Hi everyone-
We have 2 dogs- one is a Labradoodle, 7, and the other is a Cavachon (Bichon and King Charles) 3.
The Labradoodle is a great dog and never has any behavioral troubles, but the Cavachon, Sam, is quite a different story.
Sam was great as a puppy, other than the usual potty issues and such, but sometime after about 6 months, he became aggressive towards strangers. He is fine with the people living with us, anyone he met before that time, anyone new that spends several hours in our house while he is separated from them, and any employee at the vet/boarder, regardless of if he knows them.
He has bitten a few people we know, most of the time they walk in before we can control him fully and he lunges. One of the things that he can do, despite being only about 35 pounds, is just lunge when we thing we have him under control and really pull your arm to get to someone. It is very strange, and this is frightening. My parents and I have tried several things, but they don't work for some reason.
We started using a new boarder this summer, and contrary to my fears, he was perfectly happy and fine with the people there right away on his first visit, but here at home or in hotels where we're staying, he'll attack strangers.
As I already mention, if I have a friend over in the other room for a few hours or a couple times, he gets used to them and will be friendly to them. But newcomers he is very aggressive towards. Today a neighbor walked in the door before my mom let him in as she was trying to get him under control, and he bit the guy. Everyone has been understanding with the matter and they always say they're fine, but my mom now says that we just can't keep him.
The breeder told us that if there every came a time when we could no longer care for the dog, we could take him back to the farm and he would either live there or they could find him a new home, but when we looked into that several months ago, they said that they couldn't take him back. If we give him to a shelter because he bites, he'll likely be put down right away, and I can't handle that.
Can anyone point me towards something I can do to fix this issue? I don't want my dog dying. If it helps, around the time that he became pretty aggressive, we found out he has horrible allergies to all sorts of things, and even though he eats special food, he still itches horribly all the time. Could that have something to do with it?
We have 2 dogs- one is a Labradoodle, 7, and the other is a Cavachon (Bichon and King Charles) 3.
The Labradoodle is a great dog and never has any behavioral troubles, but the Cavachon, Sam, is quite a different story.
Sam was great as a puppy, other than the usual potty issues and such, but sometime after about 6 months, he became aggressive towards strangers. He is fine with the people living with us, anyone he met before that time, anyone new that spends several hours in our house while he is separated from them, and any employee at the vet/boarder, regardless of if he knows them.
He has bitten a few people we know, most of the time they walk in before we can control him fully and he lunges. One of the things that he can do, despite being only about 35 pounds, is just lunge when we thing we have him under control and really pull your arm to get to someone. It is very strange, and this is frightening. My parents and I have tried several things, but they don't work for some reason.
We started using a new boarder this summer, and contrary to my fears, he was perfectly happy and fine with the people there right away on his first visit, but here at home or in hotels where we're staying, he'll attack strangers.
As I already mention, if I have a friend over in the other room for a few hours or a couple times, he gets used to them and will be friendly to them. But newcomers he is very aggressive towards. Today a neighbor walked in the door before my mom let him in as she was trying to get him under control, and he bit the guy. Everyone has been understanding with the matter and they always say they're fine, but my mom now says that we just can't keep him.
The breeder told us that if there every came a time when we could no longer care for the dog, we could take him back to the farm and he would either live there or they could find him a new home, but when we looked into that several months ago, they said that they couldn't take him back. If we give him to a shelter because he bites, he'll likely be put down right away, and I can't handle that.
Can anyone point me towards something I can do to fix this issue? I don't want my dog dying. If it helps, around the time that he became pretty aggressive, we found out he has horrible allergies to all sorts of things, and even though he eats special food, he still itches horribly all the time. Could that have something to do with it?