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?
Yeah. We are going to be at my parents until at least January. My ankle/leg got super fucked up. The accident was also traumatic for my dog. I was screaming with pain when it happened and had to drag myself inside to call for help. My boy got so scared that he ran off into the woods. I wouldn’t let my mom call an ambulance until she got him back. She said he was so scared he was shaking. Throughout this whole ordeal, I’ve cried a lot and I’m sure it makes my dog upset. He has been up my ass since I got hurt and does his best to comfort me.
My parents also have two dogs and one is an anxious mess, which doesn’t help my boy. The anxious dog freaks out over the littlest things and has to be consoled constantly. My parents’ dogs also love to sneak in and eat my dogs’ (I have a goldendoodle puppy as well) food. My dogs also had a very strict routine before all this happened and it’s completely different now.
I’m going to make some toys for my dogs to keep my hands busy and hopefully help my boy. All of his fave stuff is at my house, and my parents haven’t had time to grab it for me
My little sister has also been getting very frustrated with all of the dogs running around and/or misbehaving. She has autism and doesn’t understand that yelling at them and lecturing them doesn’t help. In fact, yelling and lecturing makes my beagle very upset. I’ve been working with her to try to make her understand what is and isn’t appropriate behavior towards the dogs. I’ve been helping her with how to recognize what the dogs need to do in situations where they are being crazy. Sometimes they need a nap, or to run outside, or they’re hungry.
I’m going to call my vet today and see if they think upping his Prozac temporarily will help at all.