From the Styx by Peggy Tibbetts

This is Part 13 in the Crazy Bitch series about our Akbash/Lab mix Venus. She has Canine Compulsive Disorder (CCD) with aggression. Links to the previous episodes can be found at the end of this post.

Please note that the incidents described here are part of an ongoing investigation therefore some names have been changed and/or omitted.

Neverending Dog Story

Last summer we piled Venus and Zeus in our pickup camper and spent most weekends camping. They lived for the weekends. They spent the weekdays in the yard. We left them outside when we were gone during the day, but kept them inside in the evenings. Mrs. Bully and the boys were home on weekdays. The best thing for our dogs was to remove them from the unbalanced, hostile energy whenever possible.

By then we knew Zeus had a low thyroid and we had begun naturopathic treatment. We noticed some improvement right away. He lost about 5 pounds and he had more energy. He was less grumpy and had started to blow his ratty coat. We knew it could take up to 3 months for the naturopathic treatment to work so we stuck with it.

Venus remained territorial. She usually just barked whenever dogs walked by. We couldn’t stop the behavior but she had been trained to stop barking after her initial outburst and she always did, according to our own observations and the observations other neighbors when we were not home.

Late July into early August, about the same time we realized Venus is part Akbash, the Bullys were gone for about 2 weeks. I didn’t keep track. I just remember how blissful it was.

Mrs. Magpie called me and asked, “Did you do something to Venus?”

“No. She’s fine. She’s right here,” I said. “Why do you ask?”

“Well we haven’t heard her bark at all lately and we were afraid they made you have her vocal chords cut,” she said.

I gasped. “Ohmigod. That’s horrible. We would never do anything like that. That’s cruelty.”

“Oh good,” she said. “She’s such a nice dog. But we were worried about her. She’s been so quiet.”

“That’s because the Bullys are gone,” I said.

“Oh now, now,” she said. “I’m sure that’s not the reason.”

“I’m sure it is,” I said.

While the Bullys were gone we let the dogs stay outside as much as they wanted, even during the night. We left them outside when we were gone. I put away the evil bark collar in a drawer. We even stayed home from camping one weekend so we could all feel what it was like to live in a balanced, peaceful neighborhood again.

Even though we sort of won our legal battle with the Town over my blog and Tod retained his vote on the Board, I made a different decision. I was sick and tired of the harassing emails. As much as I believed in my First Amendment Right to Free Speech, I couldn’t bear the thought of Venus and Zeus being harassed anymore. I stopped writing about public Board Meetings on my blog in August. The harassing emails stopped immediately.

In the Bullys’ absence and without the harassing emails, we lapsed into a kind of euphoria. We put the ghost of Bully and the cops provoking the dogs behind us. Besides, Bully knew I’d seen him in our yard and he had not been able to get Venus to bark. Any rational person would give it up. We eagerly embraced the everything-is-okay fantasy.

The Bullys returned home sometime during the first week of August. We continued to leave the dogs outside when we were gone because we thought everything was okay. We didn’t want to stress them out by shutting them indoors again. Our mistake was thinking that keeping them inside had caused their stress.

Looking back on the month of August with the knowledge I’ve gained from my research and from watching the Dog Whisperer, there were signs that something was very wrong. Zeus’s health began to deteriorate. He became slower and more lethargic again. His coat looked worse than ever. I increased his raw thyroid dosage. Venus’s territorial behavior took on a new twist. She overreacted by barking frantically and doing her anxiety dance, even attacking the fence, followed by pacing and snorting. We noticed her territorial behavior accelerating, we wondered about it, but we didn’t understand what she was telling us.

The real trouble began on August 16. We were camping at Meadow Lake. Venus barked at everyone who walked by our campsite that weekend. She was anxious and territorial. She snapped and snarled at Zeus.

As I described in previous chapters Venus’s breakdown happened gradually from August 16 to November 3. To review, Venus attacked Zeus twice, on August 31 and September 2. In October she attacked 2 other dogs at Dogland. On November 3 she attacked Zeus again more aggressively than ever before.

In the midst of all that on September 11, Zeus’s thyroid tested low again. We put him on Soloxine immediately. His health improved steadily.

There were other things happening during those 3 months. Some things we did know. Some things we didn’t know.

On October 15, we left the dogs outside during the evening while we were gone, as we had been doing since July. We knew we’d be home before 8:00 pm and we were. We arrived home at 7:50 pm. The dogs were agitated about something but we didn’t hear from the police about any complaints.

On October 20, Tod sent an email to Board Members to bring their attention to an article in the newspaper where the Mayor had promoted his proposed new development in the Town, but speaking as the Mayor not as the developer. Point being, if Tod was held responsible for my opinions on my blog, then surely the Mayor should be responsible for what he said in the newspaper. He didn’t call for the Mayor’s resignation, he just made a simple point.

At 5:30 pm on October 21, Tod received a call from the Chief summoning him to the police station to be cited for a barking dog violation. Mr. Bully had just filed a complaint about Venus barking on October 15. The timing – and time lapse – did not escape our attention.

In follow-up conversations with the police officers, Tod found out that during those three months the Bullys had indeed called the police and complained several times about our dogs barking. But the police had found another way to check on our dogs. According to the police department when officers responded to all complaints the dogs were not barking, including October 15. Therefore no citations were issued. The reason a citation was issued on October 21 was because for some odd reason Mr. Bully had waited until 5:00 pm that day to file a written complaint about our dogs barking 6 days earlier. In other words, it was a bogus complaint. Tod talked to the Town Attorney but he was told if he pled “not guilty” the Town would have to hire a Special Prosecutor to handle the matter because he’s a Board Member. So he paid the fine.

The Chief said they had not informed us about Bully’s complaints because the dogs were not barking. With all due respect to the Chief, what about the pattern of Bully’s harassment in the past did he not understand? The man had even admitted to walking back and forth outside our fence.

So while we were living in our everything-is-okay fantasy world, everything was so wrong. That’s what Venus and Zeus were trying to tell us.

It hit me in the wee hours of November 4 after Venus’s meltdown. When I couldn’t sleep. While we thought everything was okay, Bully and/or his boys must have been harassing the dogs when we weren’t home. Venus probably didn’t bark every time. Maybe she didn’t bark at all. She didn’t the day I saw him in our yard and she wasn’t barking on October 15. But it slowly drove her insane.

We didn’t fully understand territorial aggression combined with redirected aggression until I did some research and we watched the Dog Whisperer. In order to figure out why Venus became aggressive, all we needed to do was look at her behavior. For some reason during those 3 months, her territorial behavior had escalated into territorial aggression.

Territorial or protective aggression may be exhibited toward people or other animals that approach the pet’s property. Generally people and other animals that are unusual, less familiar to the dog, or most unlike the members of the household are the most likely “targets” of territorial aggression. In other words something about the sight, sound or actions of the stimulus is causing an alerting, anxious or defensive response on the part of the dog. While most forms of territorial aggression are likely to occur on the property, some dogs may protect areas where they are temporarily housed and may protect family members regardless of the location.

Venus eventually took her territorial aggression with her wherever she went.

The longer the person stays within the territory, the more aggressively aroused the dog may become. The goal of the territorial display is to get the “intruder” to leave. The longer the stimulus remains in place within sight or hearing of the pet, while the pet is frustrated from chasing the stimulus away because it is tied, penned or behind closed windows or doors, the greater the anxiety. Although dogs with mild fears might habituate with continued exposure, dogs that are constantly exposed (flooded) by an anxiety-evoking stimulus will have their fear heightened until the stimulus leaves. The removal (retreat) of the individual then further reinforces the strength of the response. 

Therefore, repeatedly harassing a dog is like conditioning to the dog to be fearful, anxious and frustrated. By the time Venus had her big meltdown she had become fearful, anxious and frustrated. The reason her territorial behavior had escalated into aggression had to be because someone was repeatedly harassing her. 

The aggression she showed toward Zeus and other dogs was redirected aggression.

This type of aggression is relatively common, but is a behavior that pet owners may not always understand. If a dog is aroused into an aggressive response by a person or animal that he is prevented from attacking, he may redirect this aggression onto someone else. A common example occurs when two family dogs become excited, bark and growl in response to another dog passing through the front yard. The two dogs, confined behind a fence, may turn and attack each other because they can’t attack the intruder.

Redirected aggression is a common side effect of territorial aggression. When Venus was harassed inside the fence while we weren’t home, she could not rationalize that the threat was limited to our yard or those specific times. She had no concept of the severity or limitations of the threat. Venus is a dog. The message her brain got was that a threat existed. Period.

On November 3, Tod had driven away in the pickup (the pickup is a significant clue) just minutes before she brutally attacked Zeus.

She did not go into guardian Akbash mode. She went straight to attack mode. Zeus was the closest, safest target. His wounds showed she wasn’t trying to kill him. She had chewed on his neck, as though she was overcome with frustration and anxiety. When she heard the pickup leave, her brain snapped into territorial aggression mode. Then she redirected her aggression toward Zeus.

This is not rocket science, it’s dog psychology. Her brain had been conditioned to expect an intruder, a threat to her territory, whenever she heard the pickup leave. The police said the Bullys had complained several times even though the dogs were not barking. The only explanation for Venus’s rapidly accelerating aggression was that she was being harassed when she was in the yard while we were gone. The only possible suspect was Bully.

When I finally put the puzzle pieces together I felt like an idiot. We had always thought that the thrill for Bully in the situation was sending the cops after us. Therefore we assumed when he couldn’t get a reaction out of the cops anymore, the thrill was gone. But what if he actually got a kick out of harassing our dogs? He did say, “You can train a dog to do anything.” A dog can be trained to be aggressive. From Bully’s perspective what better way to get back at us than to turn Venus into a mean dog. He could make our lives miserable and have grounds to make us get rid of her. Only she’s too good of a dog to be mean. She had a nervous breakdown instead.

We didn’t have any proof, but we had all the evidence we needed. After Venus’s November 3 meltdown, we left her indoors when we were gone for two reasons. We didn’t want her to attack Zeus and we didn’t want her to be harassed. We left new age music playing on the radio and she had the run of the house. Leaving Venus indoors when we were gone was the right thing to do because it removed the threat. When she exhibited territorial behavior while we were at home, after her initial outburst we made her go into a calm submissive state.

Over the winter months we put Zeus and Venus’s health and rehabilitation first. We needed time to plan the best way to deal with the Bullys.

Stay tuned for Part 14

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Part 7

Part 8

Part 9

Part 10

Part 11

Part 12

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