Fear Aggression
Our lab of 16 years passed away this past January. The first of August we adopted a roughly 2 year old lab mix from a rescue organazation. We know she was from a divorce couple and neither wanted her. For the first week she was friendly toward meeting new people, usually would go straight to laying on her back with legs up in a submissive position. But after the first week she would start to growl when a person came up. On walks she would be scared of a bird flying from a tree, cows, about everything. The growling at people turned into actual agreession with her trying to bite the vet on her visit.
I took her to a dog trainer/behaviolist and his first statement when he saw her was that she was scared. When he tried to walk her she went after him and I mean for blood. He said that from his obervation that she had never been socialized and showed signs of abuse. He also said that training might aliviate the problem some, but she would always have to be watched as she could never be trusted.
We know from her actions at home that she has been abused. If my wife picks up a shoe she will cower like she is about to be hit. She wouldn't even go into the bathroom at first so we figure that she must have been confined to a small room. With us, she is very loving. Wants to be an 85 pound lap dog. She has never shown agression to me, but has barked at the wife, so we think her abuser was a woman.
The trainer has offered training, but at over $2000 and with him saying he couldn't guarantee, I have a hard time going with that.
I am trying to socialize her to people by taking to Lowes or other stores and letting her walk around but making sure to keep people at a distance.
I have looked at a basket muzzle and wanted to know if anyone has tried these and had good luck? Was thinking maybe with this she could get closer to people, some petting her and show there is nothing to be afraid of.
Has anyone had a dog with fear agression and what did you do? Is it cureable? The only other change since we got her was that we changed the food she was on at rescue, Purina One to Taste of the Wild. Don't think food could cause this.
Taking her back to rescue it not an option for us, as we made a commitment to her and will not give up.
I took her to a dog trainer/behaviolist and his first statement when he saw her was that she was scared. When he tried to walk her she went after him and I mean for blood. He said that from his obervation that she had never been socialized and showed signs of abuse. He also said that training might aliviate the problem some, but she would always have to be watched as she could never be trusted.
We know from her actions at home that she has been abused. If my wife picks up a shoe she will cower like she is about to be hit. She wouldn't even go into the bathroom at first so we figure that she must have been confined to a small room. With us, she is very loving. Wants to be an 85 pound lap dog. She has never shown agression to me, but has barked at the wife, so we think her abuser was a woman.
The trainer has offered training, but at over $2000 and with him saying he couldn't guarantee, I have a hard time going with that.
I am trying to socialize her to people by taking to Lowes or other stores and letting her walk around but making sure to keep people at a distance.
I have looked at a basket muzzle and wanted to know if anyone has tried these and had good luck? Was thinking maybe with this she could get closer to people, some petting her and show there is nothing to be afraid of.
Has anyone had a dog with fear agression and what did you do? Is it cureable? The only other change since we got her was that we changed the food she was on at rescue, Purina One to Taste of the Wild. Don't think food could cause this.
Taking her back to rescue it not an option for us, as we made a commitment to her and will not give up.
