After letting him calm down (the handling of his mouth made him anxious), I was able to get another look and his right lower canine is also broken off, just the tip, from an impact to the front. You can’t really see it except from the side/rear view.

The breaks do not appear to be new. The edges of them are not sharp so they have had time to wear.

The night we picked him up, his previous owners opened the garage door with him loose and said, “He won’t go anywhere except if he sees a dog.”

Ok, so we are in the yard, he’s on the long lead and nobody is around. I set the lead down to use both hands. He was just lying there. I’ve done it thousands of times with dozens of dogs. I’ve always been able to grab the lead before they could get away if it pulled out from under my foot. They even teach you to do it in training classes.

It didn’t work.

He saw a cat.

Across the street.

Big booming guard dog bark and off he shot like a bullet. He was gone in a second before either of us could do anything. Jim ran after him (Jim doesn’t run). I waddled after both of them yelling, “Archie nein!” He has absolutely no recall by the way.

Here’s where it went south and got enlightening.

Archie was now headed south on our street on the other side of the street. When he realized Jim was chasing him he forgot all about the cat. He did an abrupt 180 and went north up that sidewalk as fast as he could run. This was not a normal dog’s game of chase me where they stay just out of your reach having fun. This was a dog hell bent for election trying to run away from danger. And in case you haven’t thought the obvious, since he’s never run off from us, he has not had any incident with us to give him any reason to think he was in danger from us. But their comment revealed they knew what would trigger him to run off which means he had done it before there.

So he gets down the street almost to Main St. and he’s in front of the factory’s big fence and he just stops. I don’t know if he realized he didn’t know where he was so he didn’t know where to go, or what happened but he just stopped on a dime and stood there looking horribly confused and indecisive. At this point Jim yelled for him to sit. Archie looked at him like he’d sprouted a second head, but made no move. Jim was walking toward him at a fairly fast pace at this point. He kept saying loudly, but happy, “Archie sitzen!” Archie watched him warily until he got close, disoriented by this approach of telling him to sit.

When Jim was about 6 or so feet from him, Archie dropped down and belly crawled to him, ears pinned flat, apprehensive as hell, positive he was in for a beating.

Jim just made him sit, then ruffed his ruff with both hands and told him he was so good. Archie went nuts with happy! He wrapped both front paws around Jim’s arms and tried to lick his face. Then he came prancing back so pleased and happy with Jim holding the lead.

I’ve seen that belly crawl so many times. I’ve seen a lot of people chase their loose dogs here in Springfield and they all do one thing. Hit the dog when they catch it. They think they are punishing it for running off. All they are teaching it is to fear them catching it and to be scared to come to them. Seeing happy, bouncy, bold Archie react that way broke my heart. It also convinced me his previous owners hit him. Dogs don’t naturally belly crawl to you in fear when you are talking to them in a happy voice. It would have to be one incredibly submissive omega dog and it would do it all the time, not just in one specific situation.

Any hope of him becoming my service dog just went out the window. The risk that a child could run up to him and find a trigger that makes him attack is too great.

I am now looking at having to buy expensive liability insurance I can’t really afford because he is now legally a dangerous dog in Ohio.

I think it is time for you to tell me the truth about this dog. What was the real reason you stuck him in your backyard when he was 5 months old and left him there? Lots of people have dogs and are pregnant. What happened scared you?

What do you know about these triggers that set him off snarling, growling, drawing his lips back, and biting people?

Pointing a finger at him when he has a toy in his mouth.
Touching the top of his muzzle.
Holding his mouth shut.

I did rescue for 12 years. Abused dogs aren’t the ones that cower from people and hide under things scared of everything. Dogs that have been hit have very specific things that scare them or cause aggression. Archie’s triggers are all very specific. He doesn’t give a hoot if I grab his testicles or any other vulnerable place a dog will protect naturally. He however put three large holes in my fingers because I touched the top of his muzzle while he was eating. He didn’t care that I messed with his ears, or under his chin. Just the top of his muzzle. Better I found out this way than him attacking a kid at a restaurant over some food on the floor. (And yes, he happily eats things dropped on the floor.)

What did he do and who tried to correct it? How did they try? What was done to this dog? Either he is unstable mentally or he has been handled inappropriately and roughly by a novice. Did someone try Cesar Millan crap on him or something for being a mouthy normal German Shepherd adolescent? What happened when he was 5 months old that caused you to put him out of the house? I noticed you completely stopped mentioning him on your facebook at that age. Something caused that. Something made you distance yourself from him physically and emotionally.

I keep running into these triggers. Every time I think I have them all found and counterconditioned I find another one. There’s a lot of booby traps on this dog and that makes him too dangerous to work with. I need to know what things were done to create these feelings in him. What makes him think he needs to defend himself and attack. If you won’t tell me or there isn’t something in his history to explain this, he will have to be euthanized to prevent someone getting seriously injured.

If you care at all about Archie, you will tell me the absolute God’s honest truth so I can help him.

Nikki

Archie and I playing and working on desensitizing him to having a finger pointed at him. Two weeks ago I discovered quite by accident that Archie became defensive aggressive when a finger was pointed at him. He dropped the toy from his mouth, became tense, eyes wide and dilated, lips drawn back fully in a very big snarl and growled. I’ve since spent the time working on desensitizing him to this action. As you can see, he’s made tremendous progress.

Early in the video (12 second mark) he does become tense, nervous, stopped playing with his toy, and begin to pant from being stressed and afraid when I pointed at him. He even averts his gaze. He was scared, but he overcame it and actually moved his head to my hand and solicited play at the 30 second mark. Evidence that he is understanding that the pointed finger is not an indicator of anything bad about to happen to him now.

You can also see in the video I have counter conditioned him to accept touching all over his head. He is 95% rehabilitated on his head shyness. He almost never ducks his head away from me anymore, and rarely does with Jim. He does not aggress anymore over it, no mouthing, no growling. I have also overcome his issues with having his mouth opened.

The one issue still with his head is touching the top of his muzzle while he is eating from his bowl. He has shown 0 food aggression. He no longer has any issues with me touching the top of his muzzle at any other time, even while eating. However when he is eating from his bowl, he will bite if the top of his muzzle is touched. I am sporting several lacerations on my right hand from this issue last night. I can touch him on the sides of his jaws, top of his head, on his throat, no problem. That is why it took me so by surprise that he aggressed. I’ve touched him and his food without any issues several times. (This just illustrates how inadequate those tests they for “food aggression” in dogs like shelter dogs on those shows on Animal Planet are where they stick the fake hand in the bowl for a couple seconds to see if the dog will aggress. There can be incredibly specific triggers.)

I would not call Archie’s aggression food aggression though. He does not mind me taking his bowl from him. He will eat with my hand on top of the food without problems. He doesn’t mind us walking near his bowl, even standing directly over it. This is a very direct connection in his mind between eating food in a bowl and physical touch on that exact part of his body. It screams conditioned response to me.

What I found most interesting about it was when I went to finish feeding him after the bite, he avoided it. He laid down next to me on the opposite side of me from his bowl and buried his head between the stove and my leg. He did not want to eat if it meant we were going to have this happen. I had to hand feed him to get him to eat. Now that’s rather odd since I was the one bitten. Clearly he was very uncomfortable with it and wanted to avoid it.

Again this morning I sat down with his bowl of food and he tensed all over, eyes dilated, hair bristled slightly off his body, tail out stiff as a board and horizontal. After a couple minutes of me just sitting there and us looking at each other, he relaxed. We worked on desensitizing him to having the top of his muzzle touched while he was eating. He growled about three times and each time I sent him away from the food. He went willingly without any resistance or fight, another clue that he is not trying to guard the food nor drive me away from it which means it is not food aggression. He relinquishes it to me without problem. We got through this meal without bloodshed.

I don’t like where this leaves us. If there isn’t a root cause in his past for these weird aggression triggers, then he’s as unstable as a house of cards built standing on the tip of a toothpick and will have to be euthanized. And even if there is and I am told what led up to this nonsense but I can’t counter condition them all, he might have to be put down anyway. I hope I can help him. I can’t stand the thought of having to destroy him, I’ve become rather attached to him. I don’t know what I will do about a service dog now. While it is legal to use a dog that has a bite history, I am not sure I feel comfortable with it. While I am very confident in the rehabilitation work I have done with him, I am worried about what other triggers lie in wait for me to find like booby traps waiting to be set off. And I can’t afford another large dog. I do not like the idea of rehoming him. Finding an appropriate home would be difficult at best, and he has become so bonded to me. I also feel that it could set back his rehabilitation if he were rehomed too soon. When I was doing rescue I learned rather early on that the tough cases required a year or more before they were ready to transition to a new home. Being bounced through too many changes too fast set them back, but when they’d had sufficient time with us to become stable and forget the past, they transitioned very smoothly. But the longer he’s here, the more attached I will get and the longer I will be without independence if I wash him out. It’s all a very unpleasant situation.

UPDATE 4:45 PM 2012-05-14

I tried asking the prior owner to tell me what this dog went through that could have led to this behavior and my subsequent being bitten. I said clearly that I need to know because if there is no cause, he is unstable and will have to be euthanized. I told her if she ever cared about him she needed to tell me the absolute truth so I could help Archie.

Her response was to unfriended me and blocked me on facebook without even a peep about what caused this nightmare for Archie. Like every crappy owner that shoves their dog in the yard and forgets about it then dumps their problem on someone else, she shunned the chance to take personal responsibility and help the dog by owning up to what they did to him. Apparently she just doesn’t give a fuck if Archie dies or people get bitten. She got her money and somebody else got her problem!

Such behavior, blocking me and refusing to help save the dog she -claimed- she loved, that just -screams- that she has something to hide. I have had no doubt all along her husband tried rough manhandling with Archie. The man he cowered from at TSC looked eerily similar to her husband in features and build. And let’s all face it, a dog that drops to its belly and lays its head over on the side with teeth bared in a defensive posture any time you move your hands around its head has been hit. I’m not one that screams abuse over every shy dog that hides from people, but that is just a big fat neon sign of abuse. I had hoped it was just misguided or ignorant handling issues. But hiding it, running away when flat out asked? That says you know something wrong was done and very likely maliciously and you don’t want to face it. I hope their child fares better at their hands than poor Archie, but I won’t be holding my breath.

I hope she enjoys going to sleep every night with the knowledge she and her husband created a dangerous dog and then sold him under false pretenses to a physically handicapped person. I might have the knowledge to work with such a dangerous dog, but I am still physically handicapped now and not physically able to handle a dog that is biting and attacking me. May karma bring that joy back home to her family.

Anyway tonight Archie alerted like an old pro when my alarm went off. You’d think he’d been doing it every day of his life. Then before I fed him his dinner we did training practice with some of his feed. We practiced sit, down, stand, wait, come and we started with two new things as well. Brace and place.

Resisting downward pressure seems a bit confusing to him, but he was giving it his best try to do what I wanted. He thought I wanted him to lie down, but when I would say no and block him from lying down and praise him for resisting he was confused. He did give me resistance though after several repetitions. When he gave me resistance to a slight downward pressure, click and treat. He was bracing back harder and harder each try. His confusion could be us fighting any prior training attempts. I don’t know how Archie was taught, but many dog owners try to teach dogs to lie down by pushing down on their shoulders/back which does lead to dogs like Archie that crumple to the ground with the least bit of pressure.

Place was a breeze for him. I’d lead him onto the mat and when he had 3 or 4 feet on it, click and treat. Within a few repetitions he was turning and going back to the mat when I led him off of it. LOL He will have that one down in no time at all.

I tried to get him to bark to start training bark on command, but he was having none of it. Rhade was so easy to teach that one. I barked and he barked with me. Archie just looks at me like I’m stupid. I tried barking, talking excited, waving my arms, having Jim knock on the wall even. Nothing. Archie only barks -at- things like people walking by or dogs playing at class. Don’t want to reward that, so I’m going to have to find something else that motivates him to bark. Barking on command will be one of his tasks. I use it to get Jim’s attention when he can’t hear me yell when I need his help. It also helps me with my agoraphobia as a big part of my anxiety about being outside alone is I will get hurt and nobody will notice I need help. (It’s rather irrational, but it could happen!) Knowing Rhade would bark on command and draw attention if I needed it was reassuring.

Archie has learned the following in the last six weeks.

Sit
Down
Stand
Wait
Come
Heel
Jump Up (get on something like the bed)
Off
Out (drop what is in his mouth)
Leave It
Paws Up (put his front paws up on something like a counter)
Attention (give eye contact on command)
Alert (paw me to draw my attention to my medication alarm going off, this is a service dog task)
Pull (pull me forward with his service dog vest to help me up stairs, this is a service dog task)

He is still obviously green. He has the basic obedience (sit, down, stand, walk on loose leash) and his two trained tasks down rather well. The rest is green. It obviously will take more than just six weeks, but he is off to an amazing start.

He did his first official working outing to a no pets store Saturday. We went to Home Depot to shop for a new screen door for the front door. He did excellent. He was calm, enjoyed being there, was alert but appropriately aloof when people stopped and talked to him. No nervousness at all even though he’d never been to such a place before. He didn’t bother things, he laid by my walker when we stopped and I sat down, and in general just acted like it was any other day in his life. He doesn’t even get ruffled when my walker wheels bump his leg/foot. In fact he doesn’t even seem to notice and just keeps walking like nothing happened.

He did find the forklifts running out front when we left a bit unnerving but he held himself together and did as he was asked even though he would have rathered just getting away from them. I of course gave him time to come to relaxation with them zipping back and forth while we stood next to the Jeep before I let him in the Jeep. No leaving on a bad note like that or it just cements it in.

I think that all things weighed, he has the potential to be a better service dog than Rhade was. Rhade was obviously handicapped by a painful disease nobody knew he had until it was too late, but he also had a sharper temperament. He like going and he loved working, but he was always a police dog at heart. Archie is not having to fight his inner nature at all. It is the right inner nature for the work. He’s sound minded, a good thinker, and if he would just learn to pick up items we’d have it made!

Next on his task learning list is to brace me to help me off the floor and to pick up items for me. Next on his obedience training list is backing up and laying on his left/right side on command. I also need to teach him to target somewhere in this because it is needed to teach tasks like shutting the door. Ah well. one thing at a time. Rome wasn’t built in a day. Sad thing is he takes to training like a duck to water. If I had my normal pre-CFS energy level I could train him all this in 12 – 16 weeks without problem, but then I wouldn’t need him to do any of it. LOL I’m hoping to have him trained in the most essential tasks I need if not all of them, and fully obedience trained within 6 months of when he came home.

Anyway. I am well pleased with his progress. The only thing slowing us down is my health.

Just a few minutes ago he was attacked by Wonder. There was no transgression on Archie’s part. Wonder is just getting more senile and “childish” about things. He has his good days and his not so good days.  As with human alzheimer’s the canine version has some periods of aggressive behavior. Archie was behind my chair and started to walk out the bedroom door into the kitchen and Wonder attacked, grabbing him by the side of the neck. Archie barked in angry protest at this unfair treatment. I got up calmly and stepped next to them and began weighing my odds on separating them without injury to myself. Before I could, Archie got the upper hand on Wonder.This could have turned incredibly ugly. Wonder is about to turn 14. He’s in good shape for his age, and he can play rough with Rommy and run, albeit slower these days, but he’s well past his prime and he’s no match for a young male German Shepherd.

But Archie did something both incredible, and very un-dog like. He subdued Wonder without putting a tooth on him. He pushed him to the floor and laid across him. They formed a t with Archie on top of Wonder, his chest on Wonder’s back behind his neck. Oh he was upset, don’t get me wrong. He was barking his anger and hurt feelings about it to the world. Wonder was barking his anger at being pinned to the floor as well. But a normal dog upon getting the chance to retaliate would have done so with teeth. He could have easily killed Wonder, and as much as it disturbs people to think of their Fido being a killer, many a dog would. At the least a normal fight would have turned to bites from both dogs.

But Archie did not bite the old man. Not once. Not one tooth in his mouth touched Wonder.

I reached down and took Archie’s collar. I did not pull back. He turned his head toward me, his eyes confused and angry and he barked to me. Yes, I said -to- me, not at me. It wasn’t aggressive at all. It was frightened, confused, and angry, almost plaintive. It was upset and he was -telling- me about this injustice. Almost even like he was asking me why Wonder did this. I told him, “I know. It’s ok now.” and I held out my foot against Wonder so he would back away when Archie’s weight came off him instead of coming back for seconds. Then I pulled on Archie’s collar and he willingly got off Wonder and moved behind me. It was a very calm separation, no explosion and everyone went their own way.

I checked Archie over, petted and praised him. He seemed happy with that and got on my bed and is now sound asleep. I hope he knows just how much I appreciate that he did not hurt Wonder.

crappy cell phone pic of Archie sleeping on my bed now

He’s discovered the joys of being a “big brother” to Rommy. He’s “mean” to her in a good natured way. He has a good sense of humor and he teases her endlessly. She gets so mad at him, frustration just oozing out of her, but she loves it.

They’ve become pretty good buddies really.

She gets a bit angry because he doesn’t let her get away with everything and walk all over him. It frustrates her.

We’ve fairly well conquered his head shyness. And his playful mouthing of moving hands also. I used counterconditioning to teach him that hands moving around his head were to be ignored and being petted on his head is a great and wonderful thing.

These videos were all from mid to late April. He’s shown even more improvement since then.

Got this picture of Wonder catching some z’s while the other two were out playing the other day. He came and was standing there longingly with his head on the edge of the bed so I helped him up and he went right to sleep curled up in my spot.

Today we encountered an extinction burst with Archie. His mouthing in protest has been on a steady decline since he got here because frankly, it just doesn’t work. If he mouths me in protest, I purposely continue whatever it is until he gives up and quits, and he’s figured this out. Better to just let me do it and get it over with I guess. But as with any behavior that is being extinguished, it reared its ugly head back up with an increased intensity.

I combed Archie today. He’s blowing coat big time now, triggered by the increased protein and nutrition in his feed. His body is dumping the old hair as fast as it can and growing luxurious new hair. He laid there so relaxed and enjoyed being combed. After the torturous first comb through, he’s quite liked being combed.

After I was done combing him, we were on the bed and I stroked his front leg. He mouthed me. Harder than he normally does. More adamantly. More demanding. I ignored it and kept stroking his leg. He kept mouthing me. I kept stroking his leg. Finally he got frustrated and laid his head down but his lips were not relaxed. They were drawn back in a grimace. He was not happy.

A bunch of those little short leg hairs had come off when I was stroking his leg, so I took the slicker brush and started lightly brushing his leg. He became very upset. Now mind you, he had no reason to be upset. Having his leg lightly brushed isn’t a torture method! But he was not liking me holding his leg and brushing it.

Then it happened. He escalated.

He threw all his chips in the pot and went for broke. He came at me, vicious growl, bared teeth, lips drawn fully back, and he went for the real bite.

He was met with the slicker brush shoved in his mouth with it turned vertically so that it wedged his mouth open painfully. He backed up, but I knew he wasn’t done. I called for Jim and he came in and held Archie by the collar and I started lightly brushing the other leg. At first he didn’t fight, remembering his last attempt. But before long (about ten strokes with the brush) he decided he’d had enough and it was time for me to stop. He did it again.

Jim met it with a twist of the collar and a sleeper hold with the other arm. Archie was growling and trying to get free, but Jim held him fast. Archie had to learn that this level of aggression is not acceptable under any circumstances. The only way for him to learn that was if he did not win this time. If he won, if we backed off before he submitted, he would go to this level any time he wanted to get out of something like having his legs stroked. ***

After a few moments Archie realized he was defeated. He began to wag his tail low and slow, the signal that he relented and was saying, “please don’t hurt me.” I told Jim to release him slowly and he did. Archie didn’t resume the altercation. Instead he came and laid down next to me, and watched Jim for a few minutes, then went to sleep. Now he’s outside playing with the other two, happy as a clam. He’s had no shyness of Jim afterward, so he clearly understood why it happened and was fine with it.

I’m sure there will be a few more extinction bursts as this behavior is wiped from his repertoire and he learns that it is unacceptable and useless, but this will have been the biggest one. If he follows the normal pattern at least.

I am very confident though that he is going to give up this behavior. He’s a smart dog. I just really hope that he doesn’t nail me before that happens! I’m not as fast as I was before I got CFS. It can screw up a person’s reflexes pretty bad, and it got mine.

Anyway, it doesn’t matter what behavior you are dealing with. Barking, biting, mouthing, chewing. There are almost always extinction bursts that feel like a great big setback. Don’t freak out and feel like you’ve failed. They mean it is working! Keep going! They are the light at the end of the tunnel.

*** It is important if you do not want to wind up here to not let a dog get its way by using its mouth EVER. If a pup gets away with it once, it will keep doing it. When it meets someone that won’t give in, it will be forced as Archie, to escalate. This is absolutely avoidable in 99.999% of dogs if it is dealt with when they are pups/adolescents. They should always be taught that their teeth have no power over people. If you are trimming their nails and they bite at your hand, don’t pull your hand back. Keep it right there. Keep trimming their nails. If you were done trimming, pretend to trim. Never reinforce it in their mind that they can make you stop doing something.

Also realize this. It is natural for them to try it!

***And another thing.

Yes, there are two ways to deal with a dog that has learned it can control people with its teeth. One is to meet it head on like we did with force that does no damage, and get it over with.

The other is to retrain the dog to let you do each and every thing it protests.

Which one is best? Neither. Both. It depends.

For a dog like Archie that protests just about everything to see if he can get the upper hand, it would be a lifetime to retrain him for each and everything. And that mindset really does not go away. There would always be something lurking around a corner waiting to trigger him to try it again. He is a dog with fight drive. The chances that a situation that required he cooperate NOW would come up and he would protest just for the sake of protesting are pretty high.

For a dog that only bites when you trim their nails, use the retraining! There’s no reason to go Cesar Millan on a dog that is unsure and insecure about nail trims. They don’t need pinned down, held in a choke hold, or worse strung up. They need counter conditioning.

Choose your methods very carefully.