Pete (@TidyWeekender)

I saw this request for help in a public FB group - see photo. This was my reply to the person: Hello! I have guardian breed dogs too. Tibetan Mastiff's to be specific. What you are going through sounds really difficult. I wouldn't want to be in that situation, so let's see if we can start to unpick a few threads and give you a little help. The first thing I would be seeking is the answer to why the dog has started doing this. All behaviour has a cause. That's an iron unbreakable law of behaviour. So something changed and the result is what you are seeing. In my experience, there isn't a single cause of the issues you're seeing, it's a build up of multiple factors compounding on top of each other until you get the visible explosion. You have quite the serious mix of dog there, a Great Pyrenees and Cattle Dog. So a powerful guardian breed with the added spice of being bitey and controlling. I can see you've mentioned multiple previous rehomes and pro trainers in the past. Flock guardian breed dogs are famous for not liking change, and this dog has known nothing but change, that's definitely sub-optimal in terms of setting him up for success. It's also common for up to 6 months to go by after a rehome for problem behaviours to show at full strength. That begs the question, does your dog ever get to do the job(s) he was bred to do? There is so much goodness to be had for a dog's physical and mental wellbeing in having dogs do the job they were meant to do, with your guy, it's basically mandatory for de-stress and fulfilment. If that's lacking and he's constantly under control and management, his stress levels won't ever get to be released. You do have in some senses a paradoxical dog - the GP is extremely independent and smart and expects to be left alone to do its job. On the other hand you have the Cattle Dog that is a lot more human attentive and needs the human to tell it what to do, but not how, and is also very smart. That's the type of dog that generally benefits from being treated more as a partner than a pet. They have a very strong sense of self, and being allowed to make decisions is something humans have bred into them for 1000's of years. Take that away and you generally end up with stressed & nervous dogs that start trying to control some aspect of their life in desperation just to feel like they have some control, and that will escalate to violence if pushed far enough. I see you've mentioned psychotropic medications. The side effects from those are a potential explanation on their own. I'm absolutely not a fan of these meds, though this is not the place to go into that topic. Just as a thought experiment, put yourself in the dog's shoes and ask what would it take for you to exhibit the same behaviours, and see if any of those conditions are present for your dog. I suspect there's more to this back story that would require far more discussion than comments on a FB post, but hopefully I've given you some food for thought. Cheers, Pete at Partners-in-Canine