Suddenly Aggressive?
 

Hi All~ My five-year-old yorkie (Cooper) has been displaying some upsetting behavior lately. It started about a month ago when my husband tried to bathe him in the sink. Cooper went crazy once in the sink and started snarling, biting at my husband. Baths have never been Cooper's favorite but he has never been aggressive. We have both tried to give him baths since and have seen the same behavior.

He does the same thing when I try to brush/comb him. Once I get near him with the comb he snarls, bites at me.

Last week we went on vacation and boarded Cooper at his vet. They LOVE him there. He sits on their laps while they do paperwork and they let him run around the office when it's slow. When I picked him up on Monday his favorite vet tech pulled me aside and informed me that they had seen similar behavior. As she was speaking to me I was holding Cooper. The vet tech reached out to pet him and he snarled, bit at her.

I am going to make a vet appointment after the holiday to make sure there is nothing physically wrong. I am also going to contact a behavioral expert we worked with a couple of years ago (when Cooper was biting our other dog). But I wanted to see if anyone else has dealt with a similar situation. If so, what did you do?

Thanks in advance for your help!

I am sorry you are having problems with Cooper. There could be a number of things going on. Has he had any rabies vaccinations lately? I have read that over vaccinating can cause fear aggression.
Vaccine induced aggression and dog attacks - National American Pit Bull | Examiner.com

Have you noticed him having any vision problems? Is his hair out of his eyes? Has he experienced any kind of aggression from another animal or person? It sounds like something has made him fearful of people. I pray you can get some answers. Please keep us posted.

Sorry to hear you are having such an upset with your little guy. I would think that he is having some sort of health issue. It could be that being held or touched is causing him pain. Maybe an injury you were not aware of but I would be more inclined to think that it is health related.

Hopefully you have a vet that will take this issue seriously and do a very good examination to get to the bottom of what is bothering your little guy.

I would have him fully checked out by a vet to be sure this behavior isn't health related. Behavior changes are one of the first indications that a dog is ill or in pain. Not just a physical exam but a full blood panel and heartworm test and fecal. Then, if those are all normal and his neurological/full system physical exams are normal, you can look at what is causing this behavior.

Dogs seldom suddenly become aggressive with humans unless it is medical. If it is a behavioral issue, likely it's been building for up a while, with the dog losing some respect for his leadership, guarding things he considers should be his a little or becoming possessive and it's just things you've overlooked or let go. Fear, frustration, stress, trying to achieve dominance with what the dog might see as somewhat weak leadership can all contribute to this. Starting him out with the Nothing In Life Is Free program where he has to obey a command to get even his basic needs met can start to show him who is really in control and the dog enjoys the process. Further enrichment of his life with more walks, challenging games and x3 daily obedience training daily in short 5 minute sessions, where he learns how to do what you say quickly for praise and a reward, all serve together to meet the basic needs of a healthy, happy dog, fill them with achievement and all of the busy activities and and teamwork teaching them self-confidence and building you up in his eyes as an authority figure to be respected. A rehab program like this can help defuse aggression at first and eventually just wipe the tendency out.

Wow! This is all great info. I did manage to get a muzzle on him this afternoon so that I could cut the hair out of his eyes. I am thinking this may have something to do with the behavior we have been seeing.

Also, I am going to institute the "Nothing in Life is Free" program ASAP. Admittedly my husband and I are not the best trainers, so it could be a build up of us allowing bad behavior.

Thanks ya'll!

And don't forget the vet appointment and obedience training. Just good old basic obedience training and the enjoyment of working together with his master can transform a misbehaving dog and make him start to see you as his pack leader that he wants to respect and curry favor with - not try to dominate. Dogs are like children and happiest when they have love and always-enforced boundaries and lots of learning activities and challenges in life - otherwise they tend to act out. Getting him busy learning to mind you will help his attitude so very much but it takes work. You have to keep working with them in going through their little training activities if they are an easily bored dog or one with a tendency to want to dominate. But even genial, calm, submissive dogs enjoy training and work. But first be sure he's not ill or hurting, just to be on the safe side if his aggression truly did start suddenly and he was a well-behaved sweetheart before that.

Before starting any kind of training program please have him checked out by a vet. Personalities do not just change for no reason. The kind of behavior you describe can indicate serious health issues.

Since my last post I have taken Cooper to the vet for a full checkup . Luckily he seems to be in perfect health. Unfortunately this did not solve the aggression problem.

So, I met with a dog trainer who specializes in aggressive behavior. She spent four days with Cooper and has been guiding me through the process of helping him get back to the sweet dog he was. I have seen such great progress over the past week and am feeling very hopeful!

At this point, Cooper has certain things that make him anxious and lashing out is the only way he feels that he can keep himself safe. My trainer has recommended putting him in a basket muzzle so that we can desensitize him to things that frighten him, show him that these things won't hurt him (without getting bit in the process--those little teeth hurt!).

Unfortunately I have searched the forum on muzzles and this seems to be a very controversial topic. I am happy to listen to anyone's opinion but at this point I believe the basket muzzle is the best thing to help get Cooper safe and happy. Does anyone know where I can get a basket muzzle that will fit a 4.5 pound dog? I have used a nylon one a couple of times but feel that it is not the safest and most comfortable thing to use. Any suggestions would be very helpful. Thanks!

I will research for you, but if memory serves my oldish mind correctly there is a website entitled workingdogs something.com. They do have small muzzles as well. Some larger pet stores will sell the basket muzzle. You need to have it fitted properly. I would have hoped your trainer had some recommendations for you on sourcing of this muzzle.

The muzzle properly used is a very good training/re training tool. Trust your trainer in this.

Thank you! I will look online and see what I can find.

Also, thank you so much for the positive feedback. I really appreciate it. My trainer has been wonderful and I trust her completely. She mostly works with JRTs so the websites she recommended don't have "mini-muzzles" (for lack of a better term).

Oh my gosh, you could be talking about Buster! He has become so aggressive in the past three months. He's had three knee surgeries since July and finally had the leg completely bandaged for almost seven weeks. He actually bit me on the face a couple of weeks ago. He snarls and tries to bite me when I try to clean his eyes, brush him, almost anything that he doesn't like. He still has issues with his leg, I know it hurts him and he still has a long way to go before he is completely well. But I need to find a way to try to change his behavior. Do I have to wait until he is completely well? I told DH today that I was going to get a muzzle but I was joking. Maybe it's not a bad idea.

Just curious, when was the last time Cooper had a rabies shot? I have read that the rabies vaccine can cause increased aggression and fear in some dogs months after they had the vaccine.

The Rabies Vaccine for Dogs: Side Effects and Precautions You Can Take

Awww...I wonder if the little guy is just cranky because of the pain?! Or, maybe he's learned that you'll leave him alone if he's aggressive.

If you get a muzzle, at least you will be able to safely brush and care for him.

If I got my dog a muzzle, I think I would start out be doing good things while he is in his muzzle...give him lots of praise and maybe give him a good massage and scratch all his favorite places and give him a treat when he's all done. I would probably only leave it on a minute or so and start increasing the time until he was comfortable with it...THEN, I would start trying to do the stuff he's not fond of.

Due to the fact that Buster's leg is hurt, you probably want to make the whole process of the muzzle as stress free as possible so he doesn't try to thrash around in it and hurt himself further...so slowly introducing him to it and gradually introducing him to the stuff he doesn't like, I would think, would be the best way to go about it.


If it's pain that's causing it, perhaps the vet could give you some pain killers to give him for the times that you trying to do the things he's not fond of. Maybe he'd be more accepting of what you are doing if he's more comfortable.

I would think that a basket muzzle would be way more comfortable and less restrictive than a cloth/nylon muzzle. The nylon muzzle literally holds the dogs mouth closed, whereas the basket muzzle creates a protective shield around the dogs mouth. I've used a nylon muzzle on my dog at the vets...although i am not fond of them as I've seen dogs bite their tongues using those.