My dog just went crazy, what should I do?

[chickNjake]

Well, where to begin?

I have 3 y/o, 110-ish pound, female Great Pyrenees, Wilson, that has never caused any trouble. Her only faults have been that she's a little too hyper sometimes, she jumps, scratches and play bites and when I tell her to stop she doesn't listen a lot of the time. she likes to bark all through the night- typical of GP's. No major problems really. She has caught a few chickens to 'protect' them, and sometimes they'll have a heart attack or something like that. When she does catch the chickens she's always dropped them when I told her, and let me take over. She's not a bad dog, and I love her to death.

But,,, today my brother told me she had a chicken under the trailer, so I went out there. I saw she had a 4 m/o Guinea- dead, and she was licking it. I said something to her and she didn't really move so I took a piece of wood and knocked her with it (Not nearly any thing that would hurt her, of course, just enough to say go away) Well this is where it gets bad. She turned around with the growl she gives the other dogs who mess with her food (It's scary) and lunged at me with the intent to bite me, I think. she completely freaked out, there are words I'd like to use to describe her, but I'll say she went crazy. and at first I was acting on instinct and ran away from her, but I didn't believe that she would ever do something like that especially to me! So i went back and stood on the trailer and talked to her and put the wood back in front of her and she did it again

Well I just don't know what to do.
We eventually waited for her to come out and we put her in the garage and let her out after about 3 hours and she was normal.

I feel like if it is my dog, there should not be a single thing that I could ever do to make her try to hurt me. But she's never done this before. I love the dog, but now I'm afraid of her and I'm not really ok with that.

I'm sorry this post is so long but I wanted to include everything that could help.

Any ideas?

Thank you for any help!!!

 

[Mahonri]

Dog whisperer?

Any dog that got mean with me like that, I'd take hunting... and the dog wouldn't be coming back home with me.

 

[Funky Feathers]

Sounds like a serious food aggression problem that has been escalated. You need to nip it in the bud. It can and will get worse. Time for Cesar Millan. It will take a lot of work to break her of this due to her age & size. Good luck.

 

[Cloverleaf Farm]

The first thing you should have done was NOT to run away, I know it's a scary situation and hard to think straight with a dog that size growling at you though! Not IF, but WHEN she does it again, and she will because she won this time and now she's "in charge", you should take that stick and use it to pull her "prize" out from under the trailer and take it away from her immediately, and NOT give it back. If she continues growling, you need to put a leash on her and MAKE her do some obedience, so she is listening to you and YOU are the BOSS, not her. Use tough love during these sessions, NOT positive reinforcement, or you'll be reinforcing the bad behavior as well. Oh, and put whatever it is that she wants somewhere where she can't get to it, but you can, and where she can see it, so she knows is yours and not hers.

Good luck!

 

[thecochincoop]

Well if it were a smaller dog I would say pen her to the ground and make her submit, but with one that size you can get seriously hurt or even killed. I would talk to an obedience trainer and definately work with her and do a lot of training to put you in top position. It sounds like she is trying to be dominate.

 

[Mrs MIA]

Guineas must be tasty! Honestly, I don't know what I would do in your shoes. I've never had a dog bigger'n me. My first thought would be to train her that she must let go of anything in her mouth, whether it's a toy or food. Let her know who's boss...

That must have been scary for you...

 

[chickenpiedpiper]

Dont mess around with this alone. You need help, and you dont want to skimp here, get a hold of a local trainer who can help you with this, they are NOT expensive, and will save the life of your dog and possibly save you or someone else some serious injury!

This is a major deal! Dont let it slide, she has just chased you succesfully away from a kill and established herself as dominant! Your fear will not make you a good trainer at this point, even if you manage to pin her. You need to have some help until you gain that confidence back, and your dog understands her place in the pack!

the second and equally bad problem, is that your beloved dog is now a bird killer! That is probably not what you got her for!

Please take a little time, search your local craigs list, newspaper, or Vets office, for the number of some one who can come and work with you, and if you dont like them on their first visit, get someone you do like! This is not a small incident in her mind, or yours, and you could be seriously injured the next time you cross one of her boundaries!

Good Luck!

 

[jerseygirl1]

The best thing you can do - pay for a one on one evaluation with a canine dog behaviorist, not obedience trainer, but one who deals strictly with problems that dogs have issues, ie, seperation anxiety, food aggression, etc.
They are called animal BEHAVIORISTS, NOT a dog trainer.
It typically will run you about $100 for a one hour session, and most will videotape it for you and tell you what your best course of action is. I did it and it worked wonders. Your local shelter can refer you to someone. Please do it for your dog. They bwill tell you why it happened and what you can do to prevent it from ever happening again. Watching a TV show where they only show you the good ending and not the behind-the-scene footage is not going to solve your problem. Definitely not Cesar Milan, either. You don't need the training, which is what he does, your dog needs reinforcement

 

[CMV]

You really have just 2 options that I can see. Option 1 is lots of training. I'm talking call in the professionals and work HARD with this dog. She has forgotten her place in the grand scheme and you reinforced her mistake by backing down instinctively. (I don't blame you, I would have backed down too.) She can be rehabilitated, but it will take much time and intensive training to do so. Option 2 is euthanasia. A dog with food aggression is a tough case. Most SPCA's won't even tackle a dog with this issue because it is so hard to break. It is a behavioral problem that can lead to attacks down the road, and a dog that will attack its owner is no good to have around. Re-homing is also probably not an option because then you are giving away a dangerous dog.

I am sorry you are faced with this decision. Good luck with whatever you decide.

 

[jjthink]

Please don't let her anywhere near any of the birds again. The heart attacks were more than enough. And now this. I just don't there's 100% certainty it won't happen again and the price is too high...for the birds.
JJ