Sunny bit my foot. :(

[Sunnypup]

So Sunny has just gotten back to being able to run around and play per the vet after getting fixed and he's being neurotic now. I was standing at his food bowl and he attacked my foot. It didn't really hurt but sort of startled me. I tried to do the thing where I put treats in his bowl and my hands are fine but for some reason he REALLY doesn't like my feet. I don't get it. He's also not obeying 1/2 as well as he did before the surgery. Could it be because his hormones are out of wack or did they accidentaly remove my dogs brain along with his testicles? I'm not sure what to do and he has sort of gone back to being nervous when he has food in his crate and I put my hands anywhere near it. We had him on a 24 hr (total) fast before and after the surgery. Could that have something to do with it? I'm not panicked but am sort of concerned. I guess if it was really an issue I could feed him in the laundry room by himself since there are no other issues with aggression but we're talking about moving and taking in smaller foster children and they might not understand doggy growling at them when they try to pet at his food bowl. He's only just 6 months old...he's still able to be trained out of this right? HELP ME. Thanks.

[Gustav]

He is probably just out of sorts at the moment!!! He probably hasn't forgiven you for the whole "fixing" business yet!! :D
I'm sure he will be back to his normal self very very quickly!!

[Stanna]

I think that's basically him entering his teens. Renee asked me if my puppy had gone crazy yet, since he's 6 months too.

So far so good though. I presume one day I'll wake up and he'll have turned into mr. hyde

[Renee750il]

There could be a lot of things going on with Sunnypup - his hormones are a bit whacked right now coming into his teens and having his surgery; anesthesia can really throw them off; being at the vet's wasn't a pleasant experience; he senses the emotional turmoil at home . . . and the fact that he is only reactive to your feet makes me wonder if someone has kicked him or teased him by kicking his food dish out from under him with their feet or something like that.

In the meantime, I'm going to move your thread to training where CreatureTeacher and Doberluv will be sure to see it more quickly.

[Doberluv]

I'm not one to make too many excuses for dogs, including hormones when it comes to biting people. I know they have their phases and troubles, but I wouldn't stop, wait and see if it goes away. It's doubtful that it will. Manners are manners.

Why don't you stand sort of by his food bowl (not too terribly close) with your bare feet which you've spread peanut butter all over. LOL! No....I'm serious though. Give him a treat right off your foot. Just make sure it is big enough and sticks up enough that he doesn't get your foot. Don't go to him with your foot. Let him check it out on his own.

And in addition, since he doesn't mind you touching his food with your hands, keep practicing that. Don't lock him away by himself. Every so often...(not so often that you're harrassing him) stick something extra good in his bowl, move it over a couple feet and stick again something good in there. And then leave him eat.

Practice with other things too...make a game. Have him bring you a toy. Ask him to "give" and then give it right back or give a treat in place of it. Teach him to fetch and give you his ball or toy. Just reiterate that it's no problem when someone comes around or takes his stuff. Don't forget to make it a fun game with lots of praise.

Is he super playful with a ball? Sit on your floor and roll the ball for him. Get him to bring it back to you. Take your foot and slowly and gently (no sudden moves) roll the ball with your foot and tell him to go fetch. I'm just thinking of ways you can get him to "like" your feet.

If you have kids to practice that with and play with him and if it's safe for them, that would be good. How much socialization with kids has he had? You will have to really watch it with him with kids I think.

If he's not obeying commands that he did before and he's attacking your feet, I think you need to turn on the speed with some NILIF. (nothing in life is free) Here's a link: Do these things every day.
http://www.sspca.org/Dogs_TANSTAAFL.html

[Sunnypup]

Thank you. I'm not making excuses for him, just trying to figure out in my head what may have caused this sudden mood change on his part. It's not at all acceptable, so I want it stopped which is why I asked. He is, by the way excellent with little kids, they are his favorite thing next to his fuzzy lamb :) He's not aggressive in any other way. We do a good deal of the nilif training as it is so it won't be a stretch to take it a step further. As it is he has to lay down and wait until I say he is released to go to his food. Hopefully by the end of this week my feet will no longer be enemies. :rolleyes: As for the whole being kicked thing, I don't doubt it, but not neccisarly by one of the vet staff. I talked to my boys today and they admitted that they kicked his bowl out of the way while he was eating and it may have hit him in the nose. Now I don't know if that would cause such a violent reaction but he has always been a little nervous about his food so I guess between the vet stay, the anesthesia/pain meds, not getting a good walk in over a week cuz the dopey vet said not to , schedule being out of wack and his brains falling out since he's a teenager he needs some retraining. Does anyone else have some suggestions? He should be re-trainable right?

[Renee750il]

Re-training him shouldn't be a big deal, and I think that confession gives you the reason Sunny's having this reaction. Having his food dish kicked like that and possibly getting his nose bonked in the process and then his stay at the vet's would be enough to make a reasonable creature lash out. Like I keep hammering home . . . there's always a human behind the reason a dog bites . . .

[CreatureTeacher]

Yep, I think we've found the culprit. Are "the boys" your kids? I might sit them down and have a talk about what is and is not okay to do with and to the dog. Remind them that Sunny has as much right to eat in peace as they do, and tell them in no uncertain terms not to tease an animal with a mouth full of sharp teeth. Sunny is WAY too good a puppy to have to put up with senseless teasing.

Personally, I would be absolutely livid. Not only could Sunny's reaction have injured you seriously (and if it had been someone else I don't doubt it would've been a nastier bite; you got a "warning shot"), but think of how Sunny feels. He's already a little uneasy about the whole food thing, but he was giving it the ol' college try. Now he's wondering if he wasn't right about being possessive all along! If this had gone on, it could've caused all kinds of issues. Sunny could lose some trust in you for "lying" when you're showing him that no one's trying to steal his food. He probably already has lost some trust in these kids, and that's something that takes some careful work to repair. It certainly didn't help your resource control training because it showed Sunny a lack of respect even when he was following the rules. Sunny might have begun to look at other kids with a little less trust, and make sure he was hyper-aware of his belongings when they were around, which could lead to a worse accident. It's a lot easier to stop emotional damage from occuring altogether than it is to repair it. Fortunately, it doesn't sound at all to me like it's gone this far. But you can see how just a little careless disrespect to a dog can lead to that dog's lack of trust. The same thing happens to human children that are treated nastily for no apparent reason.

Of course Sunny can be retrained! Dogs are experts at using their own mouths and teeth. If he had wanted to damage you, he would've done it. Instead, he just gave you a very clear message: "Mine! Don't you touch it!" I'm not excusing his behavior in any way--biting for any reason is unacceptable. But in light of the circumstances, he may have felt he had very little choice. Doberluv (as always!) has some excellent suggestions. From the sound of things, I'd make the boys do some of those things too. A "you broke it, you're gonna help fix it" sort of thing, to show them the consequences of their actions and also to repair Sunny's opinion of them as relates to her food. Also see if you can't tone down whatever stress the family is feeling at the moment. Sunny knows when things are tense, good or bad, and he'll tense up some too.

All that said, I haven't had a whole lot of behavioral issues develop in dogs because of spaying and neutering. In general, most dogs getting altered at 6 months come out pretty much like they went in. It certainly helps prevent behavior problems as they age, and prevents a lot of physical problems as well. What I find to be more traumatic than the actual surgery is the trip to the vet. It's scary there, and they don't really understand what's happening. I had a pup once that would suck on my shirt for an entire day after a trip to the vet, just desperate for comfort. It affects them all differently. But I agree with Doberluv; even the dreaded vet trip is no excuse for being snotty. This is NOT something you should tolerate because Sunny's missing some body-bits. I honestly think that being neutered has very little--if anything--to do with his food possession.

[Doberluv]

That is terrible what those boys did. If someone is around a particularily nervous dog or a horse for that matter, they shouldn't have made sudden, frightening noises. If you wanted your dog to get use to something that made her nervous, moving a bowl, making a screeching noise with the bowl....whatever, then you'd do it slowly, carefully, deliberately and try to make her at ease with it. If you had a dog who couldn't care less about stuff like that, you'd probably not have to be so careful. When someone works around animals, like those boys (they were from the vet's, right?) they ought to have a little sense about things like that. Even as a kid, I think I would have been more sensative to something like that.

So, anyhow....I think you can get her comfy again and trusting again...but I'd be cautious about kids when you get fosters. She does sound a mite nervous. CT is so insightful, of course. I love that: "you broke it and now you're going to fix it." LOL. That would be good...to get some boys those one's ages and try to turn them into something "good" instead of the bowl kickers that she might think they all are. Just take it slowly and be light and breezy. She'll be ok. But don't be too nervous or walking on eggshells around her. If she is protected too much, she'll always be too sensative. That is not to say to bombard her or overwhelm her or do anything suddenly or frighten her. But do things and push just a tad (ever so slightly) over her comfort level some of the time.

Good luck.

ps...CT exaggerates my "excellent" ideas. There must be a few more things you can think of. Peanut butter is pretty messy. LOL. But anyway, you'll come up with some ideas to make the things she's afraid of or suspicious of into something she will like. Hugs to your baby.

[Sunnypup]

Thank you all for the excellent advice. Today went much smoother. I did go the peanutbutter (and turkey) route with him. Two of his very favorites, so I figured, heck it's worth a try, I have to wash my feet anyhow. No growly or snarly pup today, but he did start again with the expectation of an added treat, which leads me to potentially believe he recognized he wasn't getting one and got an attitude the other day. The boys are my foster sons, I've written about them before. I work/live in a group home for juvinille delinquent boys, 4 at the moment, 6 usually. Sunny LOVES his boys. He loves people. He isn't possesive of toys or any other such thing, or any food that isn't "his" in his bowl. I'm just about ready to solve the whole issue by mopping the floor really well with pet safe cleaner and dumping his food there. The second it is not in his bowl he's all of a sudden mr. calm and "can I puh-lease have that momma?" Except for the lack of response when I give a command (which could partially be my fault for not really working with him cuz I felt bad for him this past week) and the sudden aggression towards my foot, he's a little angel. Frankly I don't really get it but hopefully he'll turn himself around. I wouldn't be taking in very small kids that don't understand not to bother the dog while he's eating, so that shouldn't be an issue. Even if he is completely cured of this issue I still think it is rude to bother someone while they are enjoying dinner. And no, he's not skittish or sensative in general. A little kid (about his size) RAN up to him in the pet store and kissed him on the nose out of the blue (kid is lucky Sunny is such an understanding pup in my opinion) I was a little nervous since I don't have kids that small (I do take him out and get him exposed to them but they don't live here) but he just kissed back right on the little boys nose. Mom was nowhere to be found (kid was maybe 5 :mad: ) but I did tell him to ask next time he wants to pet a doggy in the store because some aren't so nice. So overall Sunny's prognosis is ... sunny in my opinion. Just turns out I needed better treats then what i was offering in his bowl. Anyway, thanks again.

[Doberluv]

I have to wash my feet anyhow

ROFLOL!!!!!

Sunny sounds like a great dog. Maybe you've got something there....scattering his food all over the floor. LOL. Or maybe you could try a paper plate or something resembling a bowl, but not as "scary." No metal, glass or other noisy, shiny thing. And then work back up to the tidiness of a bowl later. But it's not a big deal, is it.

Yeah....you can beef up and get back into place with his minding your commands. When you get time, you will probably work with him a little more. It sure doesn't take much....a time or two during the day, even for a short time works. Or, what I do a lot of, is ask for something while I'm doing my chores. If I'm emptying the dishwasher and Lyric is hanging around, I'll ask for a down/stay or a sit/stay until I empty the bottom rack. Then while I do the top, I'll ask him for something else. He then, may go lie down somewhere or do whatever.....Then I'm going to go down the hall to do laundry. I'll tell him, "let's go." Then, "heel" as we walk down the hall. On my way back, I'll ask him to back up. (a little trick we're working on) I don't make him back up the whole length of the hall, but maybe 10 steps. So, you can do little things here and there and it's all good.

[Renee750il]

Sunny does all he can to live up to his name! And it's amazing how good most dogs are with little kids. Even my Mickey, who bit EVERYONE at some point (she always had a reason, lol) was great with the little ones. My stupid cousin, Kimmie, who is still stupid - but that's another issue - when she was about three decided that Mickey's little stub (she was born with no tail) was where you wound her up and proceeded to twist it before anyone could get to her. Amazingly, Mickey didn't bite her! No one would have blamed Mickey if she'd eaten Kim - shoot, we'd probably have given her a treat :rolleyes: Even when my cousin Tommy crawled up to her and put his face right in hers she just licked him. And this was the dog who had chewed my Dad's hand quite thoroughly when she was still a baby and weighed about four pounds! Funny thing is she's still one he remembers as one of his favorites . . .