Can the behavior of a 3.5 year old dog change?

My in-laws just got a silky hair terrier from the pound about 2 weeks ago. She's about 3.5 years old. The previous owners should be put in jail. The poor dog had many many stones in her bladder and was in a lot of pain. She could barely pee. The vet said only 1/3 of her bladder didn't have stones in it. The owners had the nerve to say they couldn't potty train her when they gave her up to the pound. This dog also does not know how to play. I can pretty much guarentee she never had any toys. You try to give her a toy or play with her and she just looks at the toy like "What am I supposed to do with that?!?!" She also was not outside a lot because she seems to be uncomfortable/afarid of the grass. I am pretty sure they kept this poor girl in a crate all the time.
So, my husband and I go to the in-laws house this weekend and bring our dog. Their dog kinda freaked out. She was snarling and growling and jumped at our dog a few times. I could tell she was freaked out. My dog is very non-agressive and was yelping and trying to aviod the new dog. She didn't fight back. So I also guess that the in-laws dog has never been socialized (shocker, I know). Friday night she was basically stalking our dog....staring at her and cornering her. My dog wouldn't even turn her head and look at her. Saturday she didn't stalk her. She did lunge at her a couple times. Sunday she only lunged 1 or 2 times and didn't snarl as much. So she seemed to be doing a little better.
We took both dogs to my sister-in-law's house Saturday. She has a golden retrivew and there was also an Italian Greyhound there. She lunged at the Retriver and the IG. But we were over there for like 5 hours..so that was pretty good.
My questions is....is this dog going to get better about other dogs? I am thinking about not taking my dog over there again. It's out of state so we like to take her with us. But I don't want her to be attacked the whole time. The new dog is going to be around the retriver a lot and my MIL is taking her to called at Petsmart. Is she too old (3.5 years) to change her ways?
Thanks

 

Again I have to refer to things I have learned from watching the "Dog Whisperer" on the National Geographic Channel. Cesar Milan, the behavior expert, was always saying that it was never too late to teach a dog through proper techiniques and continuing positive re-inforcement. Start at the PetsSmart school but you may rezquire the individual services of a behavior specialist. Aggression in a small dog can be dangerous to that dog because of its small size. It could "attack" a bigger dog that won't be as "nice" as your dog.
I think that if you get the aggressive behavior under control than the other social skills will fall into place OK.

 

While she is not too old to change her ways as far as learning to play, housetraining, she can be obedience trained once all her medical issues are over and done with and she has settled into her new home, minimum 4-6 weeks, for me personally, I think its a little too much to put the added stress of obedience training on the dog (unless its absolutely necessary) until after the settleing in period, they need a little time to adjust, to get to know their new family, and especially with an abused or neglected dog, they need to learn to trust people. That said its always good to use this time for setting some ground rules....i.e.not jumping up on furniture or people, housetraining, sitting before being given food etc.....The dog to dog agression is a tough one, socialization and obedience training can help in most cases but is usually never completely eliminated, if this dog was socialized adequately as a puppy but has since spent a lot of time alone then it is possible that it is just a readjusting period, needs to be monitored carefully without putting any dogs at risk, including the silky (in ref. to Dukesdads comment about larger dogs).

Just my opinion.

 

Just to clear something up.... she's not my dog. She's my in-law's dog. My mother-in-law mentioned taking her to an obedience class sometime next month.

If my dog, or another dog, would fight back, would that help this dog at all or just make her even worse?

She's doing fine with potty training. She hasn't gone potty inside since they took the stones out.

My main concern is MY dog. I don't want to take her around a mean dog. I guess from all your comments I will wait a see how she is in a few months from now. I just hope my in-laws continue to expose her to other dogs. They also need to repremand her when she acts like this.

Oh and I also want to add that their dog is great with other people and kids. Very sweet and loving. It's just with other dogs that her witch side comes out.

 

As Delauk said, I think she should be left alone for awhile,. I think no dogs over for visits, no kids, etc, and let her get used to her surroundings, she is probably overwhelmed and needs to settle dowm and then get her in a good training program for the aggressive issue As an owner of a stray, I can attest that it takes a ton of patience and love

 

Thanks. I hope time takes care of it. I love my in-laws but I really love my dog LOL. I have to bring my dog with me when I go for a visit...I don't want to leave her behind. I might not go to see them if my dog will be attacked every time. Those are some family problems I could do without!

 

Some of it could have to do with her having surgery. She may feel very vulnerable b/c of that.

I agree to give her time. Once she gets settled in and knows that she is OK and has food, shelter, etc. all the time, she might calm down and change her ways.

I wouldn't bring your dog around though. I adopted a neglected St. Bernard, don't know if you saw my posts, but she sort of had similar issues. She did the growling/lunging thing for awhile, then one day she all out attacked Indy. So...just to be safe I wouldn't do it.

I don't know if it would help if another dog would fight back. It could make her feel even more vulnerable/unsafe. Or, if she has dominance issues, it could help. But I don't think it is a dominance thing so it probably wouldn't be good. If she is feeling unsafe you probably want all her experiences with other dogs to be good.

 

I also think she may calm down a bit as she heals up and settles in. If it continues after her adjustment period it is something that can be managed but will most likely be a very slow process involving desensitization (rather than repremand) and counter conditioning assuming it is fear related. Gradually bringing her close to friendly (unfriendly dogs will only enhance her fear as Eliza stated) dogs but at a distance she is comfortable with, a distnace that does not cause her to react while rewarding her.

 

I agree with everyone else. Let her settle in and then start working on more issues. Have your in-laws read "Feisty Fido", "Cautious Canine", and possibly "Dogs are From Neptune." Those books are great and will show them how to work with her. It will be a long, slow process.

In the meantime, I don't think I would bring your dog over to see her. You might be able to use her later when they are ready to desensitize her. When doing that, your dog should never be close enough to elicit a reaction, so it will be safe for both dogs.

There is a GREAT article in a recent Whole Dog Journal about a woman and her bulldog who used to be terribly reactive and how she re-trained her.