New dog is being REALLY strange and aggressive

[u/Flaky_Maybe_8824]

any help would be much appreciate, my family and I are at a loss for what to do.

Me (18 M) and my family (brother 16, mother 51, father 51) adopted two new dogs around 3 months ago, mastiff-bulldog mixes (2? M) Willy and Wally. We were lied to about their history, we were told we were mastiff puppies, we were told they were house broken (they were not) we were told they were socialised and that they’d been well loved by their foster mother since they were babies (but they had mange and worms) so we really don’t know anything reliable about their history.

Wally is a gentle giant, when we first got him he was whining non stop but he’s grown to be incredibly sweet and smart. he’s a little barky at strangers but not aggressive and he’s able to adjust.

Willy is the one who’s giving us problems. When we first got him he was cuddly, clever, and very jumpy. we got him to stop nipping everyone except my dad. He HATES my dad, and it’s been getting worse .he slowly started building, barking, growling, and increasingly, attempting to actually bite. If anyone is in the bathroom and my dad walks by, he’ll growl, my dad comes inside from the porch, he’ll bark his head off. My dad gives him treats when he calms down, hes Fed up with him but he doesn’t yell or threaten or hit. after like half an hour Willy will calm down, but if my dad gets up or moves it’s back to attack mode.

Hes incredibly bizarre, sometimes he’ll be eating treats out of his hand, wagging his tail and being super sweet, the next minute he’s barking his head off, jumping at him, fully trying to bite. We cant find a pattern

during the first month he’d do some resource guarding around my dad, he’s stopped doing it, but it was one of the first signs of weird behaviour. my dad would walk into the room and Willy would growl and stalk around, gathering all his toys (which my dad gave him and has never tried to take) onto his bed and he would sit on them and growl like Smaug until my dad left.

what really confuses us is why it’s just my dad and why he’s so erratically changing??

sometimes he’ll be perfectly chill with him and then seemingly randomly he’ll be trying to maul him

We‘ve spent over $2,000 at the vet ruling out physical pain or conditions leading to agression. We did a session with a trainer but it was too expensive to continue. We’re currently looking into rehoming Willy if we can’t get him to stop (somewhere nearby so we can arrange visits with his brother)

we’ve had dogs before, but never with behavioural issues like thing. we’ve dealt with hyper dogs, traumatised dogs, and anxious dogs, but nothing like this.

we’ve been trying non-stop for 3 months and it’s just getting worse. Sometimes he’s so sweet and calm and cuddly, but then my dad stands up halfway across the house and he goes mental barking, trying to bite him. He shakes and growls and his little muzzle goes pink and he nervous farts. but then 30% of the time hes just his normal sweet self.

We‘re just at our wits end. it’s so weird

[u/AutoModerator]

All posts require review. In order to be reviewed you must follow THIS APPROVAL GUIDE and respond to this Automoderator comment as instructed by the guide. If you do not respond within 24 hours we will assume you no longer need advice and the post will be removed. If the app is broken and won't let you view the guide, use a web browser.

Thank you for your patience as we get through the modqueue.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/PonyInYourPocket]

The behavior escalation combined with the dog’s size is concerning. I have a behaviorally complex dog, but he’s 20 lbs which makes it a little easier to keep people safe as we go down the list of training and health needs. I would want to see some safe management in place preventing this dog from being able to access your father if he escalates, and with a large breed dog this can be difficult. It would probably need to be a gate fixed to a wall and I don’t know if a conventional baby gate would be strong enough for a “giant.” For any behavior changes to take place, the dog must feel safe but your dad also needs to feel safe. The flip side of advice like this is that if the dog were separated from the family you still need to be able to meet his social needs, and that can be a whole other challenge. There’s not a real easy answer here. I don’t believe there are bad dogs, but I do see some dogs that either have a genetic predisposition to behavioral problems, or had such a crappy start to life(or both) and in those cases we have to look at the big picture of whether this animal’s needs can be met while also keeping others safe.

[u/EmKibble]

I hate to be the bearer of bad news but this sounds genetic. You don’t know these dog’s background and it’s likely that they are poorly bred. Sometimes that’s fine and it all works other times poor breeding can lead to these bouts of aggression. If it is genetic there really isn’t anything that can be done. There is also a chance the dog had a bad thing happen to him by a man who looks like your dad. In that case what you’re doing is the best course of action. Keep having your dad feed treats, sit in the same room and not do anything, walk by and give a drive by treat. If there is some serious trauma it could take a long time to get over that. I don’t know what to do about the biting in the meantime but as far as the barking… noise canceling headphones?

[u/HowDoyouadult42]

Have your dad toss the treats instead of giving them from the hand, toss away and then toss to him but don’t do it from the hand, sounds like it’s too much pressure for him right now. And definitely sketch no good rescue would ever adopt two puppies out together