She suddenly changed

[Big Fat Dynamo]

Hi everyone,

I hope somebody can shed some light on my issue or at least give me some tips to take care of it.

My mom got a Yorkie when it was just over 8 weeks old. The dog was amazing. It was so cute and playful and it wanted to be around people all the time. After the last round of puppy shots, the dog just snapped. The dog will bark and growl at anyone and anything. It will bite if you get near it and it is almost always showing its teeth. The strange thing is that every now and then she wants to be held and seems like she used too. I'm afraid my mom might have to get rid of her and i'm hoping we can fix her issues. It almost seems like something is mental. She will just start growling and barking at absolutely nothing. We have taken her to the vet and they just say its a phase and my mom needs to be more stern. I am not around enough to see how she treats her, but this is not her first dog and I know she babies her. Has anyone ran into this before? Does anyone have any suggestions? I have a Yorkie Poo that I have had since she was a puppy and have never experienced anything like this.

Thank You

[DexterBoy]

Awww I'm sorry to hear that. I don't have an experience with that really, but one thing I would suggest is that your mom needs to make sure she doesn't show the dog she is afraid of her. The dog definitely needs to know who runs the house (and that its NOT her).
Good luck with the pup!

[Marioana]

Are you sure he/she is not in pain? I know that a friend's dog has such a severe reaction to the shots that she couldn't stand to be touched for a few days...

[kjc]

How old is the pup now and exactly when did she get het last vaccines? Which vaccines did she get?

[yorkietalkjilly]

Dogs display this type of behavior for a reason and your mom will need to find out the reason. Any sudden aggression needs a vet and if that vet found nothing, I believe I would get a second opinion as the aggression began so soon after the shots. Usually sudden aggression shows up in dogs that are ill, injured, fearful, dominant, frustrated or possessive about their food, people or things. If this is not a result of an illness/pain reaction from the vax or another medical condition just starting to get symptomatic, the dog might be stressed out by other animals bullying, lack of strong leadership, too much structure or bullying by a person or persons, totally frustrated by a lifestyle very inconsistent with his nature, though this instance is pretty rare when there is a strong leader. But I believe I would want to get a second vet to check out the vaccination connection and get a full lab workup, x-rays, etc., to rule out any medical situation and then start to assess what else of the above could be causing this. If it's not medical, more than likely it's been building for a while and the dog has been sending a lot of ignored signals and finally he had to go ballistic to get his message out. So the root of the problem needs to be addressed.