Help & Advice Please - Dog can be aggressive

[MsMittens]

Hi all

We rehomed a 6 month old English bulldog from a bad situation almost 2 years ago. It soon became clear that she had been poorly looked after, had fleas, was underweight and suffered with anxiety which manifests itself as aggression. But she is our dog so we have done all we can to help her, training class, behaviourist vists x 2, lots of love, attention and walkies etc.

90% of the time she is lovely. A big soft cuddly snoring girl. However, the other 10 percent she is a nightmare, barking, pressing she face into the floor and growling and snarling (albeit it at nobody) and if she runs under the table to try and avoid being put in kitchen for bedtime or when we are out for a long period of you try and get her out she will go for you. Sounds like a dream right .

She has bitten me, my DH and our au pair a couple of times but they have generally been after displaying aggressive/warning behaviour. This morning she bit me when I approached her to put her in the kitchen when she was sat of the sofa without warning. It was quite a serious bite and drew blood.

And to top it off we have two children under 3. She has never shown any aggression to the kids (obviously she is never left alone with them).

After this mornings incident though I am beginning to feel like we cannot cope with this anymore. So I started to make a few calls to look at rehoming her through Bullsog rescue (obviously with full disclosure of her behaviour and with a view to getting a suitable home that could help with her issues).

However - we have been told that the law has changed and that you cannot rehome a dog that has bitten. Now I can see the logic in this but this really means our only options are:

A) invest more time, love and cash and hope she can be helped
B) have her put to sleep.

I cannot bear the thought of (B) she is like part of the family and I joke that she is my "difficult middle child" but that is how I feel about her. My family think we are nuts to have kept her for so long.

Am I insane to be thinking of keeping her and continuing to work with her - even though we know ahe may bite? If it was just me and DH I would have no problem, I just worry about something happening to my DDs.

Friends and family IRL fall firmly into the have no dogs only kids or no kids only dogs camps so don't understand the dilemma!

No you aren't insane, you do however need the help and advice of a professional trainer who has experience of bull breeds and specifically handling aggression. It is very hard to judge without witnessing exactly how she is and what her aggression looks like.

The fact that she has never exhibited worrying behaviour towards the children and that you already manage them carefully around her is promising in terms of managing the situation with children.
From your description her aggression is stemming from separation anxiety, working on giving her a way to cope with that may be a good place to start, but as I said a professional trainer/behaviourist is vital at this point. You already know that it is exceptionally important to not allow your children to be unattended or indeed near her without very close supervision.

It is also worth getting her checked over by the vets to make sure that there isn't anything else bothering her that may be causing this escalation in behaviour.

If after exploring all options you still don't feel that you can safely meet her and your families needs then sadly letting her go may be the only way. It is a horrible and heartbreaking position to be in. I really hope there is a way to make her happy and balanced all the time, but whatever happens take comfort that you've been able to give her the happy years you've enjoyed so far.

The pressing her face to the floor thing has made me think here. I saw a post on FB recently about dogs/cats pressing their faces/ heads to walls (there were pictures of them standing there doing it) and how you should take them to the vet immediately as it's a sign of head pain which could be brain cancer etc. Now I'm NOT one to believe any of the shit on FB but it put me in mind of a friend I had years ago and her dog. The dog would sort of push his head into the floor, like he had a face itch. Came on quite suddenly and was funny to watch, we'd try to help him 'find' the itch by rubbing his face but he'd pull away and carry on pushing his head into the floor. No symptoms at the time, just this. But within a year or so the normally lovely, docile, friendly, lap sitting SBT became aggressive, seemed confused, bit out. After many vet visits the dog had a tumour in his neck which was likely causing massive pressure in his head, hence the early signs of pushing his face into the floor. And the aggression and confusion. He first developed symptoms at about 5 if I remember correctly but it was all quite quick once he'd finally been diagnosed, after many, many vet visits to investigate the cause of the pressing and then as he deteriorated. Have you mentioned her head pressing and distress while she's doing this to a vet? (Although it may not have seemed distress at the time, in hindsight would you say so?)