biting when afraid

Question
Hi, we have a rescued dog (rescued as a puppy) who is now 2 1/2 yrs. old - we got him around 10-ish weeks old. He is NOT aggressive, but is absolutely terrified of everything - large trucks driving past, fireworks, helium balloons, our chickens, thunder, everything. He gets so afraid when we leave the house that he pees and poops in the house, so we have put him outside on a run when we need to be gone (there are 6 of us, 4 children + 2 parents, and we home school, so we are here MOST of the time). He started getting aggressive with the kids when they would put him on his run, so I (mom) started doing it myself, but after a few months, the kids started doing it again. They are never mean to him, but he is afraid to be on his run, I think. Today he bit my 8yo daughter on the arm, twice, not breaking skin, but leaving bruises. He is 30 pounds, so not a huge dog; an Australian cattle dog cross / mutt. My husband wants to put him down or rehome him; I have seen him protect my toddler on more than 3 occasions, and getting rid of him is NOT an option to me, not without SIGNIFICANT retraining / work / class / whatever on my part. What can I do for him? Should I just be the one who puts him on his run every time? (I don't mind doing this.) Should we try to re-crate train him for when we leave the house? Sometimes it is a few hours (we live rural, so things are far sometimes, but - we are home most days). I want to do the right thing for our dog - and I am pretty sure it would absolutely kill my son if we got rid of this dog. I'm open to any and all ideas.

Answer
Hi Katie,
I would say that it's important to first manage the situation so that he can't get into trouble.  So, yes, I think it's advisable for you to put him on his run and, at least for now, not have the children do it.  This situation needs some expert help because your dog is clearly upset and probably afraid.  It sounds as though he didn't have puppy class early on, so he may not have been properly socialized to novel things before his critical socialization period was past (between age 8-16 weeks), and now regards the things most dogs accept without a fuss as scary.  If he was crate trained before, and didn't get upset while in his crate, he might be better off there than outdoors while you are not at home.  So, retraining to the crate is fine, I should think.  My suggestion is that you contact a trainer who understands how to work with fearful dogs so that you can learn how to react when he is upset, and how to condition and desensitize him to the things he fears so that his "threshold" for biting would be reduced to the point where he's more unlikely to nip. There are several places you could find a trainer who will not use harsh methods on your dog ( A recent study concluded that aggressive methods were shown to increase aggression in dogs).  The Pet Professional Guild has listings, as does Karen Pryor Academy and the Academy for Dog Trainers.  If you are in southern NH, you could try calling the MSPCA in Massachusetts, as there are competent trainers there who do private consultation.