Daughter's dog bit her - suggestions/advice?

[jtuck004]

4. The RIGHT trainer is a good idea.

They should never have put the dog in the position to be grabbed. Not being judgmental, just a fact. And grabbing the collar is quite often a good way to get bit. No excuses, don't blame the dog for running after him, it's those who have thumbs that are engineering this. And as you said, if they send her back she's dead, in most shelters. That is true.

It's their decision, of course. There are alternatives, but they do need to take immediate steps now.

The big clue is when you said "since our daughter is the one doing most of the work in obedience and in correcting her, she's shifted her affections". If that were me, I would be giving great treats, lots of praise, building trust - there would be no reason for the dog to "shift her affections". But I have seen trainers who (again, not saying your daughter, it's just an example) think that they can physically compel them, spank them, yank their collars, etc, and somehow the dog is going to learn anything other than that they are a source of discomfort, at best.

Your daughter may need to learn how to train Sandy differently. It may be that she is trying to "compel" her, rather than "reinforce good behavior", and those are two completely different schools of thought. (An analogy is paddling kids for bad behavior vs reinforcing the behavior that is desired. The first one just teaches them to avoid you when they want to behave that way, the second teaches them that there are good results from changing their behavior).

Again, don't take this wrong, not judging, it's just a matter of different training approaches. The reason I mention it is because if she looks for a trainer who is into "compelling" (i.e. dog whisperer guy - who gets a fair amount of bites, according to his own words, btw) she might be disappointed, the dog could get hurt or have the spirit knocked out of her, your daughter hurt further, and sandy could wind up in the shelter anyway. I've seen it happen more than once

Suggest she look around and talk to some trainers that focus on positive reinforcement, who would help them engineer ways so that her dog is not put in a position to feel the need to bite, display aggression, etc., so they can then concentrate on associating good behavior with positive things.

Really good book out there - The Culture Clash, Jean Donaldson. She built the training program for the SF SPCA, and it's an amazing book. It has the power to completely re-arrange your (and her) thinking about dogs and behavior.

Good luck.