My dog snapped at another dog on her walk a few months ago. Completely out character- she loves seeing other dogs. Turns out it was a bad flea infestation and she was miserable. We just moved and apparently this area is suffering the worst flea outbreak anyone has seen.
Meds, baths and aggressive cleaning and she’s happy again. Don’t rule out anything based on your assumptions.
I’m confused by this as well. The dog is two years old and you’ve had him since a wee puppy - has it never been to the vet for routine things like puppy wellness checks, vaccinations, heartworm meds, flea stuff? Has he never been seen by a vet for the seizures?
“Spoiled rotten” dogs can quite often get snippy and aggressive and Dachshunds aren’t known to be shrinking violets. What you’re describing is egregiously bad behaviour by an aggressive dog that either assumes he’s entitled to threaten and attack his owners, or he is in some sort of pain.
So, you take him to the vet. If something is causing the dog pain that’s making him act out, you treat whatever it is.
If the dog checks out healthy, then he (and his owners) needs training and attitude adjustment. Unless you live somewhere very remote, it shouldn’t be that hard to find a good dog trainer.
Either way, it’s irresponsible to keep an animal that bites and threatens people. Just because he’s small doesn’t mean he can’t do serious harm. A while back, a Dachshund almost killed a baby. And if something is causing him pain, it’s cruel to let him go on hurting.
If you really don’t know how to take an animal to a veterinarian, here’s how you do it:
Go online or open the phone book and look up veterinarians in your area. Call one up and make an appointment. Take dog to said appointment. Plan on spending some money - might not be that much, if he’s already UTD on vaccinations. Vet might suggest blood draw and possibly an x-ray. As mentioned, this breed is quite prone to spinal injuries.
How are you 18 yr old and don’t know ‘how to go about taking a pet to the vet’? How’s that possible? You just, y’know, take him to the vet, walking or in a car. How’s that hard to figure out?
Perhaps he has distemper? This is why responsible people take their pets to the vet, to avoid such things.
And based on who’s expertise, have you decided it’s neurological?
Senegoid’s right – the sudden change is an important indicator.
One thing I don’t fully understand from the OP is what “shuffling” is. Is he moving like his back or legs hurt?
Uh, yeah, not to mention rabies vaccination.
Which is legally required in most states, as far as I know.
The OP’s description really makes it sound like there’s something medical going on, instead of behavioural. If he bit someone in the stomach, was he being picked up and held at the time? If he has some sort of spinal problem, doing that might have caused sudden pain.
But it could be a training/behavioural thing too - signs were missed up until now, and the dog has now matured to the point where he feels more confident about being guardy or snappy. OP, you mention other dogs and cats in the household. Any changes in the pet population? Is he neutered? Intact dogs are sometimes more likely to act out if there’s a bitch in heat nearby.
Has the dog never been to the vet? If so, it’s possible he could have rabies. Or distemper, or any of the other dog diseases that regular vaccinations prevent. When I read the OP, I immediately thought hearing loss, pain/back injury, or neurological problem. The poor thing needs to be seen by a professional veterinarian as soon as possible.
If your family has never given him even basic care however, please contact a dachshund rescue group that can take him off you hands, get him proper medical care, socialize him and find him a loving home. If I’m off base with the level of care you’ve communicated in your posts, I apologize, but weenies are near and dear to my heart and the thought of the poor baby not being taken proper care of makes me very angry.
I’ve delt with two dogs that had something my vet called ‘spaniel seizures’. For 99% of the time, both dogs were perfect animals and had no problems.
One, a Springer Spaniel 12yo, would basically turn into a vicious wolf personality with little warning. Once she was in that mode, movement set her off. Her stance and growl left no mistaking that she fully intended to kill. Then she would shake it off, wag her tail and be normal.
The other was a young beagle. When he was in his ‘seizure mode’, any movement near him triggered him. But, instead of growling and posturing, he actually launched and bit. I had him for a month to train. I ended up advising his owner to either get a vet to prescribe medication or put the dog down because the dog was dangerous. There were no training issues, it was purely medical. And not always, just that 5 minutes ever couple weeks. The man loved the dog and about 8 months later, his 80yo grandfather was putting down a bowl of food and the dog basically shredded the man’s forearm. The man required hospitalization to recover.
I know it is hard to deal with an unstable animal that can be nice most of the time… but when they’re dangerous, they are not in control and it is not like a movie where their love will overcome the instinct that is running the show.
If you can’t find a vet, then it really would be better that you find a rescue group and tell them his entire history so that they can get him the help that he needs.
Do not think that it is a phase. That man nearly lost his grandfather because he was hoping that his dog was going through a phase.
“Springer (spaniel) Rage Syndrome” - not limited to spaniels but it’s real thing. May be related to seizures of different types although most often basic dominance aggression, and the term isn’t really favored by spaniel fanciers.
Most rescues won’t take a dog with a bite history because of the liability.
Whether it’s behavioural or medical in origin, I sure hope the adults in the OP’s household do the responsible thing and take. the. poor. dog. to. a. vet.
from the link:
This describes what I was dealing with in the dogs I handled. It is really hard to convey what it is like to deal with a dog that suddenly shifts into this mode without a identifiable trigger. In the Beagle, I pushed him for a month trying to find his triggers. After an incident, I’d repeat everything looking for signs of a trigger. They were just random. But, when they happened, it was a split second change.
I’ve taken ‘dangerous’ animals because my thought process was that I can evaluate the animal and if it can be resolved it is, if not, then I don’t have a problem euthanizing an animal for safety reason.
+1000 this dog needs to see a vet as soon as possible. There is a very real possibility (and it is statistically more likely) that he is in pain from an injury or may have a disease that needs to be treated ASAP.
Dog needs to go to vet. Unexpected change of personality is a sign of a dog hiding pain.
I’m not clear on what his normal behavior is. You seem to indicate it is/was his normal pattern to be very aggressive with men and some family members from the start, especially those that are not his “favorites”, but the problem now is that he attacked one of his favorites and seriously injured her.
It sounds like from the start your dog is very poorly trained relative to this authority status in the family and nothing has been done to correct this. Combine that with some mental or neurological problem that causes the dog to be even more prone to lash out, and you’ve got an intractable problem.
People think aggressive bad behavior is tolerable (or even cute ) in smaller dogs until they get mangled.
Yeah when your post spurred me to look up SRS (which I’ve heard of before; I have a friend who does ESS rescue) and I read that article, that sounded very much like the Beagle you described. I’d never heard of mental lapse aggression before.
It’s a sort of fuzzy area, I agree. Many types of aggression can be worked with and the dog later successfully adopted to the right person. I’ve fostered or owned a few dogs with fear-, dominance- or dog-aggression and these are all quite manageable with some work. I’ve had Rottweilers in my life since 1985, along with other dogs, and they have a tendency to be real thugs if they think they can get away with it!
I came close to euthanising a foster German shepherd mix who was very squirrely and fear-aggressive. I didn’t; she became a failed foster dog and I had her without incident for almost eleven years until she passed at age 13 or 14. I wouldn’t have done so had I had children in the home, though.
Another - a husky mix - came to our rescue and was initially fine and good with other dogs and cats, so I took him. As soon as he started getting comfortable, he started acting out with visitors. And, we couldn’t take him to PetsMart on adoption days because he would get anxious…he’d be fine with several people, then he’d go off on someone. And he gave no warning, nothing in his body language changed, he just went from neutral to SNARL BARK BARK GET AWAY I’LL BITE in a second. Sadly, we euthanized him.
Certainly if there’s any documented bite history - if the OP’s sister got medical treatment there may well be - I don’t know of any rescues that would take the risk.
Yup.
I had been considering a dachshund as a hunting partner for my Jack Russel Terrier, so I’ve been doing some research on the breed today.
In a Penn State study, dachshunds were found to be the most dog-aggressive, stranger-aggressive and owner-aggressive breed of the many breeds that were surveyed. All descriptions of them say that they are not a safe dog with children and the breed standard (as posted in Wikipedia) is that “Any display of shyness is a serious fault” so a pure-bred is not likely to be a shrinking violet - ever.
Here is a link to the PDF of the Penn State study: http://www.understand-a-bull.com/Articles/Breed%20Differences%20in%20canine%20aggression.pdf
That is not saying that all dachshunds are terrorists, but the breed standard is for an extremely assertive hunting dog that is also very intelligent. (aka… perfect terrorist material).
I have a Jack Russel Terrier. They also scored high on aggression. My dog is certainly fine but she is on a large farm where she has lots of room to burn off energy and a domain that is rightfully hers to lord over. But, I admit that I would never dream of cooping her up with a small child because she has cute-factor and I wouldn’t want her hurt.
So, I have now crossed dachshunds back off my list (as too aggressive) and will continue to look for another JRT for my current dog.
I’m not a formal rescue and I don’t have kids to deal with. My theory is that if a dog is a bad actor, it is better to just take the dog (even if I intend to euthanize him) than to have the dog continue to be passed along to unsuspecting people. It kind of bugs me when someone has an animal with a bad history and, instead of dealing with it humanely, they try to pass it off on someone else. I hate seeing those Craigslist ads that say:
*“Free to good home, xxx, beautiful, sweet, great personality, has only killed two of my children so far. Hate to part with him, but I only have one child left.”
*
As an owner of 3 dachshunds in my lifetime, I can attest that they are not shrinking violets. All of the ones I’ve met barked their fool heads off at strangers, and most any perceived invasion of their territory. My Tasha will not allow a bird to even light on the fence. She has growled at every child she’s ever come in contact with. Since I don’t have children, this hasn’t been an issue for us. I just don’t allow children to come within 10 feet of her and tell them if they ask to pet her that she is not feeling well, so not today (I don’t want to hurt the kid’s feelings). She is definitely the Evil Genius to my collie’s Blonde Supermodel. While he is beautiful, and learns tricks easily, he doesn’t have any common sense. Tasha is a mastermind. If she hadn’t been properly handled and trained she could very well have been a terrorist. But she’s one of the best dogs I’ve ever owned. She has so much personality and she’s so sweet.
Dachshunds are definitely not shy. They were bred to hunt badgers in their dens. They couldn’t afford to be shy. They need owners who won’t allow them to take the Alpha position in the pack. I can’t really imagine my life without a dachshund in it. There is a whole lot of dog packed into those ridiculous bodies.
You speak truth, Enkel. 
I just learned today from a rescue friend that she had a two-year-old “failed foster” pit bull euthanised yesterday. He hit two years old recently and became extremely animal-aggressive (although always sweet with humans but recently he killed two cats and started going after other dogs) and because this area is awash with pit bulls, chances of finding a human-only home for him was slim. So sad.
One of my current dogs is a JRT x red heeler and she is a freaking pistol. Extremely sweet with people (in fact a therapy dog; she is rock-solid with everyone including rough or wild children) and fine with animals as long as she’s acknowledged to be the alpha byatch at all times. She totally rules my 110 lb thug Rottweiler and my 80 lb black Lab.
As both you and Hockey Monkey attest, dachshunds are smart, spirited and dominant little dogs. With a high propensity for spine and joint problems. So, not really ideal as family dogs or dogs for novice owners unprepared to handle health and behavioural issues that may likely arise.
I don’t think the OP will be back but I do hope she’s at least reading and learning.
I don’t even like dogs in general, but have grown quite fond of the two Weenys my wife had to drag home. Very loyal, smart and stone-cold killers of small vermin around the yard. Maybe we’re lucky, but the two we have are the sweetest critters you can imagine. Unless you are a pack-rat. Then they will tear you to pieces. 
Atta-boy, Doxie!
Forgot to add: To the “OP”, get his nuts chopped off!
Honey dachshund doesn’t give a shit!
If you want to see the horrible way that daschunds have been mutilated by the breeders in the last few decades, have a look at this documentry, which while mostly focussed on other sins of pedigree dog breeders includes some before/after shots of daschunds.
I can’t really comment on the problem encountered by the owner any more than the way others have commented (I woudll endorse some of their setniments) but everyone who loves dogs should see that. Daschunds are a horribly cruel breed and no one should buy them, you are basically torturing the dog by letting it live.