[Manna.Banana]

About two weeks ago, we brought home a Basset hound that had "Known Anger Issues" according to his previous owners. They insisted that he was only aggressive towards children "when they woke him up" and that he would grumble but would listen to adults. So far, we have noticed quite a few things that lead us to believe that he may have had an abusive family (Or families) before us. We have noticed

• Food Aggression
• When somebody touches his toes he freaks right out
• When it it time to cut his nails he does a gator roll
• He seems to be a Jekyll and Hyde personality after sundown
• He has a territory possession issue
• Will growl and snarl at the last person to bed if he has already settled down
• Physically we had noticed he has a bump randomly on his tail, where his tail seems to hang off.

In the last 5 days, he has attacked 3 different people, including 1 child. Tonight I was attacked after accidentally touching a toenail stuck in the couch. His bite seems like it is more to "teach" rather then to maim. He bites hard, and releases so his teeth are above the skin and not trying to tear a chunk out.
We have two previous rescues, but they were puppies when we got them. This Basset is approximately 3-4 years old, shows "Sometimes aggression" with both Adults and Children, but is very loving, and is especially good with other animals.
His background story is a little far fetched, but here goes:
He was purchased by his first family in the States somewhere (we are in Canada) and when he was about 6 months old, he was scratching up their Hardwood floors so they locked him in the Garage and left him there, practically leaving him on his own and isolated. Then one day, somebody broke into the Garage and stole him, "Rescued" him if you will. Somehow, this last family got him, said they had him for 3 years as a "Loving" pet, and all of a sudden just out of the blue snapped at their daughter when she woke him up...
We want him to trust us, and above all to move past these issues, but we are really unsure HOW to.
Any help is Greatly accepted and appreciated.

[dogs rule]

Welcome:

That's a lot of issues rolled up into one dog.
I would think the best method here would be to get him to a reputable trainer or behaviourist. I personally don't have any experience on dogs with aggression, but I'm pretty sure there are some here at the forum that have. I don't want to give any wrong info.

Hope all works out for you.

[Deafdogsrule]

"Click to Calm: Healing the Aggressive Dog" by Emma Parsons Is a FANTASTIC book on helping aggression.

And "MINE!" by Jean Donaldson is great for resource guarding

I have a Mini Dachshund that I adopted at 6.5 years old with severe food aggression and resource guarding issues.

I fed him by hand, making him sit at first progressing to down and then tricks

After a couple of weeks I put his bowl on the floor between Boo and I and dropped one piece of food in at a time, then a few, then more and eventually we progressed to the whole meal and me dropping in a bit of freeze dried treats or hot dogs, then I would fill his dish, walk away, then walk back and put my hand in his dish, drop a treat, then walk away again. now I can put my fingers in his dish and pet him, and he's fine... but he's also learned that I will never take anything away from him... Alot of people cause resource guarding by taking away, then giving back bones, food dishes and the like... This is NOT the right way to go about it!

Trade him for items he's guarding. get something he'll want more than what he's guarding, hold it close, when he comes over to get it, scoop up the item he was guarding.

Desensitize him to being touched

Handling Shyness- Clicker Dog Training - YouTube
And here's one on getting a dog used to nail clipping. Now I included this one because you can use very similar steps in slow motion to get him over his foot shyness.

How to train your dog to relax for nail clipping - YouTube
Teach him some basic manners, "go to your bed" is a great one for getting him to get away from something that makes him uncomfortable. This is not meant to be a punishment but a way to de-stress. Make it a really GOOD thing to go to his bed, use clicker training for this as well. if you can.


And last but not least. NEVER CORRECT HIM FOR GROWLING. My guess is that his growl has been trained out of him, so he goes immediately to the warning bite. what you described is not an attack, but a warning bite, meaning "I'm anxious LEAVE ME ALONE!" let him growl, back off, figure out the trigger and desensitize him to that trigger.

Understand his triggers and keep him below threshold (the point at which fight or flight has kicked in and he's not learning anything) set him up to succeed, and try to prevent occasions that will cause him to react. Every bad reaction is a practice session, the more he practices aggression, the better he will get at it.

And find a behaviourist that advertises only positive methods and clicker training, you do not want any Cesar wannabe's, that will only make him worse. Aggression begets aggression.