[kerisb]

Read a few of the threads in here and see that there are alot of good and knowledgable dog owners in here.
I will start off by letting you know that I am very saddened to be writing this. My daughter has a 20 month old purebreed male Akita. She got it as a very small pup about 5 weeks old. They have been living with us for about 17 of those months. Until recently the dog (Diablo) has been very easy going and loving. Not at all typical of what we heard about Akita's, he greeted and loved everyone. At around Christmas last year there was one incident where a male visitor of ours gave Diablo a command, Diablo did not take kindly to this and barked while backing up. As soon as the visitor changed his voice to not commanding Diablo immediatley was friendly towards him again. We have a neighbour who doesn't like our Diablo very much and the feeling is mutual, Diablo barks at this man in a differnt way than he barks normally, a much deeper harsher bark.
Diablo always seemed to enjoy everyone, and would greet people with a lick and happiness..........up until last week. Two children came to visit a 14 year old and an 8 year old. Diablo took to the older child as usual, but he didn't taketo the 8 year old at all. Us being stupid just though maybe he was jealous because the younger child was petting our other dog.....well as it turns out he bit the younger child in the arm, sinking two teeth into her forearm. We thought maybe it was our fault after realizing that we really have not exposed Diablo to any children (very stupid on our part). Then not a week later a very close friend of my daughters came by and Diablo also bit her in the forearm, sinking his teeth in. (Now Diablo did know this person) as she has been here tons of times, as a matter of fact not even a month ago she spent the weekend with Diablo (babysitting him). She has been here since with no problems.
Now on both occasions Diablo did give out a bark, but he simply walked up very close and calmly to the person, gave one bark then quickly bit them, on both occassions my daughter or her boyfriend (who also lives with us) were there to pull Diablo away.
My daughter has contacted two vets and they recommended that she contact a behavioural specialist that deals exclusively with Akitas. His recommendation was that we put Diablo down. His other warning was that because Diablo gives little or no warning before he attacks that it is worse than a dog that growls or barks alot. He also said that he fears Diablo may be a ticking timebomb and wanted to know if he had attacked anyone in the household and told her that that may very well happen.
I am very concerned for my daughter's safety as when he was smaller if she discilplined him when he didn't want to be he snapped at her. She is concerned for my safety as I am a petite female and Diablo when on his hind legs is taller than me. We both know that if he were to turn on us we could not defend ourselves well on our own.
If someone has any words or insight into this please let me know. I am at a total loss as to how things went so bad in such a short time. He is a very smart dog and has always been very friendly, loving and easy to train.

You need Cesar Millan, "The Dog Whisperer." Ever heard of him? If you live in southern California, they are looking for new "specimens" for their show. You definitely need help. I wish I had some advice for you, but this is way over my head. The only thing that came to my mind when I read your story was this: I had a cat who, when he wanted to play, would meow. If I ignored him, he would tap me with his paw and meow again. If I ignored him again, he would bite me, hard, and continue to bite me repeatedly until I agreed to play with him. This also came to mind: Your daughter had Diablo at an extremely young age, before he could learn appropriate dog behavior, like bite inhibition, and how to ask to play. Is it possible that Diablo is just wanting to play, but is going about it the wrong way? What other body language is he showing? What are his ears and tail saying when he is in this mode?

[kerisb]

We live in Ontario, Canada. And although I haven't witnessed when Diablo has done this, but both my daughter and her boyfriend said he changed when he bit these people. Said he was like another dog kinda in a trance. Now the first time her boyfriend was the one to pull Diablo away. The second time it was my daughter and she did say the he turned as if to bite her but recognizing her (I hope) he decided not to.
The behavouralist said that Akitas are known for this (I am thinking of it as an adolescent that rebells), the problem he said is that unfortunately once they bite, especially when they have done it twice and to a friend, then it is generally too late to turn back the clock. He noted especially that some dogs will give plenty of notice that they don't like someone or that they are going to bite, but in the second case for sure Diablo gave basically no notice. He greeted our friend as usual, played with her, then walked over as if to lick or play with her as usual, got within inches of her arm, barked once then bite her. His concern was that the dogs that don't give any warning or notice of attack are the very dangerous ones.
It is very hard to comprehend for me how a loving big goof ball as Diablo could go from being just that, to someone we can't trust and have to be on guard with all the time.
Has anyone else in this forum ever encountered an Akita like this???

[mightymite]

DO NOT go with anything Milan says. I have posted many times on this board about how dangerous Milan is and why he would most definetly not be a perso to deal with a dog like this.

Having said that, I have not seen your dog and would not make any recommendations without actually meeting your dog. However, what concerns me, and sounds on point, is that the behaviorist said that your dog does not give a warning before he attacks. The other thing that you did not mention but is part of the equation is bite pressure. When you dog bites, does he bite to break skin? Those are the two elements that go into assessing how dangerous a dog may or may not be and what the chances are for rehabilitating that dog.

One resource I want to direct you to is a website called "dogwise.com" - this is sort of the amazon.com of all things dog. You can find many great books about dealing with canine aggression on this website. One of the author's I strongly recommend you read up on (who has published books dealing specifically with aggression) is Jean Donaldson.

Lastly, I would suggest you handle this the same way you would handle a terrible medical diagnosis - get a second opinion. There is a national association of canine behaviorists - they have a website. See if you can have your dog assessed by another behaviorist. Many vetrinary medical schools also have behaviorists on staff.

I don't want to upset you, but a dangerous AKita is a liability and a threat to your family. While I am not saying you have to put your dog down - I don't know one way or the other and am not in a position to tell you - it is something you need to consider and brace yourself for - should that be the only alternative.

[QUOTE=mightymite;50332]DO NOT go with anything Milan says. I have posted many times on this board about how dangerous Milan is and why he would most definetly not be a perso to deal with a dog like this.
QUOTE]

Really? Why? I'm sorry, I've missed all those other posts explaining your views, could you please reiterate them here? From what I've seen on his show, he seems to know what he's doing. I've used some of his methods with my own dog, with great results.

[kerisb]

Yes both times Diablo bit someone he drew blood, and both times it was on their forearm. We are quite frankly terrified that it could have been their face. My daughter was attacked (and in all likelyhood would have been killed if not for the owner covering her up with her own body) when whe was 9 yrs of age by a rottweiller. So my daughter does understand wht it is like to be attacked.
The other concern I have is that my daughter is moving in a month and was taking Diablo with her. As there will be children regularly visiting at this new place (one of the children he has already bitten). That means that we are only going to add to his problems.
My daughter nor I do not have tons of money for training, we also don't need lawsuits, or worse anyone getting mauled.
I guess I really am looking for any input from anyone that has maybe heard of this behaviour from an Akita. Are they really that unpredictable of breed. My daughter has met a few people that have recognized her Akita and always commented on how untraditionally friendly he was for an Akita. Up until now he has been a very smart, easy to train, quick learning lovable goof ball.
the only other problem he has really had was seperation anxiety, which is a whole other problem, but was getting better.
I might note that he has always watched out the window and when anyone on the street (which is about 50 yards away from our house) he always acted like he wanted them to come in and pet him and be his friend. Well since the first bite which was a little over a week ago, he seems to be not so friendly with people walking by anymore, instead of whinning and getting excited he has now on occassion given the deep throated bark, with no showing of excitement.
If I sound very confused, well yeah I am just never encountered a dog that did a complete 360 turn without some kind of warning!!!
As for Diablo my daughter (I think) has pretty much decided she is going to put him down. She cannot stand the thought of someone being badly attacked by another dog the way she was. It is tearing us up because he really is our lovable baby boy!!

Keris, I really am sorry for your predicament. I do not envy you. I wish you all the strength to do what you have to do, and hoping you can all one day recover. I can only imagine how heartwrenching this must be.

I'm really sorry you're going through this. Before you take any drastic measures you might want to have the dog tested for hypothyroidism, which can be a root cause of increasing aggression.

On the other hand, having owned a dog (bull terrier) who developed sudden rage syndrome, your description of how the dog behaves is eerily similar. And, unfortunately, I wouldn't recommend anyone try to rehabilitate a dog with rage syndrome.

[wishbone]

Dog sudden change behavior usually aggression is mostly caused by health issue. There might be something irritate him or some hormone that might abnormal. Immediate vet advise is recommended.

will send a pm to ree she may be able to give a little advice here.....OK our experience. Kato now 2 years and 2 months old, at 7 months, bit for the first (and only) time, out of the blue, and since then, has been very stranger wary, intolerant of loud and fast moving kids (except for his own), and potentially dog agressive. Whilst the bite very shallow, still drew blood, and set off alarm bells, we decided then and there, if we were to keep him, we needed to be very VERY watchful and responsible for his behaviour.

I am not going to suggest what you should do either way, only you as a family can make the call, but i will give you an account of what we committed to do in our situation.

We chose to be pro active. We had a young dog that was outstanding with us and our daughter close family and friends, but seemed to present very little care for anyone outside of this circle.

We knew the risks of a large powerfull breed with a stubborn will and independant temprament. We had to take responsibility for this, we had to protect our loved pet, and protect anyone from any risk as well.

Through trial and error, we have learned that new people (and dogs) can be welcomed, but it can not be with sudden force or bombardment, a slow calm fun and rewarding introduction to strangers or strage situations have been succesfull.

I will admit, that because children can be unprodicatable, and not necissirily follow instructions properly, that we keep Kato and children completely seperated. This meant providing him with a safe, secure area, where he cant get out of, and children can not get to......Crate training became our ultimate saving grace, when we have friends with kids around Kato is crated in our bed room, door closed. Kids then free to safely use all the yard and all the house with out any risk of confrontation, and Kato is more than happy with being in his crate throughout this time.

When out and about, we muzzle Kato, We discovered because he is with a child, strangers assumed that he was OK with kids and would send them over to him, this we wanted to deter to prevent any risk of mishap. The muzzle has been the best visual deterent to passer bys.

Heavy obedience training. Just because he has his weak behavours, does not give us an excuse not to obtain and maintain high obedience. This I feel has been a certain saving grace. Because he has been trained to walk on lead so well, children and strangers can walk past him with no reaction only a matter of feet away, it is only on a direct obvious approach to him that you can sense the uneasyness set in.

Understand your dogs body language, barking and growling are not the only warning signs a dog can give. An Akitas tail and ears and the way they walk all change. Our observations have led us to be very watchfull when Katos ears pep up but tail drop down, and his walk becomes a little more exaggeratedly slow and his glare unwaving on whatever is causing his worry. Immediate removal of that situation our immediate response. We dont give it time to investigate or ask questions.

Whatever the decision your family makes, it will be hard. Either way you have to make a heavy hearted call to end it now, or expect many years of not what you would normally expect management, for dog and people protection. Have you considered speaking with the breeder about this issue? They may be able to offer you some advice and tips too.