Help with a DEMON DOG...

[Crazy Pan]

Hey everyone. I am in need of some help. Well, not as much me as my older sister. Let me give you a little history about a demon mini pincher...

My sister brought home a small scared little mini pincher one day about 6 years ago. It was cute, just a baby, and loved to cuddle. Now, it's been 6 years later, and every year since that first year has been utter hell. She's potty trained, doesn't chew on things she shouldn't, and very cuddly to her owners, my sister and brother in law. The problem is he aggression toward strangers. Barbie (the dog) will lunge and bite at anyone who comes into the room that she hasn't known for more than a long while. By long while I mean you would have had to constantly be around this dog for about a year before it would start to trust you. She has bitten people before, torn pants, and broken skin. This is a problem for me because I have to dogsit this beast from time to time. Yesterday, she bit me to get out of my arms then LUNGED at my roommate, tried to attack her, and bit me AGAIN when I tried to stop her. She's also HORRIBLY food aggressive. If you go near her bowl, she will bite your hand off. I was always told as a kid never to go near the dog while it was eating. But even if her bowl is empty she will attack. It's just ridiculous. Worst of all, my brother in law and sister are in TOTAL denial about it. They go on and on about how "Oh she's just scared is all!". Honestly? I don't give a crap if she's scared. She bites people, including me. That is not something you turn a blind eye to. My sister has a 13 month old baby now. I am terrified that this dog is going to bite my niece and if it does I will personally take it down to the vet to be destroyed. They defend this dang dog so much, and I understand to a point because I have two dogs and I love them a lot...but it's getting to a point where they're defending the dog over people. How it's somehow the person's fault for walking into the house after being invited and the dog biting them. How it's my fault she attacks my roommate because I totally did something to provoke it...nah uh...that's not how it works. Aggressive dogs get put down. Humans can be at fault a lot of times in dog aggression, in fact, it IS my sister and brother in law's fault their dog has gotten to this point because they turn a blind eye to it! But it is not other people's fault their dog attacks.

In conclusion...I just don't know what to do. I tried talking with them but they just denydenydeny. Any advice?

[Fundog]

Unfortunately, there is not much you can do to help someone else's dog, especially if they do not acknowledge something is wrong, and have no inclination to fix it. So my advice to you is: refuse to sit for this dog when they are gone, do not go over to visit. If they come to visit you, insist they leave the dog home. Perhaps then they will get the message. But if they don't, then at least it won't be your problem anymore. Sorry, but that's the best I can tell you.

[maximoo]

ITA with Fundog This is yr sister's problem not yours, and there is nothing YOU can do. They unfortunately will realize you are right when baby toddles near dogs bowl. Hopefully it's just be a nip & not a bite to the face. Do not petsit that dog ever again unless she starts training of some sort. If you must go over do not enter till dog is in a room or behind a gate. Does she watch IMOTD? If not watch it with her.
Tho you intentions & heart are in the right place, you can't fix stupid. She lives with the dog she has to deal with the consequences of it being untrained.
Good Luck to you all.

[Nettle]

That's about the size of it. Nothing you can or should do. Including taking the dog to be executed if it bites your niece. This is absolutely not your place.

Only your sis and her husband can do whatever needs doing with the dog, and it's up to them to decide how they want their dog to behave. Same as you wouldn't want anyone else interfering with a dog of yours and particularly not having it killed. That would be your decision with your dog, and it is their decision with theirs.

Refusing to dogsit it in the meantime is a perfectly good decision.

[Salomé]

How very sad. For the poor dog, because that is a dog that will get put down if he continues like this. I agree with the others that there is nothing you can do in the face of their deliberate denials. One thought: perhaps you can show them YouTube videos of the inside of a dog shelter where the dogs are waiting to be put down if they're not adopted (and with this dog's behavior, he would never be adopted by anyone, sadly enough). I remember Victoria took one couple who was in denial about their dog's aggression to a dog shelter and it snapped them awake to reality. Perhaps that would make your sister realise that -- if she really loves her dog -- something has to be done or she will lose her dog permanently.

In the meantime, I agree with everyone else that you should refuse to help them out or to dogsit. Let them see how difficult their life will be without your assistance with the dog, and how impossible it will be to find anyone to put up with the aggression.

[emmabeth]

Echo what everyone else has said.

Yes she is scared, and through that shes learned to defend herself. It may be that people continue to do things that frighten her possibly in an attempt to train her, that have made this worse, and it is a certainty that by not addressing the issue and showing her that there is no need to be frightned they have also made this worse..

But until her owners want to sort it out, you cannot do anything.

We can tell you how it could be sorted out if you would like to know, but ultimately unless your sister wants to fix it, it wont get fixed.

[Crazy Pan]

Thanks for the advice. My sister is mad at me for not wanting to see the dog anymore and it's caused a bit of drama but I can't handle dealing with that dog. It's small enough that it hasn't seriously injured my big German Shep Leo but by golly he is terrified of her too lol. When he sees her he starts to cry and runs off. No joke. And he's almost 90 pounds!! I dunno...I guess really I'm just ranting and raving. But yeah I'll just keep strong and refuse to watch it. Hopefully they'll be worn out of her bad behavior soon. They claim that it never bites when in their house but I really don't think that matters. They can't just expect the rest of the world to bend over backwards to keep the dog happy. You train your dog to be around other people, not other people to be around your dog, y'know? My shep will bark when people enter the house. Then he'll go up to the person, sniff them, and lick their hands and sometimes feet. My corgi will run up to the person and want to be their best friend straight up. I think this is a classic case of "It's a small dog so it doesn't need to be trained." type of deal. I guess maybe I just watched more dog shows then them or most people but I have always thought that no matter how big or small your dog is, you make sure they are social creatures. Granted that I've trained Leo to bark when people come in so as to alert me and to scare off unwanted visitors, I have also made sure that when I say "heal" he stops what he's doing and comes right to my side. DARN YOU PEOPLE WHO DON'T TRAIN THEIR DOGS! And FYI I did this all WITHOUT going to dog training classes. Just from reading things online and watching Animal Planet and Dog Whisperer.

[emmabeth]

Sometimes though when you have a fearful dog you DO have to train people how to behave around the dog, in order to get the dog confident enough to train him/her how to behave around people.

You have to set the dog up to succeed and that means making it super easy to get thigns right and super hard to fail.

It very much does sound as if your sisters dog wouldnt have got better by just ignoring the situation, and I agree this IS very common with small dogs, because they are 'manhandle-able' in a way bigger dogs just arent - but equally it also sounds as if this problem has been made worse by people forcing themselves on the dog, picking her up, taking stuff from her, challenging her and attempting to force her to back down.

These methods (especially those you may have seen on shows like the Dog Whisperer) WILL make behaviour like this worse!

I have a little dog who suddenly decided to defend himself when approached by strange men - we are dealing with this and he is making great progress, but I DO have to ONLY allow him access to men who will do exactly as they are told to do by me, he can't be allowed near guys who will stare in his face, speak to him, lean over him, attempt to pet him, as he finds all these things frightening.

This wont be forever, there will hopefully come a day where he is confident enough to accept being looked at and spoken to - I dont think he will ever tolerate a man shouting at him or barking in his face, like the man who caused the problem did... but thats ok, I won't ever let him near such idiots!