My dog Sparky (kinda long)

dellytots

I adopted Sparky about 2 months ago. Hes somewere between 4-8yrs old (shelter told us he was 4-5 Vet thinks he's more like 7-8)
He's a lovely good and gets on well with my other terrier Molly(3) But as he's started to settle in he seems to have gotten more aggressive. Its random aggression theres no patteren to it.He bit my partner while he was petting him and went for me went I tried to pick him up. Hes quite an excitable dog and acts like a pup. We are geting worried as there are loads of children on our road and in the park were we walk the dogs, they always come over to pet him so we've to tell them not to now.

We took him to the vet on sat to see if he was in pain and thats why he was behaving this way. The vet checked his back and seems to think it may be some kind of spinal injury so that may be why he doesnt want to be touched. He put him on 10 days pain killers to see if that helps then he may have to get an x-ray. He also noticed theres a problem with one of sparkys teeth. The vet gave him an injection and Sparkey went nuts so the vet also feels he over reacts to small pain. The vet also gave us Kalms to put in his food for angsyity/stress and we changed him onto the senior food. The vet also recommend a harness for walking him so we got one of those.

Hopefully everything will work but I'm still very worried I'll have to get rid of him or worse he'll have to be put down. Becauce I cant have him biting a child or any guest that comes to my house......

MissyN

Please don't be too worried yet. Its still very early days. Why do you say he may have to be put down ??!!! In relation to biting anyone, I'd say to you that you should instruct people to completely ignore him when they go into your house. Literally get them to act as though the dog isn't even there and even if Sparky approaches them they must still ignore him. My dog is very protective of me and I can't have anyone (esp a child) come up to me to pet my dog. For the time being if anyone approaches you'll have to say 'he isn't friendly' and they should back off. Just avoid a bad situation. It doesn't matter what the kids on the road or in the park think. This is the way it is and if you're commited to the dog, its not a big deal to not have a bunch of kids all over him. You could also get a DAP for your house. Go to www.doggiesolutions.co.uk for details of this. Its a plug in that gives off a relaxing scent for a dog in a new environment. You can buy it from your vet too but its more expensive.

Please don't give up on this dog yet. It takes times for a dog to settle into a new home with new people.

dellytots

Oh im not giving up on him as you can see from my original post we're doing all we can for him. Im just worried that if he's bit his owners that he may bite someone else. Obviously we will try to keep him out of situations were this can happen while we work on his issues but if its not working I would hate to see him as a dog thats kept away from everyone not aloud interact with people thats no life for a little dog. He's a house dog and I want him to be part of my family. But I would hate to see someone get hurt.... and I know if that happens we wont be aloud to keep him.

He seems in better form today

MissyN

He wouldn't have to be away from people forever. He would probably have to meet people a good few times before hes ok with them thats all. You would have to do the ignoring thing a few times anyway and he would gradually make friends with your guests when he felt comfortable. He must be just anxious and once you get him into a good routine and he knows that things are nice and predictable he'll feel better and more confident.