Biting Jack Russell Terrier

Question
QUESTION: I have a question about our aggressive two and a half year old Jack Russell Terrier. Two months ago, my husband and I adopted a Jack Russell. He was a house pet on my mother-in-laws farm and had very little discipline. He was fed table scraps and basically given carte blanche. Also, we found out later that he bit her all the time. Since we got him home, we have been working to resolve the begging and food issues and have made great headway in that area. We have also worked to establish dominance. Shortly after we got him home, I was asleep on the bed with the dog. My husband attempted to get into the bed and the dog growled at him.
Since that time he has not been allowed to sleep on the bed. He has not growled at my husband since then and seems to understand that he is to be submissive. However, he does not recognize this with me. On several occasions he has growled at me when I attempted to remove him from a piece of furniture and a month ago, he bit me. Since that time, we have been trying to assert more dominance, i.e. we go through doorways first, he eats after we do, he is not allowed to sit on the couch with us and when he gets out of hand, I hold him down on his back for several minutes, etc. Unfortunately, this does not seem to be working. Last night I was standing in my husband study having a conversation. I was approximately 3 feet from the dog who was lying under my husband's chair. All of the sudden, the dog lunged at me and attacked my foot. I cannot think of any explanation for the attack. In previous cases he was asserting him dominance and right to be on a piece of furniture but that was not the case this time.
We have talked about getting rid of the dog but are unsure if this is the right thing to do. It is troubling that in the two instances where he did actually bit me, he did not growl as a warning, he simply lunged and bit. What I am wondering is, is this a re-trainable behavior? He seems to have fear and submission issues with men and dominance issues with women. We have been consistent in our training and have done all of the things that the books and everyone we know has said to do, but he has been here only once and has already bitten me twice. We are also planning on having a baby in the next year and my concern is that based on what I have read about Jack Russells, rather than training them and establishing dominance once, like with other dogs, it has to be constant for their entire lives. I am afraid that once we have a child and the dynamic in our household changes, we will be right back where we started.

Any insight you might have into this situation would be greatly appreciated.



ANSWER: Wow Sarah - sounds like you have bitten off quite a project.  Let me say that above all else your personal safety must always come first no matter how much you love the dog.  And to be brutally honest this is not a dog whom I would ever trust with any child - ever.

That being said, I would encourage you to leash him to you every minute you are home.  Just tie the leash through a belt loop and go on about your day.  Ignore his presence essentially.  This is a very effective, nonconfrontation way for a dog to have to comply with your wishes.  I would advocate using a harness and a 6 ft leash for this and do it for at least 2 weeks.

I do not normally advocate an alpha roll or alpha submission because many dogs, especially terriers just take it as a challenge and "come up swinging" or otherwise looking to regain their status.  Rather, I encourage use of isolation.  When the dog is bad in any way shape or form - even the glance from the corner eye they use to warn each other - and in the crate he goes for 20 minutes.

Terriers hate to be isolated from the action.  I would also crate him at bed time, and perhaps even during the later part of the evening so you are not obligated to be interacting with him all the time (being in training mode)... and definitely when you are not home. He cannot be allowed the freedom to do what he wants at any time.

I do not want you to be confrontive with him - rather just a natural course of him always having to be at the beck and call of your presence.... and NO FURNITURE - it is a status symbol that he has not learned and is not likely to any time fast. They see sitting in your chair as being in your role in your absence, and can come to not want to have to give it back to you.

I would also start feeding him his kibble by hand. You must be the source of all good things.  You can eventually work backward from feeding one kibble at a time to eventually feeding with your hand in the dish.

I feel pretty strongly that this may be a bigger project than is wise for you to attempt - not because of you - but because the dog has issues.  If you decide that he's too much for you, please consider breed rescue. They are far and away best suited to giving him a chance for rehab.

I am so sorry that you are in this predicament and no matter what decision you make, the road ahead is going to be tough.

Best wishes and please give me an update.

-Beth

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Beth,

Thank you for your response. It was very helpful. I have tried  hand feeding him and that seems to be going well. Also, I tried tethering him to me all day yesterday. Unfortunately, he bit me twice in one day. Nothing too serious, but I don't think we will continue with the tethering. However, we did have a rather important realization. I forgot to mention something in my previous e-mail that I think is important. As I mentioned, we had been working from the position of establishing me as the Alpha. What occurred to us yesterday was that Jack minds me much more than he minds my husband and in fact, if my husband tells him to do something, Jack looks to me for permission. Also, when I have held him down on his back, he looks away and is not confrontational which suggests to me that he is submitting. I think that this is perhaps not an issue of dominance, but more and issue with women. As I mentioned in my previous question,he bit my mother-in-law constantly (although we were not informed of this) and not just nips. Apparently he would bit hard enough to draw blood and case injury quite often. So, is it possible that he just has issues with one sex? That he just doesn't like women or has some learned behavior from a previous household dynamic that taught him aggression toward women? I know he had at least one other owner before my mother-in-law and her now ex-husband got her but I don't know anything about his first family. My mother-in-law got him from the pound and he was apparently on his last day.

Any thoughts you might have would be so helpful. At this point we are thinking that we need to either place him with Jack Russell Rescue or find a nice farm for him to live on (with no women!!)  

Answer
Sarah -

Sounds like he has learned 2 things about women - they are in charge of giving him permission to do things, yet that he can get away with biting them.

I'm trying to get a handle on how hard he is biting you. Is he breaking skin, OR is he just taking your skin in his mouth and not biting down (considered being bite inhibited) OR is he nipping you - catching a small amount of skin and pinching but not breaking skin....

These indicate different levels of aggression and will make a TON of difference in the situation that you consider surrendering. Most rescues will take dogs who do the latter 2, but will not take a dog who has no hesitation to bite right through the skin.

OK - looking away when you have him down is submission - and in fact you do not need to put him down on the floor - Just grasp his collar on either side of his face and lake him look into your eyes til he looks away.

OH - when you yell at him, make sure to lower the tone of your voice and bellow rather than screech. Dogs interpret high tones as excitement and low tones as the human version of growling

Yes, it is quite likely that this is largely a gender issue, though I would not trust him entirely either way.  

I've run out of ideas without being there first hand.  You could always look for a terrier experienced trainer too.

-Beth