This is a very long story so I'll likely miss things out but please feel free to ask any and all questions and I'll answer anything I've missed. Sorry for the huge essay, but if you think you can help please, please read it
![Sad :(](./images/smilies/icon_sad.gif)
My parents have contacted several local trainers to date and are currently working with a behaviourist and trainer but they're just not getting the help they need and things are getting dangerous.
Bit of history... their Collie is around 3 1/2 years old, his name is Sam. He is run for around 1-2 hours a day at the beach (chasing frisbees) and has full run of the house and back garden during the day. He eats a mixture of wet and dry dog food.
He's an incredibly bright dog.. we've had collies before and they've always been very intelligent but Sam is exceptional.
From a young age he was taken to puppy classes and socialised and was taken to obedience training. However, from around 4-5 months old he started showing signs of aggression towards both dogs and humans.
With practice and the help of a trainer we managed to get his dog aggression under control and he's not too much of a problem with other dogs nowadays unless they go for him, in which case he will fight back but this isn't a major concern any more.
Our major issue is his people aggression.
He did attend obedience classes and agility to give him some focus but his unpredictability got to the point where my mum refused to work with him for fear of being bitten and unfortunately he now no longer attends these classes.
They're still taking him to work with their current trainer weekly though and they've been teaching him on a long lead.
From a very early age Sam showed guarding behaviour around his food, toys and bed. He also behaved fearfully if anyone leaned over him or attempted to groom him, yelping, barking and attempting to bite. We were told he was simply a fearful dog and were given techniques to help to improve his fear levels and teach him trust.
Despite attempting to follow these techniques and having even handed Sam over for 2 weeks to stay with a trainer for some more intense training/monitoring things have escalated to a point where the family are now afraid of him and this is obviously making things worse.
I don't know how trainers and behaviourists work but their current trainer doesn't honestly seem to believe that Sam has major issues. I think he thinks that Sam occasionally snaps at my parents or something. They've explained the issues to him and he says things like "Well I hear what you're saying but I just don't see it myself when I'm with the dog".
If he would provoke Sam he'd see the issues immediately...
95% of the time Sam is a lovely, happy, playful young Collie. He bounces around, he's obedient and friendly. However, he is 100% unpredictable and that's the biggest concern we've got.
In the last year Sam has bitten members of the family on numerous occasions and attacked a vet. I've seen his attacks and personally I don't believe he's fearful. What I'm seeing is not fearful behaviour, it's mauling behaviour.
Last week I was visiting my family and my parents wanted to show me how much Sam loves his long lead training. Mum called Sam to her heel in the kitchen and made him sit. Prior to calling him over he had been happily trotting around the kitchen showing off some new skills he'd learned with his last session at the behaviourist and seemed perfectly happy and content.
He sat happily at my Mum's heel and looked up expectantly at his lead. Mum was talking to him as she leaned down to touch his collar to find the ring to clip his lead on and as she leaned down an alarm went off in my head. It all happened far too fast to prevent at the time but in retrospect there was about 1 second (which set off the alarm bells) where Sam suddenly dropped his head and his eyes rolled backwards towards my Mum. This 1 second was the only warning and then he attacked.
He flew for my Mum and got hold of the top of her thigh and her jeans and wouldn't let go. At this point she started screaming in pain and shouting for help and was trying to back away. Sam let go for a second then flew for her again and got hold of her cardigan. She managed to rip herself free and run backwards away from him. He kept running towards her and freezing, he was frothing at the mouth and his hackles were all up. His eyes completely changed and he was 100% set on going in for another attack.
In sheer panic hearing my Mum crying for help and seeing what was happening I (stupidly) lunged in at Sam and tried to pull him away from Mum and he swung around and flew for me but thankfully missed. He then immediately ran back towards Mum and leapt at her again and got hold of her near her waist.
This whole incident lasted for around 45 seconds and it only ended when me and my Dad started lunging at Sam repeatedly together and he eventually appeared to snap out of it and ran into the hallway. We then locked him in another room whilst we went to help my Mum.
I'm not a trainer/behaviourist but I always thought a fearful dog would simply snap at someone and attempt to remove themselves from the situation rather than continuously attempt to attack repeatedly.
Now I know reading the above that there's all this technical stuff you should do when a dog goes into attack mode. Remain calm, don't run, don't shout etc etc but when a large dog has your Mum cornered and is going in for a full blown attack your instinct and adrenaline kicks in and there just isn't time to do all the "right" things. There was no warning, no growling or eye contact or time to back away from the situation, it all happened really fast.
This is the worst attack to date and has prompted this post but here's a little background on other serious incidents.
1. Dad got up to go to the toilet one night and accidentally got too close to Sam in the dark. Sam flew for him and latched onto his hand and wouldn't let go. In the end my Mum had to hit Sam on the nose to get him to release his grip. Dad's hand was very badly damaged.
2. I was staying at my parents and came out of my bedroom to go to the toilet. Sam was lying in the hall between my door and the bathroom. He wagged his tail so I said "Hey there Sam" and as I walked towards him he leapt up and started growling at me and walking towards me. I backed slowly away back into my bedroom and shut the baby gate and looked away from him. After a minute he snapped out of it and went and got a toy and brought it to me?! I went back to bed without going to the loo.
3. Mum went into her room to get a book. Sam was curled up and again, wagged his tail as she went past. She leaned down to say hello to him and he flew for her then lay back down.
4. Dad went to put a lead on Sam in the back of the car. He couldn't find the loop on his collar and after about 5 seconds (similar to the main attack I posted above) Sam suddenly flipped out without any real warning and attacked Dad. He tore all of his shirt and similar to above he kept coming back for more even when Dad managed to back away. Sam got out of the car and got Dad by the arm and bit all down his arm and his hand. He spent two days in hospital having the wounds treated and his arm is scarred.
5. My parents took Sam to the vets for his vaccinations. The vet was warned that Sam is aggressive (it's on his notes) and took him outside with my parents on his lead so he could be muzzled in a neutral location. The vet leaned down to muzzle Sam and he grabbed the vet by the leg and wouldn't let go. The vet managed to get free and tried to run away and Sam pulled the lead out of my parents hands and chased him and continued the attack. He attacked for over 3 minutes and the vet sustained quite bad leg injuries. The vet suggested that Sam was dangerous and should be PTS but didn't press charges. He won't work with Sam any more (unsurprisingly) and we've had to find another vet.
There have been numerous other minor attacks and bites but the above are the most recent and serious.
The biggest issue everyone has is the unpredictability. Sam can be happily wagging his tail and come wandering up to you seemingly happy and you can lean down to say hello or pet him and he'll suddenly, and without warning, fly for you. If he growled or showed some body language there'd be the opportunity to avoid the situation but there's no warning. Worse, the situation can be almost anything. Many of his more minor attacks have been provoked by him approaching us, not the other way around.
He even guarded the front door once and wouldn't let my Dad in the house. Dad had to go through the back door to avoid him but once inside Sam was fine and all waggy and happy to see him.
My parents describe him as Jekyll and Hyde. One minute he's fine, the next he wants to rip your throat out.
After the attack at the vets we bought him a muzzle and started trying to train him with it with the eventual aim of being able to muzzle him easily when we leave the house. My parents gave him the muzzle to play with and let him sniff it and over the course of 2 months they've had him eating treats out of the muzzle and he is now to the point where he comes running when you get it out and will let you rest it on his nose whilst he eats treats through it. However, nobody has dared to try to fasten it as we're afraid he'll snap and hurt us and also afraid if he does then it will ruin all the positive work we've done with the muzzle.
The problem is, even with a muzzle, you can't muzzle him 24/7.. that'd just be cruel. But it's not just out of the house where he has issues.. in fact most of his attacks occur indoors.
Please, please if you can offer any advice or help. My parents are absolutely traumatised by what's been happening over the last few years but they can't bring themselves to have him put down, especially if there's something that can be done to help him.
However, it's only a matter of time until Sam seriously hurts someone or worse. I don't even want to visit any more when he's there and I absolutely love animals, but particularly after seeing his attack on my mum I'm just terrified of him. The family are afraid to work with him because he's so unpredictable which makes it very hard to actually try to fix his problems
![Sad :(](./images/smilies/icon_sad.gif)
I know Victoria has worked with aggressive dogs before but there seems to be no way of contacting her. I can't find anyone out there who can help us. Most information I read relates to minor aggression or dog aggression but nothing on the scale of what we're dealing with and so far the trainers/behaviourists we've hired just aren't addressing the issue.
The current trainer is great with normal day to day training but he just isn't acknowledging the aggression at all.