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Hello @sandyt – thank you for being willing to help this family through a very uncomfortable and to them confusing situation.

When there is an abrupt change in behavior, I always strongly counsel owners to bring their veterinarian into the conversation to assess if there might be any physical issues (such as pain or discomfort) at the root of the behavior.

Even if this is the case, and the physical issue gets resolved, there are often lingering behaviors related to the triggers. As in: owner states their dog runs away when they try to harness the dog and the dog will air-snap if cornered to do so. It turns out that the dog’s harness fit poorly and caused hot spots. Owner buys well-fitting harness and dog gets vet care to resolve the wounds but the dog still is fearful of having their harness put on. A slow and purposeful reintroduction with a new harness, watching for consent and using loads of tasty treats is likely the best approach to relieve the emotional response that lingers after the physical discomfort has been resolved.

I would agree with most of your approaches.

1) Introducing a new crate of a different sort, if possible in a different area of the home, with tons of fun crate games (fetching a toy if the dog likes fetch and does not guard toys, tossing kibble in – moving to put entering the crate on cue) – basically starting from scratch.

2) Drag-lines are great management tools! Attaching them to a harness with a back clip is the safest for dogs who may be reactive and has the bonus of not having to reach for their collars at all which some dogs find aversive and/or scary.

3) Hand feeding can be tricky because a level of trust is required for a dog to be comfortable eating out of a person’s hand. I’ve found that tossing treats while hand feeding seems to remove that conflict of “I want the goodie but the person holding the goodie scares me”. Only when the dog is approaching calmly do I offer out of my hand but continue to toss away to reset them and ask if they are really comfortable. There is a video of this game (Treat & Retreat) over in another discussion.

All that said, safety needs to be top of mind in all of this – safety for the people and making as certain as we can that the dog feels safe to (and therefore less likely to act “aggressively).

This is a complicated case, and we only know some of the broad stroke facts. I look forward to learning more and reading what others have to said to be of help!