I’m currently fostering a 2-year-old Phaléne named Dane for PapAdopters. I pulled the puppy from a no-kill shelter in the City of Chicago 6 days ago.
Over the past 6 days, I’ve been working with Dane on basic obedience in the comfort of my own home and building off of what he currently knows like come and sit. Dane understands the “leave it” and “off” commands and generally does what he’s told to do. He also knows that no means no. Dane is highly motivated to learn and will work for food.
One of my main concerns with Dane is what the vet put in her initial report concerning a behavior evaluation from July 30th. She wrote:
When he was first at 26th Street (intake and medical), he was reported to guard toys from other dogs and food from people. They have been managing resources to prevent triggering this. On 7/9 at the shelter, he jumped up to greet a volunteer and when the person went to pet him, he turned and snapped at the hand. He then growled and moved towards the door. The volunteer tried to move towards the door when he then lunged and grabbed their pants. Another incident occurred when a volunteer tried to remove his Weiss walkie after returning from a walk. The volunteer touched his neck, he snarled and the volunteer backed away. He jumped up and snarled. The volunteer backed away again. Only then did he stop reacting. A third incident occurred after a shelter employee had shown him to a potential adopter. Dane was friendly and appropriate with the family at that time. The shelter employee then tried to put an Elizabethan collar on him when he lunged and wouldn’t stop. Shelter volunteers were able to help muzzle him and then place the collar on him. Once the muzzle was removed, Dane lunged again.
The vet gave him a working diagnosis of possessive aggression and suspect conflict related aggression. She says he presents an interesting situation and the triggers for his aggression are very unclear and not predictable. That Dane shows an immediate extreme reaction when he shows aggression.
My mom and I have seen some of this in our home 3 or 4 times since we’ve had him.
I’m hoping that there are more experienced dog people here and more experienced rescuers here who can offer me more insight into this issue and help me fix it. He’s an otherwise great dog and I want to make sure he gets a good forever home.
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