Protecting us and fearful agressive dog, Need some help :)

[loza123]

Hey!

Hope you all remeber me lol. I have a 5 year old lab X GSD I think he has more GSD then collie, he's called Bob

Now he weighs about... 30 kgs and my god can he pull when he wants to . He can be very reactive with other dogs, we normally have pulling, barking and lunging, if the dog he has spotted is on the other side of the road walking the other way he will quite often stand up on his back legs. He doesn't like crowds, bikes, or strangers, which can be hard as when hes walking they always seem to stare at him almost.. which doesn't help.. cats are always fun to chase! You cant beat going for a drag! Litrally! If any wildlife is in the garden he will have to run out and chase it all away and sometimes put in a bark or two. There are a few people who have said how they are very pleased we have still kept him. I think if we had taken him back he wouldn't have left the rescue and i imagine would be PTS. We did use to go to a trainer, but my dad didn't want to pay the money anymore as he thought it wasnt getting him anywere. My mum wants to but right now we dont have the money. Though when we was with the trainer she did say that he is protecting us.

So we have a large 30kg dog who is fearful of other dogs, using agression to protect himself, and he 'has' to thing about protecting us aswell! He has been attacked twice while on his lead and once off. He's always on high alert while were out walking or if am watching tv in the lounge and he is lying down, if he hears a door shut, his straight up at the door barking. That goes for when people walk past infront of our house and even when there on the other side of the roas. If theres a dog then he will happily stand on his back legs and scratch at the glass ...

I dont think until we can ... whats the right word... Well until we can crack his protectness over us he wont really improve around other dogs. i dont mean in a big change or anything that might take months, years, or it may never happen but its means we have tackled one of his problems.

The sad part is he loves to play fetch and run after his tennis ball. But we cant take him out that often to run as the fields near us are all open and I cant risk a dog fight.

Though I do let him run there is a smallish field near us that is fenced in I always keep him on his long.. 30ft lead but I only hold onto it when he spots a dog even then I fed him. But if it wasn't for me he wouldn't be getting a run at all.

So does anyone know how we can start to deal with his protectness?

[ladybug1802]

I dont know what others think but I honestly dont think he is protecting you....not in the way humans would think anyway. I dont think he is thinking "hey, theres something over there that might be a threat...I must protect my human from it!" I would say his behaviour does sound, like you have said, like it comes from fear. It can be pretty severe as you have seen. The fact he has been attacked by other dogs twice will of course add to (or produce) his fear.

Is he reactive to people as well as dogs?

[loza123]

Not really no. There has been a number of times when he has barked at people. The reason I say he is protecting us as when we went away we placed him at our trainers centre, there was a girl who brought him out and he was fine with her. A few days later we went for our normal session and that same girl who brought him out to us came out to tell the trainer something and bob starting barking amd was stood on his back legs up against the fence, barking at her. We try not to let him greet children/people because I dont know whether he is anxious and might defend himself by barking, lunging.

Thats happened before. We were walking along and there was a group of girls betweent he ages of 10 and 13 I would say, he spotted them as they were sitting on the kirb ahead of us. They started to move off and walk towards us. There was a car reversing out of the driveway so I kept bob on the grass while they car pulled out. All of the girls were there staring at him not daring to go past us. Bob was just on the grass. I imagine bob sensed they were fearful as I could see they were he started to bark they all screamed and ran passed.

It wasn't the best idea really..

[jacksdad]

from what I understand it's actually rare for a dog to protect. Protect as in "oh no, danger, danger, must protect my human". What is far more likely is your being resource guarded. As in "my bone" or "my toy" or "my food bowel" stay way, not sharing.

we are highly important resources to our dogs. we provide food, love, attention, play, bathroom breaks, walks etc, etc, etc. your dog isn't going to want to give that up without a fight.

His reaction to that girl. I supposed he could have just been SUPER excited to see her again...., but it could also have been, my people are back don't take me away. Or my people are back, not sharing. or something along those lines. Basically resource guarding. Much, much safer assumption. Because if go with the "happy to see" her and it was resource guarding things will get worse. On the other hand, if you treat for resource guarding and it's not you have lost nothing.


While you indicate you don't think he is people reactive, you also say there has been a number of times he has barked at people and you do not let him greet people. wise per caution. But remember, reactive does not always mean fearful. reactive is a dog that has an over the top reaction to X (X being people, dogs, squirrels, cats, cars, trees etc). Fear seems to be a very common root cause, but resource guarding can be as well.

I would at the very least assume he IS reactive to people and that resource guarding is a real possibility as his root cause.

[loza123]

Right that does make semse i just don't know how we can prevent him fromresource guarding or how to help help been so fearful and anxious

[Oreodog19]

I know you posted a while ago, but hopefully this may help. I would drop the protectiveness thing-this is FEAR. I have a dog that was attacked on the block where we live-and she has the SAME issues. She is constantly fearful now-loud noises, doors closing or opening, she scans the area on walks etc. After being attacked, she became fearful of MANY things. I suggest reading "Scaredy Dog" by Ali Brown, it helped us immensely.