Dear Kelley,
I pray you can help me. Last year I rescued a dog, and myself + my family showered her with love. She had had a very distressing past history, this reinforced to us when she bit my Mother In Law on her third day with us. They were very serious bites and our vet said we had no option but to put her down as she had a high risk of re-offending.
We, as a family, found this incredibly difficult but had no choice. She was a beautiful 2 yr old collie and it was so heartbreaking. We recently re-homed a 6-month old German Shepherd who is a real sweetheart.
However we have just realized that our 12 yr old daughter is still traumatized by the incident with my Mother In Law (which she witnessed).
Krya jumped up to lick her and she had a panic attack. My question to you is "Is it better to put a muzzle on a dog we all love or let her move to a home where she does not have that restraint? She would get plenty of stimulation with us, walks beside a canal for 2 hrs a day, hill walking/climbing regularly with loads of love + attention. Please let me know which outcome would be better for Kyra as it is her welfare that is at the forefront of our dilemma.
Kind regards, Linda
Facts & Summary:
- "Kyra" is your new, 6-mo. old German Shepherd Dog.
- Your daughter, age 12, was recently witness to a severe bite inflicted by a different dog to a family member.
- The dog who bit was a 3-day, newly adopted, 2-yr old Collie.
- The Collie was euthanized for aggression as recommended by your vet.
- Although the new dog is friendly, she is rambunctious and untrained.
- Your daughter is having panic attacks whenever the dog jumps up on her, licks her or does both.
QUESTION:
Should you use a a muzzle on the new dog, so that your daughter will not have to worry about being bitten. Or, is this unfair to the dog?
First, let me say that if your daughters fear is severe, or getting worse, you may want to seek help from a mental health professional.
It is entirely normal to be afraid of large animals with big teeth! But it sounds as if you are describing a new change in your daughter that is drastically different because of a specific event.
Given the bite your daughter witnessed and the events that followed, I am not surprised that your daughter is having a difficult time bonding with your new dog.
If you can't manage the access the two have to each other with gates, crates, and tie-downs while still providing excellent opportunities for mental and physical exercise for the dog, then you may want to re-home the GSD.
If you are able to find professional help for your daughter and the prognosis is good, then it might be possible to temporarily manage the situation and work through the issue.
Having worked as a humane educator I do have some experience working with social workers and psychologists in controlled settings with dogs and children who were fearful of, or had had a traumatic experience with an aggressive dog. It takes time to recover from a bad experience and steady, slow progress is best.
From a dog-behavior perspective, "wiggly" & "overly-friendly" are encouraging terms. They mean that the dog is not afraid (potential fear-aggression), just untrained. Untrained is fixable with patience and a little work. The dog's temperament aside, the human needs to be comfortable too and wiggly/friendly can be just too much for a fearful person.
When working with people who are afraid of dogs, I have never started with a puppy! They are TOO-WIGGLY! A friendly, well-trained adult dog who listens well to commands is ideal. So, don't peg your daughters recovery on your puppy. Consider training the puppy and getting your daughter (at her comfort level) interacting with older, well-behaved, friendly dogs.
Regarding your specific question, I would NOT recommend muzzling the dog.
I only use muzzles when the is a clear indication that a bite is likely and/or a previously known history of the dog having bitten or fought.
If this is a concern (that the GSD may have some tendency to bite or nip) than it may be best to re-home the dog and focus on your daughter's feelings and concerns regarding dogs.
If the dog is not currently biting or showing signs of being fearful or aggressive, then it is your daughter whom you need to turn your energy.
Muzzling the dog will not fix your daughter's fear, but could give her a false sense of security.
Furthermore, your 6-month old pup will miss out on the opportunity she needs to learn what (toys) she is allowed to put her mouth on and when (never), she may place (even gently) her mouth on people.
If the dog is NOT biting or puppy-nipping then by all means, please use other management devices such as crates, pens or tie-downs to prevent the dog from jumping all over your daughter.
This is just good-sense for anyone with a rude, jumpy pup.
Preventing the dog from practicing the bad behavior is critical to training.
Finally, please enroll in a Reward-Based (no choke/prong collars) Training Class.
Don't forget to include your daughter in training the dog. The class may be overwhelming, lots of young, un-trained dogs, but your daughter could be included in the homework exercises.
In the beginning this may mean that someone else holds the leash and controls the dog from a distance, or that your daughter gives the commands or food-rewards.
Will the new Obama Puppy run the White House?
Should your puppy have unlimited access to your whole house?
Dogs are creatures of habit and they will do whatever works; has worked; or has a good chance of working. An often overlooked and drastically important part of training a new dog is preventing them from even knowing that a particular thing is even possible! If they don't get a chance to get it wrong, than they will be getting it right and good habits will be created.
Think of it this way...
If your dining room had two possible entrances, one from the kitchen and one from the living room, you would probably use both entrances. Now let's say that the kitchen doorknob breaks and you can't enter through that door. It is highly likely that for a period of time everyone in the house would still attempt to use that door, even if they KNEW that the door was broken. Habit would drive everyone to try the door. Eventually you would stop trying the broken door, but it is worth noting that the change in your behavior would show up much later than your knowledge that the door was broken.
If a puppy is allowed to run around the house causing a ruckus and pulling everything down (tablecloths), jumping on everything (sofas) and chewing whatever (brooms, chairs, socks) this will become a habit. Then the family gets strict with the puppy (usually when the "isn't that so cute" factor wears off). As the puppy becomes an adolescent many of my clients tend to think the puppy is magically old enough to "know better" despite no previous training or education. This is terrible for everyone because the puppy is in the habit of doing all the wrong things. Should the family start actually training the puppy the right things to chew, and the right places to dig, sleep and play the puppy will LEARN/KNOW what to do. BUT... the old habits will still a huge part of their decisions on how to behave.
Back to our door...
The opposite situation. Imagine you move into a house and the door to the kitchen from the dining room was rusty, painted shut, and unusable. Everyone in the house would learn a particular way of moving from room to room without using that door. Now imagine that one day the door was fixed. Even if everyone was told that the door was working, the old patterns of moving from room to room without using said door would likely be retained.
This is true for your pup as well. If during every family meal I leash my dog near their bed and give them a chew toy or Kong, then this will be their habit. Eventually I will not need the leash, or the kong. My dog will trot to her bed when I sit at the table and I could give her a Kong afterwards for having such good habits!
The final door.
How would things change if SOMETIMES the door worked. Occasionally being denied entry through the door might not be enough to keep you from trying to use it. This would all depend on the inconvenience of the alternate route, and how often the door failed. Its possible that your behavior of trying the door might never fully go away if the alternate route was highly inconvenient and the odds were good that the door might work.
Now lets talk about your puppy.
It is fastest and easiest to restrict a puppy's access to tempting places completely in the first year. This is why trainers like crates and puppy-play/confinement areas so much. Allowing access slowly, when you are ready to supervise your dog completely and interrupt naughtiness is paramount to a good puppy plan! Every puppy should have limited access to places that will tempt them to chew, pee, dog, or steal food. Even a Presidential Puppy needs a crate, a play pen, and supervision.
Puppies have to chew and bite!
Chewing is a natural response to teething. Play biting is even more important. During play, litter-mates chew and bite on each other. This teaches Bite Inhibition. Feedback from litter-mates is how puppies learn to bite gently. At some point in their life your dog will use its mouth and teeth to tell another dog, or even a person, that they are scared or in pain, or both. If and when your dog uses their teeth, you will want them to bite gently, this is Bite Inhibition.
A contributing factor to learning to inhibit a bite are the needle-sharp teeth that puppies have in their mouth. These teeth are designed to hurt! They MUST hurt because at this young age (under 3-4 months of age) your puppy does not possess the jaw strength to do the damage that they later would (without bite inhibition) would be capable of doing. Evolution as large, predatory, pack animals has necessitated the need for dogs to use their teeth with great force in some situations (hunting) and very little force at other times (social discussions).
Because of the importance of bite inhibition I often recommend that owners/guardians of pups allow some gentle biting until the pups are about 12-14 weeks of age. If puppies bite too hard, an "OUCH!" followed by walking away from the puppy is all that is needed as a punishment. Physical force or harsh punishments like grabbing, shaking, rolling, or pinching a puppy are completely unnecessary, abusive and are likely to teach the puppy that human hands are dangerous. Because dogs that are fearful are more, not less, likely to bite, teaching a dog to fear hands is a very, very bad idea.
NOTE: It is important that puppies also play with other puppies so that they learn how to use their teeth and jaws gently in play. This is best learned before 4-months of age, so PLEASE enroll in a puppy class as soon as you get your puppy.
At about 3-4 months of age (or when your puppy starts losing his or her puppy teeth) humans should begin a zero-tolerance for any biting. At this point in development, all bite inhibition has been learned and you can mark all contact to human skin with, "OUCH!" and ignoe the puppy.
When puppies hit adolescence they often go through a period of increased biting and chewing (regression). This is often prompted by a frustrating situation -the puppy wants something they are not going to get, or something is ending that they want to continue. They are puppy-toddlers. Again, punishments are completely inappropriate. Mark any use of the teeth with a "too-bad" and time your pup out.
If you puppy is having specific issues with handling (paws, collar, ears, tail), they are biting because they are uncomfortable and have not had enough socialization with human handling. Contact a certified trainer immediately or talk to your puppy instructor. Remember your instructor or trainer should never be advising the use of force (pinches, rolls, swatting, hitting, grabbing) to eliminate biting.
