Look at the whole picture

I recently encountered a situation which made me appreciate how important it is to consider external influence when assessing behavioural issues.

My oldest dog had been put on some medication for urinary incontinence, as she had been having a few accidents and asking to go outside a lot more than usual. Around the same time, my entire male dog (her son) had been exhibiting changes in his behaviour such as increased urine marking, mild resource guarding, and generally appearing more ‘on edge’. These changes were very gradual to the extent that they didn’t flag up concern, but culminated in a biting incident when I was trying to clean one of his paws. This was so out of character for him it was a total shock and sent the whole family into turmoil as we battled with what to do. Speaking honestly, rehoming was seriously considered and I began to doubt our home was the right one for him, I couldn’t work out what had gone wrong. We put new boundaries and routines in place to keep everyone safe as I tried to think things through.

A little time passed and the emotion dropped away a little which gave me space to evaluate what had changed in his world, and as I looked back over the recent weeks I started to see all the subtle additional behaviours that had started, and wondered if it could be anything to do with any of the other dogs, as his behaviour was very similar to when one of my girls was in season - but to a lesser degree. (All the girls are now spayed)

After some research I came across some anecdotal reports of similar issues with entire dogs. These dogs were all in households with bitches on the identical medication my old girl had recently been put on. So, back to the vets and her medication was changed. The result? The behaviours gradually vanished, and my boy returned, no more marking, no more guarding, certainly no more biting. I was so relieved I hadn’t taken the option to rehome him, and it reminded me of the importance of external influence on behavioural issues and why it is always good to stop, take some time, and look at what has changed in a dog’s environment before making any critical decisions.