10 year old Springer Spaniel. He is the an amazing, loving, friendly dog. Except for when he “finds” something of high reward. He’s going deaf.
5 years ago started with showing teeth and lunging if we can across him with his found reward – eg, found something in the trash, compost, a granola bar in a purse, etc. it would always be when we came upon him in happenstance. He ended up biting me in the hand requiring stitches, in the context of me being angry at him and reaching in his kennel after he had retreated there after he put teeth marks on a visitor.
We took him to rehab. We changed our behavior. We practiced trading up, kept all food and high value rewards out of his reach. mandatory kennel when we have people over for drinks and food. instructions to our guests to leave him if he gets into anything.
It worked until it didn’t. People over for Easter. This was a little different – he came in beside someone and started in the compost bin – ham bone. And the person was loading the dishwasher beside him. Not even reaching for him. And he bit her hand, drawing blood and required stitches.
When I review his behavior I think that we probably should have made this decision a long time ago. He’s part of the family. He’s bonded to his younger brother, a springer doodle. We tried for 5 years, but maybe not enough. Can we do anything? Is there any hope? Is there something we haven’t tried? Please, we’re all out of options.
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