Episode 201:
Raging Bandit
"Bandit," Chihuahua

Lori Ovanessian had always dreamed of getting her thirteen-year-old son Tyler a dog so he could have the kind of warm, loving experience she remembered from her own childhood pets. They found an adorable Chihuahua over the internet- a diminutive male with a masklike mark over his eyes. They named him Bandit. Both Lori and Tyler looked forward to sharing the irreplaceable experience of raising a loving dog together.

Bandit, however, turned out to be the hound from hell.

By the end of the first year, Bandit's extreme aggression had become unbearable. When the family had guests, he'd lunge and bite at their legs. "He's de-socialized us. I used to be a very social person. Now my friends don't even want to come over anymore."

The most tragic aspect of Bandit's aggression is that he focuses most of his attacks on Tyler. "He's bit his lip, his finger, his cheek, his ear," Lori says. Tyler continues, "He's bit me in the leg, bit me in the armpit... he almost got my eye." Bandit has turned the wonderful experience Lori had wanted for her son into a living nightmare. Cesar had already rehabilitated one demon Chihuahua, NuNu, during the first season of Dog Whisperer. But when he arrives at Lori and Tyler's home, he sees right away that this raging bandit will be a real contender for the crown of "Meanest Chihuahua Ever." Cesar is surprised to hear that Lori has actually shown dogs in the past, so it's clear she has some leadership skills that she's not using. "I'm his mom," she says of Bandit. Cesar shakes his head. "You're his female. Bandit is saying, 'This is my female that I own and nobody else can get close to her, because I am an insecure, dominant dog.'"

The tone of the consultation turns, however, when Cesar watches Lori let Bandit violently attack Tyler, then goes to comfort Bandit! Cesar is shocked. "As a parent and as a dog behavior specialist, I would never in my whole entire life choose a dog over my kids." Cesar sits on the couch next to Lori and blocks Bandit with his elbow when the dog attacks him. Frustrated that a human would dare touch him and not back down to his aggression, Bandit yelps and jumps off the sofa. Lori is visibly upset. "He's biting, so I have to touch. I'm not hitting, I'm just touching," Cesar explains. "But he yelped!" says Lori. "Well, you want me to yelp so it's equal?" Cesar replies. Lori begins to cry. "Now he doesn't know what to do," she says of Bandit, who is wandering around the room looking submissively at Cesar. "You don't like that, do you?" Cesar asks. "No," says Lori.

"Well, then, this is a case that is not going to work. It's not going to work because here we have an owner who doesn't want to allow the discipline you would normally use with your kids."

It's incredibly rare that Cesar gives up on a case, and after a few moments Lori agrees to give it one more try and let go of her "mothering" of Bandit. Cesar tells her it's perfectly possible to discipline the mind without hurting the body. He takes Lori through several exercises on the couch, where she uses two fingers to firmly touch Bandit every time he makes an aggressive move toward Cesar. "Don't hold him back, don't remove him, just a touch will snap him out of it." Newly empowered, Lori catches on quickly.

Next, Cesar brings Tyler into the exercise. He tells him to take all the energy he's been using to "hate" Bandit and turn it into assertive, leadership energy. The relief on Lori and Tyler's faces is palpable. "Now, thirty minutes, one hour doesn't get rid of a year of bad behavior," says Cesar. "But what I want you to see is the possibility that this dog can go back to normal."

"I think Cesar definitely showed me I was the problem, not the dog," Lori says. "You think that when you give him love and affection that he's going to feel secure, but instead, by loving him and not giving him any boundaries, I made him insecure. He's not going to bite somebody anymore because I'm not going to let him."

Follow up: While it began as a case Cesar almost gave up on, Bandit's tale has become one of the Dog Whisperer's proudest success stories. Lori kept to her promise and stopped babying Bandit, and Tyler began to take the lead in managing and disciplining him. With new rules, boundaries, and limitations, Bandit soon learned how to peacefully socialize with houseguests and strangers, and when Lori gave birth to a son in November 2006, Bandit even learned how to be calm-submissive to an infant.

Behind the scenes: Bandit's story has another wrinkle to it - a cautionary tale for all who shop for dogs over the Internet. Lori found Bandit online from a breeder who said she could guarantee the health of the dog. The breeder flew in from Louisiana and delivered the puppy. For the flight and puppy, the price came to $2,000.

However, not long after Bandit arrived, it became clear he had a kind of mange common in puppy mill dogs. The ASPCA told Lori that she had been defrauded, and fined and punished the breeder. Bandit went through six weeks of treatments to get rid of his mange, and at the end of it all, this adorable Chihuahua had turned into an angry, aggressive, and terrified little pup.