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Permalink Reply by Joanna Kimball on March 2, 2010 at 1:50am

What he did is called displaced aggression; it's when the dog is very, very frustrated and has nowhere to put it.

Something really got him mad outside; he came back in with his tension at a 9. Then he had all his sensitive areas touched and finally somebody kicked him (I know you nudged him, but from his point of view it was rudeness piled on top of being incredibly mad at something else).

It's like if you have a terrible day at work and come home spitting mad and then yell at your spouse for not emptying the dishwasher, and turn it into a huge hairy fight because being able to fight about SOMETHING makes you feel better than just holding it in. The fault wasn't with the person who didn't empty the dishwasher and the fault wasn't with your foot for touching him. He came in with a very, very lowered bite threshold and you crossed it.

It's the kind of thing that wouldn't worry me about the base character of a dog. If he comes in and is tense like that, put him in his crate with something to chew. That will let him release his tension in a positive way and not a negative way.

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Permalink Reply by Kelly & Kirby on March 2, 2010 at 2:58am

That explains a lot! Because he knew it was wrong to do afterward he went under the table let me drag him out from the back and he went straight outside because he's known since young that its either the bathroom or backyard when he is in trouble. Kirby then was let inside after awhile and I told him to go to bed and he went.. we then put the door on his crate to which we never do because all he does is protest.. but not tonight its been 3 hours and nothing and he knows he did something wrong and knows he is not allowed to sleep upstairs.. so what you said makes a lot of sense.. oh and btw he was barking at the frogs mating in the back yard behind our fence... I didn't know it bothered him so much...
..Thanks I was getting worried because he did attack a dog.. kind of about a month ago.

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Permalink Reply by Joanna Kimball on March 2, 2010 at 3:05am

What dogs do with other dogs doesn't have a lot to do with what they do to humans - there tends to be a much deeper taboo associated with biting a human and humans are given much more leeway to do dumb things from a dog's point of view. So a dog having a problem with another dog doesn't worry me or make me think he's more likely to bite a human. I think he was really just mad and didn't know where to put it.

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Permalink Reply by John Wolff on March 2, 2010 at 1:18pm

Somewhere (I think it was Pinkwater, "Superpuppy") I read that isolation should be used for discipline only in extreme incidents (biting qualifies) and only for about 4 min. max.; any longer than that, they've forgotten what it's all about. Then you let them back and tell them you're still friends.
What do y'all think of that?
A few times, I've seen Al snap at another dog -- to the point of having his jaws at or near the other dog's throat/ruff, scary -- he did no damage, so I reckon he didn't mean to. I don't like to see this.
Once, he was upside-down in my lap, I was checking his paws, when Zeke (totally harmless) approached; Al didn't like that in that vulnerable position.
Once a friendly GSD was sniffing his peepee; that got to personal.
Other times it was food or resource (ball) guarding with a lot going on; I didn't see what the immediate trigger was.

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Permalink Reply by Ashley and Copper on March 2, 2010 at 9:09am

Copper went through a phase of growling when he was laying on the bed with us. It was so funny at first but I had to yell at him because I didn't want it to progress. He was sleeping on top of the blanket and when I touched him with my foot that was under the blanket, he growled and got up, huffed and moved. The funniest part about it was my boyfriend would do it when my bf was sleeping and not even realize he touched Cop. Cop would get so mad, that's eventually how he learned to jump off the bed. I've never had any of my dogs just bite me out of no where or really bite me but I would have to guess it was like Joanna said. I always find the best thing for puppy nipping and anything else that is a nuisance, acting hurt and smacking on the nose and saying no bite or whatever is necessary, works best. When I would punish Pooh, he would go to his crate and snarl and complain. He always had to have the last word, which just fueled my fire. lol There was one time he nipped at me and he knew better. I was so mad at him. I just did the normal that I usually do and he never did it again. Who knows? They are all different so good luck!

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