The Mysterious Bites: Ouch!

Early in my career I came across a case where, on my initial diagnostic visit, I was repeatedly bitten by a small female Springer Spaniel named Millie. The owners, a young couple with no children had explained on the phone to me that Millie was a wonderful, loving and sweet dog. They acquired her when she was a  pup and they were very attached to her but if they could not solve her biting problem, they were very seriously and regrettably considering euthanasia because she was too dangerous to have around; they were planning to have children soon as well. They were very upset, and told me that I was their last resort.  

 Millie, they explained, would very unpredictably lash out at them; her mood would suddenly shift and just attack them ferociously for no rhyme or reason and she had already laid some nasty bites on them.  This was serious stuff, I thought, and they had been putting up with it for some time. Millie was two years old when I was called on the case and she had been doing this for at least a year. They had consulted with their veterinarian who identified the problem as "Springer Rage" and recommended euthanasia. Since I had already heard of this behavioral diagnosis from other veterinarians but could not make sense of it, I did not buy it. This diagnosis basically maintains that the dog suddenly attacks for no apparent reason, the behavior is unpredictable and that the problem is rooted in an unknown neurological dysfunction that can not be treated. Although I was excited to finally see a case of this nature, I was also keenly aware of the people's anxiety on the phone. So I went to see them for the initial diagnostic visit not really knowing what I would find there or if I could be of any help.

The attack came relatively late into the interview when we were playing catch: Millie would bring her squeaky toy, drop it at my feet and then I would throw it for her. She went chasing after the toy happily enough and returned it to me to throw again. It was all normal play and we did this a few times. This interaction, which, in my experience, always made things better by inducing friendliness and relaxation, in this case backfired: it went the other way! Although the toy was still on the ground, Millie's demeanor suddenly changed and ferociously growled and attacked my hand before I could reach for the toy. Even though I intellectually expected a problem due to the description by her owners, I never expected this violence. My previous experiences with dogs, my formal training and my gut told me that there could be no danger at that point since we were at play and relaxed. I also had not challenged or inhibited her control of the toy at all and any changes in Millie's attitude would have made themselves evident long before the bite. Sudden shifts in mood of this magnitude are not normal and I ruefully concluded that the veterinarians were right on this point.

The first bite was hard and penetrated my hand, definitely a serious bite and it hurt big time but I did not jerk my hand away, I just left it there. Millie continued to bite while I watched the attack. She bit me five times in less than two seconds but with each consecutive bite, the intensity lessened and by the fifth bite she barely touched me. Of course the whole episode was exceedingly intense and my hand was bleeding profusely from the first and only penetrating bite. One can ask why would I leave my hand there and not protect myself? The answer to that is somewhat of a mystery even to me but I intuitively knew that I needed to let the behavior follow its own course without interference from my own erratic reaction to the attack, which would confound the results.

By then I had been thinking about the origins and triggers of this kind of aggression for some time and how it is maintained, so this was it! As a scientist I was thrilled though as a person my hand was throbbing. Millie was small enough - she only weighed around 30 pounds – “how much damage can she do?” I thought.  So I risked it, observed it and got my answer: the attack was definitely intense and without hesitation, which is not the norm; it was also paradoxically inappropriate to the situation and it was self-terminating. The behavior seemed to be stereotypical and rigid as if driven by genetically bound triggers in front of a specific releasing stimulus as in a fixed action pattern. All very different from the well-organized patterns and complexities associated with either defensive or offensive aggression and it did not make any sense given the situation under which it occurred. Very weird indeed and the veterinarians were once again correct: this was unpredictable and dangerous.  

At any rate, we cleaned up my wounds: 4 punctures from the first bite where the canine teeth penetrated and some bruising from the incisors. The subsequent bites did not penetrate; the second bite hurt and the third hurt a bit less. The fifth bite barely touched my skin and the dog quit on its own volition. My heart was beating madly but it was over and I got a lot of information out of it. Subsequently, Millie went away to sulk and one could tell that she was upset by the whole incident.

Well, we were all pretty upset, that was for sure. We continued with the interview after we took care of my hand and I found no other behavioral issues that would allow me to make sense of the aggression. Now I fully understood the description of the behavior if not its function. I finally left after spending three hours asking questions trying to figure this out during which time Millie remained upset. I was stumped and discouraged, I could not hang the incident onto any theory of behavior that addressed the issues of function and adaptation, control and development, but nevertheless we set up an appointment for the week after to give myself some time to mull it over, talk to some people and maybe figure it out.

Unfortunately, two days later Millie's mom called to inform me that they had discussed the issue in great depth and had decided that they could not take it anymore and Millie was euthanized that day. She was crying and I expressed my condolences to her but kept some distance from her suffering. I was both personally and professionally upset by the news since I had put a lot into it: my hand was still swollen from the bite and I wanted some pay off from that which was to continue to study the case. After we hung up I just sat quietly for a while thinking of my loss of opportunity but as I was observing myself in this state, something shifted inside which made me focus on poor dead Millie and how her mom was crying inconsolably when she informed me of their decision. I began to think not of my loss but of their personal loss, which after all was much greater. So I called them back and I listened more deeply to their words - their suffering.

I listened with my heart this time which made all of us feel better. I had a sense at that time of having come together with them and eventually spoke of finding them another puppy when they were ready for it. When I hung up, my turmoil was gone, I was still sad but now a heavy weight had been lifted from my chest. A few months later I helped them find a new puppy, a Staffordshire terrier, which they named Eli and he was a hoot. This dog wanted nothing to do with anything if it was not fun, my kind of dog. We became good friends, visited and went for many walks with Eli; sometimes we would speak of Millie and the things we could have done for her if I had known at the time what I know now; but that could not be helped. A few years later they moved out west but we still speak on the phone once in a while. Eli lived to be an old dog and now they have two children and a mutt named Oscar that they adopted from a shelter, they are all well.

From Millie and from other similar cases that I subsequently treated, I developed the hypothesis that due to selective breeding, some dogs are genetically over-bred to retrieve game which often produces animals that must carry something in their mouths at all times or most of the times and they become compulsively and neurotically attached to this habit and even though their competitive play behaviors are intact, the compulsive "holding behavior" short-circuits the social play and triggers the described rage response through an acute panic attack. Another factor that I suspect to be associated with the syndrome is known as the neoteny hypothesis which is described in the literature as the human propensity to selectively breed dogs to produce very docile and infantilized animals and I suspect that Springer Rage is highly associated with the lack of inhibitory mechanisms exhibited in the behavior of very young animals, who still do not have the capacity to learn complex social skills that require the inhibition of aggression. Clearly, the case of Millie has to be counted as "a failure" since I was not able to come up with a way to rectify the dog's dangerous behavior but it did start me down the path of new knowledge that was helpful to others in the future. 

On the next post, I will discuss these issues and some solutions to these "unprovoked" aggression problems.

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