My dog is aggressive to guests at home. Sweet at vet. What to do?

Question

My dog acts aggressive towards other animal and people but once she's at the vet she's the sweetest dog there what can I do to make my Dog neutral attack when they feel the need to not every time they see a stranger enter the house with me. Pet's info: Dog | Pit Bull Terrier | Female | unspayed | 1 year and 3 months old | 86 lbs

Makenzie Kurth, DVM · Accepted Answer

I’m sorry to hear about Zedan! This is not an unusual scenario because she is defending “her” territory- whereas the vet or park is neutral ground. This is usually worse in unspayed dogs than spayed dogs. So step one is to spay her. The next step is to try crating her when people are coming over. Once she seems calmed down, you can let her out (on a leash to control her). You should feed her treats throughout this ordeal. This is NOT “rewarding bad behavior”, food is actually a useful way to lower the fear threshold so that she can learn that she doesn’t need to be so anxious. Finally, these two steps may not work without a little help from some anti-anxiety medication. Dogs cannot learn when they are so anxious about people coming into their territory and possibly threatening her people. Talk to your vet about the many options available. Hope this helps, best of luck to you and Zedan!

My dog is aggressive to guests at home. Sweet at vet. What to do?

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