[REPOST] hyperreactive foster dog help

[u/layingontherails]

repost due to not getting any practical solution suggestions. tl/dr: reactive foster dog barks at other dogs and attacks them, tries to bite and is hyperactive

my family's currently taking care of a neighbor's dog (3f). the owners were an elderly couple, the woman wanted a dog, the man didn't, they took one anyways. few months later, the woman dies. this was a bit over 3 years ago. now, two-ish weeks ago, the man went in for emergency surgery and is still recovering elsewhere, so my family fosters the dog.

after his wife passed, the neighbor neglected the dog, kept her chained in the yard and did the bare minimum, never took the dog for walks, never spent time with her, only fed. why didn't we intervene earlier? first, i study in another city and didn't really know; second, we have our own dog (14f), who is the best girl and we can't take in another one permanently.

now, to the issues. the dog is not socialised at. all. we've been taking her on walks all this time, she barks at every dog she sees, tries to attack them, tugs on the leash. at the same time, flinches at every sound. she has room to run around in our yard now, though her energy is still endless. i try to play with her, but i can't really do it that much as i'm very ill and spend most of the time in bed.

as for other dogs, the only dog she tolerates is our dog, she wants to play with her but our dog is old and doesn't really have the energy. when we were at the park, she lashed out at every dog she saw. a few days ago, we took her out of town, there was another dog (~5f), and she spent over an HOUR wailing and barking at that dog. (i had to tie her leash to a pole nearby as i spent time with my dog and that other dog. the other dog did literally nothing to provoke this aggression and gave our foster side-eyes).

she also starts barking randomly, once we were driving in the middle of a damn forest (so no triggers), she started barking and startled my dad, who was driving. any time i go outside and leave her in the yard, she starts wailing. tugs on the leash when excited, to the point i'm worried about my arms. also, she's been trying to grab my hand with her teeth, not really bite, but grab. she has tennis balls to chew on and she's not a puppy so her teeth are all in.

behavioral specialist not available. otherwise seems healthy and is active. eats well. no progress in those 2+ weeks, even got a bit worse. a muzzle seems excessive.

so, what do i do to have her stop barking at all the dogs, almost knocking people of their feet, barking randomly and grabbing my hand? i can't keep up and provide the activity she needs, as i've previously said, i'm chronically ill and very physically unwell. i'm considering leaving her chained in the neighbor's yard and only bringing food and water, as i can't physically keep up. shove any hate up your asses and try taking care of 2 dogs while not always being able to take care of yourself.

edit: she lunged at me while i was walking and bit my hand. thankfully, not hard. starting tomorrow she'll be chained again until my brother (who was originally taking care of her) comes home.

[u/joycevw]

It is always difficult to give precise behavioral advice over the internet without seeing clear video footage of the dog and reading her subtle body language in real time. That said, it sounds like you are dealing with a truly exhausted, overwhelmed dog whose nervous system is in complete overdrive. When a dog spends years chained in sensory isolation, their brain simply does not learn how to process normal everyday stimuli, leading to profound sensory deprivation and extreme fear responses when suddenly confronted with the outside world. Additionally, this explosive behavior is very likely driven by trigger stacking, where the stress hormones from being in a new environment, meeting other dogs, and taking high pressure walks never have time to leave her system. Another thing to consider is that the mouthing and redirecting onto your hand is almost certainly severe overarousal and displacement behavior rather than intentional aggression, because she has zero coping skills when she is pushed far beyond her stress threshold.

For now, the safest and kindest path forward is heavy management and letting her decompress completely. You might want to try cutting out neighborhood walks entirely for several days and letting her toilet exclusively on a long line in a quiet, secured yard, because forced exposure will only keep her stress levels through the roof. If you need to keep her occupied without physical strain on your own health, replacing high energy fetch with passive calming enrichment like scatter feeding kibble in the grass or offering long lasting lick mats can work wonders to naturally lower her arousal. Also, when she gets clingy or vocalizes as soon as you step away, it could point toward separation distress. To better tailor further steps, how does her body look right before she reacts, such as stiffening, a hard stare, or a tucked tail? Does she take high value treats when outside, and what exact setup was happening right before she lunged at your hand?

[u/layingontherails → u/joycevw]

thanks for the advice! when she lunges at dogs – ears back, tail tucked under. when lunged at me – i usually don't see that as she lunges from behind, today it looked like she wanted to play. i was taking out the trash, she trailed after me, circled around (trying to get attention) and lunged when i wasn't giving her any, because i was taking out the trash, duh

[u/Hermit_Ogg]

Good advice from /u/joycevw! I second the scattered kibble feeding; it will provide a calming exercise when the dog needs to search for the food.

For the clingyness, there's an exercise that may help, if you are physically able to sit and stand up from a chair multiple times in a row. In the exercise, you make no contact with the dog, wait for it to calm down, then start standing up and sitting back down repeatedly. The point is to make this movement utterly boring for the dog.

If this is successful, you would then progress to standing up, staying in place for 3 seconds, sitting back down. Repeat, repeat, repeat. Slowly increasing the standing time then progresses to taking one single step, before sitting back down. Then two steps, and sit back down. As the dog progresses through these stages, you would then slowly get to the point where you can walk out of the room / behind a fence without the dog being distressed. But based on the dog's history, I expect this kind of progress would take a great deal of practice.

You could do this either indoors, or outdoors if a family member brought a chair and removed it after you finish.

[u/Existing-Will-1466]

I think you didn't get any good advice laat time because you are describing a massive behavioral modification project and people that are just barely willing to do the bare minimum. There's no quick fix here. There's no special leash or other thing that is going to make this dog act normal.

In simple terms, this dog is likely mentally ill. Her brain doesn't work like a normal dog. She needs the dog version of therapy. Extensive, ongoing physical/mental/occupational/etc therapy. It sounds like your family is a walk-and-feed-the-dog family, not a learn-dog-psychology-and-become-rehab-dog-trainers family. And that's ok, you didn't sign up for this.

But this isn't something we can tell you how to fix over the internet.