Am posting on behalf of my bro and SIL...and their dog Maisie :)

They got Maisie from their local council kennels about 6 weeks ago, she had been handed over by her previous owner with not much history. Since then she seemed to have settled in quite nicely but yesterday she bit my SIL on the hand. Skin not broken but quite bruised today and obviously they are now wondering what provoked her.  As far as I can tell(over the phone as my bro lives a good 2.5 hours from me) the dog was sitting on the floor when SIL has approached her to stroke her head, then without warning she bit, not a snap/nip but most of her mouth round most of SILs hand.

There was no growling beforehand but possibly could have warned of her intention in another way just they maybe don't read dog body language too well and have not picked up on that. After it had happened my brother said Maisie looked quite frightened which would make me suspect she may have bitten before and been physically punished??

Now, I am not a dog behaviourist but I have trained my three dogs from pups and have learnt quite a bit from CDs. And obviously I would like to help them out with the problems they are having with her but would like to hear other peoples experiences/opinions/ideas etc.

Like I say, we don't know what has happened to her before she was handed in, she is about 15 months old, Staffi/JRT type cross.

Any replies welcome, thanks for reading, feel free to ask for more info...don't want to make the post too long to begin with!

Emily

it might be that shes been hit before in the way that your SIL approached her? i assume she held her had over masies head? she might have seen it as a threat and done it out of fear?

they might be best seeing a behaviourist. poor thing sounds like she has some issues

Just a thought did SIL approach from out of the dogs line of vision?
Has Maisie had a vet check..Im thinking ears and eyes initially?? which is why I ask if she was in or out of Maisies line of vision.

Well done to your brother and SIL for taking in a rescue dog. Not knowing her history, I think they will have to make allowances for a while. It seems to have been a defensive move,based on fear-aggression, rather than an aggressive one and I think poor Maisie may have difficulty trusting people. She needs to know that she is not going to be punished for showing fear. They should be giving her plenty of reassurance that she is loved and is in a safe environment where she is not going to be hurt. It may be that her previous home had young children who teased her and pulled her about and she defended herself in the only way that a dog CAN defend itself, so she was punished and eventually re-homed. It's very easy for a dog in this situation to get a reputation for being vicious. Believe it or not, there are some people who buy a dog as a plaything for the children and expect it to not retaliate no matter what the children do to it. The fact that she looked frightened after the event indicates that she didn't actually WANT to bite but it was just an automatic reaction to a perceived threat. Tell them to persevere with the kindness and I'm sure that once she learns to trust them, and bonds with them, she will be a super little girl. My heart really goes out to her to think of the life she may have had before they took her in.

In addition to the above posts,

It could be that poor Maisy has been told off for growling by her previous owners (ie giving a warning) and has no other means of letting them know she's uncomfortable with something or stressed (we often miss the more subtle signs ;) )   If she'd meant to bite then I'm sure the skin would have been broken ;)   Unless she's very tiny, a dogs jaws are capable of far more damage than bruising ;)

Well done to your brother and SIL for taking in a rescue dog

Echoed over here :)

Maybe try stroking her from the bottom of the chest and then work up to her head, some dogs see a hand over their head as a dominant thing or if they have been struck :( They would fear being hit again and flinch or likle someone else mentioned just reacted in the only way she knew how, I agree it was probably a warning bite as if skin isnt broken its more a warning then an 'attack' for want of a better word.
Its hard with rescue dogs as you never know exactly what theyve been through do you?

I hope you all the best and we have all our fingers and paws crossed for your brother xx

Thank you everyone for your replies :) And for not being able to reply sooner...it's been one of those weeks!

I do think Maisie definatley has some issues, and not knowing her background I have said to my brother they will just have to start with her from dot and it will take some effort on their part.

She did have a bit of history saying she was good with people, children and other dogs but they tell me she tries to 'attack' next doors dogs through the fence ie making sure they don't come into her territory, paces and barks when people walk past the house...oh and she would chase cars if given the chance :( So the info she came with isn't worth the paper it was written!

She obviously has lots of issues and I've said they should take a gentle approach with her. build her confidence up in them so she knows they can be relied on, start soing some little short bursts of training, she already knows the basics so I've said to build on that.

I think they have alot of work ahead of them but that she'll be a cracking dog by the end of it..I said it's their responsibility to mould her into the kind of dog they wanted to begin with!

Thanks again, everyone and I'll keep you posted :)