Sleeping with Mr. Vicious

Oliver and his fav cat, the autistic Monkey

Trying not to use the central heating, so it got a little cold for Oliver, the Yorkie with baggage. This dog came to his second set of owners ( after an abuse case, and rescue) with a full set of luggage, and a bunch of extra hat boxes, photo bags, satchels and fishing pole tubes. He came to me with slightly less, but with a considerable amount of baggage for such a small dog. He got his RN, has become a much safer dog to be around, but needed a lot of time alone and the right food to keep him from attacking people if they reached down to pet him or move him from something comfy.

So it got too cold, even for a yorkie with sweaters, and I decided the only thing to do was to let him in the bedroom to hang out with the cats and sleep on the heated waterbed. Which would also mean that we'd be sleeping on the same comfy possibly resource guarding inducing bed with him at night. BIG TEST.

I put him in the bedroom, and put him on the bed. He started shaking ( his reaction these days when he thinks he might lose his shit and go into crazy dog resource guarding) and did the right thing - instead of growling and attacking, he jumped off the bed. Removed himself from the situation. I put him back up, and when he started shaking while looking at me, told him "Leave it" and "go" and pointed to the end of the bed. He got up, moved, then jumped off. Third time, we did another leave it and he stayed on, sufficiently sure that he wouldn't go nutso on me to stay on there.

That day if I came into the bedroom, I'd tell him to leave it and hop off, which he did willingly, and I'd get on it, then he could get back up. No problem. No shaking.

That night I was shocked to find him snuggling between me and Marq, comfortable in our presence and sleeping through the night. In the morning, a leave it and off ensured we had room to move and not trigger him, but it proved not necessary. Several nights in now, and the only time he's growled is when a cat actually steps on or sits on him (smaller than the cats, poor guy).
He snuggles up against us at night, and in the morning he is asking for petting repeatedly.

To get to this stage, from a dog that would pee on himself and attack, shaking and screaming when touched, to a dog that seems safe to spend the night in bed? Huge deal. I'm so proud of him.

To get here? Lot's of clicker, and working back through, in reverse, the normal dog warning signs of aggression. Since Oliver had been pushed into the deep end and over his threshold so many times, he no longer gave warning signals. He just attacked. Little warning, little sound, little inhibition. I had to work back down the line - c/t for inhibited bite, c/t for snarling, c/t for lip lifting, c/t for growling, c/t for whale eye ( showing the whites of the eyes), c/t for stiffening, etc. Funny how far you can get when you mark and reward signs of aggression! The advantage to this was it reminded him what else he could do, made him see that the people around him could indeed read the signals properly, and make him conscious of what his triggers were. There's still more to be done - going through the calming signals: c/t for lip licking, c/t averting gaze, c/t bending body and moving away, etc. But when he does trigger, it is all bluster now, he rarely touches you and he definitely doesn't do an uninhibited bite.

He is very aware of his triggers - when my friend gave him her old dog's bed, he got on it and started shaking, and looking at me sadly. He was well aware that he was going to feel the drive to resource guard that bed, and he was in conflict. That awareness is fantastice. We worked on his leave it, so he knew that he did have the will to override what must be an overwhelming urge to guard and attack, and after a few days, where if he wasn't sucessful with getting off the bed or triggered, the bed would leave and he'd then have no problem - it wasn't there to trigger him, he was great. A couple hours without it, then he'd get it back, and try again to be calm.

So anyway - be careful WHY the aggression is happening, before you go about correcting it. Because you could end up with Oliver "Mr. Vicious"(what the vet calls him cheerfully)- a dog that would seemingly without warning attack. And he's only 5 lbs without a full set of teeth. Imagine anything larger...

His previous owners still love the little guy dearly - he is a great little smart dog, just misunderstands his world a bit. They gave him a shopping spree at Phydeaux in Chapel Hill - he got a nice indoor jacket, and a thick outdoor herding/tracking jacket, and a harness, some food bowls to share, and a great enrichment activity toy.