After our last vacation, we kept busy with work and play. Our training attempts with Rocket while riding in a car was ongoing, and this continued to be a struggle for some time. His fear began to show more, and not just in a car. Now, at three years of age, Rocket had developed a mistrust or fear of certain people. Mostly men, but there have been a few women that Rocket displayed some fear toward. It was such an unusual development, in our experience. But then again, we’ve never had a guard dog breed like Rocket. His demeanor around these types of people was much like that of a baby who begins to “make strange”.
Otherwise, Rocket was his usual, happy self. Swimming, hiking, and a newfound fun-playing ball! Rocket loves balls, as most dogs do. But for us, seeing Rocket play and act friendly, playful, and happy was reassurance while working through those “fearful” episodes. We never played aggressively with Rocket, nor did we allow him to play aggressively with Frank or other dogs. I guess we were a bit cautious, mainly because of his breed. But it was during those fearful episodes that we noticed Rocket’s aggression come out. It was after our vacation and the incident in the truck with Frank that we first identified that there was a problem with his fear. His fear turned to aggression with Frank, but we found a few weeks later that this fear would extend toward people, as well.
One day, we needed to go away, and we left Rocket and Frank in our camper while working on a jobsite. We knew we would be gone a long while, so we asked our cousin (whose house we were helping to build) to let Rocket out for a potty break. When he tried to let Rocket out, he found Rocket cowering in the camper. Rocket would not come to our cousin, even though the two knew one another quite well. After much coaxing, our cousin tried to approach Rocket, but then Rocket began to growl. At that point, our cousin let Rocket alone and when we returned back to the camper, we found things were well. Not long after this incident, we were working on the new construction home for our cousin. Because of the long work days, Rocket was not getting much exercise, so we decided to take Rocket along. Once at the building site, we played with Rocket a bit then tied him to a very long lead so that he could move around but be safe from wandering onto the busy road nearby. Later that evening, our cousin tried to pet Rocket. Rocket was fine at first, but then his demeanor changed. His ears laid back, tail tucket and he was cowering. Our cousin felt confident that he could get past this strange behavior as there was a three-year history with being able to pet Rocket with no problem. Unfortunately, Rocket was not able to relax and began to growl and lunge at our cousin. Luckily, there was no injury as our cousin was wearing gloves (which may have caused some uncertainty for Rocket), and Rocket was still on the lead, so he was unable to lunge too far. At this point, we intervened and put Rocket in the truck. It was time to head home and we thought Rocket would return to normal once removed from the situation. We were wrong! It took three days for Rocket to stop shaking. We took him to the vet and had him checked for illness, injury, and disease. We found no physical reason for this outburst. We were totally clueless. It would seem as though Rocket had some sort of fear-based aggression. Not the answer we were hoping for.
The questions and concern that came to mind were so very sad. What should we do? Is it possible to keep Rocket away from every situation that might arise that could put someone in harm’s way? Would we be able to help Rocket, or should we find someone or somewhere that would be better for both of us. We didn’t know what to do or where to begin. We had an excellent veterinarian from Town & Country Veterinary Clinic. She gave us great information and helped us understand what was happening and offered advice of how to move forward with training and other safety options. I think what was most shocking to me was the fact that it is not uncommon for these behaviors to develop around the time dogs are three years of age. When you come to this realization, it is easy to understand why so many dogs are taken to the pound when these types of behaviors develop. For us, this wasn’t an option, we could never just give up on Rocket. But, at the same time, I thought I would never have an aggressive dog. It was simply something that I would have never considered; I would have never chosen an aggressive dog breed. The positive side of this situation was that we knew what triggered the behavior. Rocket’s aggression was only demonstrated when he became fearful. With that in mind, we developed some safety procedures to help Rocket deal with his fear without putting someone in harm’s way should an outburst occur. When visitors would arrive, we would put Rocket in a room behind a closed door until the excitement of company would wane and the atmosphere was calmer. At this point in time, depending on the visitor, we would allow Rocket to come into the room. This allowed Rocket time to assess that all was safe and he could then happily greet our guests. During hikes, we tried a muzzle, but found that using his harness and turning him away from approaching dogs worked better than the muzzle did. We also chose hikes with fewer people on the trails.
During this third year of Rocket’s life, we had several incidences of Rocket becoming fearful to the point that he either cowered and shook uncontrollably for some time or he would growl and attempt to lunge. Once he was heightened to that stage, the only thing we could do for him was give him space and time. Once the fear had subsided, Rocket would return to his loveable self. We were successful at keeping everyone around us out of harm’s way, and the aggressive behavior began to fade away as we worked through those stressful situations, including the car rides, strangers, and unannounced visitors. We were often on edge when out in public or when company came to visit, but at least we were able to predict when those triggers might occur and could address the behaviors before they happened or escalated. With much effort, dedication, patience, and understanding, we have worked through Rocket’s fear-based aggression. He is not a dog that we will ever completely trust in the presence of others, but we are confident that we can recognize what and when those triggers may occur. As we moved through Rocket’s third year, life became more normal again and we were more than happy to, once again, enjoy our days with Rocket, Frank, and all of our friends and family.