[Grenada_mutt]

Hello all, this is my first post in this forum... I adopted a dog In Grenada (west indies) a year and a half ago. She has always had trouble with small children and other dogs, and I want to help her overcome these issues.

First off, some background (this is relevant to the behavior issues) -- In Grenada, the relationships of dogs to people (and one another) is quite different than in the US. It's very much survival of the fittest among dogs. Many dogs live in the street, and those that are owned by people are really guard dogs more than pets in the sense that we think of them. Also, children can be extremely cruel and physically abusive to the dogs there. My dog, named Tivoli, was found in the street. She has what the vets suspect is radial nerve damage -- she has no feeling and no use of her front paws, and very limited use of her front legs, and therefore limited mobility. Due to her disability, I suspect that she lost many battles for food with other dogs. I also suspect that she was traumatized by children.

Now, to the behavior problems:
With children, she has always been fear aggressive. Any child (toddler to pre-teen) that approaches evokes hair standing up, curled lip, and -- if the child gets too close -- actual snapping. She has only actually bitten one child, before I knew about this problem, and it wasn't a serious bite. But now we keep her away from kids at all costs.

With any dog that is larger (she's 36 lbs), or is bouncy/excitable, or is at all threatening, she snarls, the hair goes up, and she snaps. With smaller, older, or otherwise unthreatening dogs, she is generally OK.

So, based on this limited info, I'm looking for advice. A behavior expert suggested we use desensitization -- bringing her NEAR children/bigger dogs, but not close enough for her to react, then giving her treats and showering her with praise. I guess the idea is to condition her to associate kids/bigger dogs with treats and praise. Then, theoretically, she could gradually get closer and closer to these things that now set her off.

I would like to get her the point where we don't have to worry about bringing her to the park, or being around our friends' kids. I'm hoping this problem is fixable and not permanent.

Thanks for reading and for your thoughts!

[german sheep]

Hi grenada_mutt,

I know it has been 4 weeks ago you posted, but let me tell you my thoughts.

I am worried that this behaviour is uncurable. If your dog was found in the streets when it was just a few weeks old, it may have had bad experiences during the sensible phase a puppy goes through. (4 - 14 week)
Every extremely bad or fearfull experiences the pup has made during this time becomes irreversible manifested in it.

But a good and professoinal trainer should know how to test a dog, to detect if it has something to do with the imprinting phase.

When you have luck it is learnt and then you can train and switch the fear in that way that she has no cause to act the way she does at the moment.

LG
gs

[Lara's mom]

I agree that this just may not be a problem that is curable. It sounds as if this dog was subjected to a lot of abuse both from humans and other dogs during a vital time in his life. I'd suggest you put a muzzle on him so that he can be outside and enjoy walks, the park, etc. without posing a hazard to children or other dogs.