Was this a case of dog PTSD?...
From the NY Post:
The smoke alarm goes off. Mr. Lowe says, he started waving a cloth to clear the smoke in the room…
‘“He went on, “At this point again, there’s so much chaos going on with the alarm going off, I give him like a very stern like, ‘Moose. No. No.’ And it was right about that moment where he shows his teeth at me and just attacks me, and I don’t mean like bite and run off like a lot of dogs do when they’re scared or defensive. I mean, attacks me, and I feel him just kind of ripping into the flesh of my arm. And at this point, I am doing everything I possibly can just to fend this dog off.”’
He goes to the ER. The next day, the dog gets out of the back yard, and attacks him again.
“Lowe added, “I’m just saying, ‘No, no, no.’ And then my dad is in the front yard too, and I’m like, ‘Help, help!’ Just again, feeling ripping into my flesh. And again, I’m not trying to exaggerate, I certainly don’t want to come across as, like, a victim or anything like that. I’m just telling you how it happened.”
“And so I’m able to wrestle him to the ground,” he recounted. “And this dog is so strong, he’s so explosive, but I’m able to wrestle him to the ground. I’ve got a hold of his collar, but I know that he’s ripped my arm open, and I just know, like I’m fighting for my life here, like I feel like if this dog gets up, he is going to kill me.”’
So this dog never cooled down, even after a day. The dog was unforgiving of the previous fight.
Was this canine PTSD? What was the background of the dog? The article isn’t clear as to what was or wasn’t known.
Do I think it normal for a dog to attack a family member, as described in the article? In my opinion, the attack was well beyond anything that would normally be considered self defense for the dog. Why would waving a cloth in the kitchen trigger this kind of episode over a 2 day period? My suspicion is dog PTSD.
If this dog had a history that indicated the above, then the dog should not have been adopted by this family, in my opinion.
You can never know the full story of something like this by just reading an internet news story. There may be details that further explain what happened. So, my viewpoint here is just my interpretation of what the article is saying, not a finding of fact. If you want more details, then you’ll have to do your own research. Maybe other information comes out from other sources to explain further what happened and more about this dog’s history. Who knows, maybe the dog has a medical problem that was going on that no one knew about. Boxers are known to have a predisposed tendency to have tumors and cancer, and that could explain this incident. My surface impression is PTSD, just to make the following point…
Always research the background of any dog you are planning on adopting, and do a deeper dig than the typical paperwork that you are provided. Furthermore, always do a full medical check on the dog, including a full blood panel, especially for adult dogs, and certain breeds that are prone to known disease risks. What was the trigger here? The waving of the cloth? The verbal corrections? The chaos going on and how the dog “interpreted” all of that as a threat? We will probably never know. What we can do, we should do: get a full background on every dog; don’t believe all you hear, and dig deeper; do a medical evaluation; train the dog from the first day in preparation for emergencies. Even if all this had been done, and even if the dog didn’t have PTSD or some medical cause, this might have still happened. The idea with dog ownership is to always lessen the risks from a variety of angles. We can't make a judgment of what happened here, or what could have been done to prevent it, without more knowledge, as well.
I hope this family recovers. My guess is that the dog will be put down due to this incident.
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