How do you discipline an abused rescue dog?

[Omnipotent]

My friend just recently got bit in the face (Stitches and all required) a couple days ago by his friends rescue dog. The dog is a border collie that was starved, beaten and neglected until he was rescued by his roommate 2 years ago( The dog is 3 and a half years old). My friend has lived with this dog and his roommate for over a year, so the dog knows him. The collie was sleeping, and my friend went to kiss the dog on the nose while it was sleeping and it just triggered something and it attacked my friends face, giving him three long gashes on his face and a small chunk of his nose ripped off.

How do you even punish or discipline a dog who you rescued from abuse? Do you just throw it in a bathroom or a cage and ignore it? Beat it? Show it love? Serious question. My friend beat the living shit out of the border collie at the time, he loves that dog more than his family, and he treats it like his own son. He never really expected to have to reprimand the dog, the dog is typically a sweetheart.

I'm asking this because my friends seem to be infatuated with rescue dogs, seeing how they all have them. The recent addition to my friends dog mix is a pitbull/boxer mix that has triceps, pectoral muscles and biceps. I don't get intimidated by many things, but this dog is flat out scary as all, and I don't even pay attention to it in fear of myself triggering something that would require me to defend myself against this dog. I want to know, as well as my friend the proper way to take care of discipline...in case an event should occur, similar to the above event.

[SephYuyX]

Could be a good time to see if throwing a water bottle at it works for dogs.

[Krazy]

Tell your friend to stop kissing dogs.

[Ksandra]

Positive reinforcement training is becoming more and more the way to train a dog.

Honestly, because of the dog's history, you should tell the friend to look into taking it to a professional training school that does positive reinforcement training. Have him explain the dog's history and what behaviors it needs to fix, and what he should do when that type of situation arises.

A sad thing I see when it comes to dogs is those that are out of control but people think they can handle it on their own.

[Souj]

Sticking your face into the face of a sleeping animal isn't the smartest idea in any case, but with an animal with a history of abuse? I think the one that needs to be disciplined is your friend. Which I think getting bit in the face probably sufficed.
I still miss my border collie. Got him when I was 5 and he lived for 17 years

[Byrthnoth]

It's bad that the dog's first instinct was to attack the dude, but dog-memory isn't this long. It won't be able to relate some random way you choose to abuse it today to the incident that occurred a few days ago. If you wanted to use violence to solve the problem, you missed your window of opportunity. The bottom line is that you're going to have a really hard problem correcting this behavior, but considering the dog lived with your friend for a year without this issue, I think it's probably possible for him to avoid having it occur again.

If it does it again, tell your friend to take a moment out of his "screaming in pain" time to kick the dog with his heel. Or, you know, he could just let sleeping dogs lie.

[archibaldcrane]

Your friend got darwin'd hard lol.

Also, there are plenty of not totally fucked in the head from abuse dogs in any given shelter, why people want to be the hero and rescue one that has the highest likelihood of hurting another person is fucking beyond me.

Pet owners are retarded.

[archibaldcrane]

Oh, and can we get a pic of your friend's face?

[Brill Weave]

Sticking your face into the face of a sleeping animal isn't the smartest idea in any case, but with an animal with a history of abuse? I think the one that needs to be disciplined is your friend. Which I think getting bit in the face probably sufficed.

Jesus fuck, this. What the hell was he thinking. Even if it wasn't an abused animal you should still never do this.

[Qalbert]

hit your friend with a water bottle

[Rhyis.]

Your friend is retarded. Did your friend ever consider the dog was having a dream and when he got woken up it lashed out because of said dream?

[Callisto]

I'm pretty sure even a goldfish would attack you if you shoved your face in its when it was sleeping, lol.

As far as reprimanding rescue pets, it's not much different from regular pets, in that slapping it around isn't really going to do much good in either case. Water bottle, etc.

[Acevalefor]

hit your friend with a water bottle

This....or maybe something a bit more solid like a fucking brick.

I have a dog that is not traumatized and I have scared her enough that she pissed all over and tried to come after me before she realized who I was. I learned not to walk into the house with a full-face helmet on. I was down a flight of stairs from the sleeping dog too. She would have probably bitten me if I had been in range for the immediate reaction.

Here's a tip for your friend: wake the dog up before getting near it. Fear reactions being woken from a dead sleep can be dangerous...and not just in dogs.

[Zauriel]

You don't discipline a dog. That only teaches them fear and violence. Dogs naturally want to make you happy. Ignore them until they do something good. Dogs are like children, they require structure.

[Amelya]

This....or maybe something a bit more solid like a fucking brick.

^ This. Beating the crap out of a dog for fear biting is the last thing you should do. Grown adults should know better than to stick their face next to a sleeping animal, especially one with a known history of abuse.

[Seraph]

How do you discipline an emotional retarded friend?

[Acevalefor]

The only time physical discipline should be used is in instances where the behavior is dangerous and needs to be stopped immediately. Even then, it's not a boot to the face. It's grab the muzzle or a firm hand to the ribs (not enough to be painful but enough to get their attention) and make damn sure that animal knows it just fucked up.

Rescue dogs require even less physical discipline and more encouragement and reinforcement.

[Caiyuo]

Sticking your face into the face of a sleeping animal isn't the smartest idea in any case, but with an animal with a history of abuse? I think the one that needs to be disciplined is your friend. Which I think getting bit in the face probably sufficed.
I still miss my border collie. Got him when I was 5 and he lived for 17 years

I'm pretty sure even a goldfish would attack you if you shoved your face in its when it was sleeping, lol.

As far as reprimanding rescue pets, it's not much different from regular pets, in that slapping it around isn't really going to do much good in either case. Water bottle, etc.

^^^

Beyond even being an incredibly huge commitment, rehabilitating an abused dog takes specific training that being very kind isn't necessarily going to cover. If he has questions for this sort of scenario, it doesn't seem like he was prepared beforehand for taking this dog in.

[zoobernut]

^^^

Beyond even being an incredibly huge commitment, rehabilitating an abused dog takes specific training that being very kind isn't necessarily going to cover. If he has questions for this sort of scenario, it doesn't seem like he was prepared beforehand for taking this dog in.

The last thing you want to do is discipline a dog physically that you are trying to rehabilitate from being in an abusive home. In this case it is the peoples behavior around the dog that needs adjusting more than the dogs. A dog that was abused is a very special case that takes a different type of training and consideration than regular dogs.

[Caiyuo]

I didn't mean to imply physical discipline by saying being kind and caring for the dog wouldn't necessarily do all the work for you, just that there is a lot more to rehabilitating an abused dog and it's not something you should really approach without knowing specifically how to care for and train them.