Rehoming dog, how/ what to tell 7 year old?

[TTCbabyno2in2022]

So we have a beautiful 4 year old Labrador. She’s always had a few issues guarding, anxiety etc and have tried our best to deal with them (trainers, behaviourists, medications, vets etc) however she’s getting worse.

She is extremely anxious and has now become very aggressive to dogs who approach her (will ignore if they don’t bother her) so has to be on lead majority of the time making walks very difficult.

We have a 7 year old who understands how to be with her (never left alone) but we now have a 10 month old who loves the dog but the dog dosent love him so much.

Unfortunately we have made the heartbreaking decision to rehome her as it’s best for her and best for us. We can no longer give her what she needs and her personality of being anxious etc means we can’t let her be around the home as much.

How and what do I tell our 7 year old as he is going to be upset ? Anyone had similar?

Please don’t comment if it’s telling me I shouldn’t do it and I’m a bad mum etc. It’s better for the dog as her anxiety is worsening and she needs more than we can now give. We could never have predicted her personality and we are really upset it dosent match/isn’t safe for our young family as she is a beautiful, sweet girl

Poor thing, she's a Covid doggie.

OP I've had dogs and only two laid back breeds for 25+ years and have a Covid dog same. He's 4, he grew up with other dogs in our family, we went on lots of walks when he was young, we did as much as we could within covid restrictions and yet here we are with an anxious larger breed dog.

He's hard work, he's lovely but if I had young children around him I'd be worried and maybe even to the point you are bow, so totally understandable.

He barks if dogs come towards him, so we avoid busy places, he guards the house and we have to slowly introduce him to people.

A 4 year old lab will be such an easy adopt, someone with time and no small children will have the time to train and comfort your dog. Do you know. Anyone locally or family first who would be willing to help?

That’s sad, what a shame they’re usually such a great choice around children.
As you’ve seen a vet and tried training etc then you don’t have much choice.

At age 7 I’d probably tell them the truth, that your dog isn’t happy and sometimes the only way they can express that unhappiness is with a bite. You could just go with unhappy/sad/nervous around the baby/noises/crying etc if adding the truth she could bite would cause more upset.

Sorry to hear you needing to rehome your dog. I hope everything goes ok when you rehome her. It would be interesting to hear your experience of this. I think Glitchymn1 made a good valid point about telling your 7 year old the truth to help him understand. Maybe I'd also get him a little labrador teddy as comfort and as a thank you gift from your dog for letting him come to stay. It's good your coming on here looking for ideas, it can't be easy for you.

Well done for taking action now rather when things have got worse and she has bitten etc. it's never an easy choice and made sooner rather than later gives her a really good chance at finding a home that will work with her issues.

I have a 7 year old daughter and I’d tell her the truth.
We adopted a dog who then bit her on the face within 24hrs of bringing the dog home (this was after around 16 visits to the Dogs Home).
We had to return the dog and my DD sobbed and begged for the dog to stay (despite having literal glue in her face from the bite).
We just explained it wasn’t safe for her or the dog. The dog needed to go to a different home with no children in it etc.
She cried, we cried, but it helped us all heal and move on together.

I haven't been in this situation but I do have a 7 year old who loves our dog. It must be very hard op

I would wait until I had a firm home for her. Then I'd be honest and I'd give maybe 3 or 4 days notice but no more. And heavy stress on what a wonderful time she was going to have x

No advice but that sounds really hard, my sympathies. I have a reactive dog and with a 10 month old you're absolutely doing the right thing