Help! George bit my husband.
 ) I tried sitting by him to see what was up, and he kept showing his teeth and growling. It was the weirdest thing. He wanted to just lay on our bed and chew on it, which is weird too because he always wants to be by us. My kids went into our room to watch a movie in our bed, so we told George to get down. He refused to move, so Matt (my husband) picked him up and placed him on the floor. George seemed very aggitated by this and jumped right back up. The second time Matt put him down he turned around and bit his arm...hard. He drew blood and the kids were crying because they were so scared and had never seen George like this. We finally got the rawhide away and I threw it in the garbage immediatly. We were all stunned to see him this way. The next day I gave him another bone from the same bag, and he was totally fine with it. My husbands arm looks bad and I feel awful. Any suggestions? This is so out of the blue. By the way, we just had him into the vet and everything looks good (ears, temp, no parasites, etc...) Thanks for listening. I am just a wreck now, and I'm scared that he would do something like that to anyone he see's. Help! |
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| Lesson number 1 - if the dog is growling, back off and give him some space!! Growling is a warning - not a challenge
Lesson number 2 - He has some resource guarding issues which may be as simple to deal with as no more rawhide treats (they aren't good for him anyway). Lesson number 3 - since you have kids, I personally wouldn't give any dog a treat outside of his crate. And although your husband may already know this - lesson number 4 is he should have the doctor look at the bite - dogs bites can get infected. If you are concerned about telling the doc he was bit you could always say he was wrestling with the puppy and it wasn't intentional. |
| And lesson #5, to add to all the excellent advice above: if you encounter a situation like this your best recourse is to head for the refrigerator, cheerfully and loudly open it and pick out the choicest whatever there and see if Trouble won't drop the rawhide and run to you. This (a) gets him off the furniture (and based on his behavior, he just lost all furniture rights, sorry, dude) and (b) allows the other person to quietly pick up the rawhide and do what you wisely did and throw it in the trash, but without having to get into a tussle with him over it.
Then you can go back and throw away any other rawhides you have in the house and vow to yourself to never give them to him again  . Like Kerry said, they're really not good for most dogs most of the time (exception being big rawhide chips for small teething puppies) Older dogs chew them till they get soggy, not only soiling/making their leg coat icky, but, worse, enabling them to swallow them whole and potentially get them caught in their throat (been there, done that - nothing like sticking your fingers down your dog's throat while she's choking to make you a true believer that these things shall never darken your doorstep again) or in your dog's gut, potentially requiring surgery. I'm pretty sure we can come up with some alternate chewie suggestions that are safer for him. I use good sized shank bones per my vet's suggestion. I'm sure there are others.
Now, you're still left dealing with his resource guarding which should be nipped in the bud so you'd be wise to play lots of trading up games (Kerry - refresh my memory, please - who wrote that superb article detailing how that works?) I'm a little surprised by his lack of bite inhibition, especially having spent a lovely weekend with one of his littermates, if I'm not mistaken, who is the epitamy of wonderful OES temperament. So I'm kind of thinking the young man has quickly developed a very inflated sense of self worth that needs to be brought into a more realistic framework. Obedience class (is he signed up for on by chance?) and more house rules will go a long way towards shifting his view of himself to a more realistic level. Very enouraging that he was OK the next time he got a rawhide, but I'd strongly consider what Kerry said and not give him any, plus take this incident as feedback that the young man needs a bit more structure in his life. Does any of that make sense? Kristine |
Mad Dog wrote: And lesson #5, to add to all the excellent advice above: if you encounter a situation like this your best recourse is to head for the refrigerator, cheerfully and loudly open it and pick out the choicest whatever there and see if Trouble won't drop the rawhide and run to you. Excellent point!!! (Kerry - refresh my memory, please - who wrote that superb article detailing how that works?) MINE! by Jean Donaldson Kristine |
| Thanks for the rawhide information. I will throw them ALL out asap. I have seen them get soggy and I did wonder if that was ok. We will continue to keep up with the dominance issues and training. He has always been super awesome with his toys, never had a problem with food aggression, I guess he is starting to think he is the king of the house. We will HAVE to nip it in the bud right away. I appreciate all the advice you guys have given us. Maybe he just had an "off day." He is starting his obedience training/classes in August. He is a wonderful boy, full of love and affection. This just was some kind of bump in the road. I think I need to be "on him" more. And yes, he did loose the right to be on the bed! Thanks again!!! |
| Ditto to the above - the behavior, response and not using rawhides.
Definitely loses furniture/bed priveleges. Our Maggie (coonhound) lost her bed priveleges for bad bed behavior as well. Over a year ago.....and she is otherwise the sweetest, most affectionate dog around. She is fine with stuff on the couches, so she gets to be on them. Trading up is always good. Something that he feels that strongly about that he defends it from you is not something you want to encourage. Far easier to just eliminate the problem altogether. And have your husband's arm checked. Bites (even human ones) are a nasty one because of the oral bacteria. As a nurse, we see this all the time. One was a guy who had a nasty infection on his knuckles. Turned out he was in a bar fight a few days earlier and had punched a guy in the mouth. 
Hang in there, you had good instincts to throw it away. |
| The exact same thing happened a few years ago with my parents and their OES, Allie. She had never been aggressive and she suddenly became the devil incarnate when she was given a rawhide bone.
She lunged at both my mother and me when we tried to take the bone away. Only my father was able to calm her down enough to take it away from her. It was promptly put in the trash. She's never had one since then, and we haven't seen that side of her either. Interestingly enough: when she's around my OES puppy Linus she has expressed absolutely no interest in his toys, ropes or Nylabones. He chews them right in front of her, and she could care less. For some reason, there was something about the rawhide. |
| I always do trades. For bones. I always thought like I was cheating. But my instructor said to do that as well. So I always trade bones (raw meaty bones) with cookies. I also separate the beasts too. |
| We had a guy who was super protective of rawhide. The only time he ever bit anyone other than me was when a cousin visited us and brought/gave him a rawhide treat.
We did have one that we kept for him, it was five feet long. We'd give it to him when we needed a break, and he did love them so. We'd put it in a place that was away from foot traffic (he'd guard when you walked by) and we'd retrieve it and hide it when we thought he'd had enough by ringing the front doorbell. He'd go for the door, the other spouse would hide the bone. |
| That is the one thing Summer will growl over, she wont let Tilly anywhere near her with a rawhide. She is only allowed them now when someone is holding the other end and then she is fine. About a week ago we had the same incident and I went to the fridge and got some cheese out and she left the chew. I think we sometimes forget they are animals...xx |
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