To get rid of the dog

[BananaLeafs]

So here goes..my first post and I am open to hearing if I'm being unreasonable.

Around 6 months ago I got a reactive rescue dog, she wasn't from a rescue center but from a home where she was mistreated. She doesn't listen at all, she knows her name and will only respond if I offer her human food. She is dog and people aggressive, lunges and barks on lead, cannot be near anything, guards her crate and toys and food, very viciously, even guarding the hallway.

She will also lunge at you if you have something she wants eg food or plastic bottles. She has been spayed and I have had a dog trainer which hasn't helped. I am exhausted I just want to cry, she even barks at neighbours and lunges.

She is not the dog I thought I was helping, I knew she had a few issues but nothing like this. She has put her ears back and attempted to bite when we go anywhere near her things, she destroys blankets and beds and growls if you pick her up.

She will not let me answer the door or even leave the house,its like I'm a prisoner in my own home. I cannot go anywhere and have to take her everywhere I go or she barks until I come back.

I don't know what to do anymore I have tried so many things and leads and harnesses, she destroys everything including my social life and confidence to go out. She drags me about on walks too

I cannot take her to a rescue center as they will not take her, this is why I took her in or she would be euthanized or bred in a puppy farm. It's not getting any better.

I suffer from depression and wanted a dog to get me out more so I wanted to help a dog rather than buy a puppy so we could both be helped in one way or another.

I want to cry all the time as I don't know what to do anymore.

I don't know what I want for sharing this, I just need to let it out somewhere thank you for reading x

Many years ago we took on a dog - she was actually from a rescue - who, it turned out, had been very badly treated, and had lots of hang-ups. One particularly difficult one was that she was so scared of children that she would go to attack them. Luckily we had a very understanding neighbour and borrowed their very well-behaved (around animals) child and got the dog used to the child, to start with standing well back from their solid gate and throwing a biscuit over - after about 3 months it got to the stage he could peer over the top and throw the biscuit. However, the main thing we did was to help our dog understand that we'd never let her get into a position where she was 'threatened' by children - we always stood in between her and any child and didn't let them get anywhere near her. However, with this and other issues she had, we had lots of 'dog' experience and a good trainer to get help from.

In your case I think that you need to get rid of this dog - if you can persuade a breed-specific rescue to take it on, they're more likely to do so than general rescues - otherwise you might be better simply making the decision yourself and taking her to the vets to be PTS. If there were more spaces in rescue centres, that would be different, but it's almost impossible to find spaces even for well-behaved dogs at the moment. Unless, of course, some of the people on this thread that are saying 'you've not done enough, you've not given her enough time' want to step forward and take her on for you.

It could well be that your depression is not helping her either - but this dog is certainly not helping your depression and you need to get that sorted out for your own benefit asap.

Have you not read the posts?

We had a reactive dog. She was really a handful. We tried with a trainer and it didn’t help very much. But a behavioural vet was recommended and she was basically diagnosed adhd, fear reactive and a bunch of stuff. Strangers were a problem, she chased cars so walks were difficult. Barking at the neighbours. I’m sure this sounds familiar. Anyway the vet recommended medication along with a very calm gentle training routine. I can highly recommend asking your vet if they have a specialist behavioural vet they can refer you too, it helped tremendously

Yes @been and done it. Have you?

Only read the thread to see if someone would say this.

Of course they did!

You do realise that 'healthy' is a very broad spectrum and that Dog Trust do put many dogs down that can't be rehomed, and I believe this dog would be classed as unhealthy.

Yes - the whole "we never put a healthy dog down" thing is a bit of a misnomer really.

Unhealthy doesn't just mean physically unwell - it also covers mental trauma and severe cases of aggression. A dog that is assessed as unable to be rehomed safely is, in all likelihood, going to be put to sleep.

Getting OP to give the dog to a rescue is just delaying the inevitable and is arguably crueller than having the dog PTS next to the one person who's shown him any compassion.

Why decline that only to have him PTS surrounded by strangers in six months time anyway?

@Moanycowbag they won't put the dog down unless they've exhausted every possible avenue and the dog is attacking other dogs or people. As I said in the post that posters referencing, they have special units for dogs that needs more specialist care or training or that they know will never be rehomed. They'll keep a dog for its full life, even if it can never be rescued.

Sounds hideous OP. A dog that can’t behave. It’s all very well for people to beseech of you but they’re not living with her. They’re not going to be inconvenienced by this dog’s behaviour in any way.
I’m not sure what I’d do but I can tell you now I wouldn’t be held to ransom and made miserable by a dog.

Think I agree with this.

But the flip side of that is - is it really fair to keep a dog alive when it's that traumatised it can't even come close to living a normal life?

I would argue that that kind of life is a fate worse than death in some ways.

I think you are living in cloud cuckoo land, they can do put dogs down, they also refuse to take many many dogs in as they are too hard to rehome, same as the RSPCA, it is why many people will pass the dog on or just turf it out, then they (DT/RSPCA) have to deal with them when reported or picked up as strays, they are then tested and deemed unhealthy and PTS.

@Moanycowbag do you have direct experience of what you're saying with that specific charity, or are you sharing tales you've heard from elsewhere?

I don't mean that to read as me being shitty, I truly don't mean it that way but know words can get misconstrued so want to clarify. I have direct experience of 2 dogs that sound very similar to the OPs who have gone to dogs trust (not my dogs) and are now absolutely thriving. Nobody thought they would be able to ever be rehomed but they have been now.

On that note @thelobsterquadrille, I don't think this dog sounds like all is lost. I think the dog could be happy with some time and commitment.

Many years ago I worked in the Edinburgh Cat and Dog Home, which is the city’s biggest dog and cat rescue shelter. I was a kennel maid.
Dogs who could not feasibly be re-homed, ie, dogs who were persistently aggressive/nervous/unpredictable/dominant/passive and could not be rehabilitated, were put to sleep. That is because those behaviours are likely to result in a bite.
Families were often disappointed when they were turned away for re-homing but many of our dogs were strays and when you don’t know a dog’s background and whether or not it has endured abuse, you can’t in sound mind allow that dog to go and live with children. Who knows what might trigger an attack? Something completely innocuous on our part but traumatic for the dog.
To this day, I try to put family pet seekers off from rescue dogs.

Anyway, long story short, I don’t think it’s anyone’s obligation to put themselves at risk to preserve a dog. Blunt but true.

Fuck I have quoted again. I am so sorry.

You need a behaviorist, not a trainer.
If near Glasgow I recommend Glasgow Dog Trainer and Behaviorist, he is brilliant.
Look him up on fb.
He might be able to recommend someone if not in your area.

On that note @thelobsterquadrille, I don't think this dog sounds like all is lost. I think the dog could be happy with some time and commitment.

Who is going to take a dog like that when there are thousands of dogs without severe behavioural issues waiting for homes?

Yes, in an ideal world there would be a lovely, dedicated network of fosters who can deal with dogs like this, but the reality is that the rescue and foster system is overwhelmed with healthy dogs that don't have behavioural issues and who don't guard hallways or beds or aggress at people.

I'm vegan. I won't get pets because it perpetuates the hierarchy of sentient creatures, and one dog is not more important than the many animals who will be slaughtered to feed it during its lifetime. I wish vegans and so-called animal lovers would see the bigger picture here.

I encourage all humans to go vegan and be less destructive. Part of that is to get pet owners to see the hypocrisy of owning pets, and to stop glorifying pet animals over farmed ones.

You can't legally murder a dog. PTS is often necessary. This dog sounds like it could bite someone soon. What if it bites a child's face?

She will only listen to you if you give her human food, what sort of human food, what is her normal food, she needs stuff that doesn't send her loopy ?

She growls if you pick her up ? If you are small and someone picks you up high in the air, unless you absolutely trust them, you are going to be anxious, its a long way down, if someone or something picked you up and held you 6 x your height in the air, you would feel a bit anxious, no ?

She pulls you about on walks and lunges at everything ? Poor training and socialisation, can be fixed. Excited or nervous dogs can lunge and bark, they are often as not stuck on the end of a lead, which limits their options and as a result makes them more likely to react, they don't have the same understanding of human manners as we do, we teach them to behave as we want them to, as befits our social code.

She guards stuff ? again not an insurmountable problem.

You can't leave the house, but if you do you have to take her with you because she barks if left ? Its either, either on this one, I suspect what you mean is she is knob if someone comes to the door and she has seperation anxiety, again both can be worked on.

Basically you have an 18month old who hasn't been taught what is and isn't acceptable behaviour. She is feeling anxious because she isn't sure if she can trust you, you don't feel like someone who is in charge, you aren't confident, so it might fall to her to protect herself if the chips are down. I still believe a confident, savvy owner would have her behaving in a totally different way in no time.

Bunkum.

No need for humans to perpetuate the hierarchy. Nature has already designed this. As a 'mere' human what gives you the right to call into question nature!

I say this as someone who spent years supporting animal liberation from labs and factory farming. I'm not vegan.

Nature, bloodied in tooth and claw. As top of the food chain and the most sentient we should exercise some ethics, but also to be rational. What sort of life would 'liberated' domestic animals have if left to nature?

I agree, I don’t hear anything from the OP that doesn’t sound fixable. And even if an experienced owner can’t do it on their own, owner + behaviourist should be able to crack it.

You send naughty children to bed to sleep all the time

Kill them? not so much

Your being hyperbolic

You are absolutely correct. Having read the post again, none of these are unsurmountable.
My last rescue ( small pug) was a dreadful resource guarder. You couldn't take anything from him. He came from a home where he was free fed from a massive bowl, so he had to learn to fight to eat. Very underweight when we got him. He was only 10 months. Yes we thought about rehoming him briefly, but got a dog behaviorist instead. He showed us that his behaviour was mainly fear based and we dealt with the aggression and guarding, and worked with him daily. Swapped what he was guarding for something of much higher value. Obviously that depends on the dog.
I am sooo glad we did, because he's the sweetest most loving boy ever. He's 4 now, and doesn't guard. We did a lot of research into dog behaviour too.
I do however appreciate that not everyone has the time, patience or commitment to do this, but am so glad we did.

She’s an 18 month old, small breed dog that despite being very clearly stressed and unhappy with things happening around her (Eg. Being picked up, repeatedly it seems) has never bitten or hurt anyone and yet there are cries to put her to sleep, without any further information about the qualifications of the ‘trainer’ or whether the dog has seen a vet?

you do need to find a proper behaviourist OP, (APBC as mentioned previously on this post is a good place to find one) but also, if this is your first dog, it may be entirely possible that she would be absolutely fine in another home, with an experienced owner, perhaps experienced in the breed and maybe with other dogs around.

There are many ‘problem’ dogs whose owners love them dearly, get professional help and the dog is still a total nightmare, where the dog gets a new, more experienced home and is actually fine with a little training and guidance. The fact you mention she is growling when picked up but the trainer doesn’t seem to suggest picking her up shouldn’t be happening right now and that you say she ‘doesn’t allow’ people to come to the house and similar, make it seem like the trainer isn’t very helpful or you haven’t got a handle on how things should go. Of course, positive reinforcement is a must, but that doesn’t mean you have to be permissive and allow the dog to rule the roost.

If you feel you can’t keep her, breed rescue would be a good start. They will have someone come and assess her, who is an expert in this breed and go from there usually.

Please don’t just put her to sleep based on comments here from people with limited knowledge of the situation. I’ve had a reactive rescue dog and I do understand how awful it can be, but it can be resolved.