I’ll start off by saying that he has a bad past life. He was obviously abused by his previous owners and straight up abandoned in the woods. He has bad anxiety that he is on Prozac for, and it seems to be helping for the most part.
Lately he has been grabbing random shit and snapping and growling when someone tries to take it. He’ll grab the stuff off tables and counters to chew, so it’s not like he’s finding random stuff on the floor.
Last night he grabbed tape off of a table and when my sister tried to take it, he bit her hand. It wasn’t hard and barely left a mark, but it is still incredibly concerning. I was the victim of a severe dog attack as a child, so any aggression is not okay. I don’t want to have to get rid of him because he’s my baby boy and I love him so much.
I have no idea how to stop this behavior. I’ve never had a dog act like this. It started in August and has gotten worse in the past month because our living conditions changed. I broke my ankle/leg and I’m laid up for a while at my parents’ place.
Do y’all have any suggestions?
Just because your parents have dogs doesn’t mean they can offer a safe environment or know what to do with them. All the changes and the environment posed for your dog are incredibly stressful for the dog. Please be compassionate that your dog is going through more than you even though you literally broke your leg and probably experienced the worst pain in your life. Changes in living situations are the biggest adjustments for dogs ever.
Please don’t listen to people suggesting anything with the word dominance, pack mentality, wolf study, punishment or anything forcefull. All of that is guaranteed to make things worse.
A certified trainer (CCPDT and the various acronyms associated, the dog academy, anyone force force free) will get you on course faster than any website or book.
If you want your dog to make it out of this, your dog has to be a priority, make it your part time job.
My quick advice if you can’t afford a trainer and will only look up free internet advice from strangers:
Start with giving them something low value to chew on in a distraction free room. Have 10 minutes worth of super high value treats. When they are chewing the low value, walk up to them and give them the treat. Let them chew on the low value again. Repeat. Try for 10 minutes at a time. Adjust value of chew and treat so they don’t react when you walk up to them.
Next session, If they start wagging their tail when you approach. Try making it harder by taking the item for 1 second then, give them the treat then give it back. Ramp up duration or value of chew and items as progress is made
All of this has to be a happy and joyful affair. You are using a happy and friendly puppy voice the whole time. The dog has to feel good about this the whole time. So make sure you and the dog are in as good of a place mentally when doing it. This will all be harder if the dog doesn’t have other prerequisites like a leave it or drop it command.
There are so many ways you need to modify the above strategy for your particular dog that I can’t stress enough how valuable you’ll find a certified force free trainer to be. A vet check might also be suggested by the trainer. I think my advice is barely scratching the surface of what to do and how to do it, I haven’t even met your dog so what do I even know? Very little!
If you need proof that force free methods are a way, the AVSAB statements are quick and easy to read with tonnes of source citations: https://avsab.org/resources/position-statements/