Mix breed dog turned violent need help PLEASE

Hi there,

First off, I will also be calling up a vet after I post this as well as the humane society for advice too. So there's no need to tell me to go there. Thanks

So this is my problem: I bought a puppy four years ago now. His name is Bishop. He's now about 75 lbs. Gorgeous golden colour. He's mixed: 1/2 lab, 1/4 husky, 1/4 chow. He's gorgeous! I raised him with my boyfriend all the way until December just passed. We took him through two levels of training and he was pretty good with commands (except when dogs were around). We had to give him up because of job relocation and moving into a tiny condo. I told the owners if they ever decided they didn't want him to call me back and I will pick him up. They called an hour ago. They can't handle him anymore. I'm picking him up Sunday.

I can't really take him back. But I don't know what to do either. I can keep him in my condo but really a 75lb dog in a 700sq ft condo is not good. Also, I will start working 60-70 hour weeks in about two months. I really can't keep him. He deserves more than seeing me two or three hours a day. I can keep him until July.

The currnet owner has told me that he's bit all the members of his family at least once. Nothing serious, apparently. That he rushes up to visitors at their house all the time (I'm not sure if that means he attacked visitors or not and he didn't explain). The current owner also mentioned that he "mauled" someone last week which was the last straw. I don't know what "mauled" means he didn't want to explain. He just said that the mauled person did not need to go the hospital so it wasn't "too serious".

I need to stress that he's NEVER seriously injured someone when I had him and I told the current owners this when I gave him up. He has held parts of people in his mouth - usually the arm, once a thigh. I asked some friends what I should when that happened and they said it was a soft bite and nothing serious. It was so rare and in between that I didn't think to bring it up again. It happened maybe 3 times in the 3 years that we had him.

He was always protective of me and my boyfriend. I know this. I told the current owners to be very assertive with him so he knows his place in the 'pack.' He's never attacked any of our visitors like he does with the current owners but we crated him whenever someone came over until he had a chance to sniff them out. Could the fact that the current owners chose not to crate him cause some of his lashing out?

In any event - they're not taking him anymore. I am. I can't keep him past July. I don't want to him to sleep. My boyfriend says we have no other options. Do you think there are other options? Thanks

 

Hi,

tough situation, first of all I have to say this, why would the only other option be to put him to sleep? obviously I understand your situation but I would think that he would deserve a chance at rescue somewhere before taking that route. I would have a look around the area and surrounding areas your in and see if there are any rescues that could take him, there are a lot of no-kill shelters around (I dont know where you are though).

I dont know what to tell you about the biting, I dont agree with what people have told you in the past in that 'it was only a soft bite so its okay', I have a zero tolerance for biting unless the dog is protecting me from someone whos attacking me or breaking into my house.

As for whats happened with the other people, a lot of people who just dont want to keep a dog anymore might well say that the dog has bitten someone....(some people do the opposite and will tell a potential new owner that the dog has never bitten anyone when it has). Im not saying that Bishop didnt bite anyone or that theyre lying, I have no way of knowing that....the other possiblity is, like youve said, he needs someone assertive, maybe they just arent being assertive, hes taking advantage because theyre allowing him to.

Moving to a new environment with a new family is a very stressful time for a dog but its been what, 4 months? he should be settling in by now if he was going to. Is it possible right now for you to put him through the training again? not necessarily go back to training classes but just going by what you learned yourself, make it a daily exercise (I would do it twice a day at least), like I said hes been through a stressful time and something that was familiar to him might get him back on track, give him something to do that will use up some of his energy etc. That way it will also give you chance to get control over him again....keeping in mind if hes been getting away with destructive or aggressive behaviour then you may have a couple of problems when you get him back.

Dont take any risks with him though, at this point you dont know exactly what is going on with him so be careful.

Hope that helps a little, good luck.

 

Thanks for your reply.

The reason it seems the "other option" is to put to sleep because we can't give a violent dog to the humane society, can we? that just seems wrong to give a violent dog there. Can't keep him. Can't find someone to adopt him because we'll have to tell them of his violence and no one's going to want him...

i just called the humane society and they referred me to behavioural consultants. we'll see what they say.

i live in Toronto, Canada, btw.

 

Tough situaton I agree... I googled no kill dog rescues in Toronto, Canada heres what I came up with:

http://www.canadastrays.com/links/ - this site had none in toronto specifically but I don't know the surrounding area

http://www.creatures.com/Canada.html - here is another one, its basically the same as the other one...

Hope these helped... Good luck

 

Sorry, I should have made that more clear, I dont disagree with some aggressive dogs being put to sleep, Ive had to do that myself, before I did that though I would want to make sure that I wasnt doing it 'just because someone else' has not been able to handle the dog or may have done/not done something (not necessarily abuse) that caused the dog to bite someone. Ive dealt with quite a lot of dogs that have had severe aggression problems, a very small minority of them have ended up being PTS because of the aggression, in most cases its caused through misunderstanding/lack of knowledge on the owners part and can be sorted out.

I remember a pomeranian years ago, at the hospital I worked at we used a 'red dot' system, a dog that was a biter got a red dot on its chart so we (the staff) knew ahead of time that the dog was a risk, this pomeranian had 4 or 5 red dots which means that it has already seriously attacked someone.....it was a real land shark and we had to wear those thick padded gloves to even get near it. The owner couldnt keep the dog and an older lady who had a house full of poms (and one little terrier) adopted her, if I hadnt seen the change in this dog so soon after going to its new home I dont think I would have believed it. The dog, after about a month was a very sweet, perfectly manageable little dog, not once did it ever try and bite us again (it used to attack the original owner which was why she given up), its the only dog that I know if at that hospital that had ALL of its red dots removed from its chart.

Hope you can find a solution that works for all involved. As I said earlier, its a tough situation.