For those of you that don't know. My wife and I had a dog
named Caspian come into our lives at about the middle of 2013. Caspian being
part of our lives has been a mixed bag. We love him but we have definitely had
to do some very serious thinking in regard to him that I never imagined I would
do.
Have you ever said something and each time you say it you
can't help but think how ridiculous it sounds. Like it doesn't even make sense
but you know in your heart it is true even if it is incompatible logically?
Well, that is the very essence of the story of having Caspian in our lives. I
think that when we talk to the average person about our story with Caspian they
look at us like we're not making any sense. I think dog lovers that are
committed to helping dogs, particularly shelter dogs have a better
understanding of where we are coming from. But I still sometimes feel like some
of them might think we are crazy.
So here is the quick version of the story of Caspian in our
lives:
My wife, Debby, was enrolled in Karen Prior Clicker Training
Academy working towards becoming a certified dog trainer. She was going through
the program with our Bernese Mountain Dog, Buck. Unfortunately Buck is getting
older and has some health concerns and simply could not keep up with the
program physically. Debby needed a new dog to go through the training with. Our
other dogs were not good candidates for various reasons each different for each
dog. By the way, at the time we had 3 other dogs. We decided a good option
might be to work with a local shelter and see if they might have a dog that
could benefit from some added training to make them little more adoptable.
Caspian fit the bill. He had a little bit of a history of not getting along
with strangers. He also reportedly had the potential to bite. We met him without
dogs and it was a successful meet. Everyone got along and he seemed to be
perfectly comfortable with us even as strangers. So we decided to foster him as
he went through training. We have since adopted Caspian.
Caspian is an energetic dog and for the most part a very
well behaved dog. For a dog coming from a shelter where he had been for a long
period of time he fit in well in our home with us and our 4 other dogs. He is a
loving and very snuggly dog. He will climb right into your lap. and curl up on
you. He always wants to be with his humans. Very much a Velcro dog. It seemed
odd that a dog with a reported history of problems with strangers would so
quickly adapt to two completely new people.
After a bit of time we saw what his one problem behavior is.
Sometimes when he is being petted he will suddenly snap at the hand that is
petting him and "
try" to bite it. It seems like he is not really trying to bite us because it feels like if he really wanted to bite us he would. He usually does not successfully bite and he does not keep trying to bite. It's just a quick snap and then it is over. Sometimes his teeth will make contact but not actually bite. Once he bit Debby hard enough to cause some pain. He has never broken the skin or otherwise hurt us. What is most challenging about this behavior is that as far as we can tell there are no warning signs to tell us when he is going to snap at us or indicate that he is unhappy with being petted. So with this very cuddly dog who seems to crave attention and human contact and seems to want to be petted it is hard to determine the best course of action. The other problem with the snapping behavior is that it is relatively infrequent. It does not happen on a regular basis. I doubt if it happens more frequently than maybe once a week at the most and there are times when there are long stretches without it happening and then short periods of time where it happens frequently. In addition to this behavior Caspian appears to have some stereotypic type behaviors such as pacing around the coffee table and spinning that may be associated with anxiety.
We have sought advice from various dog trainers and our
veterinarian. Some think the best course of action is to have him euthanize as
he present a potential danger. We are currently looking into medication to see
if that will help him and we are in the process of getting in to see Cornell
behavior specialists to see what they think and find out what advice they have
to offer.
We have been told we sound like people in an abusive
behavior when we talk about him because we always say that he is so good 99% of
the time but it's just the other one percent that is a problem. Perhaps that is
a very apt comparison. We talk about how much we love him and we want to help
him. He is so fun to play with and loves to fetch and gets along so well with
the other dogs. We say he doesn't want to hurt us and he isn't otherwise aggressive
towards us. We walk about how good he is and how well manners and affectionate,
but there's just this biting thing. He is the perfect companion dog that I have
been wanting since our lab passed. Affectionate, cuddly lap dog, that is
energetic and ready to play and can go for long walks and hikes. Perhaps we are
just overlooking a critical flaw because we want this relationship to work out
so bad. We both recognize how ridiculous it can sound to say how good he is except that he tries to bite us some times.
We do our due diligence with regard to protecting both
Caspian and others. He is not exposed to situations where he could harm others.
The question is are we unfit to make an objective assessment
of the situation because our emotions are compromised? Or are we the perfect
people to make an assessment of the situation because we have the first hand
knowledge of the situation and know every aspect of his behavior both the good
and the bad?
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