7 year old boxer starting to bite people

[Graffix0000]

Hello, I am having an issue with my male boxer Thor. He is 7 years old and I have had him since he was 9 weeks old. We recently moved in June to a new home with a good sized yard with an invisible fence. Our old place had a small fenced in yard where he could run around.

Prior to the move we had several contractors into our place getting it ready to sell. When the contractors would begin to leave, he would almost chase them out of the house and nip at their hands. No biting, but could tell he wasn't overly happy. Prior to this, we never had any issues with him and biting or nipping at people. I have a 3 and 6 year kids whom he has never showed any type of aggression to.

We have quite a few kids around the neighborhood who will show up in our yard at random times unannounced. One of the times, Thor went up to one of the kids and nipped her on the arm. No damage done, but was a reality check to put it mildly. We started making the kids alert us before they came into the yard so we could make sure Thor was in the house or leashed. This helped as he wasn't getting "spooked" by someone on his territory.

Then last weekend, my wife was home alone and had gone shopping. She invited the neighbor over to the house to see some furniture she had bought. Once the neighbor got into the house, Thor went up to her and bit her arm. It was hard enough that one of the incisors punctured her skin. He bit and released, but was not a play bite. When it happened, it was so quick that both my wife and neighbor just stared at each other for a minute not knowing how to react. I know he could have been spooked and was trying to protect my wife, but this is the second time we had a biting issue within the past two months.

I'm just curious to hear if anyone else had experienced anything similar to this and how it was handled. I began looking into a dog behaviorist and think I might have to go that route. Any feedback is appreciate.

Matt

 

[Jan]

The first thing would be a trip to the vet! Make sure that they do a full Thyroid Panel, not just the quick test that they can do in the vet's office.

Often a change in behavior is the first indication of a health problem.

Good luck!

 

[LILYLARUE]

I second the full panel run! At this age, it's very likely that hormone levels are off and aggression is a syptom, along with others. Moving into a new area, with a new environment can make dogs more insecure, fearful, also causing reactive behaviors, like nipping, barking, aggressing, etc.

A good behaviorist will require that the panel be done anyways to eliminate that firstly. But, to go through some behavior modification is ideal along with meds. Just make sure that the behaviorist instills positive reinforcement methods......you don't want them to exaserbate the issue by intilling more fear and apprehension to his mix.