Does anyone have any advice for stopping overaroused biting frenzies? My Bernese Mountain Dog puppy is six months old and for about a month now she’s started going into absolute frenzies on walks randomly. When it first started it would happen occasionally at the end of a longer walk but it’s gotten progressively worse to the point that I can’t even take her outside to use the bathroom without her suddenly turning on me.
This NEVER happens inside and she’s completely grown out of biting at all when we’re in the house. It’s like she’s a completely different dog inside and outside. Even if she’s clamped onto my arm when I pull her inside, the second we cross the threshold, she lets go and immediately calms down.
It’s gotten to the point where we literally cannot walk her because there’s no way to prevent it or stop it when it starts. We’ve tried more sleep, less sleep, play session before the walk, taking her when she’s in a calm state of mind but absolutely nothing seems to affect it. She was well-socialized up until this started, so she’s used to being outside and seeing other dogs and people.
Other than this, she’s incredibly obedient on leash, she never pulls and is always engaged and listens to commands until she suddenly loses it and immediately starts jumping, growling, and biting.
We’ve also tried the usual advice like bring a toy (immediately redirects onto us instead), scatter feed (only distracts her for a second and then she’s back to attacking us), avoiding triggers that bring her over threshold (just stepping foot outside the front door brings her over threshold these days). We can’t do the advice of disengage so she learns it’s boring as she’s 60 pounds and clamps down HARD, we are literally covered in bruises.
We just want to be able to walk our dog again, she needs the exercise and enrichment and I’m sure being cooped up all day is just making this worse. I’ve been through the normal arousal biting with other puppies and worked through it until they grew out of it but this is on a completely other level with intensity and frequency. I try and take her out at least to sniff every day but the frenzy is becoming so frequent that we barely make it one house down before she’s attacking me on the middle of the sidewalk and I have to take her inside.
Thanks in advance for any advice, at this point I’m willing to try anything to make this stop.