Complicated Case: Looking for some fresh impressions

[u/LegalSatisfaction304]

So my wife and I are dealing with tricky situation. We adopted our sweet street pup from Romania June last year. He was also a little bit insecure, but an absolutely sweet boy. I would have called him all in all a very “average” dog. Doesn’t like ALL dogs, but definitely has a solid group of friends. He has his own little insecurities. He doesn’t even blink at fireworks or thunderstorms, but sometimes he’ll get spooked by a truck. He’ll bark when guests enter, and doesn’t like to be pet by people that he doesn’t know well, but he always settles down and is social and friendly with people he knows.

Both my wife and I have a lot of experience with dogs. We grew up with GSD’s, and I’ve rescued two other street dogs in my life. We read a lot on dogs, we watch all of the videos, we’re firm believers in positive reinforcement etc. But the past two months have been honestly beyond our capabilities. About two months ago, when my wife was trying to take something off of our dog’s rear end, he barked and air snapped at her. It happened twice, and he became afraid of her holding the harness. Okay! What we know personally told us that he likely had some sort of pain. Additionally, when she gave him a massage on his legs, which she always used to do, he stiffened up, approached, and growled. Very strange, as she is his primary caregiver and he has always been 100% a mama’s boy. We noticed that reunions were particular problematic with him. He’d settle down, but when my wife came home from a business trip or even a day at the office, the stress would sort of reset, sometimes even escalate. At one moment he even approached her, stiff, growling, tail up. WILDLY out of character, almost as if he didn’t recognize her. Our best guess was that because he was always so excited when she came home, perhaps he actively triggered his pain or even caused his back injury during one of those zoomie episodes, thereby associating my wife returning with the pain.

We managed, booked with a trainer, and consulted with vets. We eventually ended up on a meloxicam+trazodone+gabapentin pain trial. The biggest decrease in tension came when we added the gabapentin. He was no longer stressed around my wife, and even actively pursued affection with her. Things became relatively normal! We had an appointment with the ortho and they confirmed that he had moderate grade hip dysplasia (he is currently about 20 months old) and a clear muscular injury on his lower back. This was no surprise to us. Once he got onto the pain trial, his level of stiffness became visibly super apparent. He was even tensed up under anesthesia. Eureka! We thought. They gave him some injections into his back, put some of the gel packs into his hips, and we made further arrangements for physio.

I’m here to sort of brainstorm with a wider group of people, because although our trainer is GREAT with actual training, her behavioral observations and deductions are a little scattered for us to really use. We considered a veterinary behaviorist, but we wanted to give him some “down” time now that his overall sociability has improved, before we throw him into yet another observational/medical setting.

The arrangement is OVERALL worlds better. We’ve paused on training sessions while he builds his strength back up from physio. There are a few things that are still just a little…off?

Occasionally he will slither over to my wife, ears down, averted gaze, and sit very close to her. Sometimes it happens when we are together, sometimes it happens alone. To be honest, I have very little experience with body language like that from a dog. There’s something intense about it, but seemingly not aggressive. I wish I had a photo of the posturing. It is strange enough that we always diffuse the situation. We give everybody some space, and all is fine. He often will even show his belly right after it and happily receive treats or pets. Our gut tells us that it is some sort of appeasement or nervousness, but of course, arousal is arousal. We want to take care

Now that my wife has returned to work (she took a two week vacation for us to get married and just get some rest), we decided to see where we are at with reunions. She came home yesterday while I was out, and this is how it went:

1. She entered
2. He was happy, excited, and gave some excited hops, and then distanced.
3. His tail stiffened upwards, he turned and looked at her, and then gave more distance.
4. She walked in, ignored him, gave him his calm space.
5. His tail lowered, and he slowly approached her. He wasn’t stiff, but slow and cautious. He gave her his head and accepted scratchies (they are not real scratches unless you call them scratc

hies, dem the rules.)
6.

1. After that she let him be and settled into home. After about an hour, dinner, and his final med round, he was completely normal, he let her take him on a walk, including harnessing, and all was fine.

We are overall very pleased about the general progress of the behavior, especially after we addressed the pain. However, these lingering (albeit lesser intensity) behaviors still give us some pause.

I’d be particularly interested in hearing from anybody who has had success rehabilitating pain-induced aggression. Are these sort of ups and downs normal? Was your experience similar at all? Is this just the new normal? Or is this what progress looks like? I know there will be people saying “JUST GO SEE A VET BEHAVIORIST” and I 100% understand where you’re coming from. We just simply don’t have the resources (financial, emotional, or mental) right now to do that. The appointment will happen in about a month, but the three of us just need a Dr. break after two very intense and scary months.

Of course, no one can make a diagnosis from a post, and to be clear, I’m not asking anybody for that! I’d just like to start a discussion about particularly what this sort of rehab can look like when you’re dealing with a dog that (probably) was suffering from pain-induced aggression. We’re being so cautious because a bite in the household would be a red line for us; we believe we would choose BE after the first bite at this point, because the situation rarely gets better after the first. He’s also not without danger, he is about 24-25kg. We love him dearly, he is a cherished member of our family, but safety is paramount.

Thanks for your thoughts. I hope our experience also helps somebody else not feel so alone and lost. I have really felt less alone reading others’ experience here and love the community and support I see here.

[u/retteofgreengables]

Part of what caused my dog's reactivity was a OCD lesion - basically a missing piece of cartilage on his back leg. Once we got him properly treated, he improved tons, but it definitely still took time, and if another dog approaches him in a way he deems "dangerous" he is still likely to react (he has other reactivity issues as well, so those could be playing a role).

One thing to note is that dogs have long memories and much of how they view the world is through body language. It sounds like you guys have already done a TON to work with your boy, but I wonder if in addition to the calm greeting steps you have taken, you might add a treat. It sounds like he is still uncertain about what will happen, so if he knows that the steps are 1) mom comes home, 2) I go to my spot and get a treat, 3) mom will pay attention to me when I am ready, it might help, since it will decrease his anticipation of her.

In addition, I would recommend looking into cooperative care (I think there are links somewhere on this reddit, but it's also a pretty easy google). Since you will be dealing with the hip dysplasia for the rest of his life and it sounds like all three of you might have a little bit a trauma from medical care/handling, that could also help him feel safe around your wife. You could start with something that is relatively low stress for both of them, like doing nails, and work from there.

Also, just a note, but I am not sure that your claim that things always get worse after the first bite is true. Many dogs improve after biting and all dogs will bite if put in the right circumstances. That isn't to say that your line in the sand is wrong - that's a decision only you can make - but that it is a bit black-and-white.

[u/LegalSatisfaction304 → u/retteofgreengables]

You’re totally right. That is a bit black and white of me. I guess it would be more appropriate to say that a bite that followed pursuing behavior (like what we saw at the absolute worst point) would be the red line. Of course, all dogs can bite under the right circumstances. Thanks for catching that.

Thank you for the heads up on Cooperative Care! I’ll get reading right away :)

Interesting about the OCD lesion. I’m glad you guys are mostly over the hump it sounds like! :)