Sudden Aggression? Over Excitement?
 

We have a 9 1/2 month old male GSD named Jake. We have had a dog walker come to our house every day we work since Jake was 9 weeks old. They come to feed him his lunch meal and take him out to do business.

All of a sudden today, Jake bit the dog walker in the arm while they were in the front yard getting him to do business. I don't know all the details yet, but we are meeting with them tomorrow night to discuss. When the dog walker attempted to get him back in his crate and taking his leash off he kept trying to bite.

I'm not home right now to assess Jake's condition at all. I know Jake get's very excited when they come and he has always loved them. All within 15 minutes they arrive, he gets fed and let out for business and is always over excited for them. So I'm not sure if this is an something that happened as a result of over excitement or if it is an aggression issue.

We have not had Jake to obedience classes, but have done home training and while he's not the best behaved dog in the world, he is manageable for us. I can understand that there would be inconsistencies between how we handle Jake and how they handle him.

Understandably they don't want to come tomorrow until we've had a chance to discuss the incident.

Any initial ideas? We were going to start weaning him onto 2 feedings a day now that his digestive issues are resolved so that could eliminate the need for them to come feed him every day, but that doesn't address what happened.

The big question is whether this was an excitement bite or an aggressive deliberate bite. The first one is no big deal and is readily fixed. The second one is much more serious and needs professional training to deal with.

I just read the following link and I have an appointment to take Jake to the vet tomorrow morning. Alot of the signs that are listed for Thyroid problems explain Jake to a T.

DODDS-BEHV-THYROID

Thanks Elaine. I've only been communicating via text message with them, but they definitely said it was aggressive type bite as opposed to over excitement.

Keep in mind that over excitement can in some instances slip over into aggression.

Yes, I could see that. He definitely gets over excited when they are there. But I read other things related to thyroid issues that could explain some of the nervousness, allergies, itchy skin, incessant whining and lack of concentration issues we have been experiencing with Jake over the last 2 months or so. I've read enough to at least warrant a trip to the vet for some testing.

Definitely do the vet visit. Wasn't meaning for that to come out negatively towards the vet visit. Just throwing out another idea that is sometimes overlooked.

No offense taken at all Twyla :)

Hypothetical Situations.....Which of the two is more probable?

A frustrated dog walker who is having marriage problems, just got laid off, and had a fight with their kid comes to your house to let your german shepherd out. Your dog is having to much fun running around and keeps running away so they can't put the collar on him. The handler gets frustrated and begins handling the dog roughly. When they are outside, the handler jerks the dog and yells at it to hurry and potty. The dog doesn't know what to do and tries to get away from the handler, who pops him with the leash. Then there is a bite.

OR

The dog walker loves your dog to death and is in a perfectly happy mood. She lets your dog out of his kennel ,feeds him, then plays with him. Next she takes him outside (as she has every day for the past few months) and out of nowhere he bites her for no reason.



Just bringing up the possibility..

I appreciate the suggestions. I highly doubt the first situation applies. It is always hard to know exactly what is going on when you aren’t there, but we have had neighbors comment on how good the dog walkers (there is a husband/wife team) are with Jake.

Again we haven’t spoken in person with them yet (we’ll do that tomorrow night) but from everything they have said nothing was different from today than other days. He had his usual level of excitement when they got there, he ate and she took him out on leash to do business. There wasn’t anyone walking by the house at the time of the incident.