Westie is Biting?!?

[harshita96]

Hello. We have a 20 month old male westie (1 year 8 month) who has recently began to show signs of aggression towards strangers (three incidents so far). He has been vaccinated and is seemingly healthy, so we are unable to identify the reason. When someone enters the home, he begins to bark, but there is no growling, etc. But, when people enter his room (we have a mud room) or are near it, he growls and becomes very aggressive, trying to bite them by latching onto their legs. This behavior is towards all unfamiliar people, including children and adults. He acts normal when the people he knows (family, housekeepers) are around, but suddenly lashes out when there are visitors and even tries to bite us if we are holding him around the new people. We are thinking he may be feeling very territorial around his space and insecure, but this is all a new habit that he's formed over the past few months. We do not know how to stop this behavior. Please help!

[WufWuf]

If you repost this in the Dog Training advice section more people will see it.

When you do could you please give us some more detail on your dog. How long have you had him, where did you get him from, is he neutered and if so at what age. What's his daily routine, what food is he on (brand), do you free feed or does he have set meal times. How is he with people outside of the house? Who lives in your household (humans and animals)? What walks, training and games does he get on a daily basis.

It does sound like he's feeling insecure and fearful.

even tries to bite us if we are holding him around the new people

Holding him around new people will only make him feel trapped and if he's trying to bite you I'd say he's VERY afraid. He needs to associate people with good things not feeling trapped and scared.

If you repost with the above information I'm sure we'll be able to offer some advice to help him feel more comfortable around people .