Bitten by a Newly Adopted Rescue Dog

[quote]not keen on flagpole saluting wrote:

Nope itsybitsytinyweeny nip and flesh rending blood letting frenzied attack stems from the same antisocial behavior pattern and that's not a good thing in a domestic animal PERIOD.

quote]

Bull. Lots of great dogs will nip for reasons that have nothing to do with bad antisocial behavioral patterns. Some dogs will nip when you try to take their food or touch them when they are eating. Some dogs nip when you put your hands on their head/muzzle in what you think is a loving embrace. Blue healers, border collies and Aussies (mostly healers) will nip when trying to heard people or children. Some dogs nip because they have undiagnosed injuries/illness and your handling is hurting them. Almost every dog will play bite if they think you are playing with them. All of the above can be handled with some training or getting a diagnosis from the vet if the pet is sick or injured. There is a huge difference between that kind of behavior and an actual attack where the dog goes on the offensive and is not provoked. That kind of behavior does merit a serious discussion about whether the dog is safe or must be put down.

mother clucker wrote:

I help out with a breed rescue group. We do evaluations, etc. inquire about bite history (if it is an owner surrender) sometimes people will not volunteer this info. Some dogs have bite issues - my wife has had a number of dogs euthanized because of bite history, coupled with evaluation. Our rescue cannot morally (and legally) place dogs with bite histories.

Were you doing anything stupid? What was the situation?

Practically any dog can be induced to bite.

Nope, I wasn't doing anything stupid or provocative. My friend entered the house, I followed, and the dog bit me as soon as it saw me. In fact, it tried to bite me twice but missed the first time.

This probably sounds really naive, but why are there so many rescue dogs out there?? I understand why there are unwanted kids, since you can accidentally have a kid, but why are there do many people who get dogs then neglect or mistreat them?

^This. My wife and I have rescued/fostered 7 dogs. Assuming you're not a miracle worker dog whisperer, it can take weeks to socialize a traumatized dog. Your friend can't just ship the dog off to a trainer. Obedience school is really for dog owners... the dog just go along to make sure they get it right.

Rescues and evaluations? Prozac? What a colossal waste of energy and money. Dog bites, dog dies. I am not trolling, and I am a happy dog owner.

Most adults realize there is a huge overpopulation of dogs and cats due to not spaying and neutering.

You still haven't mentioned the breed. Also, this dog may have come from a shelter and not gone through a rescue.

We have fostered many dogs through a rescue and some are a mess. The one I have now took 6 months to learn to walk on a leash. She also had some fear aggression and fought with one of my dogs. Never bit a human but was so fearful she would roll over on her back and cry when new people approached. She is an amazing dog and has turned in to a confident, well adjusted member of the pack.

The dog is part German Shepard, part coonhound. According to the shelter, the dig is good with kids. Hahaha, right. Who knows what the real story is with the dog.

ouchh wrote:

A friend adopted a two year rescue dog with anxiety issues. No one knows the dog's history but he had serious abandonment issues and needs to be put on Prozac if left alone for more than 1.5 hours or so. I was visiting my friend and we went through a long process of getting the dog to become comfortable with me. After that, the dog was cuddling with me, letting me pet it, etc. My friend and I left for about an hour and when we returned, the dog bit me when I entered the house.

This is a dangerous dog and is not qualified to be a rescue dog. It will only get worse with time, dangerously so, and should be returned to where your friend got it from right away.

Had to check on the "doing any thing stupid" part, just to be safe.Why so many rescue dogs? People are stupid. They get wrapped up in the emotional part "cute puppy" and dont put any thought into being able to take care of an adult dog - with "care" being proper socialization, exercise, mental stimulation, need to be around people/part of a pack, training, proper nutrition, etc. Some people think of a dog as a toy. Many people do not research dog breeds. I help with a breed that is very energetic, athletic, intelligent and needy. They are too much dog for most people. If they aren't properly socialized and trained as puppies, they will make life miserable. If they don't receive enough mental stimulation and exercise they will provide their own exercise and stimulation, which usually involves destroying the house. I would suggest that your friend and his dog enroll in an obedience class, ASAP. Perhaps your friend has not established himself as the benevolent dictator. Dogs will bite out of "fear" ... by fear, I mean that they do not know who the leader is. If your friend has not established himself as leader, the dog does not know who the leader is and will attempt to assume the role. Biting a perceived threat could be showing that your friend has not established himself as leader. The dog does not know that your friend is the leader of the pack and took matters into his own hands. Just like people, there are crazy dogs ... also there are dogs with issues such as low thyroid, which causes them to act in an aggressive manner. We have a crazy female rescue. She was the classic unsocialized puppy that grew into an adult dog with extreme issues. We fostered her, and later adopted her, but she likely would have been euthanized if she had gone to another home. Even fellow rescue volunteers said "you're adopting that crazy one?!" =) With training and time, she became a very nice dog to be around.

grow up you people wrote:

Time to grow up. Dogs are not people - they are animals. If they bite they are dangerous to actual human beings and should be put down. Give up on the savior complex and do the right thing - the dog should be put down.

Does it make you sad? Grow up and join the real world.

There are 4.5 million dog bites in the U.S. every year. Dog bite claims are the number one payout for home owner insurance claims. People freak about the 80,000 shootings every year; many of those self inflicted or bad guys shooting bad guys. Of course the dog should be put down if it bites; give your attention and effort to one of the many non-biting dogs out there.

When will people stop making lame excuses for bad behaviour?

The thing all dogs that bite twice have in common is that they previously only bit once.

Dogs can be rehabbed, but life is short. Why take the risk and waste the time? I love dogs, but biters are biters. No use for them.

Unfortunately it's not PC or cool the buy a dog you want, you HAVE to "rescue" a freaking dog. Old man neighbor of mine was pressured into rescuing a dog. Big german shepherd mix, destroyed his yard by digging, can't come in the house, the poor man can't even walk it....but hey, the dog was rescued. The people who let that man leave with that dog should be fired.

cbzxcv wrote:

grow up you people wrote:

Time to grow up. Dogs are not people - they are animals. If they bite they are dangerous to actual human beings and should be put down. Give up on the savior complex and do the right thing - the dog should be put down.

Does it make you sad? Grow up and join the real world.

You are ignorant on so many levels it's pointless to even try to respond to this.

Are your trolling or are you really that stupid?

Ignorant? He sounds dead-on to me. Keeping a biting dog is risking the health of everyone close to the dog, including strangers on the street.

OP, when the dog bit you, you should have picked him up by the snout and bit his nose hard till he cried. He will never bite you again, as he has learned the pecking order (pack mentality).

I have question: what is the need to own a dog (or any other animal) if you have no particular use for it? For instance, it makes sense if you have a herding dog or a cat for mice but not just for the sake of being a pet owner.

safety trumps vanity wrote:

the dog needs to be put down.

We don't have enough information to say that.

If it has a mouth it can bite- Southern Proverb

Any dog in the wrong circumstances can become a biting dog.

A bite incident does not a bad dog make.

I successfully rehabilitated a fear biting dog (a 20lb terrier) and he is the best animal companion I have ever had. If your friend rescued the dog they saw something special in it. It took about 6 months before I started seeing a consistent change. And there are a TON of tricks I used, many of them seem counter-intuitive.

To start I would read this

Evaluate the threat involved in the situation, is this a household with children?

How big is the dog/ how damaging is the bite?

Critically think about the motivation and behavior leading up to the bite.

Did the dog express any discomfort before?

There are three things that drive a dog to bite (not nip) stress, fear and pain.

Thinking about it from this perspective can you identify a root cause?

If you can, think back on the incident, how much of the stimulus did it take to provoke the bite? This should help you in the next paragraph.

There are two types of dogs that seem to bite out of nowhere, dogs with a short-fuse/low stress threshold and dogs that are more cryptic about their stress levels/a hidden fuse... If the dog is the later, reward it for growling. I know it seems backwards but if you can teach a dog that vocal expression is safe you will get a warning. To revisit another old southern proverb "When you hear a rattle on the trail, stop what you are doing and back your ass up". Reward warnings. With a warning you can avoid hitting the stress threshold triggering a bite.

If it is a dog in the first category- a short fuse, then it is more difficult. The game plan is two fold-

1. Control Risk (and limit uncontrollable situations) Think about a dog bite like a fire triangle, you need the dog, the bite victim and the cause. The general idea is to separate the dog from potential victims and causes and certainly don't let all three together. Keep the animal away from children for sure since they can be both victims and causes.

2. Expand horizons. While honoring (1.) expose the animal to as many new and positive experiences as possible. The idea being eventually the dog will not find the idea of a new situations as stressful. They will begin to trust you. You are heading off new triggers at the pass. This takes time.

Some dogs appear to be an all of the above dog. My pup was. The good thing is that you can follow both strategies concurrently! I will say in my experience rewarding growls yielded quicker response than a wholesale change of the dog's mindset. Having a growling, communicating dog also helped considerably with controlling risk.

If your friend decides that the dog is worth the risk this advice should set you on the right trail to rehabbing the dog.

It's all cool until that dog bites someone's kid and they sue the owners stupid arse. If it bit you it would probably bite a small child much easier. Best to put the dog down as mentioned pet population is out of control anyways. Don't listen to the animal racists who equate dogs with humans. Like why not equate mice, rats, pigs with humans too you morons?

I'm an animal person.

But recently I came across a dog owner and he clearly favored the life of his dog over other people.

Then again, I remember that I, too am an animal. We're all animals.

Whatever happens, don't get walked on. That means, don't let a dog and society walk on you just because it looks cute.

SCREW THEM!!!