Why dogs turn on their owners

I explain the reason that dogs "randomly" attack their owners

[captainteutonica]

Pain, injury and fear can cause anger in people as well. Thank you for the informational video.

[HotSeat]

My neighbor was walking with a large 8 month old Cane Corso, who just got back from a 2 week training session without the owner. I noticed he had on an electronic collar. He was fearful and lunging at me on the leash. The neighbor owner thought it was great and smiled proudly at his dog. I am 70 yrs. old and worked with thousands of dogs and animals over my lifetime as an animal trainer. I told him my opinion on the e-collar and his dog's behavior. I just saw them again as I was coming back from getting my mail. This dog was ballistic now! Lunging, growling, fighting the leash, frothing at the mouth, etc. I will have to bring my taser with me and maybe my knife in case this dog breaks the leash and attacks me or someone else. I've seen this scenario many times before. When the owner thinks this behavior is funny and shocks the dog to correct it, etc. the prognosis is not good at all. 😢🐾🐾🐕🎭

[dee_]

When you are truly in sync with your dog you will feel his energy just like he feels yours. You just know.

[Pinkfrosting]

I fostered a dog that was returned because of biting. The dog also had seizures. Despite my decade of experience and a very structured and safe environment, she turned on me twice. I definitely said I could see it was a “turn” and something was seriously wrong with her. The rescue would not hear what I was saying and wanted me to still adopt her out to regular families. It created so much tension that I ended up parting ways with them. I just felt it was so incredibly irresponsible. It was so sad and disturbing.

[lunameatball]

3 wks ago my parson russell snapped & groweled at an acquaintance reaching over his head to pet him. This was highly unusual. That night I checked him for injuries & found a severe ear infection. He is healed now & is back to his normal temperment.

[redmanish]

I had a lovely dog who developed essentially canine dementia. She had never even nipped before but suddenly after she hit 14 she would have episodes of extreme aggression with no discernible triggers. I had to completely separate her from our other dogs and she couldn’t visit with guests because she was just too unpredictable. It was devastating to have a dog go from being the best friend you could ask for, to you being afraid to get your face within bite range in case she loses it. The worst part was that you could tell during her more coherent moments that she missed our old cuddly interactions but we just couldn’t risk it. It was horrible.

[oooof]

I’m a lifelong dog owner. German shepherds are my breed. Love their intelligence and loyalty. They were/are all very well loved. Active parts of the family. Only once did I have a close call of being bit. Was midday and Nikki just layed down on the couch. I was getting ready to take him for a walk- which he absolutely lived for. Well apparently in that short time he was on the couch he must’ve drifted off into sleep. Probably dreaming about a fine girl dog. Lol. Not knowing he was asleep, i surprised grabbed him (a common play technique I’ve used a hundred times before to initiate play). He jumped up like never before and like this guy said- you can see it in the eyes. Never before seen those eyes and never since. It took maybe 5 seconds for those eyes to slowly dissolve into his normal self. Then after the eyes were gone, knowing my dog I could see he was just pissed, but he was present again. I profusely apologized and we never had a problem ever again. He was in his prime and 120 lbs. wouldn’t have been pretty. But it wasn’t him with those eyes- was sheer instinct. Taught me a very powerful lesson that day

[uperrsc]

I’ve had dogs all my life. One was a Pit/Akita rescue that was a real handful. He was great with me and the rest of my household but I never trusted him around strangers, especially adolescent males. And when the trainer mentioned in the vid the change in an animals eyes before they attack, he is spot on. I’d always watch my dog’s eyes when we were around other people and I’d see when he “went somewhere else”, and it would happen fast and I’d immediately remove him from the situation. First rescue. Last rescue. I put more work into that dog than any other I’ve had (under the direction of the behavioralist the rescue referred me too, and although he was great with his immediate family he was too traumatized by his early life to ever properly adjust to dealing with strangers (and to him that was almost everyone other than his household). Regardless of his challenges he was a good friend and I miss him.

[Acadian.FrenchFry]

I am so glad you actually talked about mental illness in dogs. It exists and I have worked with and have done rescue with dogs since 1988. I myself have rescued a few dogs with mental illness. Only one resulted in aggressive behavior, but I have seen it over the years in other dogs I have worked with or been around. This topic needs more focus. Spaniel rage is a real thing, I actually had read a book written by a Dr. who treated dogs with different mental issues (using medications) and he discusses Springer or Spaniel Rage.
His theory is that is was more of a type of seizure like occurrence in the brain that caused the outbursts. Because he had mentioned that after the episodes the dogs would blank or zone out mentally for a while, like some do after a seizure. I'm glad to see you mention this. I hope you touch on this topic in future videos.

[phillylifer]

I have a mentally ill GSD. Went through a very traumatic puppy hood. He is such a lovely being, but I had to learn a lot of hard lessons to get to the point to give him the care he needs. Dogs are like your children. You need to listen to them, and not have expectations based on breed. This is my third GSD. Each has been a different being in more ways than less. Good luck, my friends!

[alexvid]

I LOVE that Beckman has the perspective of a father of young children too. Because there's a broader sense of protection and understanding. Really appreciate that and I can't stress how considerate that is.

[gailjackson]

My first dog was an English Springer Spaniel. She showed “Springer Rage” 3 times during her life. I was horrified when I found out from the breeder that my dog’s mother showed similar behaviour, but was still used for breeding, because she was a good show dog! I was only able to control these situations because I’d spent the first two years of her life training her to a very high standard. She was always so unhappy afterwards, knowing something was wrong, but not knowing why. On another occasion, we had a friend with a lovely Golden Retriever who was also well trained, then after a few years she suddenly started showing aggression. In the end they had to put her down, but they asked the vet to do an autopsy which revealed a brain tumour, which of course explained the aggression. As you mentioned Joel in your video.

[Jems_Poodles]

I had a standard poodle from pup, who grew up with my oldest daughter. In the whole 10 years of his life, the only 1 time he growled at her was when he had an ear infection and she was bothering him. She understood he was feeling bad and still remembers it to this day as it was so shocking for him to growl at all. He was the bestest boy. Toddlers could roll over him and fall asleep on him. ❤❤

[annie]

My Doberman was adopted at 8 months from a guy who kept him in an appartement by himself 12 hours a day. He was completely unsocialized and had dog aggression and redirected aggression but he never actually bit me, he would just grab onto my forearm and give me bruises . I finally found a trainer that helped me with that. When he was about to attack, his eyes would go completely black, it was scary as hell. Super smart and protective of me though.

[patguarneri]

I love that picture of young Joel with the cougar- the smile on your face shows your expression of doing what you were born to do.

[packycici]

TW. Joel, thank you for validating my experience. It made me feel more at peace with day I met a GSD that still haunts my dreams. I am a veterinary technician with almost 20 years on the job. I was caught off guard by very reactive dog upon returning him to his owners. He wasn't paying any attention (overtly) to me until the leash was handed back and then he showed his true feelings. He came open mouth straight for my face- defensively I shoved my arm as far in his mouth as I could. I had punctures of all his molars but wasn't able to get those canines in. His shocked owners were able to pull him away and my team was able to pull me into the building before he could try anything else. I was so baffled as I had been with the head of our behavior department before this all happened with him. She and I agreed it was better to abort trying to muzzle him for vaccines when he could come in with sedation for medical management. I have never been attacked in all my years and I was so thrown for awhile. Your video gave me perspective as the year before he was being treated for an injury, that in conjunction with new owners I think cracked his psyche. He is mentally ill now and very much a loose cannon. As far as cocker rage- also look into setter rage... I think it has something to do with gene color- because even now redder Goldens are exhibiting this issue. It truly comes down to breeding crap into the lines but.

[allycollyer]

Spaniel Rage is, sadly, very real. I've only just seen this podcast.

We bought our beautiful English springer Spaniel as a puppy, Pip. He was our fourth Springer, so we thought we knew their general character, bouncy, fun-loving, and usually eager to please. The first two years went by as normal. Then we started to notice a slight change in his personality. He would start to be grumpy. We took him to our vets and he could find nothing wrong, nothing giving him pain or discomfort.
Months went by, and his grumpiness grew. He started to go for one of the cats, totally out of the blue one day, and stopped when he heard us shout at him. He looked puzzled as if he'd done nothing wrong. the cat had done nothing to apparently upset him other than just be in the same room as him. Life carried on with these occasional out of the blue attacks on the cats. None of our other spaniels ever attacked our indoor cats, ever! And growls from under the table where he lay in his bed.

Now at night when a torchlight catches a dog's eyes they appear greeny blue - not Pip's eyes - they shone red!

Then one evening, Pip was half on my lap and half on the arm of my chair(as per). My fave tv programme was about start, so I said to Pip come on down you go and pushed him off onto the floor. Something we had done many times before. Well he turned round and grabbed my hand, biting it hard and started to shake his head. The pain was immense, he would not let go, just kept biting harder, with me at this stage screaming for him to stop. He held my hand like this for a good half minute, or maybe more, and then suddenly let go of me, and stood staring at me blankly as though he hadn't a clue that he had turned on me. Oh yes, there was plenty of blood!!

Very very sadly we felt we could no longer trust Pip, and so the next day my husband took him to our vets.

I believe Spaniel Rage has been caused by over-breeding of these pedigree dogs. Pip's brain had been "wired all wrong", as a friend of ours said.
Those canines do damage, and those other teeth! I have the scars to prove it.

We now have a Spreagle, who is adorable, is mentally as thick as two short planks and twice as dense, but we love her to bits. She behaves with our cats, although she will chase off any outside intruder felines! (A Spreagle is a cross between a Springer Spaniel and a Beagle hound, for those of you unfamiliar with the word)

[cgb]

Our border collie mix (who is almost 4) has been with us since he was 5 months old. He was born outside, so he came with some fears, but has always loved us and bonded with us and our other animals immediately. Two years ago, while my daughter was trimming his paw fur - which was a normal routine thing - he suddenly snapped at her face out of nowhere. Since this was completely out of character for him, we took him to the vet the next morning. They said he had the worst ear infection they'd ever seen, and we had no idea at all since he showed no signs prior to the snap. She must have put just a bit of pressure on his head and caused him to react in pain. We treated the infection and he's never had an incident like that since, but we are also very aware of his ears now. You're right about the pain and definitely taking them to the vet right away.

[cmwranch]

My dog had a bacterial infection on her face and it also got to her brain. It took almost four years to heal after her treatments. It was so bad at times that I didn’t even know her and she hardly recognized our family or us.
She’s my girl again and is nine years old and getting older.

[SabethRavenwing]

We adopted a dog 10 years ago with undisclosed mental issues. He was the sweetest lovebug little guy in the world until he wasn't. There were no triggers, it was like his brain would turn off an he would try and kill what ever was closest. Like Beckman said you could see it in his eyes, reminded me of an old friends crazy cat right before she would attack to kill. The other dog was taking the brunt of the bites because she was throwing herself between him and his target. They normally shared a dog bed and would eat from the same bowl if we didn't keep a close eye on them no issues. After a few rounds of stitches for the other dog and and meds for him we had a wakeup call when he nearly got ahold of my old cat. The other dog saved the cats life but her leg was torn open bad and their relationship broken. She didn't want him near the family any more he was a threat, to get beagle/lab mix to that point. None of the rescues near us could handle him, the rescue we got him from said he was our problem, meds weren't working, making him sick and unhappy, we had to make a hard call to put him down. Even now it break my heart.
We don't know if he was born that way or from a head injury. He had poor vision in one eye, broken teeth and an old break on his eye socket all treated once we got him. Did his get that when someone fought off an attack or did the injury cause the mental illness who knows. This has made be very wary of rescues there are only two in my area I would adopt from. An abused dog I can handle, this was a horror that still haunts the family to this day. Thanks for this video it helped explain some of what was going on with him