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Originally Posted by yorkietalkjilly  Here is a recent post I did on another thread and it just echoes what others have said to to with her. A biter has just escalated beyond the initial aggressive stage to vicious out of fear but with some training, time, settling in and overcoming her past horrors, she will learn to stop aggressing. She will learn there is nothing to fear in time and with re-training, her behavior will modify. It will take time and patience and lots of love but you can do it. Once she's settled in, I'd start her working learning obedience, challenging games and lots of good, healthy exercise to keep her busy learning and achieving a team membership with you.
Thank you so very much for taking this poor dog and giving her a real chance to be a wonderful, happy and healthy, fulfilled dog with a great life ahead of her. You are wonderful!
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Aggressive dogs will usually initiate barking, growling, showing teeth to get people/dogs to move away because they are fearful or unsure of them. Sounds like she was upset by that experience of the family members, felt as if she had no control of what was happening and it made her unsure around people she doesn't know. Inviting people into your home one at a time to slowly desensitize her to people could help. Have the person come in, don't look at her, talk to or touch her, sit and visit with you while totally ignoring her and then leaving in 5 minutes or so could start to get her used to strangers being around and teach her there is no harm in them. After three or four have done this visiting-while-ignoring visit with you daily for two weeks, have each person now start to toss out treats on the floor near them from time to time for her though still strictly ignoring her. After another couple of weeks of that, a visitor could see if she will start to act friendly, approach or sniff by placing a hand down by the side of a chair, maybe with a treat in it. Allow them to briefly interact with her if she does approach but leave fairly quickly after she initiates their attention and to leave her wanting more. In time, with more visitors and time, she should regain her enjoyment of having people visit and interact with her. |
I was going to also suggest the ignoring phase of introduction, but a little differently. Dogs by nature are very protective of their own house, because they are protecting you from invaders of the space he is protecting, it's his job. I might actually go to a neutral territory, such as a park with a friend he does not know, and again the suggestion of sitting and making no eye contact, as some dogs will interpret eye contact as a challenge. Have your friend sit at the park, quietly and make many passes back and forth past them. Then you can sit a short distance away once he stops barking at them and talk to your friend while ignoring the dog completely. I would only do that much on the first trip, and repeat this several times. Once you see your pup getting used to the interaction between you and your friend and gets to a calm point about it, you can then have your friend toss a treat his way, while still not making contact, like maybe just in the middle of conversation without stop. I'm not sure i would do this in your home though as he sees his home as his territory and something he will protect. A neutral setting will be more calming as long as its a quiet park, or place you meet. He should after a while start to see how other dogs act with their people and pick up queues from their behavior.
As far as the potty goes, I would start putting potty pads down in a potty pad holder, maybe a couple in his favorite places he has accidents, and use a spray on the pads that encourages them to go there. Also I would never reprimand n accident and just ignore it, but give praise and treats for when he gets where e is supposed to. Gizmo too was abused, and we are working out the kinks still but he has amazed us at how far he has come in just a few short months :-) regaining trust is the first thing that needs to be established. Gizmo was very afraid of us at first, he would yelp anytime my husband would pet him. It was like he associated a mans touch with being hurt, thankfully he fully loves and trusts him now :-) we have also trained Gizmo to potty outside on walks, but he is also allowed to use potty pads inside. We use have a large richell xpen for him, that fits his bed, potty pads, and food and water. He sleeps in there at night, and also naps during the day in it. I also put on soft music for him at night while we are sleeping so e doesn't feel lone by silence. I will take the signs I get from him on how he acts, and build my training around what he needs to make him feel safe :-)
I will definitely keep you and your pup in my thoughts, ad I'm sure itch the love you have for him, he will learn to trust and know not ll people are bad XOXO