last two months, a really well-behaved, smart dog that wants to please his owners.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Yes, he may be a really smart dog that wants to please his owners, but he's a cattle dog. I just don't believe that a lot of the smaller breeds who are intended strictly for herding, like border collies, cattle dogs, (and at the risk of inadvertently offending someone) even Australian shepherds- make ideal house pets. They have an independent quality in them that lends itself to wanting to control situations and making their own decisions, which works well when they're alone on a hillside with a flock of sheep, but less well in a class.
Recently, a border collie got into a snarling match with Jack in line at the checkout stand in a pet supply store. I saw the whole thing, and it was 100% the border collie. He wanted to be in charge of where JD was positioned. Yet the owner told me he is "a therapy dog, and is very well trained, he just barks sometimes." (!!!!) You bark in JD's face when he's standing there minding his own business at your own peril, lol.
It's very common to see them in agility, because they're light-weight and fast, and they learn quickly, but if I had to bet a significant sum of money on it, I'd say the cattle dog is 100% to blame in this whole situation. The dog sounds like he has some problems. Of course, that doesn't help you "reintroduce" them now.
If it were me, I'd ask the trainer for guidance in this. Actually, if it were me, I'd avoid the dog entirely, but I understand they have to see each other in class. Seek out whoever in charge of the classes and get their help with this.

[F, Calla & Luca]

My old trainer had a border collie who was very, very well trained. She had him in class one day and Luca sniffed his rear very innocently and not overly closely. That dog in a lightening fast move turned on Luca, who would have been dogburger if the trainer had not been right next to them and able to control her dog. I would never have wanted to be around him without the trainer being there and even that made me a it nervous. Funny thing, for her up and coming soon to be star she got a golden retriever pup.

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

I would be pretty surprised if the trainer lets this dog back into class after this episode until the dog can be further evaluated by a knowledgeable trainer or behaviorist. This may be something they would even want to talk to their Vet about...there could be some possibility of a physical underlying cause of the change in behavior. I know that any incident like that in the classes that I've taken would result in the dog not being allowed back until there was some resolution. I suppose all trainers view these things differently, but our trainer was pretty emphatic when it came to demonstrations of aggressive behavior.

[Allyson, Peri & Taquito]

That is what I was going to say. Most trainers and facilities don't invite the dog back until they have had a chance to work with an agressive dog 1:1 or send to the vet and a behaviorist. They don't want other dogs in harms way.

I would be careful with Rouser...i don't really have any advice except to not go back if the other dog is there and attacks again.

[Natasha]

Hi Jane - I agree. I'm going to call the head trainer later today after we find out how Rouser did at the vet. I don't know what he's going to do. Unfortunately, he wasn't there or we would have been able to address it right away.

Fortunately, the head trainer has known both dogs since they were 6 months old so he'll have a unique perspective that we, as owners, won't.

I'm going to have him give us an evaluation of Rouser, too, to get some tips as to whether he is doing anything that might cause this kind of thing to happen in the future.

As I said, he's really submissive, but he gets more excited at agility class than he does at obedience class - probably because they are encouraged to view agility as fun-time (you want them to go fast so you use toys as a lure to get them excited and then reward them with it when you're done with the course). Rouser is notorious for stealing one of the dog's squeaky ball (not the one involved in this incident) even though he has his own ball to play with. We might have to adopt a no toy sharing policy. The other dog doesn't mind it -nor does his owner - but I can't imagine all dogs would react the same way. That's the only thing that Rouser does wrong that I can think of.

Ugh - I wish this hadn't happened. Poor thing is probably going to need stitches as the puncture wound is pretty bad.

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

I really believe that when any dogs get into an overly excited state there could be problems. My observation has been that when a dog is in a really excited state, other dogs don't like it. I've read that they view this as instability and even consider it to be a threat. I know exactly what you mean about agility. It's the same way with Guinness's tracking class. You need to get them into a high drive state for them to perform well. Because of that my trainer worked the dogs individually in the tracking class. She gated the door and only one dog at a time was allowed in the training room while the rest of us watched from the waiting room. In her agility class, the dog was off leash while they were doing their "run" and then you brought them back and leashed them until it was your turn again. She did allow "play time" prior to class, but not after class when they were "wound up". I'll be really interested to see how the trainer responds to this. Toy sharing when dogs are this worked up would be pretty scary to me.

[Suzann, Rosey & Bandit]

I agree with the others, he shouldn't be allowed around other dogs while demonstrating this behavior and should be evaluated medically. Maybe you can have your trainer make this suggestion to them if it is uncomfortable for you to do so. Hope Rouser is better soon!

[Leslie J]

I would say, minimally, that this dog shouldn't be allowed in the class without a muzzle.

[Ricki and Tara (doodle)]

I agree with what has been said here by other posters. Also, I wonder if the personality change of the friend's dog could be related to its age? He is at that stage were puppy personality is waning and adult personality is starting to kick in. Tara had a huge personality change around that age. And perhaps the instinctual habits (controlling in this case) also begin presenting more strongly at this age as well?? I'm no expert but I do know that dog adult personalities are often quite different from their puppy personality.

I'm really sorry that Rouser had to go through that unpleasant experience. I hope he is able to move past it quickly. Sorry, I don't have any advice in that regard but hopefully the trainer will be able to guide you. Keep us posted please!

[Natasha]

Well, it looks like this is Rouser's worst day ever.

The puncture wound is really deep so they have to anesthetize him and stitch him up and then keep him until this evening. As for the gash on his ear - it will heal but he's not going to have any hair on that part of his ear for awhile (poor thing). They're sending us home with painkillers and a scared doggy who got beat up, missed lunch (*gasp - this might be the worst part*), and is wondering why the heck he's been at the vet's office all day.

At least our vet is our friend and he loves her (he's got a little crush on her - it's really cute)!