The Bidens’ canine Commander, a German shepherd, was faraway from the White House after biting a number of Secret Service brokers.
Commander, President Joe Biden’s canine, has made headlines not too long ago for one thing varied canine homeowners can, sadly, relate to: reactivity and biting.
The 2-year-old German shepherd joined the Bidens on the White House as a puppy in 2021. He has bitten a number of Secret Service brokers a recognized complete of 11 instances, together with one incident during which an officer needed to go to the hospital after Commander bit his arm and thigh. Last week, a spokesperson for first girl Jill Biden revealed that Commander was moved out of the White House “while next steps are evaluated.”
Very few of us have well-known dogs that reside on the White House, but it surely’s sadly widespread to have a canine that bites, even when it’s a well-known canine that by no means bit you earlier than.
One widespread mistake is that individuals “believe that a dog that they’ve seen or interacted with before is going to interact with them the same way. And that’s not necessarily true,” mentioned Dr. Cherese Sullivan, a veterinarian at Houston’s Skyline Animal Hospital.
More than 4.5 million people get bit by dogs within the U.S. annually. And within the worst circumstances, bites might be deadly. An common of 43 people die yearly from canine bites, in accordance with the CDC. That’s why biting just isn’t a habits to disregard.
“In general, no behavioral issue in your dog is going to fix itself. And a lot of people wait for that. They’ll say, ‘Oh, he bit this person. That was weird … maybe it was just a freak accident,’” mentioned Nick White, a former Secret Service agent and proprietor of Off Leash K9 Training. “What we see is it progresses and gets worse, as we’ve seen with Commander.“
Here’s how to figure out what could be causing that reaction, and how to address it:
Identify what’s triggering the biting. New homes or new people can be common reasons.
Although your dog’s reaction can feel random to you, it’s often tied to environmental stressors that are causing the dog to feel startled, scared or like they need to defend their territory.
If a dog bites a person and then they leave them alone, it is teaching the dog that biting is a “mechanism to get away [from] the stressor that I have,” White mentioned.
“They can also bite because they feel threatened. Or because they are trying to protect something that’s valuable to them,” Sullivan mentioned. “Any of these scenarios could potentially apply to those Secret Service agents, depending on the relationship they have with the dog.”
Biting incidents may be as a result of the canine is careworn. “To me, with the amount of traffic, the amount of different people, the loudness, the noise, I just think being in the White House full-time is a perfect environment to create anxiety,” mentioned Dr. Blake Hardin, a veterinarian at pet telehealth firm Dutch.
White mentioned the White House is a tricky proving floor for a canine to deal with, with “every distraction possible” and tons of of individuals coming out and in. That’s why a canine that has not achieved desensitization and confidence-building drills could be at an obstacle, he mentioned.
As for why Commander bit so many Secret Service brokers, White urged it is perhaps just because “there’s so many of us throughout the White House, inside and out.”
Socialization is a giant issue, too.
Exposing dogs to totally different folks and conditions when they’re eight to twenty weeks old is essential. That approach, “they start life with ‘humans equals something great,’” White mentioned.
“Generally, what we’re seeing when it comes to aggressive dogs, whether it’s people aggression, dog aggression … the vast majority of the time it’s based solely off a lack of socialization at a young age,” White mentioned. “When Commander was eight weeks to 20 weeks, were they taking him out a lot, getting him around a lot of different types of people?”
If you miss that socialization window when your canine is an impressionable puppy, it would take extra work to handle reactive habits ― but it surely’s not too late to do coaching, White mentioned.
He shared a positive-association drill during which he would expose an under-socialized canine to totally different folks and environments and provides them a high-value reward every time.
“So they say, ‘Oh, I heard a loud noise, but he gave me a reward for it. So maybe loud noises are a good thing,’” White mentioned. “And that’s kind of how the system works of building a super confident dog.”
Illness or damage will also be causes dogs chew.
Sometimes, dogs additionally chew when they don’t really feel effectively.
“If you touch something and an animal naturally kind of comes back and nips, it might be the way that they’re saying, ‘That hurts. Please don’t do that,’” Hardin mentioned.
Your canine’s newfound reactivity may be hormonal. “At a certain age, dogs will come into their sexual maturity and they will have a tendency to have more aggressive types of episodes,” Sullivan mentioned.
Consider the character of the breed and their genetic predisposition.
Your canine’s breed may also affect what triggers them. “A lot of people just aren’t getting breeds of dogs that are conducive to their lifestyle,” White mentioned.
“If you have a working dog … and it’s not actually doing the purpose it was meant to in life, that creates anxiety in the animal, restlessness,” Hardin mentioned. “And that restlessness can turn into a bite or nip if approached in the wrong way.”
He gave the instance of Australian shepherds, that are hardwired to herd sheep by operating 5 – 6 miles a day. Hardin mentioned he has handled extra Australian shepherds having reactive points after being cooped up in flats through the COVID pandemic. Beyond giving them extra train, one solution to handle these dogs’ restlessness is to have these dogs resolve puzzles to get a deal with as an alternative of simply giving them a deal with, he mentioned.
“That way, they’re working their brain and when they’re working that brain, that anxiety goes down. And that risk for biting or or attacking also goes down,” Hardin mentioned.
Hardin mentioned he all the time recommends beginning behavioral coaching earlier than anti-anxiety treatment.
“These herding breeds have that genetic predisposition to [go] ‘Hey, this person is running really quick in front of me, I’m going to chase them and go nip at them. That’s just in there,’” White mentioned “But that’s where the training comes in, it can certainly override that.”
There are a number of methods you may handle this subject.
Hardin acknowledged that some dogs with have anxiousness or reactivity may want treatment full-time, too. And that’s completely OK. Medication may enable you to and your pup as you’re employed on habits modification and coaching.
“With those animals where we’re fighting a physiological mechanism, we need to just keep them on that medication for their own safety [and] for the safety of other people, too,” Hardin mentioned.
Commitment to treating the difficulty by these routes will seemingly end in enchancment.
That mentioned, a part of addressing your canine’s repeated biting habits means figuring out when it’s time to escalate the scenario and re-home your pet with another person or transfer them to a brand new setting, like what occurred with Commander. The stakes are excessive if biting habits just isn’t addressed, particularly in case your canine is round youngsters.
“Children are going to be the most common victims of dog bites, and are more likely to be severely injured. So dogs that are biting children, I tend to get very, very cautious about keeping that dog in a home,” Sullivan mentioned.
It’s all the time greatest to speak along with your vet.In excessive or extra unusual circumstances, a physician could counsel measures like euthanizing, significantly if there’s one thing medically incorrect with the canine that affects their high quality of life, resembling tumors or other medical issues which might be inflicting new aggression.
Ultimately, although, it’s a human’s dedication to serving to their canine that issues most.
“A lot of people see, ‘We re-home the dog, and now he’s doing well.’ Well, it’s not necessarily just because you changed that dog’s environment,” White mentioned. “Now that new owner says, ‘Hey, this dog was re-homed because he had aggression issues. So I need to take this seriously. So I’m going to get him in training, I’m going to try to do all the right things.’ And that’s why the dog’s successful.”
