[Dailydrool] Floppy - agressive Basset Hound in Calgary (I don't know what to do, plss help!)

Virginia Oliveira duda.tuppence at shaw.ca
Tue Jul 8 07:59:59 PDT 2008



Hi Everyone

I need your expertise on Basset behaviour since mine just go so far. I received this email forwarded to us, Canadian Basset Rescue Network from the Basset Rescue of Ontario and I really don't know what to say or do. I never had to deal with a case of an agressive Basset. The incidents seem to have been going on for some years now,  since 2006.
Floppy is a 4 years old neutered  Basset boy who has become agressive specially towards the children. He has bitten one of the kids to the point she needed to go to the emergency room. The owner has contacted Calgary Humane Society and they won't take him and even suggested euthanasia. (They suggested it to my Xaxa 5 years ago and here he is so that does not mean much to me).

I am forwarding here the owner e-mail of the agressive episodes so you guys can have a better idea of what is going on. It seems that Mindy from Ontario Basset Rescue has been trying to help with guidance but apparently their house has lots of kids and Floppy seems a little lost. 
 Any help or suggestion would be appreciated. He might still have a chance of being someone good dog so I'd like to find how and if anything can be done.
Thank you so much
Virginia (PART OF JUAN'S EMAIL FOLLOWS----->)

Hi Mindy, thanks for your promptly reply, I will try to cover the whole story
  Floppy is a 2 year old basset located in Calgary , we got him when he was 10 weeks old and he is the only walking pet in the house surrounded by 4 kids and 3 adults, kids are 9 to 12 years old and floppy sleeps in moms and dads bed.
  He stays at home by himself all morning while the kids go to school, he spend must of the time sleeping and staring at the window.
  he is a very good greeter gets so happy when kids get home and he like to play a lot but he nibbles, he grew up around stuffed animals as toys now he  thinks all of them are his, he goes for walks (weather permitting)almost every night after supper, and he knows his routine
  he is always by our side no matter what are we doing, he loves to go for a car ride this was the nice part, I will number the attacks (if the can be called that way) as they occurred in the past year.

  Attack # 1 
  He was asleep on the coach and a kid accidentally landed his elbow on floppy's tail he turn around and bit the kid's head (we considered it as normal)

  Attack # 2
  kids were teasing him with the hat passing it around, time to put the hat on and floppy jumped on the kid's head to get it, (kid's fault)

  Attack # 3

  Floppy was going after my daughter (12) backpack and she stole it from him, he jumped and bit her arm.

  Attack # 4
  Floppy  started growling at the kids and he corner them inside the pantry.

  Attack # 5
  at that point we weren't home we had a family emergency and my oldest daughter was on charge. Pantry door was left open and floppy got in to it helping himself with a tray of pastries, he got caught, my 18 year old daughter tried to take the stuff away, she started talking to the dog about been bad and he suddenly jumped viciously on her, she got hurt on one arm and leg at that point they manage to get out of the house, and the neighbors came to help looking floppy in the garage to let the kids in, we blamed that on the sugar he had y we tough the kids couldn't handle the dog.

  Attack #6

  we had the in-laws for a visit , first time for floppy to meet them, after a week he was asleep in the living room, mother in-law came running down stairs and there we go again, he jumped again and bit her in the stomach leaving big bruises and some ripped skin.

  After this event we decide to neuter him as the vet suggested  he mentioned he would calm down, so we did, everything went ok for a couple of months.

  Attack # 7 
  floppy got brave, he decide to chew on dad's mock, I asked him to drop it, he turn and look at me, starting to growl and hair spiked on his back.................I thought the kids were exaggerating things, so I confronted him and say don't you dare, and he did... he viciously rammed at me trying to get my legs, I couldn't get him off me so I had to kick him twice to keep him away from me , I pushed him to the stairs and closed the baby gate to keep him away from me. he learned he was messing around with the wrong one.

  Attack #8 today, 2 months after attack 7

  He cornered the kids again stopping them going to school , growling and barking my oldest daughter called me not knowing what to do, I told her to show him the leash to distract him, so she did and he took him out for a short walk putting him back behind the gate upstairs he was calm and sleeping. no one got hurt

  From 1 to 6 the attacks I mentioned we weren't home.

  attack 7 my wife was away for a week

  attack # 8 my wife was away for a few days and floppy hasn't had his walk for 3 days due to the weather.

  As you can see is getting scary

  If you need more details let me know, I appreciate your time.

  Thanks
  Juan
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