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Fran grew up teaching everything from chickens and goats to dogs and horses. These days, Fran works with DOG GONE IT rottweiler rescue, is registered with AKC as a Canine Good Citizen Evaluator and continues to train dogs in Las Vegas, Nevada. She also writes a canine question & answer column for a local news paper, The Hilltop & High Desert Shopper News.
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Fran Williams
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[Edit]
5/4/2006
Fran, I have just adopted a rescued 18 month old neutered male Dobie who appeared to be a happy healthy youngster. His former owner committed suicide, so we know he's been through some awful stuff, but not much more is known about him. The foster said he was a great lovable little guy, but seemed aggressive toward one person, her brother.
Well, the first day of course, he was a little overwhelmed with the long ride from the fosters home to mine (about 250 miles) and of course all of us were strange to him anyway. So we gave him space. Later that night be began playing, with me and my son and my husband and daughter. He loved his squeaky toys, bounced around the yard with my older female dobe and all was well. I was thrilled that he was settling in so well. Last night, after being playful and cuddly with my daughter's boyfriend, this dog saw the boyfriend coming back into the living room from the hallway and freaked out, barking and threatening. Later same night, my daughter was vacuuming in her room and he started to do the same thing with her and lastly, again last night my husband was petting him and all was well. My son came home and the dog freaked again and wouldn't let my husband come into the living room. The odd thing is that in all three occasions the behavior was in approximately the same area of the house. The 2nd odd thing is
that all 3 times he had been loving and cuddly and seemingly happy just prior to the behavior.
I am not one to just throw up my hands and send him back without a real effort to figure out what triggers him off and correct it. In each event, I just calmly put him in his crate and gave him a time out. Thing is I don't want somebody getting bitten, just because I have a soft spot for underdogs, but I can't expect my family to live in fear of a Jeckyll and Hyde dog. Sarah (paws4arub, Florida)
Please do NOT send him back (he may not be so lucky next time) this is fixable. Let me start by explaining a little about what probably happened to him in the first place. Dogs are very sensitive to our body language and our mood swings; this is what makes a dog a good service dog-they can SENSE when a person’s body goes through changes, such as before a seizure. This poor guy was more than likely in a home with some one who was BI-POLAR or maybe on drugs that made him subject to mood swings that scared this pup or put him in defense mode, because his loving master may have turned violent right after a mood swing occurred, leaving this poor pup not understanding and not knowing what to do but survive and that he did by the behavior you are now seeing. We CAN change this and help turn him around so he can become a safe happy family member.
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