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What Causes A Young Aussie To Turn And Attack Her Owner?

by Karen
(Cleveland, OH)

Hello. I have a 9 month old purebred Red Tri Aussie. She is a well cared for dog and we exercise her, play ball with her, and take her many different places with us! She is well socialized, and we have had playdates with other dogs ever since she was 9 weeks old. She gets along with dogs, and nice to people. She can be somewhat shy with strangers but then warms up.

The problem is sometimes she gets so excitable, starts to growl, and attacks my pantlegs, feet, and legs. It is not play-biting. I make her sit and calm down when it happens on walks. I shorten the leash to better control her. However, she sometimes comes at me multiple times and aggressively bites me. It is infrequent, but when it happens it is bad. What causes a dog to turn on it's owner? We have been through training, and she does not do this to anyone else but me. I spend an hour per day power walking/jogging her rain or shine! We also do sprints and play ball with her frequently. The attacks seem to happen during walks when she really gets wound up and wants to play - run free perhaps? Then she turns on me... anyone else have this problem? Thanks!

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Comments for What Causes A Young Aussie To Turn And Attack Her Owner?

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Any success?
by: Anonymous

I have this problem too. Well exercised 4 month old and when she's wound up attacks my legs or clothing, Does not respond to firm "no". Have tried everything, yelping, redirecting, obedience class, ignoring. Would love to know how to fix this!

prey drive
by: Anonymous

This is simply a case of the dog seeing your pantlegs as a prey item. Usually this can be redirected in puppy hood. This dog isnt "attacking" you are turning on you. I have had dogs turn on me and trust me, they do not bite your ankles! They go for the face. I would go to leerburg.com, and get a prong collar. This needs a no nonsense response but not an emotional one. I would also try to carry a tug toy or ball with you to make sure you have something to be able to redirect them to after a correction.

Hope This Helps
by: Anonymous

Hello, I have a two year old male Aussie. We went through the same difficulty, and the step we took helped curb his tendency to play rough. This sounds terrible, but it worked. When our Aussie would get aggressive during play we would pin him down on his back until he stopped squirming to get away. We didn't release until he was calm, and sometimes it took a long time to reach that point. He would continue to try to bite, and we held tight to his collar until he stopped. It took a little while, but he finally got the point. He turns two July 16th, and today he's a wonderful boy! I can't even remember the last time he exhibited that type of behavior. It's just their way of trying to test the waters to see who's in control. Being held down didn't hurt our Aussie, but it sent him a big message. It let him know we're the boss not him, and he's one of the best dogs we've ever had in our lives. Good luck!

Natural characteristic
by: Antonio

Im sure u already know that whe breed is prone to attack ankles ,my aussie also would get very aggrresive with my lower legs on walks ..i would just continue to walk with power and as the dog got hit by my shin or i accidentally step on his paws ..after a while , he realized it was very smart to step in front of a mack truck, my pure aussie is very aggressive and very protective

My Aussie pup attacks me during "temper tantrums" too
by: Anonymous

My young Aussie "attacks" me as well occasionally when on walks...and NO it is not prey drive for my pant legs. It is purposeful, draws blood, and he actually usually ends up biting my arm HARD as I try to calm him down. He only does this to me, as original poster said. Usually it is when I am preventing him from doing something he wants to do (like go where he wants instead of where we are supposed to be going, or when I make him leave a stranger who was patting him previously...and most usually when we are walking on the beach as a family) It is frustrating and I need to find a way to stop him. When he attacks like this there is no defense, short of holding him at arms length on his leash as he flails and tugs, trying to get to me. Other than these occasions, he is a loving sweet pup. I too need advice on how to stop this, before he ends up biting someone else.

I have same exact problem, same age!
by: Anonymous

Oh my gosh this is exactly why I am here, on this site to ask the same exact question, same circumstances AND she's also 9 months old. Usually a sweetheart and a favorite with the groomers and trainer! They love her. My trainer says it's a hissy fit. Aussies have that herding instinct and apparently they do this when you're not doing what they want. However it happened again today and it was worse than the other two times she's done it. Trainers told me last time to step on the leash and force her to ground. Don't let up until she calms down. Which is very difficult when she's lunging in the air at me teeth first. Ugh 😢

Unexpected biting & attacks
by: Desperate Owner

We have a 10-month-old Mini Aussie. Upon turning 6 months old he became overly aggressive, and protective of my husband to a fault. After working with a trainer, sending him off to boot camp with her, and personally working more closely with him he reassure him he's safe with me his biting attacks would continue unprovoked. Our vet had to increase the calming medication in hopes that would help. It did not! The last attacked occurred while I was feeding him routinely.

It was recommended by the vet to put him in quarantine for 10 days so that he can be monitored. The outcome is, if aggressive behavior rears its ugly head again, he will be put down soon.

Thinking about the outcome is tearing us up inside. If there is an alternative to help his working puppies behavior we are at our wits end as to what it is.

Open for suggestions and help of any kind.

We are sick about this.

In response to: Unexpected biting & attacks by: Desperate Owner
by: Anonymous

I posted in this forum over a year ago, and was the person who's young Aussie attacked me when I tried to prevent him from doing what he desired. He was the WORST and meant to harm me. He is now 2 1/2 and is an amazing, wonderful dog. It took a lot of work to get him this way though! Is your dog neutered? I waited until mine was 1 to neuter, (because we read it was better for their body if they are to be doing agility in the future) Neutering helped a lot and was a step in the right direction, but he still had issues with me. Food reward training helped greatly. We went to a fantastic trainer who showed us very useful information. We ignored bad behavior (tie his leash to a tree and walk away for a few minutes when he attacked me outside for example) The more tricks we taught him to earn rewards (tasty treats) the better his focus became. He learned that he had to earn his rewards. There were also many times during this time period that I had to carry a spray bottle with vinegar for my own self defense, as he would attack me at random and mostly during walks. The smell of vinegar was enough to turn him away (fyi: we sprayed it in his direction, not near his eyes) He has a section of the house (a large hallway) that is his "room" and we use it as his safe place, but also as his time out room. (done properly it does not turn his safe place into a bad place, it just makes him re-think his behavior) He has been trained to wait before being let out of this area, or any door for that matter. He has to do tricks (sit, spin, down, shake, high five, etc) before he receives food now. (trainers suggestion to curb aggression and make him earn his food) Occasionally when he would bite at me for trying to move him off the couch or some other issue, I had to act firm and quick to let him know it was not tolerated by immediately and loudly saying "never! No biting!" (or something similar) and forceably removing him to his time out room (taking him by his collar and escorting him there) He learned that good behaviors gave him rewards, bad behaviors were not tolerated, and that I was his boss, not the other way around. It took work, and I never thought it would be possible because he was AWFUL, but he is a completely different dog now.

7 yr old Mini Aussie
by: Anonymous

We have had this dog for almost a year now. He was rehomed from previous owner who admitted to never socializing him. He got him when he was about 6 months old. We were told he is not good around kids but he never experienced aggressive behaviour. It's possible he was lying but we've had random attacks happen and deduced he connected "boy" to "bad boy" and thinking he was going to be punished so we stopped using that word. My wife kissed him on the head a week or so ago and he bit her arm.

Today we went to go for our usual walk around the block after dinner and he planted himself which was very unusual. Sometime tonight i came out of the room and saw him laying down in the dining room and i walked over to talk to him. i asked him to give "daddy kiss" on my hand but he just looked away. I then went into the backyard and he followed me. When i came back inside he went into the bedroom (where his crate/"safe place" is). i asked him whats wrong and whether he wanted to be left alone and he didnt look at me so i told him that i would leave him alone. he followed me out the room and went the the hallway near the stairs and i went to pet him on his head and he attacked me - full on biting on my leg, snarling and barking at me. i told him to stop and when he finally did i told him to go to bed and locked him in his crate to treat my wounds.

We are at a point now where we are thinking it might be best to put him down which is a shame because when hes good he is the best - so full of love, like he just wants to love and be loved. but we are wondering how many bites its going to take to decide thats enough.

But we are terrified now because this wasnt anything we figured would trigger an attack. its usually saying "boy" or touching him when he is lying down in certain positions... which by the way they used to be him snapping at us but now biting followed by growling so we knew to leave him alone but hes skipped all that and went right to biting now. We thought these kinds of bites were over because we gained his trust but now we're back to square one it seems like - maybe even further back. This is devastating to us - as we know if we bring him to a shelter he will be put down.

Redirect the energy
by: Anonymous

Don't put the dog down due to your failure to properly train him. It is an animal, give him away instead.

The way to stop them biting is positive reinforcement. You must bring treats with you, an entire bag full and if that behavior starts you can redirect it. A game we play is called "find it" you throw the treat and say find it. Release it low so it keeps his head down. This will reset the behavior.

If this doesnt work the other thing you can do is get down on their level and hold them until it stops. Wait for them and eventually it will end. You can then introduce games like find it once they are calm and the behavior is redirected.

Aggressive behavior
by: Anonymous

I have been reading the various comments and suggestions of how to deal with an aggressive Aussie and I think there is some good advice here. Our Aussie was BAD as a puppy, would snap at everyone with his tiny razor sharp teeth, chewed up everything in the house and bit at our ankles as we walked. We took him to a trainer and much of the training consisted of obedience training with treats. I think the basic training for any dog will work on Aussies, maybe even better on Aussies because they are so eager to be active. They don't like to sit around waiting for you to figure them out. They are smart and expect you to do things for them. You can either let them decide what is going to happen, or plan it out yourself. They definitely thrive on structure, and in the absence of structure can get into real trouble, like many dogs. Cody is now one, is still trying to run the show, but is such a great, deep, loving dog. Good luck to all of you.

7 year old aussie
by: Anonymous

Ours does the biting on our legs on walks or if sitting grabs our pant legs, but this all seems playful.

One day after we both vacuumed in the house and mowed the lawn, he attacked out of nowhere when i pet him on the head.

A week or so ago he bit my wife when she was scratching his neck because she thought he liked it. It seems to all be fear-based aggressionso I'm wondering if its simply going to take more time for him to trust us.

We had to put our baby down
by: Susy

Our Mini Aussie is such a cutie. We got him too young (5 weeks. we didn't know better that time). Bought online classes and trained him a ton. He was such a cutie, can be on the lap for the whole day. He showed aggression few times and bit us once before 1.5 years old. Because there are good amount of gap between each aggression, so we were not alert enough.

Until, 1.5 years, he bit me twice within a week (no growling, just out of nowhere bad bites). Also, isolated himself and stared at us in a creepy way. We did research and found a good trainer right away. After the boarding bootcamp, he came back as a good dog again. We worked so hard, followed our trainer's instruction throughly and were very restrict on him (timeout right away again bad behavior), also rewarding positive action. He tried to test the limit/showed aggression here and there. We were able to held our alpha status firmly. He was relaxing and happy again. But end of 1st month, he bit my husband bad again (I kept cutting his dreadlocks, really annoyed him. I thought he was a good dog now and had my guard down. So, we gave him a pass this time).
But end of 2nd month, he got red rash from the pond, he was itchy and on medicine. He isolated himself again and looked so depression. One evening, after I was done with gesture eating and told him 'release' multi times, he just stared at me and then jumped on me and bit my chest. I had his leash on my hand, couldn't separate him. 2nd morning he did the same thing to my husband.
We talked with his trainer and his vets. We had to put him down. He passed away in my arm, body got cold gradually, heart bit got slower and slower. Putting him down crashed me and my husband. We cried and cried. But we also know, we love him to death and we had to be strong for him. 90% of his short life are very happy and was loved by our whole heart. We can't to let him live the rest of his life in a very dark place that fills of anger, anxiety, fear, worries... We would never sent him to a shelter or re-home, if we can't save him, no one else can.

Don’t put a dog down just because you can’t handle it
by: Anonymous

If you couldn’t have handled your dog, you should’ve had given it to someone who could, not have it put down. Just because you’d failed to handle the dog properly, does not mean someone with more experience wouldn’t be able to sort the dog.

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